Steam Crow

Sure, You’ve noticed it. Steam Crow (and Steam Crow Press) are undergoing some changes.

Basically, we’ve decided to do a webcomic. Not just any old webcomic either… our webcomic.

This is a test post, trying out the new system.

So relax, grab a corndog, and check back here sometime later.

- Daniel

I spend a lot of time on the road, and I see a lot of people’s individual “territorial” markings on their cars.

Turns out, according to a study from Colorado State University, that people who adorn their cars with such markings are more prone to road rage:

The number of road rage incidents — bouts of aggressive driving such as speeding or tailgating, or confrontations with other motorists — has risen dramatically in recent years. In 1995 the American Automobile Association found 12,000 injuries and 200 deaths were linked to US road rage. In 2008, the numbers are estimated to exceed 25,000 injuries and 370 deaths, and many more road rage incidents, especially those that do not lead to injury, go unrecorded.

Psychologist William Szlemko and his colleagues at Colorado State University in Fort Collins wondered whether increasingly crowded roads might be contributing to rising tempers. The volume of vehicles on US roads has gone up by 35% since 1987, whereas the road network has swelled by only 1%.

In humans, as in many other species, overcrowding leads to increased territorial aggression, and the team suspected that this was what was happening on the roads.

Zowie. I do know that I’ve been feeling more tension on the roads of late, and that I generally take notice of cars with “will drive for blood” stickers on their bumpers.

- Daniel

So, apparently there is this company called “zipcar” that you pay a monthly fee to have access to their fleet of cars. The fee includes gas, insurance, and reserved parking.

You can pull up in a zipcar city, and you can see exactly where and what kind of cars are available. Basically, they seem to keep track via gps and a google map. That way, you can go “hey, I need an Element to move my paccinco machines; where is the nearest one?”

It looks like they’re only in a few cities right now, but heck, I think it’s a pretty good idea. It sort of reminds me of those cities that have the free bicycles, that you can ride where ever you need to go, and then leave them behind.

If we’re going to get off of this stupid oil / gasolene dependency this century, we’re probably going to have to come up with some more creative ways beyond just ”carpool” or “drive less” or “take a bus”. (All of which are valid.)

Have you every used zipcar or something like it? Does it work for you?

So the stars aligned a month ago when I was approached by a local Phoenix Arizona billboard company.

Basically, they asked if I’d want my artwork up on a vacant billboard; as you might imagine, I jumped at the opportunity. The catch: none, beyond not being able to make it a pure branding piece.

It’s on the Santan highway in SE Phoenix, which I’m told, has like 100,000 cars pass it every day. I figured that it was a great chance to introduce them to (Chadworth) Machine and Beastio, and give them an inspirational thought during their torturous commute.

A big thanks to Jim at www.oibillboards.com. If your business needs a billboard, give them a call: 480-990-0800

- Daniel

Last night we had another TINY ARMY meetup, this time focused on Life Drawing.

Kevin Hedgpeth of the Art Institute of Phoenix, graciously set up the event and the model.

We had about 10 participants, and it was a really calm evening of drawing. I only really got to see Jerry Salinas and Jason Cheeseman-Meyer drawings, and both were expertly drawn. You can see that Jerry is pretty dang accomplished; his drawings were very beautiful.

I don’t know the last time that I did academic drawing, but I’m pretty sure that it was back in college about (gasp!) 20 years ago. Hey, don’t laugh. 20 years can go by in a moment.

I’ve spent the last 10 years trying to learn how to draw with vectors. It’s often been frustrating and difficult, but now it IS how I draw, and I love it. Not surprisingly, it hasn’t helped much in the area of life drawing.

That said, it was a fantastic challenge that I look forward to attempting again. It’s great to break out of your comfort zone every now and again.

- Daniel

I discovered an passion for comics late in life. Well, late compared to most.

Sure, like most, I’d read and loved Calvin and Hobbes, Far Side, and Peanuts as a kid. I’d also read most of the others, like Hagar the Horrible, Beetle Baily, and Bloom County.

