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Volume 1 Updates!

by D.Caron on January 25, 2012 at 5:21 am
Posted In: Blog

Sorry that there is no comic today. I’ve been up all night the past few nights doing TONS of work on the book. I’m constantly blown away by how much goes into one of these things. I would have thought that just because I’ve already done the art files that slapping the book together would be a simple as can be… I was wrong. I’ve been doing print tests checking font sizes, positions of design elements, modifying colors to get ready for CMYK Printing and much more. I’m glad to say that I’ve made a good bit of progress… but I’m gonna need this next week or so to work on it to make sure its perfect. This Friday I will be posting a ALT comic that I wrote today and next week will be a mix of guest strips and ALT strips. Hopefully I wont need anymore time than that to finalize this book… but who knows, the world of print is a vast one.

Anyway, I wanted to share some samples with you guys so you can see a bit of what has gone into the book so far:

Above is an example the legal page, a nice little written foreword that I just received from scott yesterday (came out really nice, he said some stuff in it), a splash page and an example of what the comics/commentary will look like. The book at the moment is a little over 150pages.. I don’t have a final count JUST because I keep deciding to add little things into it.. for example, since I’ve been working ahead of time on the sketch rewards from kickstarter, I will be scanning some of my favorites and putting those in the book as well:

I’m a little behind on scanning the most recent ones that I’ve finished so far.. but if you wanna see the ones that I’ve scanned so far, check them out here. Finally here is a better example of exactly what I changed on the cover:

Since I first drew the cover, I’ve grown A LOT artistically and my eye for design has gotten a bit more sensitive to placement and color and such. After having a discussion with Joel on the topic of my cover, he pointed out that I didn’t put the title “L.A.W.L.S.” on it… and that I would regret that if I didn’t. After giving it some thought I gave in and agreed. I had to make some changes to color as well. The blue that I previously used was great for RGB (Compute screens and inkjet printers) but looked TERRIBLE when you’d print it out CMYK… it kept printing WAY darker than I had expected. Overall I’m happy that I made those changes… the test print I have on my desk looks really nice. Though.. even that picture is a bit dated. After inspecting it longer I decided to update the art again, give it a bit more of a “serious tone” if you look closer at the comparison picture above, you’ll see that I’ve made changes to Josephs eyes and Cadence and Autumns faces. They all look a bit more mature/serious… and Cadence looks a bit more feminine now.

Anyway, I need to get back to working on the book. I still have a pile of commentary to write out and tons of little tweaks I’d like to get done tonight…Plus, this next week I’m going to be flattening all the strips and saving them for CMYK and actually saving them out a bit bigger so the art looks bigger, since I recently realized I didn’t need AS big of a bleed area as I originally planned for… which should be an amazing fun adventure! ><

See you guys Friday with a new strip!

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO PRE-ORDER YOURS TODAY!

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Top Influential Comics of 2011

by D.Caron on January 5, 2012 at 8:42 am
Posted In: Blog

I <3 Webcomics

Ever since I started running my own website I’ve always wanted to do some sort of “Top List of the Year” to share some of my interests with readers. Ideally I wanted to do a blog about music, which I’ve always had a passion for and even gave consideration to for this year. After giving it some thought I realized that even though my comic has some music themes, at this point of time, L.A.W.L.S. is not the proper forum to do such a thing. So instead, I decided to compile a list of some of the my favorite webcomics I read this past year that may have in some way or another influenced the creation of L.A.W.L.S. as a whole!

As to not imply any sort of favoritism, this list will be in alphabetical order. Also, keep in mind, this is a personal list of comics that directly influenced me and this comic.

Beeserker

Creator: Kyatt
URL: Beeserker.com

Do you guys remember watching cartoons as a child and ending up completely entranced by the colors, movement and expression that came from them? I’m not sure why, but since the moment I found Kyatt’s Comic Beeserker I’ve always found myself back in a place similar as that when I read his comic. From when I first arrive at his site my eyes start to melt… not in that “WHAT SORT OF HORRID RAINBOW EXPLOSION IS EATING EYES AWAY” sorta thing.. but more of a “I’M A MOTH ATTRACTED TO PRETTY THINGS IN FRONT OF ME” sorta way. Kyatt has a very solid understanding of color, simplicity and absolutely terrifyly awesome facial expressions that make me laugh even with out reading the joke first.

