so um. I’ve been updating my flickr for the first time in a while. I should probably get a paid account so I don’t have some pictures unseeable, but whatever.
my deviantart will probably be updated more…at some point. I have pages and pages of comics/drawings done for class to share, except I left the xeroxes in my dorm. also I kind of hate most of them by now. WHATEVER.
I kind of want to get blogging again, and now that I have very little I have to do (besides sleep and maybe read things and maybe work on this tiny idea I have) I think I might get around to it.

cat in window
Originally uploaded by megalosaurus

been bombarded with work for school. It’s kind of really exciting and simultaneously really exhausting.

recent things I have been obsessed with:

-the backgrounds/art of 101 dalmatians. actually, animated stuff in general.

-listening to NPR

-watching election coverage/voting

-reading time magazine

-M&Ms and pretzels

-watching TV online

-photoshopping things

-poladroid

-sleeping

-keeping warm

it seems sometimes like my whole life is becoming COMICS all the time, and it’s okay sometimes. Sometimes I am so so full of ambition and excitement about it, and I really do like working on pages, thought sometimes I get frustrated by my own inability to get things to be as great as I want to be. But I like parts of the process I didn’t think I would, like penciling in the panel borders. Other times I feel strangled. by art in general too. Sometimes it’s like I’m stuck looking at the world too much through one pair of glasses and I want to take them off. And I worry about not being good enough. I want to have everything quiet down for a little while so I can see the rest of the world and stop over thinking.

at least winter break is coming.

I uploaded comics I’ve been doing for class to deviantart. Check them out over there.

in general, working on stuff for class has made me super embarrassed about the starry knights pages. but they helped me loosen up. and I think there’s still some good stuff among the non-standardized pages and wobbly lines and stuff…

Things have been majorly hectic here but also, inbetween deadlines and stuff, pretty good. Just very busy.

I’m excited to vote in about a week. Actually, I’m probably more excited for the election coverage. I’ve been a huge election news junkie.

I did.

actually, I need to somehow get pictures of the comics we are doing now for class soon.

and also the spx “comic”. joy.

you know you’re excited.

have yet to decide if I should bother posting again, school has eaten my life…

also bookmark it and check back, yes yes.

in retrospect: oh god page one is like, almost embarassing. I swear, I get better at the drawings. D:

anyways.

so, I’m looking for a full version of what this is from. I know it’s a watercolor by mucha:

will probably be searching in the school library for pictures by him anyway. it’s for a secret project. kind of.

anyway, now I am looking at more delicius mucha art on google images, so here is one of my favorites. it’s the colors:

I also found the work of Zinaida Serebriakova recently. Admittedly, I pretty much just googled her and went “ooh, pretty” so I can’t like, geek out and tell you much about her. But her stuff is really amazing. I thought she must have been more or less contemporary from her self portrait:

but she was working in around the 1900s.

gonna try to look her up some more when I have the time. Along with a bunch of other artists whose work I’ve saved onto my desktop. more substantial posts soon, I promise. and art and Comic info. yes!

but now I need to go pack. ugh.

I can’t properly explain why I think this page is so amazing and economical and informative about the story and beautiful without sounding insane, so just, there it is. I need to go find my copy of this. really, it’s amazing.

anyway, for lots of Megan Being Confused And Not Making Sense click:

okay. so the deal is, I feel like I am constantly trying to work out how I want to tell stories. I also have this scary feeling of not knowing how to even START planning a comic, which is what I THINK I want to do. I mean, writers,  good writers, writers who write things that I love to read, plan for ages and ages, researching and planning and going over backstories. 

If I write anything at all now? it’s all these weird half-formed paragraphs that aren’t usually connected which just kind of sketch who the characters are. For some terrible reason I can’t figure out, I can’t think of stories anymore, just a character once in a while. It’s scary, because I know what I want to do. I know how to do it, in theory. I just can’t figure out how to start. Or what to start with. Like, I know I should just write, but that’s really hard when you haven’t got much of a plot. I feel like I haven’t got a paddle.

And what the hell do I write? a script? a short story? I think I agree in theory with what I heard Chris Ware say once that If you are writing a script beforehand, you’re not really writing comics.

And what the hell do I write? a script? a short story? I think I agree with what I heard Chris Ware say once that “If you are writing a script beforehand, you’re not really writing comics.” Because there’s so much more than the words going on. I hate hate hate the idea that only the writing or only the art matters (is this another one of my weird ideas, that there are people who think one is more important?) But…how do I start writing ANYTHING? I’m so frustrated, because maybe I am making this more difficult than it needs to be, or maybe it’s just because as a medium, people have only been taking it seriously recently, so there isn’t much to look to for advice. Or maybe this will all be addressed on day 1 of class in the fall. I just don’t know.

