Hula Hooping Hippo

What I've Been Up To!

2011-04-27T21:37:00.003-04:00

So I haven't really posted anything of substantial significance lately... Sorry Nine Followers! I've let you down!

But don't worry, you haven't really missed much. I have a Tumblr now, and I think I'll probably be updating that more than here.

I also started another Tumblr where I'm making a picture for every episode of Batman: The Animated Series! I'm up to the fourth episode at the moment.

The Superfogeys!

2011-03-27T13:41:00.001-04:00

One of my favourite webcomics, The Superfogeys, just turned 300 strips and posted a 2011 teaser poster, as well as switching to new artist, Marc Lapierre, and a M/W/F updating schedule! Check it out!

Scott Pilgrim vs The Walking Dead

2011-03-08T16:23:00.012-05:00

Oh man! Remember that Scott Pilgrim fan comic I made for deviantART's 8th Evil Ex Contest a few months ago? Well, I didn't win BUT the director of 'Scott Pilgrim VS the World,' Edgar Wright, ended up posting it on his blog!

WHOA!!

Cupid Waking Up

2011-02-12T01:43:00.000-05:00

Happy Almost Valentines Day! Here's a preview (the first four panels) of a comic I'm working on about Cupid, that unfortunately WON'T be done by the 14th.

Bird Mail

2011-02-07T22:21:00.006-05:00

I sent a letter to a friend of mine in New York a few months ago. I decided that the envelope should be a bird.

Printmaking

2011-01-19T22:43:00.007-05:00

I took a Beginners Printmaking class last semester, and here are my results! I've included links to various Printmaking Wikipedia articles for those who aren't familiar with the various processes.

' A Boy and a Bride and a Dog and Some Streaks and Stuff'
Woodcut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodcut

'Change the Channel'
Lithography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithography

'Shortly Prior To This, It Had Been Raining'
Screen-Printing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen-printing

'New Job'
Intaglio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intaglio_(printmaking)

Harry Potter Doodles

2010-11-24T00:34:00.004-05:00

Here are some Harry Potter characters I doodled while in class the other day.

They didn't scan very well so I had to darken the lines... looks a little weird.

Anyway, I'm in a Drawing class and a Printmaking class this semester, so look for stuff from those classes to be up soon. I'm not sure why I've waited so long to get around to it.

Also, my new webcomic has been pushed back to January, just cuz I felt like it.

Charon the Ferryman

2010-10-15T11:48:00.001-04:00

Here's a picture I drew while sitting in class the other day. It's Charon, Ferryman of the Underworld, and the main character of the new comic series I'm working on.

Scott Pilgrim Contest

2010-09-09T14:53:00.008-04:00

Click here if you want to see my entry to deviantART's Scott Pilgrim contest, which I didn't even come close to winning. A few people did seem to dig it though, so that's always cool!

Scott Pilgrim

2010-08-29T02:39:00.005-04:00

For the past week and a half I've been working on my entry to DeviantArt's Scott Pilgrim contest. I'm almost done! In the meantime though, here are my versions of Scott, Ramona, and Wallace.

Ferryman

2010-08-07T15:16:00.002-04:00

Time Travel

2010-08-02T00:03:00.001-04:00

This comic is from the comic book you can buy in my store.
Only, you just read it, so why buy it? I mean, there're other comics in there, but, you know.

I am a poor salesman. :D

Crazy Duck Story Guide

2010-07-18T23:25:00.009-04:00

Here's a quick story guide to major events that have happened so far in Crazy Duck's storyline. You know, in case you don't have time to read the 400+ strips in the archive but still want to know what's going on. I suggest you go ahead and just read all the comics, but it's up to you, pal!

Obviously, SPOILERS AHEAD! So read ONLY if you WANT SEVERAL PLOT POINTS TO BE SPOILED FOR YA.

CLICK HERE to go back to CRAZY DUCK

Mike Swifter is a lonely and depressed twenty-something living in a small Indiana town. His best friends are his room mate Ted, a mean spirited fuzzball of unknown origin, and a lady-killer guitarist in a local band named Gunther. Mike works as the mascot for a fast food restaurant, Crazy Duck, which is owned by his father, Mr. Bernie Swifer. For as far back as he can remember, Mike and his dad have had a terrible relationship, and nothing Mike does seems to help the situation. For whatever reason, Mr. Swifter apparently just does not like his son.

