taste of strawberries

Wow, it took us twelve gas stations to find one that actually had ANY gas today. The line we waited in was out into the street from three directions (both ways at the entrance we were at and one at the one way street). Luckily we were able to get some gas though.

Yes, I have made a new guest appearance in Jennie Breeden's webcomic, The Devil's Panties. This strip illustrates one of the stories in my Dragon*Con report... the one about the Fear My Cuteness shirt.

http://www.thedevilspanties.com/d/20080911.html

What a crazy day that was!

I finished designing Dead Center Cello today. Its a personal portfolio art site for M.Carter. I am quite proud of the design here... kind of wish it was my own site because I love the music bar contents and all LOL Anyway, feel free to check it out. There's some great art there!

http://www.deadcentercello.com/

Well, Dragon*Con has come and went and it was much better than last year. Last year I was lost, confused, and without a guide to help.... also, that was the weekend Merle (one of my two dachshunds) got really sick. This year, no trauma, just good times.

For those of you who don't know, Dragon*Con is huge, this year spanning four hotels in downtown Atlanta, GA. We got a prime spot, outside of the Artists Alley proper. We were in the hallway by the escalators and front doors. This means people were streaming by constantly to go to the dealers room. Couldn't have asked for better. We were able to meet so many cool people and I bought my very first corset over the weekend. I can even tie it myself! I was also able to hand out over 500 business cards and then a good 200 or so postcards.

The "fear my cuteness" shirts received a huge response which is great. Crazy story on that. I sold the last of my small sizes to a young lady at the con. Just as the transaction was completed, a man came up, wanting to buy it. I told him I had just sold the last small, so he asked for a medium, but we were out of those as well. He turns to the girl, offers her $100 cash for the shirt, and buys it from her. Holy moly!!! Someone was willing to pay $100 for one of my $15 shirts. I'm so glad the shirt design is trademarked. My next step is seeing about getting it into stores, I think.

Next wild story, I got to go meet Nathan Fillion on Sunday. He was about to go to lunch, but the man handling the line for his booth allowed me to quickly meet him (which was great because I wouldn't have been able to get back there the rest of the day). So, I greeted him and gave him a shiny print of Capt. Reynolds VS Capt. Hammer. He thanked me (called me "angel".... "Aw, thank you, angel.") and he loved it! He laughed out loud and even pointed to the doctor in panel two, remarking on how funny the expression was. I am still all giddy about that. He asked for my name and we shook hands. After I left, I realized my hands were shaking. I think I handled myself pretty well, actually. I kept my nerves in check until after I left. I didn't go all "fangirl" on him.

That's about it for cool and crazy stories, unless you could Jennie Breeden and her Men in Kilts with Leafblower action each night of the con at midnight. LOL

I will be at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia on August 29-September 1. I will be in the Artist Alley and will be a part of the "We Don't Need No Superheroes" panel Saturday, August 30th, at 11:30 AM. I will have tons of comics, graphic novels, prints, shirts and more for sale there! Be sure to stop by the booth and attend the panel if possible!

Yay, in about half an hour my friend Mandy is going to be arriving. We've been friends for fourteen years (since the eighth grade). We haven't gotten to see each other in six years even though we talk on the phone often enough ^^ I'm just so excited to see her.

I returned from my trip to Otakon on Monday night. Tuesday I was completely drained of energy (still managed to color the RS ch29 cover), but yesterday I got back to work on Red String 29. I finished inking the last three and a half pages and toned four or five. That leaves me with nine pages left to tone and it's done. Thank goodness! I should be able to finish by Friday barring any unforseen circumstances.

So, we got the last of the shirts screen printed last night and all that's left is ironing them to set the paint. The last thing we're waiting on are the Red String graphic novels from Dark Horse. In the meantime, we've taken inventory, printed up our sales lists, and are starting to pull our display stuff out of the closets so we can organize and pack for Wednesday.

Other than that, I have been able to start toning Red String 29 (finally). I still have pages to ink as well, but getting some just completely finished feels so good. I am hoping to get all of the pages I do have inked all toned before I leave Wednesday. That will be a lot less to worry about when I get back.

WOWIO is back online and that means all of our eBooks are now available worldwide. The new system is a little weird, but hopefully things will be good here. Strawberry Comics eBooks -- CLICK HERE

So, the new set up is as follows:

OPTION 1 - You can read a version of the books online (like webcomics) on their site. Every page you read generates revenue from the sponsor ads. These ads generate a small percentage of revenue for me and the Strawberry Comics girls.