When pondering how I was going to go about creating filler strips for L.A.W.L.S. (that were not Journal Comics), I used Kyatt’s comic as one of my reference point as to how to effectively tell as story in a more simple yet still attractive manner. As I’m sure you can tell with L.A.W.L.S. I am always trying to push myself to make “prettier comics”… but with that have come some side-effects such as stress, loss of sleep, and sometimes death. One major thing Kyatt is taught is, that as great as unnecessarily pretty art can be (such as my comic)… you don’t need it to tell a funny story.

ChannelATE

Creator: Ryan Hudson
URL: channelate.com

Ryan Hudson is a genius. I wish I could write jokes as funny as him.

I AM ARG!

Creator: Andrew Gregiore
URL: iamarg.com

Andrew proves that sometimes a good phallic joke can actually be a good joke. When I first starting writing comics I was sort of a “prude” when it came to saying or drawing certain things. It was a mental road block that I had to deal with over time, I would worry too much as to what other people would think if I wrote certain things. After a while though, with friends like Andrew around you really realize that it doesn’t matter. If you find it funny, write it… someone somewhere will find it funny and if not whatever not every joke you write is going to be perfect win either. Webcomics are about the growth of a creator, readers come in at whatever point they find the comic and learn along side the creator what they are capable of and what they will become. After many conversations with Andrew about this (and many others), for better or for worse, my writing as sorta taken it’s own shape now.

Though, Andrew’s inspiration wasn’t schlongy. What I’ve learned from him and that I’m still playing around with (with the ALT Universe Comics) is that color isn’t everything. For some reason as a creator, I have this over fixation on coloring and detailing things to an obsessive point. This is by no means a bad thing, it has helped me grow rather quickly in a very short time, but just as I stated in my mention of Beeserker, a joke can be relayed with out it AND in a relatively faster time! Andrew has told me that he actually chose not color ARG simply so that he can focus on the humor of each joke and the quality of the story told from the character’s expressions rather than spending all his energies coloring it. Because of this, while working on the ALT Universe strips, you’ll notice that I’ve gone with a monochromatic palate for the characters and a gray scale background with simple details. ALT Universe, as an overall body of work will be more focused humor and line work than color and detail.

Nerf This

Creator: Scott Ferguson
URL: nerf-this.com

The obvious mention. For anyone who has been following L.A.W.L.S., at this point, I’m sure it’s been apparent that Scott’s comic has been a direct influence to this comic. Not only in story but in quality of art and humor. When starting this comic Scott and I had had quite a few conversations about me starting a comic, how I should draw it, what I should write about, etc. Because of this Nerf This was sort of a breeding ground for early development of the comic. Not only that, but as Scott got better I felt the pressure to also get better. It’s one of those things you just do with friends, it becomes a game, you compete and you grow (seriously look at how Nerf This started); it’s fun to have someone to bounce things off of to gauge what where you’re going. I give a lot of gratitude towards Scott for helping me when I need help drawing poses or working out kinks in story arcs and such.

Scenes from A Multiverse

Creator: Jon Rosenberg
URL: amultiverse.com

There is something about Jon’s art and sense of humor that I love, but it’s sort of hard to put it fully in words… but I’ll try. Jon is the creator of a comic called “Goats,” a epicly hilarious sci-fi adventure story. Goats was a HUGE influence on the direction that I took L.A.W.L.S as a whole. As you read goats you follow the story’s main characters on never ending quest… and as you do, you think to yourself, how can an “epic” stay funny… it’s gotta get bogged down with seriousness at some point…right? Well, Jon masterly was able to still make it funny a long the way. This is something I’m always striving to do with my comic because as much as I like a good old serious graphic novel with an intense story… it’s personally just not me. I have to crack jokes an inappropriate times to break the tension.. I need to be silly… so why not write that way? Anyway, Goats was pretty much a story that I could NOT put down and could not stop laughing while I read it.. so while writing L.A.W.L.S. I always kept that his story in mind.

As all good thing do, Goats came to an unfortunately end as Jon had to put Goats on Hiatus to move on to his new comic “Scenes From A Multiverse.” At first I was leery about it… but I remembered that I did the same thing with ABlue when I started L.A.W.L.S. …Sometimes as creators we have to focus on what’s best for us to be able to continue to create. So, I gave it a shot, and I’m glad I did. It’s just as funny as Goats, if not funnier. It’s a far simpler and easier format for a new reader to embark and I advise…no DEMAND you go read it now. ^_~

Other Notable Comics

Just to trim down the blah blah blahs I felt it would be best to limit my list to 5 for this year. The five listed probably played some of the bigger rolls in the growth of L.A.W.L.S. and needed the most explaining as to why they made the list. The following are other comics I follow and recommend for different reasons:

Astray3 – This comic, artistically, is one of my favorite comics ever. It’s purdy.. yet gritty at the same time.