One day, a man named Gary Stalone shows up at Mike's door, claiming to be his guardian angel. Ted takes a liking to the stranger, but Mike believes him to be mentally deranged, despite Gary knowing several things about him. Unsettled, Mike sends Gary away and returns to his uneventful life. Sooner than expected though, Gary comes crashing back into Mike's life when he saves him from being ran over by a car. Now in debt to Gary, and beginning to wonder if maybe there is more to him than he thought, Mike allows him to stay at his apartment. Mr. Swifter decides to visit Mike at the hospital, but just cannot get himself to let Mike know he's there.

Even though Gary continues to claim he's dead, his appetite manages to increase Mike's grocery bill considerably. Running low on cash, Mike decides to find another new room mate to help cover rent. The offer is quickly accepted when Gunther's recently unemployed sister moves in after breaking up with her boyfriend. Ted is forced to give up his room to Jill and share with Gary, much to his annoyance, and for this reason he continues to hold a grudge against her. Until she gets back on her feet, Jill gets a job at Crazy Duck as a fry cook, a position she manages to hold onto despite how terrible she is at it.

Mike has had a crush on a girl named Judy. The two have barely spoken to each other since they were lab partners in high school, but remains convinced she is truly the girl of his dreams. The fact they work together at Crazy Duck only helps reaffirm his feelings for her. Because of this attachment, Mike fails to notice when Jill begins to have feelings for him, even though the two become fast friends.

Another Crazy Duck employee, nick named Douche McKenzie, likes to harass Mike. One afternoon, he decides to give Mike a wedgie and hang him from a tree branch. This action greatly angers Gunther who decides the best way to retaliate against Douche McKenzie is to vandalize his car. Gary finds himself wrapped up in the plan and gets blamed for the vandalism. He is then arrested. Though he escapes, the local sheriff, Ed Parker, decides to look into Gary's past and discovers an old police file claiming Gary died fifty years ago.

Mike, meanwhile, still doesn't believe Gary is his guardian angel or dead, so he confronts him with questions about his life. Gary can't remember much about his time among the living or his life in heaven, but he does remember his mother and that he died choking on a sandwich. Mike decides he thinks Gary might be a bit confused about his past, which upsets Gary. The two don't talk for a few weeks until they both find themselves Christmas shopping at the mall and are detained by mall security.

After Ed Parker discovered Gary's secret, his obsession with figuring out how it was possible cost him his job as sheriff, forcing him to take on being the head of mall security. Unfortunately, our boys stumbled right into his path. Ed Parker demands to know how Gary was still alive despite supposedly dying in 1956, revealing Gary's file to Mike. The two manage to escape once again, Mike now beginning to wonder if maybe he should believe Gary after all.

Mike continues to fawn after Judy, oblivious of Jill's feelings for him. Deciding to give up on winning Mike's affection, Jill finds a boyfriend in a random emo guy named Mark. No one seems to like Mark even though he seems perfectly pleasant, particularly Ted who can't stand seeing Jill happy. Mike starts to think he may actually have feelings for Jill after all.

For twenty-three years Mike has wondered where his mother could be. Mother's Day rolls around and he attempts to ask Mr. Swifter if they could talk about his mom. Mr. Swifter won't have anything to do with it though, as expected, so Mike decides to live vicariously through Gary by reuniting him with his own mother. The two set off to Gary's old house, despite the fact it's been over half a decade since Gary lived there and the chance that his mother might be dead. After crossing a massive, rusty bridge, the two arrive to find Gary's mother alive. Sadly, Gary decides it would be too much of a shock for his mother to see him after all this time, and the two return home.

CLICK HERE to go back to CRAZY DUCK

Drawin' on a Computer

2010-07-14T19:03:00.005-04:00

My uncle gave me his old Wacom Graphire 3 Tablet a couple weeks ago. I used it for the first time today and I have to admit, it's harder to use than I thought. I read that these tablets are better for photo retouching than drawing, but I can't get myself to buy a fancier (more expensive) tablet, so hopefully in time I'll just get used to using this one.