OPTION 2 - Buy the downloadable high quality, ad free PDF files for half the price of the print versions of the book. This obviously generates a percentage of revenue for me and the Strawberry Comics girls.

OPTION 3 - Download high quality PDF files with sponsorship ads for FREE. Please be sure to sign up/log in to do this. When logged in you will be able to see a little yellow bar on the eBook page that you have a sponsored gift.

So, for now, please check out option one and two. It's open to everyone worldwide now and no crazy sign in information required anymore. It should be easier for everyone to enjoy. ^_^

My grandmother is slowly recovering from her fall. She's walking on her own again and the pain is a lot less now. Thankfully, my uncle came down from New Jersey on Saturday to help us. He's going to be taking Grammy back with him for a while (we're going to trade off every few months with having Grammy stay with us). But yes, she's doing a lot better from when we got her back from the hospital! By the way, thank you everyone who offered their support. Big hugs to all.

We've still got about thirty shirts to do before we go to Otakon next week, but I think we'll be able to get it done over the weekend. Everything else is ready except the Red String graphic novels which will arrive before we leave on Wednesday morning.

My grandmother (grammy) practically raised me growing up. She was always there after my parents divorced, so she's like a second mother to me (even though my mom and dad were around and attentive). Adam and I lived with her for five years after our marriage before we got our own place.

She has been living with Adam and me for about a month now. We've been keeping an eye on her, making sure she's eating right, etc. So yesterday, she and I were out doing a couple errands and while we were at the post office she passed out and fell on the hard concrete there. We had to go to the emergency room and were at the hospital from three in the afternoon until nine-thirty at night, then this morning from eight to one waiting to hear from the doctor. Late this evening she was released and we got her home. Luckily she has no fractures or breaks, but she has severe back pain from the fall. They think she might have passed out because of either the heat and being a bit dehydrated or from the Arecept (for her memory loss), so they're taking her off that med just to be sure. I just hope she heals fast because she's in so much pain right now she cries when she tries to get up and walk. She has to put most of her weight on me to get her from here to there.

So, Adam and I went to the midnight showing of The Dark Knight last night and boy, what an experience it was! First, let me say that we absolutely LOVED the movie. It was the first film I had ever seen with Heath Ledger that I actually liked..... and that I had been impressed with his acting. I was so worried because in my opinion he was a very mediocre actor. But that's just my opinion. All the actors did their part in making it a great film!

So, on with why this post is a rant.... We started our adventure at around 11:30 and found the midnight was sold out so we went to the 12:30 am show. No problem. We got our seats which was lucky because the room was already filling up fast. After an hour and then twenty-five minutes of trailers the movie began. No problems.

About an hour into the film, something starts going weird with the sound. It randomly gets quieter with a fuzzing/crackling sound then back to normal (this cinema has sound problems apparently because last time we went there for Sweeney Todd the sound was terrible). Anyway, that stopped after about fifteen minutes or so. I think someone in the audience went and said something.

Next up, the Joker says "Let's try a little social experiment" and the film tears and breaks. Social experiment, huh? Yeah, a big one. This would have been a great joke if it had been part of the film (like they did in the Gremlins movie when the gremlins tear apart the film and you're left with a blank screen momentarily). Nope, this was for real O_O And it happened in two of the theaters at the same time. Huh? Anyway, after a half hour the cinema people got the problem fixed and the last half hour of the movie played out.

It's a great way to diffuse the built up tension and excitement of the climax of a movie. Still loved the movie, but it made me so very angry. I've been eagerly waiting over a year for this movie and my first experience seeing it was this. *sigh*

In the scheme of things it's not a huge deal. I'm just a bit miffed at the moment. IN a week or so we're going to go see it on the IMAX so that should be spectacular.

I started inking Red String 29 today. I am hoping I can get the chapter done before Otakon. Louisa is moving along beautifully on the art for Erstwhile 03. I am so excited about it! There's only five pages to go and the penciling will be completed.

My husband and I have been silk-screening shirts for Otakon (still), but we are making good progress on that. The shirts and ordering some Red String graphic novels are the only things left to do for preparation.

