Well, daylight savings time kicked in, so now it's dark at 6 o'clock in the evening. BOOOO! How depressing. Cold. BAH!

I'm glad the election is over. Facebook is a crap-storm of hate these days. I wish people on both sides would shut up and give it a rest. I mean, FB is cool when you're telling someone about a cool artbook, or animation video, movie trailer etc., or showing me some pictures of your kids. But when someone posts their opinion on politics, either way they're alienating 50% of those reading it. Not constructive. DA seems to be a reasonably safe haven, so good for them!

For those wanting an update on the DOLLZ, I'm still trying to put together some new material, as well as make the older issues available on-line. I've been working on a project some lately that got me side-tracked. But I will let you know here when there's something to see.

What else... hmmmm... I'm getting pretty excited about the new Hitman game coming out in a couple of weeks. My all-time favorite game, but it's been 6 1/2 years since the last one, so I'm going to be expecting a lot! Hopefully, that will make the winter months go by a little faster. Always look forward to Christmas, of course! Freaks me out how the Christmas ads and commercials started this year before Halloween was even over.

I saw the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, at the IMax last night. I really thought it was great! I different kind of story, but I definitely want to see it again. Still waiting on some word on a version of Prometheus on blu-ray that has extra content or a director's cut. Haven't seen one so far.

I'm sorry I couldn't reply to everyone who replied to my last post, I tried. Best to you all!

I don't really get into writing journals that much. I like getting responses and hearing what your thoughts are on stuff. Just feel free to fill me in on what you've got going on these days. I'd love to know.

I had a really good time this weekend at the show. Usually, I make the rounds and talk to a lot of people and other guests there, but not this time. It was a very busy show. They released the Frank Cho's Liberty Meadows exclusive art book and it was a big success, I must have signed hundreds of them along with all of the other contributers. So if I missed seeing or talking with you there, hopefully we'll run into each other next time!

I got a few sketches done, but it was a very good show for me and I had a lot of fun. The Artist Alley Comics panel went very well. We got the chance to talk about our upcoming digital comic projects. Most of the other guys already have books up for download at [link]
and I should have something up by the first of next week. I'll let you know here!

Thanks again to Marc Nathan and all of his fine staff for putting on an excellent show! I highly recommend you try and attend one in the future.

This coming weekend, September 8 - 9, I'll be at the Baltimore Comic-con with the rest of the guys representing Artist Alley Comics. There will be a panel on Saturday from 3:00 - 4:00 where we'll be discussing our various projects. Plus, we all contributed a piece of art for the Baltimore Comic-Con exclusive art book celebrating the 15th anniversary of Liberty Meadows. That should be a really cool artbook, and the art will be auctioned off at the show. You can read more about the artbook and some of the other artists involved here on Frank Cho's blog:  [link]

I look forward to seeing some of you there!

Hey! Here's a new group of guys, myself included, putting out some really cool digital comics:
[link]

... as reported here on BleedingCool:
[link]

Heh, those stories get buried really fast, I had to dig down a page or two. Go and check out the books, there are several free downloads to try! It's going to be a little different offering pdf downloads that you can actually keep forever and not have to worry about disappearing into thin air one day. I think it's a great idea!

Thanks for all the nice responses to the Dollz! I'll keep you updated here. in the meantime, go check out and maybe "like" the new facebook page here:
[link]

I'll probably be posting a lot of conceptual art and sketches there eventually. Deviant Art will always be my "artistic" home and I'll continue to post the more finished pieces I do here, but some of the really sketchy, throw-away stuff that is specific to Dollz I'll hang over there.

Hit me up with any questions you have and I can get around to answering them in upcoming posts.

teaser

We had another great trip to San Diego this year. It's hard to imagine how a show that is so long can go by so fast. I got to see a bunch of folks from comics and DA, but there are still so many I missed seeing. It's fun to see all the posts here and on FB, pictures, etc. I was reading through and deleting some watched journals and I got to where there were a lot of journals from people talking about getting ready to go to SDCC and where they would be set up, and it was a little sad that it was in the past and over already instead of something being looked forward to.

For those who made it, I hope all your Comicon dreams came true this year. If not, next year will be here before you know it!

