We hit 400 likes on Facebook. Thank you for your support. If you know anyone who’s having a bad day, tell them about us and brighten their day.
Lastly, it’s hot out there. Drink lots of water. The summer is a dangerous time for us geeks. Beware the evil sun and its wrath.
I just started a summer marketing class. Five days a week, for four hours a night. Yikes. It will be over in a flash. I wasn’t very well prepared to start classes again. My mind is still set to vacation mode. I will have to get it in gear. I need these classes so that I can be done with school by next spring.
Speaking of class, I am trying to write and listen at the same time and it’s not working very well. I should be paying better attention because this is a marketing class. We need better marketing … buy our shirts … here at Five and Dime. It’s not that we don’t appreciate your reading … buy our shirts … but we can’t do this for free forever.
I don’t often use content from real life. I don’t want the Zack and Flash to tell “inside jokes.” This is one of the few things from our lives that can translate into being funny for others. Rob also helped sell it by how funny Sloth looks in the last panel.
It will always be a great line. I’m glad I found a way to work it into a strip.
*** I’d also like to mention that we sell shirts. Go buy a shirt from us and show the world how cool you are. If you don’t do it soon, you won’t be able to claim you liked Five and Dime Comics before it was cool. We don’t want you to lose street cred. So go buy a shirt. ***
The Labyrinth arc continues.
I wanted to spend one blog talking about how great Jim Henson is. He is, and always will be, one of the top 5 creators I would want to meet.
Like most great artisans, he was driven. Consumed by his work. He was always challenging himself to push his puppeteering to new heights. He didn’t settle for keeping his creations behind a solid wall. (In the first scene in The Muppet Movie he is in a oil barrel under the water manipulating Kermit.) Aren’t we all glad he didn’t settle? What if Yoda didn’t lift an X-wing out of the water? What if there was no Super Grover or Kermit on a bike? We all would have lost so much. Jim Henson was well ahead of his time.
As a creator, I hope to leave that kind of legacy. I’m not sure I’m always that driven, but I hope Rob and I are together. I hope Five and Dime will be around for a long time. If we can get you to love Five and Dime even half as much as I love Kermit, I will consider us a success.
Top 5 Creators I’d want to meet:
1: Chuck Jones
2: Jim Henson
3: Dr. Seuss
4. Jack Kirby
5. Charles Schulz
People bond over strange things they have in common. It can be music, movies, cars, sports, etc.
Rob and I became friends over art and comics. However, it was Labyrinth that made us brothers. Labyrinth and Clerks: The Animated Series were on repeat in our room at college.
This coming story arc is a tribute to the the power of dance, jump and any magic in between. It’s for Jim Henson and the joy he gave us. It’s also a thank you to him for drawing Rob and I together. Without Labyrinth, we would have faced certain death. bu-bu-bu-bum;
The first couple of days were hard. I couldn’t get any internet. It’s hard to believe how connected I am to the internet. I never really saw myself as a person who spent too much time on the internet.
I spend much of my internet time working on this site. Aside from the posting, I write the blogs and scripts using Google Docs. I monitor the site’s traffic and ad sales. I ensure we update on Facebook and Twitter. I also handle site updates. That is all for the site. I’m not even getting into the normal non-comic related web browsing, email checking, and Facebooking.
My time in exile really showed me my addiction to the internet. I may have known it before, but like most addicts, I told myself that I’m not that bad. Now I’m not so sure. I will be working on cutting down my internet time for anything not Five and Dime related.
Besides, less time on the the internet is more time for drawing and reading comics.
Well Inky will be back stateside late tonight. Enjoy your jetlag jackwagon! (rub your free trip in MY face will ya … )
Lately I have been on a HUGE Mortal Kombat kick. Now this isn’t uncommon. I go through this phase about once every 2 weeks or so, but this one is serious. I can’t get enough of ANYTHING MK. I’m not just talking playing every version I own (just on the Genesis thats 4) or watching the the bluray of the web series they made a while back (which was pants droppingly AMAZING!). I’m talking watching the movies. BOTH of them. It’s killing me. The first one is enjoyably bad. But Annihilation? Dear god why am I doing this to myself?! This is one of those movies that when you watch it, you end up hating EVERYTHING. Not just everyone having anything to do with the movie. Or the MK franchise. I’m talking a full on hatred of everything in existence. Rainbows, sunshine, that feeling when you finally scratch that itch you’ve been trying to reach on your back. It’s all consuming. I knew thing going into watching it last night. Then something even more scary than someone wanting to watch it happened. Nothing. No seething aversion for crapping on one of my favorite video games stories. No rage toward the TV for not burning out to stop me from watching it. I just sat there. This shouldn’t happen. I should still be pissed. But I’m not.
I’m not sure if this is “maturity” kicking in and stopping me from being so nerdragey over it, or I blew an emotional fuse. Either which way, I’m scared of the ramifications.
GraniteCon on Sunday was great! The show more than doubled compared to last year. ANd I wouldn’t be surprised if the show becomes one of the “Big Cons” in the up coming years.
Especially with the talent that they had there (besides ourselves, of course). For starters was Tim from Our Valued Customers (ourvaluedcustomers.blogspot.com). A webcomic I fell in love with last year, and he was a great guy to meet. And I think I kept my awestruckedness to a minimum. Then there was our neighbor Tina Pratt. She is the mastermind behind paul-reveres.com. It’s a story about the revolutionary war, if it were a rock battle. And she is a fellow S.C.A.D. allumni! Then there was Shauna and Kelley representing Shaunart.com. They were the life of the party doing balloon animals, face-painting and henna tattoos. And they were troopers sharing the corner with us and dealing with our rambunctiousness. Of course our good friend Jason Casey (jasoncaseyart.com) who encouraged me to sign us up for GraniteCon last year. Thank you again my man, you rock. And last but by no means least the legendary Mark McKenna. A great artist and the first professional to make me feel like a professional. There are only a few day left, but he is trying to get his project off the ground. Go throw money at him at kickstarter.com/projects/391541891/combat-jacks.
This has been a LONG standing theory. My dad could, in one punch, destroy ANY earth based comic character. This isn’t a debate, this is a fact. Just be glad he uses his abilities for good.
For now.
Well yesterday was Granitecon. And it was a blast. This was actually the one year anniversary of us going to comic conventions. A lot has happened in a year. And it has been an incredible ride. I want to thank all our friends that came out to visit us. It really means the world to us. Wednesday I’ll talk about the artists that we met (yeah, I’m not above name dropping, what’s it to you?).
(First off I would like to thank our manager Greg on helping with today’s comic. THANK YOU!)
Well Inky finally got kicked out of the country. And by that I mean he and his wife are on a 2 week excursion to Spain. He gets a trip to Spain, and I’m stuck in Mass. When he gets back we are renegotiating our contracts.
So it may come as a big surprise but I am a HUGE “Alien” fan. I have most of the movies memorized. The books are what originally got me into reading. So when I first heard that they were going to do a prequel I got scared. But then I found out Ridley Scott was going to direct it. Then you have the cast. Magneto, Aeon Flux, AND Bane all in one movie (and yes that is how I refer to them in everyday conversation)! Ever since that moment my life has been counting down to tonight. And my friends and I are doing it right and in style. Fuddruckers then to IMAX.
And if you live in the New England area please come to the Granite State Comic Con in Manchester NH! Greg, myself and possibly Steve will be there so come on by and say hi! We would love to see you!
