I have decided to move my cartooning from my old blog churchIThelp.com

I have been doing “IT Rules” for a while. Once I get my old toons moved I’ll start doing some new themed toons. I have several ideas to do, but it’ll be a work in process for a while. Still trying to work out some custome parts of the page. Plus I have only moved 2 cartoons so far. Looking for an easier way than doing a post per toon.

UPDATE: I have moved all of the cartoon archive over now. I have even added a couple of new ones.

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   I have been “playing” at this whole toon thing for just a short time. I am no where near in the league as some of the webcomics out there. In fact since I do mostly one panel toons right now, some purists will say what I do is not webcomics. I will do more traditional webcomics coming up though. So since I have no real delusions as to making a living doing this I really can not justify spending any real money towards it. So, I have been trying a few opensource drawing programs and there are some nice ones. Almost all of my toons have been done with MS paint, which really keeps me in a geek state of mind. However Paint is severely limited. So lately I have been trying Paint.net , I really like it. I am struggling a bit to fully understand and use layers. Still wrapping my brain around it, but i will get there. If anyone has any suggestions on any opensource programs please let me know.

  Anyways, I’m still having fun with all of this. I’d like to thank all 3 or 4 people who have visited so far. I appreciate any positive feedback. Negative feedback will just make me sad, so please don’t do it.

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Which ‘style do you like best? The B&W or the color? I’m experimenting. The cartoon will be published for tomorrow and I still have not decided which I like best.

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Coffee with Scott:   So did I mention I had coffee with Scott Kurtz today? It came about because he responded to an email about my copy of “How to Make Webcomics”, which I ordered nearly 2 months ago. Instead of being defensive or making excuses, he flat out apologized! Since his office is in the same town I live in, he offered to meet me somewhere and he’d give me my book.

   So we met and again he acknowledged the breakdown in his system. He was very cool and listened to me ramble a bit about my view on webcomics and other assorted nonsense. He made some great observations on his book and what they were trying to do. I even bought him a coffee and his helper a cup of coffee. He actually offered to buy me a coffee and had to be convinced to let me treat. I’m a bit of a shy person so I find meeting people a challenge. Meeting someone with a bit of fame does not make much of a difference but there was that too. Scott was very cool and genuine and I appreciate the time he took for a fan. I had said in emails to him that I would not buy direct from him again, but I just might now. Especially if he gets his order delivery process fixed. The nice thing was I thought I faked not be in awe well. Not a big fan of fan-boys any time, but being one of them is less appealing.

    Now for the book that started this all:I have not gotten deep in to , mostly because I keep flipping back to the inside cover where there is a great sketch of Brent. I can say as I was flipping through it I realize how much ‘actual’ useful information it contains. I have already seen things to improve and understand what I’m trying to do. If you are interested at all in making webcomics I think this may be the first ‘must-read’ book. Then again being a newbie in this I may just be full of crap as usual. I know I’m having a blast at this and if I never sell a single ad or make a single dollar, this is just fun.

   Normally I would attempt a toon to go with this blog, but that would be way too intimidating. I do have an idea for toon I thought of today that I’ll do in a separate post later today.  

     Thanks Scott for everything!

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(click for full size)

All the “real” webcomics out there have guests cartoonist at times, so I want in. Here is a cartoon by Emily my 5th grader. Don’t comment unless it is to encourage her. She has so much potential in many things and she is funny to boot.

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I was asked to contribute a Christmas cartoon to the Guest Strip Project by Mike Rouse-Deane. I looked at some of the past artists that have contributed and I am really honored to be in their company. December 3rd is may day on the site. Some of the other cartoons are a little more crude than my tastes go. I don’t think I can let my kids read all of them, but they are funny and by some extremely talented folks. This has been a lot of fun. Thanks Mike for the opportunity.

See it here: http://www.moovok.co.uk/gsp/index.php?date=2008-12-03

So check it out.  

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Here are my real resolutions for this webcomic in 2009.

