Thread "Returning" in forum "Meet, Greet, Show and Sell*"

Posted at 1:03PM, Mar. 27, 2007

Usually go by "R.", have for a little over a decade now, except when I hit a place that has that whole "no nicks under 3 characters" whatnot.

Been doing comics online since 1997, primarily at my own site (which hasn't changed much design-wise…though the art within has improved), and aside from a couple of early bouts of self-promotion for my initial webcomic, I've kept pretty quiet. First popped on DD in 2004 to experiment with the whole hosted community thing as a departure from my usual island unto myself approach, and then the Duck, of course, went blooey. Because I do keep to myself, I didn't even know it was back up until one of the NightGig folks hit my table at MegaCon a couple months ago. He remembered seeing my stuff on DD before, we talked, and so here I am, back again.

Posted at 3:03PM, Mar. 27, 2007

welcome back to the duck

a lot of people are returning from that crash, so you're not the only one.

Posted at 3:03PM, Mar. 27, 2007

Pretty groovy work in the anime style ^^

Yeah, DD has had a lot of leavers and returners after the annual crashes :)
BUT, after that last really bad one DD has been pretty perfect ever since (well over a year now), but the returnees have taken longer…

So welcome back rainingbells! ^_^

Posted at 5:03PM, Mar. 27, 2007

Thank you, Sub. Much appreciated.

Yeah, DD has had a lot of leavers and returners after the annual crashes :)
BUT, after that last really bad one DD has been pretty perfect ever since (well over a year now), but the returnees have taken longer…

So welcome back rainingbells! ^_^

Yeah. The last thing I saw, IIRC, was Volte saying the backup the host said they were keeping was nonexistant, or something along those lines, and that he just felt whipped by the whole experience. Having lost more than a couple of full or nearly completed projects in my time that absolutely beat me emotionally to begin with, I really felt bad for the guy.

If I'd known DD was back, I would have returned sooner.

Pretty groovy work in the anime style ^^

I dig anime and manga. It's the damnedest thing, though.

Liked it as a kid, before I knew what it was. Sought it out when mostly it could only be found at one table at a convention, if lucky…fansubs only, but mostly raws off laserdisk.

When I started drawing, my style was closer to realistic. Closer to 80s and early 90s US mainstream, but it didn't allow the range of motion and expression that I wanted, so I switched to a cartoonier style. Began experimenting, pulling from most of the indie comics I grew up reading because I didn't get into Marvel and DC until later, so a lot of my early influences were more Crumb, Reed Waller, Gilbert Shelton, Ron Fontes, Ron Lim (when he was doing the original B&W Ex-Mutants), and stuff from issues of Heavy Metal. Garfield, Beetle Bailey. The way I tend to do folds, like on the backs of the knees, is my spring off Jim Davis's shorthand. So while I do enjoy a lot of Japanese artists - Masamune Shirow and Urushihara ranking among my all-time faves - most of my influences were actually more US and European. Just, somehow, I ended up with this funky style that's closer to anime.

The BBSes of which I was a member in the 90s were segregated, like they were the web-based versions of the Usenet newsgroups specifically designed for discussion of one subject. They were either BBSes for artists and fans of what they percieved to be traditional US comics, or of the Japanese, but they didn't really intermingle. My closest experience to that kind of hybrid was OCAD - Online Comic Artist Directory - founded by Clay of the Sexylosers strips.

…

I have this issue in regards to being a writer; everything's a story, an evolution. It often gets in the way of being concise. My bad.

The point being is that on the "comics" boards my work was always "too anime" for them, and on the "manga" boards, my work was always too European. So it's a little strange having that word applied to my art and it being a compliment.

All that said, though, I appreciate your meaning. Don't let my rambling make you think otherwise. o.O;

Posted at 6:03PM, Mar. 27, 2007

HI