I don't plan on drawing my comics on it though. I like using real pens and pencils too much. I've been trying to get back into animation lately (I used to love animating in Jr. High and early High School), but I can't stand drawing with a mouse. I'm hoping this tablet will make things easier... I tried actually hand drawing the animation and then scanning each picture in to assemble in Photoshop and then into Flash, but man, it's a long process.

Bad News/Good News (kind of)

2010-06-17T17:33:00.013-04:00

I applied for this Graphic Novel residency in Florida where I would have been studying under Craig Thompson, but I didn't get it. :(

Man, I'm bummed. Let's face it, I'll never have an opportunity like that again. Though I guess if you look at the comics I've made so far, and my level of ability, it's probably not much of a surprise.

The good news, though, is that I'll now have time to start working on a new comic project! I've been working on the story for years, waiting until I felt like my writing and drawing abilities were better, and I think I'm kind of close to being an okay enough artist to somewhat pull the comic off. I guess we'll see.

It won't be starting until November, so I can give myself plenty of time to do it right, but here's some concept art of three of the characters. As you can probably tell, the story deals with Greek mythology. That's all I'll say for now.

Meanwhile, my webcomic 'Crazy Duck' has once again returned from one of its school year hiatuses! Check it out!

Hey Dude, Comics!

2010-04-25T22:33:00.013-04:00

So my mini-comic didn't turn out so... mini. It actually ended up being 8.5x11 inches.

Anyway, the first issue of Hula Hooping Hippo is now available at my store! 24 pages of comics! It's actually three dollars, not two like the cover says, since I ended up printing it in color.

I'll be up front with you, 'Window Panes' is part of the first issue, which you can already read online. But it looks better in print! And there're fourteen more pages of comics!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY STORE!

Kid Robot Futurama

2010-04-20T15:48:00.004-04:00

Yay, Zoidberg!

PS I realize the unfortunate cropping of Essex County up there.

Window Panes

2010-03-29T01:46:00.002-04:00

I know I posted this earlier, but I thought I'd move it up here above all the other things I've been posting lately.

Here's a short story from the mini-comic I've been working on! Just click below, dudes.

CLICK!

Stan Lee, Cameo Artist

2010-03-07T13:08:00.001-05:00

Stan Lee's Oscar Campaign from Stan Lee

Best SNL Sketch of the Season (Or At Least, Weirdest)

2010-03-06T23:10:00.002-05:00

Pfft

2010-02-20T02:46:00.004-05:00

So what if Neil Gaiman's giving a lecture this April in Indianapolis? Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino's coming to Bloomington. CHEW ON THAT, INDY.

Classrooms of the Future

2010-02-17T02:39:00.003-05:00

I had to make a movie in Windows Movie Maker about technology in the classroom for my Computers in Education class. I probably put in more effort than necessary, but here's the result!

LOST

2010-02-02T17:36:00.002-05:00

The final season of LOST premiers tonight, and I couldn't be more excited! Here's a picture of some LOST characters I drew a year or so ago when I was going through a practicing-drawing-heads face. Sayid and Claire didn't turn out so good, and Hurley looks kind of old, but wutevz.

Window Panes

2010-01-30T17:49:00.002-05:00

Here's a panel from a ten page comic I'm working on. More details in a couple of weeks.

Not-Birthdays

2010-01-05T02:34:00.005-05:00

It was my niece's birthday recently, so I made these for my other two nieces whose birthday it wasn't.

Oh, and Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T22:57:00.008-05:00

Here are some Christmas sketch cards I made for my friends and family to celebrate the season.

Merry Christmas!!

Love & War

2009-12-22T19:26:00.003-05:00

Love & War

Probably the world's first animated opera.

Here Comes Santa Claus

2009-12-16T01:31:00.003-05:00

We're heading into the home stretch of Christmas, so here's a quick picture I did for a friend recently.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, EC Segar!

2009-12-09T12:13:00.005-05:00

This was the Google logo yesterday, and I thought it was pretty cool.

Birthday Buffy

2009-12-06T01:22:00.003-05:00

I made this picture as a present for my friend Ashley. It combines two thing she loves: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bike Polo!

I'm usually terrible with drawing bikes, but I think this one turned out pretty good.

Hey Arnold!

2009-11-13T20:15:00.006-05:00

Wasn't 'Hey Arnold!' great?

:)

Imago

2009-11-08T13:39:00.001-05:00

Found this pretty cool short earlier. I think its a few years old now.