I often forget that I did a very awful comic in my High School’s newspaper called “Hype”. It was about a metal head who hated hippies and hung out with a giant bunny. Basically the metal head was an idealized version of myself, complete with long, spiky hair, big wrap-around sunglasses, and a matching bad attitude. It was pretty messed up, but then, so was I. By then I was hip deep in playing bass guitar in all manner of bands, which occupied most of my creative time for the next 10 years.

When I was going to college in Portland, OR, I discovered Life is Hell, and loved it’s bold iconoclasm. Comic strips could be cool.

Shannon Potratz reintroduced me to comic books in the early 90’s, after a long hiatus since childhood. I’d read a few, but I never considered myself “into” comics. I had D&D to contend with.

I digress.

Shannon turned me onto Mike Mignola just before he launched Hellboy, and it turned my head around. I’d never seen anything so cinematic and graphic; Mike kicked my ass, and continues to do so everytime I reread one of his books. Mignola lead to Miller, Geof Darrow, and other comics of semi-superhero status or less.

Chris Ware was discovered not long after this, and his work continues to capture my imagination. The draftsmanship, somber storytelling, and fabulous color and design make the Acme Novelty Library some of my favorite books of alltime. I get drawn in about every time I pick one up.

Today, I read comics haphazardly. I don’t hit the comic store weekly or anything like that, but I do always have comics around to read. Indie folks are always handing me their comics, and I read most of them. Sometimes I trade with folks that I like or admire, and yes, I do got to the store from time to time and pick up graphic novels. I’m into stories, not soap operas, so collections are what I like the most.

Some of my favorite webcomics are WE THE ROBOTS, ScaryBear, HER, Kawaii Not, Kiskaloo, Kukuburi, the F Chords, PVP, and so on. I’m discovering new ones all of the time, since I’m behind everyone else. (I’ve been busy!)

It’s an exciting time for comics, even though traditional book sales are supposedly falling. There are far more independent books being produced today than any other time, and that’s besides the fact that there are tens of thousands of comics being made right now on the interwebs. Comic sales may be down, but there is a LOT of creativity and consumption going on out there.

It’s not dead.

It’s a crazy time, but I’m really glad to see comics shared with someone other than gigantic publishers.

I can’t wait to join the noise with my little comic wreck.

- Daniel

I fixed the sign-up form for our Secret monthly newsletter, in the bottom right corner of the website.

So, if you tried it and failed, it’s ready to go once again.

Sign-UP!

Thanks,

Daniel

In preparation for next week’s LAUNCH, I’ve been doing all sorts of tweaking and fixing of the site. (And I’m not done just yet.)

Of note, the store was all botched in Internet Explorer on the PC. I’ve spent about a week finding the solution, and now it should finally be actually displaying product details.

It’s as secure as it could be, as I don’t collect any of your personal credit card information at all; you’re paying PayPal for your products, and PayPal pays me.

Other than that we’re just prepping for Saturday’s launch party, and beyond that, the launch of the comic itself. We’ve got a bunch of framing to do.

I’m really excited to finally get it out there, after months of working on it. I’m not a terribly patient guy, though I’ve done pretty well for the last couple of months.

- Daniel

Here are a bunch of new prints coming your way, September 15th.

If you end up coming to our show at Red Hot Robot, you can get them first. All are 12×18 film, with a pleasing satin finish.

I’ll be adding them to the store soon.

Well, I’ve unpacked my computer and got it all hooked up again, so I can make this report.

THANKS to all of our Steam Mates for coming out of the woodwork, and checking out the new comic, new prints, MNSTR Bags, and the acrylic panels.

Once it got rolling, the crowd didn’t really let up. I was going to try to do some demos, but every time I tried, there were people who had questions or who wanted to know what it was all about. I had to oblige them.

However, some people came to see the demo itself.

Lesson learned. Next year, we’re going do a demo at a set time, no matter what. So, if you want to see some vector drawing, you’d get vector drawing.

I’m going to try out some screen-capture software here, and see if I can’t make some online demos here on SteamCrow.com, so you won’t have to wait another year to see how we do what we do. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Here’s what Phoenix New Times had to say about the event.

We ended up a little overwhelmed with people to talk to, so some things slipped. Photography, is one of those things.

