Justin | 
09 21st, 2008| 
I’m getting the hang of this way too quick. No sooner had I finished making a preliminary “comics” page to house all our published works, complete with picture links to the old site pages, than I discover how to make pages that stand away on the lonesome without adding a button to my navigation bar! If I weren’t so tired, I’d go ahead and upload a bunch of crap right now! So yes, expect to see pages in the near future.
Sep
21
Click on a cover below to see more
Warning: All books are suggested for mature audiences
Disposable Graffiti
Journey into the mind of the banjo-plucking, pill-popping Brer Rappit, band leader of the Briar Patch Boys. This
book is a collection of short skits and poetry lashing out at sanity itself. Drawn in an unique style that smashes
together eastern and western influences with a sledge hammer and accompanied by a CD from the actual Brier
Patch Boys,it’s the perfect travel companion on your trip to insanity.
READ THE SEQUENTIAL TART REVIEW BY KATHERINE KELLER
Desert Rose
When a “border jumper” tries to reach America by traversing the harsh, unforgiving desert of Mexico, he is
confronted by a terrible set of circumstances and is forced to make a decision that no person should ever have
to. With almost no words, this book is a success at conveying the horror of human need through pictures alone.
A stand-alone modern day silent film in the medium of comics.
READ THE MOVIE POOP SHOOT REVIEW BY MARC MASON
Super
Explore how confining the word “hero??? can be in this preview of the upcoming original graphic novel that
follows a super-powered being born into today’s cultural climate. Paying homage to the standards of the
genre while simultaneously panning them, Super is a book for readers who want a little thought with their
Saturday morning cartoons.
VIEW THE G4 TV REVIEW BY BLAIR BUTLER
Sep
21
The importance of experience came up in the comments of a myspace post of mine and I made a quick statement talking about it. While it’s accurate in its representation of my opinion, I had also written the following to serve as an example. I decided to cut it, because it wasn’t needed to make my point. Still, I felt like expanding on it and putting it up somewhere because it’s a good story about how your character can shape your experience more than your experience can shape your character, so here it is.
A few years ago, I had a friend who told me and my inner circle of friends that back when he “used to be like” us, young, naive and full of hope, he did charity work for the poor once. Not a single poor person so much as thanked him, so he never did charity work again. He was attempting to prove that the world is a cynical place and that his “it’s every man for himself” attitude was justified. What he was incapable of seeing was that he was a cynic and that his experience didn’t shape him: he shaped it.
The proof of this lies in his intent. He didn’t show up on that fateful day just to help those less fortunate than him. If he had, he would have ended the day, noted that he had done what he set out to do and felt accomplished and satisfied. Instead, he walked in looking for something; a pat on the back, a congratulations, a reward or maybe, an excuse. Charity wasn’t the priority, thus the act became selfish. Had one of the people he helped thanked him, do you believe it would have changed everything and he would have been a giving soul from that point on? Probably not. His story likely would have changed to end with “and only one, ONE person thanked me!” If all it took to destroy his faith in mankind was a handful of silent strangers, then that faith wasn’t really there to begin with.
In the old-time movies, the hero saves the day and usually refuses a reward before riding off into the sunset. Cynics (who often hide behind the term “realist”) will cry that this isn’t the way of the world and that nobody really acts like that, but I see it everyday from people. Most of the time, it is between people who have a strong connection to one another, like friends or family, but there are those in the world who would just as easily help a complete stranger as they would those they love. Granted, it is rare to find someone who will help a stranger as much as they would a loved one, but they always seem willing to help at least a little without expecting anything back.
If pressed, I could name off a dozen people who are like this. They would have had the same experience and walked away perfectly fine because they would go into the situation not needing a reward. They’d just do it because it is the right thing to do. These people, not surprisingly, always end up being my best friends, because they inspire me.
So in the end, the only thing he accomplished in telling us this was to illustrate that he already had a pretty shoddy view of the world back when he was “just like us” and that this incident had become the proof he needed to stop trying to be something better. And “I would be a totally cool guy, but the world won’t let me. Wah!” turns out to not be a deep, touching example of how an event changed you, but the rant of a crybaby with victim syndrome who took an event and made it his excuse.
There are events in your life that shape you. But once a person reaches the age where they are fully self-aware and coming up with their own opinions, the tables start to turn and the person they are starts shaping their experiences to fit their worldview. Once someone recognizes that though, a funny thing occurs: they can see that their experiences are just that, experiences. And from that point on, the person they are can no longer be blamed on the world, but only themselves.
Sep
19
Yes, gaze upon it and despair, for I am getting the hang of this WordPress thing!!!
Muhahahahahahahahah!
Okay, I’m done now. But it does look a lot better, doesn’t it? I found a template that actually had a bunch of the features I wanted and now I’m basically reverse engineering the thing. Very happy to have my background back and classing-up the joint. The next goal is to get the top bar more in tune with what I want, which is the new Aberrant “A” logo. I have a bunch of sketches done but still haven’t committed a final one to paper yet. After that, it’s all about figuring out the widgets and getting some pages posted on this site again!
So there you have it.
Sep
16
Ever since I printed up some pieces for an artist who was going to Burning Man, I’ve been fascinated by fractal images (art made through the use of math equations so complex that the people who theorized their existence didn’t live long enough to see computers capable of making the art), so I decided to make some…
Here’s a couple of my favorite experiments so far:
Since I have the back-lit media and the printer to handle it, I think I’m going to make a number of these and build custom light boxes for them… Maybe have a gallery show sometime around year’s end. We’ll have to see though, because with the new job and many other projects begging to get done, this one might get pushed back to Spring.