Punchbuggy at Boxcar

2009-10-29T17:06:00.012-04:00

So I was browsing the Punchbuggy Comics Tour blog and I came across this picture of me hanging out with some of cartooning's brightest.

No, that's not me, that's Gabby Schulz.

Nope, that's Nate Powell!

A little to the right...

THERE I AM!!

Okay, I might have a slightly skewed definition of "hanging out."

Emitown

2009-10-26T21:10:00.004-04:00

Did you know I have a Twitter?!

Anyway, on to the real point of this post. Here's some fan art I did for an awesome comic called Emitown! Make sure you click it to make it big.

There's a bigger version over on my deviantArt.

Wow, two blog posts in a day?

The Eulogy

2009-10-26T20:58:00.003-04:00

Here's a preview of a short story I've been working on!

I'm trying to figure out what to do shading wise... I'm not good with hatching, and I already tired solid blacks and whites (it didn't look too great). Any suggestions?

Fall

2009-10-24T00:38:00.003-04:00

It's been raining a lot here lately.

All Sorts o' Cartoonists

2009-10-21T00:03:00.006-04:00

I don't know if October was Comics Month here or something, but in the past few weeks Scott McCloud, John Porcellino, and the Punchbuggy Comics Tour all stopped by Bloomington.

Sufjan Stevens

2009-10-13T14:57:00.003-04:00

I saw Sufjan Stevens a few weeks ago. It was pretty cool.

Why I No Longer Take Notes

2009-10-13T14:50:00.003-04:00

Here are some notes I took last year. As you can see my doodles always out weigh the actual notes, so note taking has kind of become a fruitless exercise for me. :/

What I've Been Up To

2009-09-21T00:39:00.004-04:00

Haven't posted much lately...

School started back up, so I'm now in my third year of college. It took me until now to settle on a major, but it looks like I'm going for Art Education. At least for the time being. I just finished moving too... Just across the parking lot though. I used to live in Apartment 92, and now I live in Apartment 135. It's a a pretty big jump (two rows of houses, hokey smokes!), and I'm still getting used to it.

My webcomic Crazy Duck is currently on hold once again because I'm working on some other comics projects. I'll hopefully be returning to an at least three-day-a-week schedule sometime in October.

Oh! And I finally got around to starting 'Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth' by Chris Ware. I heard it can be hard to read, so wish me luck!

Sweet Dreams by Kirsten Lepore

2009-09-19T03:12:00.007-04:00

See more at her website!

...Also, apparently I haven't posted any new blogs in over a month?

Giraffe and Bird Doodle

2009-08-18T01:46:00.002-04:00

This is just a picture I pulled from a page of doodles I did earlier. Giraffes are my favourite animal, by the way.

Schmeven!

2009-08-17T14:50:00.002-04:00

I sometimes do comedy sketches with my friends. They're just for fun, but here's one of them. I'm not actually in it, I just wrote and filmed it. It looks better if you click the HQ button.

Adventure Comics

2009-08-10T15:16:00.007-04:00

Even if I wasn't a fan of Geoff Johns, who's the writer behind the new 'Adventure Comics' coming out this month, I think the comic would still be worth buying for Francis Manapul's art alone.

Jay!

2009-08-06T05:19:00.001-04:00

Here's an inked sketch I did of my pal Jay Lingo.

The Fantasic Mr. Fox

2009-07-30T21:58:00.004-04:00

The director of my favourite film directing an adaptation of my favoutire childhood book?!

The animation looks kind of choppy, though, like those old Christmas specials... but maybe that's the point?

Either way, I'm looking forward to it!

500 Days of Summer

2009-07-22T23:45:00.004-04:00

I want to see '500 Days of Summer,' and not just because I have a crush on Zoey Deschanel.

Harry Potter

2009-07-22T23:44:00.005-04:00

I saw 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' a few days ago. I LOVED it. It's right up there with 'Azkaban' and 'Goblet of Fire.' I can't decide which of the three is my favourite though.

Some Character Designs

2009-07-14T03:58:00.002-04:00

I'm working on a short comic story (I don't know what else to call it), and here are some of the character designs I'm working on. There are two characters, a mother and a son. I'm pretty happy with the mother, but the son needs more work.