1. Create or have a great logo created for Don’t Feed The Geek.

2. Stick to a solid schedule. Until now I have been fairly random on my postings.

3. Do these toons with more professional techniques and get better.

4. Increase traffic to this site.

5. Create the story line comic I have been planning, finally!

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   You may or may not have noticed the new banner I have. It was designed by the most awesome Krishna M. Sadasivam of www.PCweenies.con and www.uncubedthecomic.com fame. I’ll have an official post later about all of that. I also ordered a handful of really cool promo items that I’ll be giving away in the near future. Again, details to come. I’m really loving this whole webcomic thing and I am grateful for even the small audience I have for my comic ventings.

Just as a taste of the promo items here is a low quailty pictures of the first coffee mug I had made.

 

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 As you may know I had some custom coffee mugs made. I am going to have a few contests and give away some of these mugs. I’ve been told that coffee even tastes better in these mugs, of course that was by two of my employees whom I gave mugs to earlier. It is Friday afternoon and I have decided to conduct a quick experiment. I’m going to give away one of these mugs to the first person who emails me at contest@dontfeedthegeek.com and tells me their favorite all time Neil Young song. I’m a huge Neil fan and it’s my mug and contest, so I get to make up the rules. If you already have one of these mugs, and a few of my favorite readers already have them, you can’t enter the contest, sorry.  I’m curious how long it will take for someone to read this and respond. If it goes on very long then I’ll post on Twitter/FaceBook about it and see how long that takes. You don’t need to enclose you address yet, if you win I’ll notify you and get your shipping info. I’ll I ask is I can name you as the winner in a follow post, the name/ID of your choice and that you send me a photo of the mug once you receive it. You can take a picture of you holding the mug or on a desk or whatever. I would like to use the photo later as well. If no one responds I’ll have to re-think give-aways. Anyways, good luck and have a nice weekend.

UPDATE: We have a winner(s). Gene Anderson actually responded within 10 minutes of the post with an answer. Gene is a missionary in Taiwan, just need to figure the best way to send it to him. Jeff Moore of Chicago was the 2nd winner. Gentlemen, prepare yourself for better tasting coffee!

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  The single most professional thing about this site is clearly the banner at the top. Of course I did not design it, it was designed by Krishna M. Sadasivam. Krishna is the genius behind the brilliant www.pcweenies.com and the slice of life www.uncubedthecomic.com webcomics. He did the design for me for a very reasonable fee, so reasonable it feels more like he did me a favor.

  When I was first doing my webcomic, Krishna’s PCW was one I kept going back to to see “how it’s done”. What was awesome, though I doubt Krishna even remembers, was I emailed him about his process and he quickly emailed me back. He took his time and explained it so even I understood. He has helped me on other things, mainly through his blogs.

   By far the best thing he did for me was my banner that you see at the top. He did it with some room so I could add my characters on the right side. It may diminish his work with mine intertwined but I’m very pleased with the look. I’m so pleased with the look I had some custom coffee mugs made up and IMHO they look great! Even some of my friends who are not all that interested in my comic were very excited when they saw the finished project. Here are some low quality images of the mug taken with my cellphone.

 

  If you are not familiar with Krishna’s work I highly recommend you do so now. What I appreciate along with the humor and art of his comics is that he never crosses certain lines and the sites are completely safe for my kids. So many webcomics will seem family friendly then drop an f-bomb seemingly out of nowhere.  It’s just nice to know when I link to Krishna my kids can see it and I have no worries. They may not get the humor but it is safe, they probably do get the humor as they are geeks in training. I really can’t say which of his sites I like more. While I love the geek humor of PCW the honesty of UnCubed is excellent. While he calls Un3 a comic about an “Indian Guy Named Krishna”   I find many relateable moments in it.

   Anyways, Krishna thanks for being out there with your comics, tips, and for doing your live streams of your process. You are an excellent resource and I always learn a lot. Also thanks for such a great design on my banner.

   Be on the look out for future give-aways of my DFTG coffee mugs. Not only do they look good, thanks to Krishna. but they make your coffee taste even better.

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