In conclusion: maybe I’ll go scribble and hope it turns out okay. but thinking about it makes me freeze up a little, since I’ve done this before with a story I did like, and then all I had after a while was a couple different ways things could go that I couldn’t choose between and a story that I kept finding reasons to hate. 

and then I start worrying about how if I am any good, I should have done something by now. I should have at least tried and finished even a terrible story. Another reason I am so glad about The Comic, even if that’s not mine really. I just draw it and like it a lot. At least it’s something.

in conclusion: MEH!

I hope you enjoyed this tour if my neurotic psyche, if you read this.

(the Chris Ware quote is from an awesome Q&A seen here, btw. Chris Ware is amazing. Jimmy Corrigan blows my mind, even if I haven’t finished reading it yet. I would have to put that as the greatest Graphic Novel ever, not Watchmen. It’s so dense, hence me not being able to finish, but absolutely amazing. It’s got this sense of scope and gravity and history within it’s pages. I want to hear more about how he does comics. Or like go into his studio. Or his brain.)

So: I really like Teen Titans Year One. The art is really pretty. Like, I really, really like the style, though once or twice (wondergirl with literal floods of tears) went weirdly into manga-esque places (which I thought was strange, since it looks so western to me? whatever, I think my sense of manga-influenced art is all out of whack after reading almost exclusively manga for years before any American stuff) but generally has this really great, consistent quality that I can’t explain why I like exactly. 

Also, the writing makes me laugh. More on that forthcoming. I’m a sucker for beginning stories, it seems like, and I don’t know anything about who the teen titans are, so this was a good intro.

Basically, Batman is a jerk the entire time. Like, I felt really, really bad for poor robin. 

but Alfred? he is the best dad ever:

Comes to robin’s stakeout of angst with a bag lunch. He even put a little “R” on there and everything.

so prepare for a picture spam (of photos of the comic, since I am too lazy to scan, but feel the need to share) after the jump, if this works. spoilers, probably. but it’s good so you should read the thing anyway:

okay. so the basic premise is: batman’s a jackass and kicks robin off his team, and then all the other grown up heroes are going nuts and the kids get together and save everyone.

the probem is, batman is not much different after the mind-altering bad guy, who has been turning the adults against their sidekicks leaves. witness:

before:

after: 

jackass.

anyway, poor robin is aided by

Kid Flash

who is hilarious:

I mean, when he’s bored he goes to France for French Fries:

then there is also 

Aqualad

who I didn’t know existed, and manages to bridge the freaky looking/adorable line really well

Mister Batman. What ELSE is there to call him?

Basically, Aqua Lad is that kid with asthma who gets picked last for dodgeball. The comparison is especially apt, since he can’t go that long without being in water. And his powers aren’t really that useful when he isn’t underwater:

at least he can talk to fish. He gets advice from Wally/Kid Flash’s turtle at one point. Adorable.

continuing, there’s:

Wonder Girl

who should really be awesome:

but then goes and does stuff like this:

this isn’t even the panel where she goes “a BOY!” and throws herself at him. Oh, Wondergirl. Really?

but then also goes and says stuff like this, so I can’t hate her:

Come on, the enthusiasm is adorable. She’s young. Maybe she’ll grow into her awesome.

Plus this panel makes me want to give her a hug. Go find your sister and be powerful and cool, Wondergirl:

finally, they’re also helped(….sometimes? I am not clear on his team status) by:

Speedy

(who is also Syndrome? I’m just saying.)

anyway, he seems nice and all, but then he goes and is a jerk to Wondergirl after she totally saves his behind on their date:

oh tweens. 

so in conclusion, go read Teen Titans Year One. I didn’t even include the cool fight scenes or really sweet scenes of all the grown up heroes (well. except freaking batman) being all “you did good, kid!” to their sidekicks. it’s adorable.

though, I will tell you exchange?

had me waiting for Superman to show up for like, even a tiny bit. No dice. Maybe in the last issue, though it doesn’t really seem likely. On a tangent: I still don’t know why I like superman so much more than batman. Like, a lot more.

Maybe because he isn’t such a jerk. And he isn’t cool like Bruce Wayne when he is a civillian.

Anyway, go buy these comics now.

[Or in Rel's caseL borrow them from me.]

Issues 1-4 of 5 are out now. gogogo.

Other comic recommendations:

the new Blue Beetle.