Artists (who draw, ink, paint, color, etc.) will often put their images up on DA at a fairly high res large enough to see the fine details and suitable for coloring. However, when I browse the Daily Deviations I notice that photographers NEVER allow a high res image. **scratches head**  I do consider photographers to be artists as well, but I do not understand the need to be possessive and deny access to larger, more viewable images. Most are not even available for prints, that I could understand if there was money involved. If your beautiful sunset landscape photo is only going to appear on my huge computer screen at roughly 5 x 7" then I am NOT going to enjoy it one bit. I will be a little irritated.

Are these isolated instances for me? Am I missing something? Another explanation?

A Big Thank You!!! My daughter, Haley won Softball Player of the Year in our area. I know many of you cast a lot votes for her, and Haley and I appreciate your friendship and support! It was a loooooong week. haha.

[link]

OK, I'll get back to posting art now. I know this was kind of off topic, but my kids Haley and Max are my two greatest works of art in progress!!! You have helped add another brushstroke to the canvas of their lives!

Edit: If I have offended you by this, I apologize. To be fair, only vote if you are a friend of Haley or me and believe she deserves to win. If you think you are my friend, then you are. It is acceptable to vote more than once, that is how it is set up. Kind of like American Idol. haha

Please, everyone, do me a favor.
My daughter Haley is in the running for "Player of the Year" in softball. Please follow the link and vote for her.
Scroll halfway down the page and on the left side under "Public School Softball Player of the Year" click Haley Green and vote. Refresh page and vote as often as you can.

[link]

Haley has always worked so hard to get results. I'm sure any of these 5 girls deserve this, but give Haley a few votes if you can. THANKS!!!

Hello All,

If you're going to be there this year, I hope you have a great time! I hope to run into some of you, I know it's such a big venue that it's all luck running into people. My good friend Howard Shum, who is a really good writer and artist (and knows some interesting people as well) has a booth and I might be loitering around it some. haha.  I'll be hanging with Amber Atoms and Doctor Who artist, Kelly Yates as well if you see him around.

Booth #1943, and Howard will be premiering his new book "Fusillade", "A collection of character-driven action stories in various genres (fantasy, science-fiction, horror, western, gangsters, etc.) featuring spectacular art by visionary artists from Italy, France, Mexico, and the United States. All stores written by (Howard)." I highly recommend it! More info here if you want to check out some previews: [link]

If there's a DA get-together let Kelly, Howard or I know and I'll try and make it there!

My super power is this:  I pull up to a stop sign in my car and while I'm waiting for cars to pass so that I can pull out, I somehow send out a magnetic force which aligns all the other cars exactly 200 feet apart from each other. Just enough so I cannot pull out but at the same time maintaining the maximum distance apart. Eerie.

Similar super power: I possess the power to locate and stand in whichever line in the grocery store that is going to take the longest to get through, regardless of length or number of people.

What's yours?

Haha. Nothing really, just felt like it was time to update the journal.

Those of you not in the US can disregard any of this. It's not likely on your radar. Will the Govt. shut down? Looks like it's heading that way, and I really don't mind. I think they think way too much of themselves there in Washington. A shutdown would show them that life goes on well enough without them. I know it will effect a lot of people who might receive benefits from the govt. and I hope those who are really in need are not made to suffer any. I'm not a political science expert, so don't take me too seriously on this, I just find it interesting is all.

Wow. The worst NCAA basketball final EVAH! It was really horrible. A trainwreck. I'm sure all the 1 and 2 seeds were watching with their jaws on the floor, wondering how they all lost and these two teams made it to the final. I found myself checking my e-mails and basically doing anything to keep from watching it until it got better. It never did. In the end, I was pulling for both teams to keep missing shots to see how low scoring a game it could end up. haha.

Best to everyone! Thanks for all the nice comments! I love seeing your art posts as well! ~  Randy

Thanks again to everyone for all the nice responses to art posts!

A lot have already chimed in on SP, so here's my short take on it. I enjoyed watching it, I wasn't expecting to be enlightened , only entertained. I do not need any more drama in my life or to have my thoughts provoked, so I was fine with it not being an oscar nomination. It was some nice eye candy though. I only had one major beef with it...