Buttersafe – RANDOM… in that awesome way.

Crazy Sunshine – I give props to this guy for always trying new things, growing at an extremely fast rate and creating pretty awesome characters. I really dig his transparent comics he’s been doing recently.

EQComics – Another great humor comic that follows a character on a journey, huge inspiration for L.A.W.L.S. and very funny. Dan has his humor down!

Hijinks Ensue – Joel has been a good friend to me this year. He’s a funny guy and I admire his work ethic.

Robbie and Bobby – A great comic about a boy and his Robot… Jason has been doing this comic for a long time, in fact he was one of my first comic buddies ever. This year he’s helped me write quite a few jokes and has a really solid understanding of words and beats in a comics. High Recommendations on his work.

Toilet Genie – Cari is one of the best artists I’ve ever met. She’s does beautiful water coloring and writes an intriguing story. I did fan art for her earlier this year, remember?

Toonhole – Inappropriately awesome comics!

Two Guys and Guy – Artistically awesome funny comic.

Zombie Roomie – A very artistically well done comic, it makes me happy to see other people put this sort of effort into their trade. John has been a big help to me this year with a various number of things and I wanted to take a moment to thank him for that!

NOW GO READ SOME COMICS! :]

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InkOUTBREAK

by D.Caron on December 11, 2011 at 6:54 am
Posted In: Blog

So, I wanted to take a moment to explain a new widget on my site that you’ve all probably started to see on more and more webcomic sites. A few of my friends (Scott, Andrew and John, for example) and I have decided to take part in this to help a friend of ours create this awesome community. I’m taking the time to write this blog in hopes that I may be able to defuse some of the confusion that has arisen from it’s recent existence, especially to other webcomic creators. This site is NOT stealing your work, it’s a place to help readers FIND your work.

So what is it that I’m blabbering about? Well, it’s called “InkOUTBREAK,” and it’s sort of a “hub” for finding and following webcomics that you like to read. My friend Brian King has been working his ass off to try to get this community up and running for you guys, and I must say, I’m really enjoying it. It’s designed to be a place, much like The Webcomic List and other sites like that, but more graphically interesting to look at because it’s not just a site with list after list of comics you’ve never heard of all in one place… it’s a site where your eyes orgasm over pretty pictures of comics you want to find. Brain explains InkOUTBREAK as a is a sort of “Pandora for comics,” where you can you tell the site what you like to read (which you can follow), or hate to read (which you can block) and it will help you find comics that match your interest. Not only that, once you find the comics you like and select to follow them, you can even save your place and find out when the comics are posted from your Ink dashboard. In this way it’s sort of like an RSS feed but you still come and visit the creators site (which is beneficial to us creators). When you come to a comics site via INK, there is a nav bar added to the top of the page that will allow you to move on to other comics “in your playlist.” Which, will help you find comics that other readers have tags as similar in interest.

If you look on my right side bar you will see an “INK box” that randomizes some comics that I personally selected for you guys to explore. Which when you get to their sites, you’ll be able to find a similar box that you can explore through as well. Anyway, i don’t want to bore you TOO MUCH with details. Check it out for yourself, get an account, and start following comics you want to read.

To follow LAWLS, click the “follow button” in the box below:


PS. If you are a webcomic creator, feel free to add your comics into the mix and get your self promoted! If you find that your comic was already listed on there (probably by one of your readers), contact Brain and claim it so that you can manage your own comic stats, boxes, etc. He’s a really nice guy and willing to work with you to make this community awesome.

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Guest Art by John Wigger of Zombie Roomie

by D.Caron on November 11, 2011 at 7:40 am
Posted In: Blog

Hey guys, I’m in Austin right now getting ready for Wizard World Comic Con, Austin. I wasn’t able to get a regular scheduled post done tonight. Because of that but my buddy John of Zombie Roomie, hooked me up with this AWESOME Pin-Up print of Cadence! I hope you all like it. Go check out his comic, and if you live in Texas, I hope to see some of you at the show!

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Vol.1 Choking on Air :|: PRE-ORDER

by D.Caron on October 11, 2011 at 9:35 am
Posted In: Blog

It’s FINALLY here guys! The pre-order for my first book, is now on Kickstarter!