Here are a couple shots that we took of the Popcling panels before the show at least:

The acrylic measures 30 x 36 inches, for scale

If you came to the show and have any good crowd shots, we’d love a copy. Drop us a line, and let us know.

Thanks again for everyone taking the time to come hang out with us, and check out the super-cool Red Hot Robot.

- Daniel

UPDATE:

James Britt was in attendance, and he offered these photos for your perusal. (Thanks, James!)

So, my son Kaid has been watching me build my Monster Commute comic for the past several months.

The other day, he decided to get into the action, and do his own version. (With no coaxing from his old man. Who says “old man“?)

Anyway, I thought that it was pretty delightful, and funny.

I like how happy Beastio and Machine are, and check out the Steam Crow head on the top.

Classic.

- Daniel

Steam Crow has a busy/crazy October ahead of us. (And I thought that September was crazy.) Oh well, it’s why I’m here.

Here’s what we’ve got on the plate, so far:

• October 1 - TINY ARMY - Publishing Roundtable - 6-8:30 pm
• October 2 - Bookmans “Got Milk” - Daniel reads “Caught Creatures”  6-8 pm
• October 18 - 24 hr Comic Day - TINY ARMY invades Spazdog Comics - Noon - Noon
• October 25 - Steam Crow Monster Workshop - Bookmans Phoenix - 1-2:30 pm
• October 29 - Tentative - Survive Your Commute talk - Ignite Phoenix - 6-9 pm
• October 31 - Sadly, on a plane on the way to the Alternative Press Expo instead of trick-or-treats

Whew!

We’re running ahead, trying to make all of these as successful as possible. If you know of anyone who might be interested in attending any of this (besides our plane trip), please let them know. (If you need more details, drop us a line.)

I didn’t mean for this to happen, but it’s pretty great to get really involved in local Phoenix.

- Daniel

So, here’s what my daily schedule looks like, trying to keep up with a daily webcomic and day job:

Current weekly schedule:

4:45 am - Dawna wakes me up
5:10 am - On the road to work (My turn to drive)
5:30 am - Try not to die merging on the South bound I-17
5:45 am - Eating breakfast in the car
6:05 am - at work, doing work
11:00 am - Lunch
4:30 pm - drive home (Dawna’s turn to drive)
5:00 - 5:30 am - writing 2 comic scripts on the drive home
6:00 pm - Home (gasp)
6:10 pm - Help make dinner OR check email
7:00 pm - Finishing dinner/hang with family
7:25 pm - Begin creating comic artwork
8:30 pm - Family goes to bed - Say goodnight
9 - 10:30 pm - Finishing up a single comic strip (Making web and eps versions)
10:30 - Sleep

So, it’s kinda intense for me to keep things rolling.

I’m trying my hardest to survive, but it often takes a lot of will to work and not just go to sleep.

I’m going to move to a weekly shipping schedule (Shipping on Saturday every week) so that we don’t mess this schedule up by going to the post office all of the time. When we do that, we’re not getting home until 7:00, and the whole thing get’s botched.

Certainly, I could have it way worse.  I DO get to work all day on Friday, so that’s a BIG help.  I’ve simply built this schedule into my life, the best that I may.

Sunday, I schedule the next weeks strips, and write all of the individual blog posts. Hopefully, I’ve gotten enough rest that this works out okay.

- Daniel

I’ve not been able to do Illustration Friday of late, because I’ve been working on this here ole Monster Commute comic strip. (And enjoying myself, even!)

But, this week’s theme of “Packed” made me immediately think of the highways of Phoenix, Arizona (and by extension the monster world of Monstru).

So, here’s a “Packed” highway of my monster world:

And yes, this was the opening to the comic (sans text), which begins right here.

- Daniel

This weekend, I added a Forum to ole Steam Crow site.

As you know, a forum is nothing without your involvement. You’re invited to participate; it’s open to anyone who wants to talk about the comic, Steam Crow, or just vent about the horrible commute or gas prices.

It’s in the header under “Talk“.

I was going to wait until we had more traction, but I felt like getting it rolling sooner than later.

Jump in there, and make some word-talk-speaks.

- Daniel