***minor spoiler warning***
The conflict at the beginning of the movie was never resolved. I wanted to see someone get what was coming and it was left hanging. Bummer. Plus, I like a happy ending, and this one... not so much.
*** spoiler end***

But I will say this, I would watch Sucker Punch a dozen times over before watching some others movies (**cough** Avatar **cough**) for the second time.

... to this journal, that is. I hate opening my page and seeing the same journal up for a couple of weeks. On the other hand, there's nothing much new to say. It has been a pretty good week so far, and that's to be thankful for. Some problems my family has been dealing with for the last month have seemingly worked themselves out.

I guess another reason I was slow to change my journal was the inadequacy I feel to talk/write about the problems the people in Japan and in other parts are facing these days. My prayers go out to them, but it is hard for me to say much knowing that I cannot understand all they're going through and do not want to sound patronizing. But, you know what I mean.

While I'm thinking about it, I cannot express enough THANKS to everyone for their nice remarks to my deviation posts! Exclamation! Really, very nice of you all. I know it would be impossible to respond to each comment as I would like, so I just don't even try. But there and many many times I want to take the time to write a heartfelt thank you!

As far as "The Lord of the Ring Trilogy" goes, it was fun to read your comments. They were some really good films, and people love the source material so much. Just a couple of flaws to otherwise great movies.

That being said, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull " was on TV last night. Did I watch it? Well, I'm typing this aren't I? My eyes didn't shrivel up to the size of raisins and fall out of their sockets, so obviously, NO, I didn't watch it... I barely survived it in the theater years ago. Opposite LOTR trilogy, you might think of a couple of good things to like out of all horrible mess. How could you take all that money, talent, brainpower, resources, good will... and turn it into that trainwreck?!!! The one good thing... it ended!

OK, enough ranting from me. That's just my pet peeve when it comes to movies, and I had to get that off my chest. Ugh.

On a brighter note, after a rainy weekend the sun is out and it's warming up. Later, I'm going to watch my daughter Haley pitch in her high school softball game. I can't wait for spring. I wouldn't say that it's been an especially bad winter, but the short daylight hours, short nights always dampen the mood. I'm looking forward to the smell of cut grass and BBQ's, running in the warm sun. It's just not here quite yet.

It had been a couple of years since I had watched these gems, so I was ready to view them once more. It took me 6 nights, one disc each night to watch all 6 discs of the extended edition trilogy. For the most part, I really enjoyed it! But the squeaky wheel always gets the grease, so here's 2 things that bothered me:

1) I've had enough of Elijah Wood's (Frodo) weepy, pouting, furrowed brow to last a lifetime. In fact I don't think I can ever watch these movies again because I grew so irritated by his unchanging expression of self-pity. I mean, it fits the character's mood in most cases, but geez, couldn't the director have specifically directed him to NOT look like that in every frame? At one point I was starting to believe the ring had morphed his face into that expression the way it had Gollum's appearance.

2) Peregrin 'Pippin' Took... what a tool. Seriously, how many times would I have killed this guy. I admit, I never read the books, but there's no way this character could have been written to be such an assclown. I'm getting mad now just thinking about how much I hate this guy. There's a special place in Hobbit Hell for him.

Other than those couple things, an enjoyable experience. Samwise Gamgee was definitely "The Man" and deserved to get the hot girl in the end, I suppose that's where he got her.

I just dozed off. I'm back now.

Re-posted from Boatwright's journal (cuz ahm lazy lik dat!):

"Its been a while since we've had an official drawing night. I haven't talked to anyone but I'm gonna go ahead call it.

Let's shoot for 7pm Oct 21st at the Fuddruckers on Wendover in Greensboro.

Being so close to All Hallow's Eve how 'bout the theme for the evening be along those lines."

There's a convention in Myrtle Beach the weekend right after, if anyone is so inclined and it's not to far out of the way. I'm going what!

NYCC was an awesome convention! Wow! Lots of fun and good times! It was great seeing some of you there, and from some of the other journals I've seen it appears there were quite a few of you people on DA that I missed seeing. Big show. NYC is a real drain on the wallet though...

Thanks a bunch to everyone who was able to attend and make it fun! I hope everyone had a great time! Lots of folks helped out and everyone brought stuff which made things really easy. Much thanks to all those who had to drive a ways to get here, I'm glad you all made the extra effort. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to talk to everyone as much as I wish I could have.

Now if I can just get that football out of the tree.