I’m giving away tons of stuff during the pre-order, some of which will only be available during the pre-order itself. For instance, Limited editions Poster Prints and Canvas Prints of the cover! There are ink drawings, buttons, a zine, and other stuff also available as well. The first 50 people who pledge anything at all will get a Free “Reeder Rabbit, The Gift of Death” zine; the reason there is a limit on these is because this is all I have left of the First Editions of that comic… once they are gone, they are gone for good! So if your interested in one you’ve gotta be one of the first 50!

Another thing that I’m doing is having a page in the back that will have a list of EVERYONE who contributed to the Kickstarter campaign! You can put a real name, pseudonym, or whatever you want! Show it off to your friends that you were part of the creation of this book with any name that will prove to them its you! :]

I’m crossing my finger this whole thing goes well, and I thank you all dearly for being my readers, if it wasn’t of you I wouldn’t be able to do this!

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2 Free Wallpapers & 20% OFF at the Store!

by D.Caron on October 3, 2011 at 11:53 pm
Posted In: Blog

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of a post on Friday. I was overly beat and had to rush out to San Francisco for the Alternative Press Expo. Against my better judgement I ended up doing that show last minute and completely regret going. It’s not that I did terrible by any means, but I was only able to pay for the cost of my table, but not even close to being able to pay for parking, gas, bridge tolls, food, etc… because of this I’m going to be having a “Post APE Sale” thru Saturday where I’ll be offering 20% off ALL items in my store! If you wanna help me get out of the hole I dug for myself attending this con, click that link and check out all the merch I’ve got! When you check out, at the end, use the code: POSTAPE (all caps) to get your discount. :]

Also, Since I missed my post on Friday I’m giving two free Wallpapers of the pop villain as well (click the images to get the wallpapers):



My overall synopsis of APE 2011 was simply this:

The Alternative Press Expo felt more like a gallery showing, where people bought some alcohol at the door, browsed around at individual pieces and just sat and commented on the works they were looking at. Most people were just browsing, very few people were buying anything or even talking to you about your comics/projects. There were some people there because it was a convention and were walking around talking to people, buying things and having a good time, but the overall vibe felt MUCH different than your general comic convention. This was my third year doing it and each year I’ve seemed to see less and less people there for comics and more people there for the “cultural experience.”

Also, apparently APE was on the same weekend as Hardly Strictly (a free out door concert while the sun was actually out in SF) and the Castro Street Fair, both of which are popular and important part of San Francisco’s culture… both of which people wouldn’t miss just to come to a small press expo. So, the attendance to the show was the lowest I’ve seen it in the three years I’ve done this show.

I was very disappointed in the show and will NOT be returning to APE again. The next San Francisco show I’ll be at will be Wondercon 2013. Sorry San Fran, you’re a rad town, but I can’t go to shows that attempt to push me out of business.

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Words of Interest

by D.Caron on September 5, 2011 at 3:23 am
Posted In: Blog

Read it at: wordsofinterest.net! L.A.W.L.S. will return TOMORROW!

NEWS:

Ok so, I’m SURE your asking yourself WHY is he throwing in ANOTHER new comic when he’s struggling so much lately to post L.A.W.L.S. on time. Well, the answer to that is both complex and simple. L.A.W.L.S. itself is becoming more and more time consuming for me to write/draw as each strip comes. I’ve prided myself on constantly pushing myself to my own limits while drawing each and every comic… and because of that, yes, I have in fact been posting mid-afternoons rather than the night prior like I used to. This has really been bothering me lately, and I had to consider why this was happening? Well, because each strip has been taking me about 2 days to do now, which makes me feel burnt out much quicker.. and in effect has made each strip longer and harder to do. To avoid that I was considering reducing the comic down to twice a week, which ALSO made me unhappy. So, how do I deal with such a predicament?

A long time ago I started posting filler strips (before the hat fillers) in which I used clip art to relay jokes. They were really fun to do, and from that moment I wanted to make it it’s own comic… but because LAWLS was eating up all my time, I never got around it it. This whole current predicament pushed me into finally doing it because they take a quarter of the time to do!

This project not only is a bit easier for me to put together, BUT it also is really pushing me to learn how to write better. The basic premise of this strip is to pick dictionary word, read the definition and then from there write out a joke. The built in constraint forces me to really develop a stronger way to come up with jokes, the words will always be new, random, and fresh… where as LAWLS being a story, I have to follow a path, in Words of Interest, I go with what is given to me at the moment.

