"Imprimatur" Is Such a Hoity-Toity Word

I feel so trendy! I opened up my e-mail this morning and found a handful of "This is my website, would you please link to it and say how great it is?" e-mails, mostly from budding webcomics. It's a bizarre sensation, made doubly so by the fact that I'm always trying to come up with ways to get other people to plug my own site!

I'm actually sorta embarrassed by the idea; I know that I've got an audience out there who are hoodwinked into listening interested in what I have to say, but I have a hard time believing that "Gneech's Seal of Nonsuckiness" carries so much weight.

So ... um ... thanks! I'm honored! I'm also really bad on following up on stuff, tho, so don't feel snubbed if it takes me forever to respond. I'm probably out there trying to get people to link to SJ. I'm so shameless! *sob*

-The Gneech

It's Tough Being a Weirdo, but Someone's Gotta Do It

Virginia, lunchtime, 38 degrees, mostly sunny, gusty winds.

lythandra and I get out of car coming back from lunch; dust and bits of debris fly around us in small whirlwinds.

Normal person thinks: "Man, it's windy today."

I think: "Wow, this is like being in an Akira Kurasawa movie!"

Naturally, I start belting out the music from Yojimbo at the top of my lungs as we head for the building entrance.

Maintenance guy, coming around the corner, thinks: "WTF?"

I look like a loon. Oops.

Oh well, it was a fun moment anyway!

-The Gneech

Bonus Points to anybody who can name a Yojimbo remake. Double points to anybody who can name two or more Yojimbo remakes.

A Jim Henson/Chuck Jones Moment

Life's like a movie
write your own ending
keep believing
keep pretending
(From The Muppet Movie song, "Rainbow Connection")

Y'know, as influential as they've always been to me -- and we're talking really, really influential here -- I've never really learned to draw the Looney Tunes bunch. Oh, you can see the influence they've had on my art, of course ... just look at Brody Coyote, particularly around the eyes. But aside from a couple of studies of Pepé Le Pew done in the "human photocopier" style (i.e., copying another pic, rather than composing a new one), I've hardly ever attempted any character born of Termite Terrace. (I did draw kurst a la Wyle E. Coyote, tho, if that counts.)

So this week I decided that I would learn how. Not just making copies, mind you, but picking apart the construction technique, and building whole new drawings from scratch. By the end of the process, I want to be able to sit down and draw without reference, say, Bugs Bunny listening to Leona rant and holding up a sign with a picture of a screw and a baseball.

The results of what I've done so far will go up as Saturday's Grab Bag for the curious. It's hardly perfect, but it's not a bad start. But last night, as I was drawing, I found myself thinking, "I am a 35 year old man and I have just, for the first time in my life, drawn a picture of Daffy Duck."

And for some strange reason, that really made me happy.

I dunno, maybe I am a loon. But as long as it's a fun ride, I don't care!

-The Gneech