Dead Winter

Comic 02/01/12

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

News Post 01/30/12

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Over the holiday guest strip/intermission weeks I mosrly worked on the new site menu art, but once I got that out of the way I started pursuing something I've been putting off trying for months. I've always wanted to learn 3D modeling. I've sculpted and worked in 3D space before, but working digitally in a 3D workspace has always sort of intimidated me. So what I did was I watched a bunch of youtubes over a week and I learned to 3D model. I have ideas for things related to the comic (maybe future 100-pages, maybe something game-related) that have to do with 3D animation, so I'm happy I finally learned to use the tools.

If you're familiar with Valve games or you follow Team Fortress 2, you may be interested in what I used to learn 3D modeling. Valve has a new Workshop system where people can submit items to be used in their games, so I figured out how to give their Scout a hoodie! It's the end product of a week of furiously googling what Rigging, Vertex Weight Tables and $jigglebone code syntax all means, and I figure some of you guys might like it! I'm pleased with how it came out, and I learned enough that I can start building whole models myself.

Anyways! Long story short, I learned me a bit of 3D modeling and I made something you can peek a look at. It's a lot of fun, so you can expect other 3D things from me in the future.

Comic 01/29/12

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Comic 01/26/12

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

News Post 01/26/12

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The page is up about a day later than I would have liked, sorry. I've been working on a top secret project! Not the new site menu secret, that's an old secret now. I got a lot of secret projects, I'm starting 2012 off strong! Well, maybe this one's not so secret if you're dialed into the right frequencies, but I had to settle a few things regardless. The next page will be up Friday or Saturday, and the one after that Tuesday or Wednesday after.

Thank you for reading this.

Comic 01/21/12

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Comic 01/18/12

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

News Post 01/18/12

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

That's the last of the Intermission strips. Chapter 13 will begin on Friday or Saturday, some time by the end of this week. Thank you for reading.

Also, a lot of other cartoonists have a lot to say about an important thing today. All I'll say is "hear them out".

Comic 01/14/12

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

News Post 01/11/12

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Hi. So I feel like I should point out the obvious: for the first time in five years the site's got a facelift! Everything should work exactly the same, only the art is newer and brighter now. The olf Forum button has been replaced with Extras, which will be a place for me to link all the other things I do on the Internet- Forums is in there now, as well as Formspring, deviantART and Twitter links. I'll be adding more things as I set them up, but they'll all be in there (I am going to make a dedicated Fanart Tumblr page, I have a bunch of it saved but I may have lost the credits to some so if you've ever done fanart shoot me an email and remind me who to credit it to!).

The site's click boxes have moved a bit, so if you find the buttons aren't lining up with their correct links your browser has an older version of the CSS stylesheet cached. You can either clear the cache or just wait a bit and it will cache itself, I think.

One other thing I need to change that I'll be changing is the Preorder button in the top right of the site. I'll be making a more prominent one for now, but I am still taking preorders to cover the print cost for Book 2. If you liked the first one the second one will be more of the same, if not better!

I hope you like the new site art, and thanks for sticking with me all the way into 2012!

Comic 01/11/12

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

News Post 01/03/12

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

The second guest strip of the season is also the first guest strip of the new year, and it was so kindly drawn by the inimitable Sam Logan of Sam & Fuzzy fame! I first met Sam outside a book store in western Massachusetts under a starlit sky, and he's one of the friendliest folk I've ever had the pleasure of talking to. Thanks, Sam!

Update 01/03/12

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Guest Strip by: Sam Logan of Sam and Fuzzy!!!

News Post 12/31/11

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

A friend of mine asked about my painting process so I took one of my strips and split the lineart apart from the painting work behind it to show how much focus goes into lineart and how much goes into the tone, and I thought maybe it was interesting enough that someone else might want to see the page broken down like that, so here it is if you want to look, it's page 444. Generally when you're working with both line and tone one element needs to be the strong foot forward and take center stage and the other has to play a background supporting role- complex inks and complex tones clash with one another and simple everything looks, well, simple. If your inks are strong, apply simpler tones. If your tones are strong, frame them with simpler inks, but don't do both at once! My inkwork is very simple and I paint a lot of the background elements in directly, and even though I define shapes and forms with line I'll still make sure to paint in my hard and soft edges behind them.

Anyways, that's a little art shop talk newspost in case someone was interested in art shop talk. Have a good new year!

Update 12/30/11

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Guest Strip by: Kory Bing of Skin Deep!!!