My final comment about this project is this, yes, some of it will be basic clip art, but a large sum of them will be original characters from my own creatures, IE. the whale and squid in LAWLS. The characters will be switched around based on which will help the joke better for that day, but all the same will start to strengthen the LAWLS universe. I’ve got a few ideas revolving around the little bean characters, TONS with the whales and squid, and a many other that will unravel over time. The one basic theme that will overlap though is that I want it to feel like a an old dictionary, so everything is gonna have a touch of “sophistication” to it. :]

Anyway, go check out tonight’s strip. It takes place IN the Headache Cafe and deals with our good ol’ friend Philip the whale and the Barkeep Squid.

LAWLS will be back TOMORROW!

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Cadence & Autumn Wallpaper!

by D.Caron on August 24, 2011 at 3:42 am
Posted In: Blog

I know a few of you who come to the stream have asked for this wallpaper when you saw it on my desktop, so I figured It’s as good of a time as any. Originally this was going to be a donation wallpaper for the L.A.W.L.S. Vol 1, but because I wasn’t able to post, I figured I’d give it to you free today instead.

NEWS:

The reason I wasn’t able to post comes for a number of complications. Firstly, tomorrow I have to get up really early to deal with a few things for the move.. unexciting, boring paperwork-ish stuff. So I couldn’t pull an all nighter working on a post, secondly the next section of the comic requires that I have a few, far more complicated backgrounds done before I even get started on it. Instead of trying to do them on the fly like I’ve been doing this past few weeks, it’s much wiser for me to get them done first so I can focus more on the art that will be going into the next strips. There are a few new characters, tons of random background crowd people, and MAGIC SPELLS! I foresee a lot of that taking up tons of time I don’t have especially I have to THEN go draw out some backgrounds after I draw the characters. So tonight I’m gonna start working on the backgrounds to make sure I have several different angles done before next week. Thirdly, I spent the day doing more packing and running around dumpster diving for boxes behind shoe stores and such than I had planned. Anyway, I hope you have it in your hearts to forgive me. I’ve even been annoyed at the slow pacing of this whole section of the comic.. with me getting sick, exhibiting at a pile of big conventions, and working on this book.. the posts schedule has been FAR TOO wonky. Again, sorry, hope this wallpaper makes up for it. Friday, A guest strip from Andrew of I AM ARG! and the comic will resume next week. Thanks for reading guys! MORE COMICS SOOOOOOOONNN!



Click To Download it!

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This Desert Strife

by D.Caron on August 15, 2011 at 3:34 am
Posted In: Blog

Anyone have any idea what this is referencing?

NEWS: The production of a book is a lot more involved than I would have ever imagined. I’ve come to realize the past few days that this is both a super exciting yet TIRING process.

Anyway, some things have come up with the production of the book that are both really neat but frankly more time consuming which is making the process take that much longer. For starters, the book will now contain both parts of the story so far (and a bit of whats to come). Because of this I had to rename the Volume from “This Desert Strife” to something else. This, what you see above, was the original cover to Vol.1 when it still had the name This Desert Strife. My goal was to release this cover when I announced the pre-order, but now that it will no longer be a cover I decided to share it online with you guys. The book will now have two parts in it, as i mentioned above, Act I and Act II. The acts are the sections the story is already broken up into (the original Volumes); The Desert Strife and Sin City Gritty. In addition it will have even MORE guest strips, art, and conceptual stuff.

One of the things that is gonna take a really long time is the fact that I will now be including commentary under the strips about what I was feeling when I wrote it, hints to the store, or simple some sort of secondary joke to the originals. This happened because my initial plan was to only have two strip per page and that’s it… but I stupidly didn’t realize that the format of the book was off. The book will be 8x8inches…but I was working in 8×7.something…. when I realized this last night I basically had to start the book over and change the design which freed me to now include commentary. At first I was annoyed by the design change, but now I’m rather pleased with it. Now the book with have even more exclusive content in it for you guys!

ANYWAY, here is the Act I page divider from the book. I hope you like it. :]

See you Wednesday with an actual comic!

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Fridge Doodles by OTHER People

by D.Caron on August 12, 2011 at 7:26 am
Posted In: Blog

In case you were wondering, here are all the images that showed up in today’s comic… closer. (the ones I didn’t do at least). I did a little thing on the live stream were I let other people come up with the drawings. :]


by @iamarg of I Am ARG!


by @octopodcomic of Octopod Adventures


by @mikeyeddy


by @LucAmos

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