Artblock?

I have Functional Artblock about half the time. I say 'Functional' not because I can function with it, but because it's not actually artblock, it just ends up functioning the same way that artblock would -- by keeping me from arting.

In reality, my artblock it more like a Three Stooges routine than anything else. It works like this: Every once in a while, I'll have an overflowing of ideas. When this happens, my head gets so crowded that all the ideas trying to get out at once blocks up the door, and nothing can get out at all, and if anything does, it's simply bits and pieces, fragments that do not make up anything close to a coherent whole. For instance, I currently have a new story circling my brain wanting to come out, but it would just make one more thing on the pile of things I need to get done.

I may start scheduling an actual time in which I comic, and only comic, and only comic on the comics I'm working on now. Once a week, every week, for a set amount of time. For right now? I'm tempted to say 'some time on monday whether you like it or not'.

So. Off to Comic. And make soup. Well, additional soup.

What has Vincent VanGogh got to do with my comics?

As it turns out, quite a lot.

For Spiader Webs, you see, I am using Copic markers. These markers are wonderful, unless you're trying to do something big without any texture. Such as, you know, a sky. In particular, the night sky, since the darker the pen, the more obvious the pen strokes are.

Now, before you tell me that I should use something else to make this comic, probably photoshop, I'm going to say this straight up: No. Half of the point of Spiader Webs is to be completely physically done, so that I know I have accomplished something.

In any case, a week or so ago, I ran into the idea that I was about to have to create the first page of night sky for the comic.

And, walking down the street in front of an expensive boutique that sells Art Umbrellas, inspiration struck, in the form of impressionism. I would be drawing my skies the same way in which Vincent VanGogh painted his... everything. And, possibly, as I run up against more pages of something that doesn't work smoothly, more pages of impressionism will follow.

I'm looking forward to it.

Spiader Webs Updates! All sources say it's a fuckin' miracle!

I've got myself a good long buffer for Spiader Webs, So I've gone ahead and set the comics I have done to update once a week (Tuesdays at noon) until I run out of buffer. As of right now, I've got seven pages, and am working on the eighth page.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

My Meen.

So I had a long and interesting talk with the inspiration behind Persephone today, before the internet bugged so hard that I couldn't get back on until she was probably, hopefully, in bed. During this talk, she brought up an obvious and amusing piece of slapstick that I could -- and should, and probably eventually will -- have used.

"Meen", roughly means "Fish."

There is every chance that the next time we see DeMandy, there will be fish-slapping action going on.

My meen... >.>

Pomegranate Seeds -- Updates!

So. I went on a rampage at some point last week -- I think it was Tuesday -- and drew all the comics for the next few chapters of Pomegranate Seeds. So now there will be a page a week -- unless I go through and shorten the interval -- from now until some time in mid-August. That's a lot of buffer, for me. So. Go ahead and check it out, should you happen to stumble across this.

Slan!

Comics Vs. Graphic Novels -- Why do I say "Comics"?

Alright. Let me say this right now, and if you're offended by it, well, sorry.

Actually, no, I'm not sorry.

I HATE the phrase "Graphic Novel". It just sounds horribly pretentious to me. This is probably because I used it way back in the Early Days of Citrus! when I was young and stupid (it was 2006, I was like seventeen) and everyone said comic books were for kids. This was before I realized what I was making -- A fucking comic book, people! You wouldn't say "A superman graphic novel". That just sounds stupid.

As I got older and wiser I realized something: The only things that I saw around with the phrase "Graphic Novel" were... Well... Boring. Either that or impossibly professional and actually making money. And lets face it, I was a kid with a website. Hell, I still AM a kid with a website, albeit a kid finishing out his senior year of college and writing blogs as a reward for doing homework.

It's gotten to the point that I can't take the term "Graphic Novel" seriously. "Honey, are you reading those silly comics again instead of doing your homework?" "No mom, Geez, it's a Graphic Novel! Come on. It's Literature. See, look, it's a re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet."

... Yeah. It's kinda like that.

So while many of the things I'm working on could in all reality be considered a graphic novel, I just can't call them that. Well...

I suppose it comes down to this: "Graphic Novel" just seems to say "Stuffy, boring, and pretentious", while "Comic" says... Well, if not necessarily funny, then at least fun. There can be sorrow, danger, action, adventure (murdering bastards, soul-stealing, paranoia, homophobia, a whole host of other "Mature" themes) but... It's not... Taking itself too seriously. It doesn't think it's something it isn't.

In any case, I think I'll stop ranting on this now. 

Comic Directory!

These are the Comics that I'm currently drawing:

Citrus! 
 A satirical comic about superheroes, literature, elves, Scurvy, and True Love. Currently on hold until I can rewrite the script so it's not quite so... In-Joke-y.

Pomegranate Seeds
 A slice-of-life comic, about being a Tranny going to college, and soon to take a strange turn. Mostly copy-and-paste so that when I have the time to do anything at all, I can update it relatively regularly.

Spiader Webs
 A fantasy comic about family, honour, and beating the shit out of giant arachnids. Set in a fictional land, and based on This Role-Playing-Game, on a forum. Started as a project for school, continued whenever I have the time to make pages.

***********

These are the Comics I'm still scripting:

The Chameleon War.
Several hundred years into the future, earth has made contact with an alien race, called "Chameleons" by the Tarans. Before long, an asteroid flings an extraterrestrial plague into earth's atmosphere. When the Chameleons offer a vaccine for the plague, it proves to be worse than the plague itself. With only a tenth of earth's former population left alive, war is declared. But things might not be exactly as they seem. When a mad scientist starts bringing the dead back to life, it is only a matter of time before something far darker starts than just a war.

Tory.
England is fighting a war, and need soldiers. A family of airship mechanics on Tory island have lost all but their youngest son to the army, and every one taken has come back in a box. When a recruiting party comes looking for the sixteen-year-old Lillis, his twin sister takes his place. Enter sky pirates, living dolls, cat-girls, telepathic octopi, and a radical religious sect bent on eliminating the "Taint" of magic from the land. And one airship mechanic with a fear of heights.

Diarmud is Grainne.
At the turn of the seventeenth century, Queen Elizabeth the First ordered all the Harpers in Ireland hanged, and their instruments burned. Two hundred years later, there were three harps left in Ireland. This is the fictional account of a harper, her brother, her harp, and how the three survived.

Unagh CosSula.
When a homeless teen is shot, she wakes up not in a hospital, but in bronze-age Scotland, covered in blue tattoos, and wearing leather armour. A bronze-age warrior, shot with a poisoned arrow, falls unconscious and wakes to find herself in a modern hospital. Before long, both women find themselves caught up in more than they bargained for.

Waxwing
A pair of soldiers are shot out of the sky by a pirate, and find themselves more inclined to join him than go back to their army.

Hullo and Welcome -- What's going on here?

My name is Rori O'Neill, and at this point, if you're reading this, you already know that.

I'm a comic artist. I draw comics. As of right now, I have three currently under the pencil (though one has more or less stagnated), and several more in the writing phase.

This is where I will post updates on progress of any comic I'm currently working on, rant about writer's block and the inability to art, post concept art, and sometimes ask for advice.

So here we go.