OG’s BLOG

If it’s September, I must have shipped another game… Oh, yeah! Civ IV Colonization is out the door! YEAH! Sing it! Celebrate!

And in fact we did celebrate down at the ol’ An Poitin Stil last night, where our bar tab looked more like a Christmas list. The barkeep rolled that thing out on the bar and it kept on a-rollin’.

That’s how it came to pass that Tom Symonds snapped this picture of me (click for the whole, sad thing). You have to understand that in my head, what I was doing was super-cool, a sort of gravity-defying feat of Spidermanishness. What I looked like, unfortunately, is another thing altogether. “Gargoyle” was one of the kindest things bandied about. “Gollum” was just uncalled-for.

Well, this is an historic day – Croaker’s Gorge was noticed by the folks over at Gigcast. Got a nice little mention in the TBBA spotlight there. And this is hot on the heels of a mention over at Belfry Comics. It seems my little under-the-radar comic attempt has its fans after all.

I’ve also recently gotten some fan mail of a type that, at the risk of seeming immodest, I thought I should address publicly:

First of all, Duke, thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you enjoy the strip, and I definitely enjoy drawing it. I’m glad the strip has an audience. Judging from my hate mail, the strip doesn’t appeal to everyone, but then it wouldn’t, would it?

That said, I thought I should say publicly – I haven’t given up on Croaker’s. I know it was tremendously unfair of me to ask what you’d rather have – less comics per week in color, or more comics per week in black and white – only to suddenly and without explanation go on hiatus.

But go on hiatus is what I did. The deal is that I have an excellent opportunity to do an original graphic novel. Sorry, it’s not a Croaker’s graphic novel. It’s actually a graphic novel adaptation of the novel I’ve been writing for a few years. But if you like Croaker’s, I do think you’d like this graphic novel as well. I will tell you more about it as it moves toward publication. Meanwhile, understand that I am working very hard on the pitch for that, and that’s what has knocked Croaker’s Gorge temporarily to the back burner.

When the pitch is done, I will get back to Croaker’s Gorge, and that’s the good news. The bad news is that it will probably take me another 3 weeks to be able to get back to it, and even then, it will be down to one day a week for a bit.

Thanks for your feedback and your support!

Meanwhile – WHAT’s UP WITH MOON TOWN? Same deal. Only so many hours in the day, so many days in a week. My focus is on the unrelated graphic novel I mentioned above; first I have to get the pitch for that out of the way, and if all goes well, production on the graphic novel will be in the way. There will only be more work on Moon Town as time allows. More bulletins as events warrant.

We are borrowing billions of dollars from China to spend on fossil fuels from the middle east and it just goes up in smoke. We could be using renewable alternative energy sources. Wind. Solar. Tides.

The fact that we are not makes you scratch your head. Seems like Someone just doesn’t want us to get off oil. Perhaps it’s time we give Someone a little push?

Want a better world? Want a stronger economy? Check THIS out. Get involved. We can solve it.

This frame is from a commercial for the National Lottery of England called “The Big Win”, and it’s by my buddies over at StudioAKA in London. The spot is a couple of years old, so I’m sure most of you have seen it (especially since I had talked about it at AnimWatch). But it’s such a charming clip, I think it bears review, plus I think there is a lot to learn about creativity in it.

First, go see it:

StudioAKA’s official website
-or-
Direct link to The Big Win (I don’t know how long this will function…)

Now – if someone had come to me and asked me to design a spot for the Lottery, I wouldn’t have come up with this. Even if they had said they wanted it to feature a guy running around town with a bag full of smiles, giving them out, I don’t believe I would have come up with this.

The spot’s charm comes in no small part from the brilliant director Marc Craste’s head. He’s the genius behind such great animations as Pica Towers and Jojo in the Stars, not to mention gobs of great adverts for StudioAKA. The point is, he’s not afraid to give a project much much more than is required. It’s why his designs and spots are so unusual. He’s freed himself from the chains of conventional thinking.

For instance, if you asked me for a guy running around town with a bag of smiles, I would probably have come up with a burlap bank sack with a smile stenciled on the outside where you would normally have a dollar sign in a cartoon. Very conventional. And probably no matter how well executed, ultimately forgettable. But Marc doesn’t make it a burlap sack. He makes it a doctor’s bag. Of course it’s a doctor’s bag, because this guy is running around town healing people – literally putting smiles on their faces! And that’s just the bag. Marc Craste and his team put the same ultra-creative process into the whole spot.

I love everything about this, from the visual design to the quality of the lighting to the stylistic animation to the quick pacing to the atmosphere to the great piece of music they licensed (holy mackerel is THAT charming…). I think it shows how much you can do with a simple idea. StudioAKA took this idea and just ran with it, and you can see the energy and joy they put into the spot. It paid off in a commercial that transcends its own medium. It comes off as more than an advert; it’s an animated short in its own right. We all should be so creative.

I’ve just come across a great webcomic called Ellie Connelly and the Curse of the Moon’s Eye, by Indigo Kelleigh. It’s well drawn, has excellent color, great design sense, and a story full of mystery and adventure (OOOOH!). Very nice. Puts me in mind of Tintin and some of the great classic comic strips.

Just thought I’d mention it to you for your consideration, because quality is so uneven out there where webcomics are concerned, I like to promote quality when I see it. Go check it out!

Religulous describes religious ideas, beliefs, or claims that are patently absurd, comical, or ridiculous.

Looking forward to this movie. Check out the trailer.

I worked with my buddy Tom Dell’Aringa to create this trailer for his excellent webcomic “Marooned”. If you haven’t seen the strip yet, I’d recommend its blend of humor and adventure to help you while away the hours. And the trailer is a great introduction to the characters and the strip.

Well? What are you waiting for? Go see it!