Springfield Punx

2009-07-01T00:24:00.005-04:00

This blog called Springfield Punx has made it's way to me twice now through two different people, so I figured I'd link to it here. It's ran by a guy named Dean and it features his versions of celebrities and pop culture characters drawn in a really cool Simpsonized Style. My favourites are the characters for 'LOST,' though his Ghostbusters are pretty awesome as well.

Ha, he even did one of Locke with the orange peel smile.

I love this little film!

2009-06-29T18:06:00.007-04:00

I guess the Vimeo version of this (which is what I had embedded originally) was taken down, so here it is brought to us by YouTube:

It was made by Gobelins, an arts school in France. You should definitely check out their site and watch some of their other amazing animated films like Blind Spot, For Sock's Sake, and the beautiful After the Rain.

Robbie Running Test

2009-06-28T19:47:00.003-04:00

Just practicing some animation for the cartoon show I'm working on. I'm hoping to have a teaser up soon, but I probably won't have the first epsiode ready for quite a while still.

deviantSKETCHES

2009-06-28T00:26:00.008-04:00

So lately, just as practice, I've been hopping around deviantART and sketching photographs I come across. Here are some of the better results (links to the artists I used as reference can be found below). These'll probably never end up on my deviantART because I feel like I'd then be claiming them as actual ART instead of elaborate doodles, when the photographs I based the drawings off of are the real art. My favourites are the two at the bottom.

References!

Nikola Borissov
RobbyP
Emel Bayram

There're a couple more artists but I'll have to come back and update this with their links, because I don't have them with me at the moment. I left 'em in my other pants.

And by other pants I mean they're on a different computer.

UPDATE: That should be all the artists links now? I hope. :/

Currently Reading

2009-06-27T23:33:00.005-04:00

'Catwoman: When in Rome' by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

You really can't get more beautiful than Dave Stewart colouring Tim Sale art. Really.

ARGH

2009-06-13T00:50:00.002-04:00

Less then a week into my return to comicking and working on my new cartoon show, my scanner goes caputz. Laaaame.

And I won't be able to do anything about it until at least Monday which means Crazy Duck is ALREADY going to be missing an update. Only one week of actually updating and I'm already off my planned schedule. Blah.

Robbie!

2009-06-06T03:17:00.005-04:00

Some quick drawings (in colour!) that I drew of the three main characters of a cartoon I'm working on with my brother and my friend. :)

J.J. on the Keys

2009-06-03T00:23:00.004-04:00

My blogs quickly becoming nothing more then a place to watch videos. :/

I should probably put some sketches up here soon or something.

MTV Shows

The Coolest Thing I've Seen Since the Other Day

2009-05-28T19:32:00.003-04:00

...And the Coolest Thing I've Seen Today!

2009-05-24T13:22:00.001-04:00

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Coolest Thing I've Seen Tonight

2009-05-23T01:59:00.004-04:00

Seriously.

CLICK ME, PLEASE!

!!!

Hobo Batman in a Belfry

2009-05-21T00:24:00.020-04:00

I bought a few old issues of Batman comics a while back. The issues I got were mostly from the late eighties-early ninties, including an annual from '86.

In that particular issue Bruce Wayne finds himself broke and evicted from Wayne Manor, forced to wander the streets as a homeless Batman. With the little money he has on him he purchases some food and a hot plate then sets out to find a place to crash/get to the bottom of what on Earth is going on with his finances.

Here's my favourite page from it.

Look how adaptable the man is! Using his cape as a bindle to carry his hotplate around Gotham!

Adventure!

2009-05-21T00:16:00.002-04:00

'The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack' is quickly becoming my new favourite cartoon show.

Batman!

2009-05-21T00:11:00.002-04:00

Bloggin'?

2009-05-20T23:21:00.001-04:00

This is me.

At the time of this writing I am over two hundred strips behind on my webcomic 'Crazy Duck.' But instead of catching up on a year+ worth of comics I decided to write this blog.

So, um... welcome! There's not much here yet, so you should swing by my website hulahoopinghippo.com! Thanks to Gemma Bright for helping with it... I mean, thanks for pretty much putting the whole thing together for me. You should also check out all the awesome links there at the side. It's basically a list of artists I'll never be as good as and/or people I'll never be cooler than.

Hello

2009-05-20T23:08:00.000-04:00