At Otakon I will be on a panel with Robin Edwards (cardboard angel), Jennie Breeden (the devil's panties) and some other cool female webcomic creators for the "Women in Webcomics" panel. It has been scheduled for Friday, August 8, 8-9pm. That will be fun!

< fangirling >
AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! DUDE! LOVED IT! INTENSE.

TOTALLY JUMPING OUT OF MY SKIN AT THE MOMENT!!

< / fangirling >

So yeah, I watched the series four finale of Doctor Who tonight. I just loved it. I'll probably be on about it for a while, but I won't be posting any details about it so I don't ruin anything for other fans who haven't seen it yet. Spoilers just make you feel like crap if you happen upon them.

I AM COUNTING DOWN THE HOURS TO TOMORROW NIGHT'S DOCTOR WHO SEASON FINALE!! My brain's been consumed by it all week and have been trying like mad to avoid any spoilers. Man, oh man! This season has had me so very excited. I was kind of bored with season three, but fourth season has renewed my enthusiasm!

On a side note, I am also counting down days for The Dark Knight movie and also avoiding all spoilers as best I can. Not reading any reviews, articles, interviews with the actors/directors, etc. ^^;

I've been keeping busy as always. This week I got a lot of things done for StrawberryComics.com. We're gearing up for Otakon in August, so three comics are now at the printer, business cards have been ordered, and buttons have been made. We received our shirts and have started the silk-screening process. We have a LOT of shirts to do, but we've gotten started at least. =D

I've finished the thumbnails for Red String 29, but had trouble getting started on the actual penciling of pages. Tonight I finally got the first page penciled. Now that I am over that hurdle, I know the other pages will start zooming by at a good pace.

My friend Jen told me that when you're having trouble with the actual comic pages, do something else creative for the comic. It helps keep you moving, even if it isn't the exact thing you need to be doing. So last night and today I ended up playing with my Sculpy clay. I made some cute little onigiri charms and little chibi figures of Miharu, Reika, and Fuuko. I will post pictures once the glaze dries and I can move them. ^_^

Whoohoo! I finally finished scripting Red String chapter 29 last night! It look me the better part of two weeks to complete it (way longer than usual for a first draft) and it kicked by butt every step of the way. Anyway, it's done and now I can get started on the thumbnails.

Strawberry Comics news:
+ Queen of Hearts and Devil's Cake 01 are now up on Wowio for free download to residents of the USA.

+ Amy's holding her first ever fanart contest for Patches. There are prizes to be won, including a copy of the Patches Vol.1 graphic novel. Check out her site for more details.

I decided to finally give this movie a shot and put it on my Netflix list. It was so incredibly adorable. I loved all of the inside Disney jokes and references. The characters were just so fun to watch and easy to love. I wish I had seen it sooner, but I avoided it like I did with the first Shrek movie. Why do I do this? Fear of it being really bad? I dunno, but I always feel like a dork for avoiding a movie once I see it and love it. ^^

Anyway, Enchanted's on the brain now ^_^

Our newest Strawberry Comics member Elle Skinner's newest one-shot comic book, The Frog Prince is now available for preorder. It's a high school love story inspired by the classic Brothers Grim fairy tale. Robbie Green is at the bottom of the social order but he dreams of someday winning the heart of Austen Kean, the most popular girl in school. When Austen loses something valuable, Robbie agrees to help her find it in exchange for a date. Alas, when he does find it, Austen wants nothing more to do with him.



It's a beautifully illustrated little tale and I highly recommend it (as well as the other new comics over at StrawberryComics.com, including Queen of Hearts and Patches).

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My comic series, Red String, is out and available in book stores thanks to Dark Horse Comics. If you like my work PLEASE support it by picking up a copy of my books. You can find them at your local Borders, Waldenbooks, or Barnes&Noble or even at Amazon.com or TFAW.com. If they don't have them, ASK THEM to order it.

Red String volume 03 -- JUST RELEASED!
Red String volume 02
Red String volume 01

Finished this yesterday. OMG. This took forever... actually, a week or so of work off and on, but much more than a normal illustration.

The original version of this illustration appeared in October 2004. Four years later I am revisiting it as an evolution of an artist, so to speak. Like last time, I inked the illustration by hand and colored it on Photoshop. There are some details that are lost when I shrink it down (like the shading on the tiles on the glass bed) but that can't be helped. Anyway, I like to think I've come a long way in four years. ^_^



Awaken.Fairytale REDUX by *strawberrygina on deviantART