Threadless Debut!

Hey folks,

This is just a quick post to boomerate (read: publicly announce) my public art-whoring.

I recently submitted "The Muses #2" (AKA "The Muse 2") for consideration on threadless.com, the famous tee-shirt art-atorium. It got approved by the gods of Mt. Threadlympus, which means that from now up through the next 7 days, it will be available for voting. SO GO VOTE!!!

Please check out "The Muse 2" on Threadless and cast your vote in support of yours truly. Let's get this shit on fabric, kids!

If you don't already have a threadless account, it literally takes like 10 seconds to sign up, it's completely free, and they never spam you or do anything annoying once you're signed up. You can pretty much sign up, vote, and forget the site even exists if you want (but don't do that, because it's actually a pretty dope site. I promise.).

Check out "The Muse 2" on Threadless by following the link below! Here's hoping your votes make some magic happen!

Love, peace, and funnel cakes.

- Fred



p.s. -- when you're done, come on back here and then cast a vote for Ramon Rodriguez's piece too (below)! Voting for this one ends just 5 days from now! Click below to view and cast your vote!

SPECIAL REPORT - Uro City Explodes

Hello everyone,

I am posting this entry in response to events that occurred yesterday in the nearby American city of Uro. The Herald has been covering this from minute one. Their cover story from this mornings issue is here...



This is the latest that I'm hearing from the radio stations...
"... there were no less than 8 found dead at the scene. Bullet casings and blood are everywhere. The only fingerprints found belonged to the victims. Minutes later, a massive explosion rocked the Logan Bridge, causing mass terror and killing two people, who remain as yet unidentified. Apparently their bodies were charred beyond all recognition, but they were armed."

People aren't whispering. People are screaming. People are scared.

The atmosphere is growing darker. Politicians are being assassinated, a mass killing occurs within a week, bombs go off during morning traffic over the isle. What the fuck is going on in the city of Uro? Is this a sign of what's to come?

The Herald has been closely watching these events, but information is being tightly guarded by the authorities of Uro. I managed to snag a copy of the cover, which ran this morning to a hungry populace. Reports indicate that the Friday issue sold out within an hour. The image above is all I was able to procure before I encountered a cyber-block, preventing me from downloading content on these events... I might possibly be under watch in Uro's civil judiciary system for posting this, but there it is for all those who haven't heard about this yet. It's worth the risk to let the world know of the chaos that is erupting right here on American soil.

This is the first visible sign of the terrible downward spiral that Uro has been locked in for a long time now. The shock of these events has stirred the citizens to unprecedented levels of paranoia, with voices echoing a million different theories about the direction of the city. Some say this is an isolated incident. Others say the worst is yet to come. One thing is for certain...

The city is on fire... there's no turning back now.

- Fred

Sequesterization.

Yes, "sequesterization" is a word. I just made it up, so it's a word.

Anyway, literary rules aside, I merely come with a brief update on the status of the inner workings of Fred's head (did I really just make that obvious rhyme reference).

I've ceased any and all work on peripheral material for the moment and decided to focus all of my creative attention on the completion of Episode 2. It's frankly ridiculous that I'm still talking about finishing the episode at such a late point. Especially considering that it's been extremely near completion for about a year now. Absolutely ridiculous.

The only measure of control I can exercise at this point is to hole myself up in my business surroundings; usurping the space for the purposes of Gun work. That's just what I've done. I've essentially moved Heretik Studios to my lab space in the meantime, in the hopes of dedicating solid hours to finishing the toon.

The switch to Mac has impeded my progress somewhat, mainly from a logistical standpoint, but it's nothing to fret over. I'm experimenting with new transfer protocols, and some of Flash's system fonts were missing and I had to go hunt them down like a-ni-mal. I found some swanky substitutes and I'm ready to roll again... and yes, I did just say "swanky." Deal with it.

As for the "last" peripheral art production... Take a peek at it below. It's finished, but the finished version isn't available to the public yet. This version is all you get for now. Creamy, cherry goodness.

Buon Appetito.

(click the thumbnail to view the larger version.)

Lines in the Sand.

So...

It feels like it's been awhile since I've put dribbles of the digital sort to this paper. I might as well just give you more bad news, since you're used to hearing about it from me anyway. Yes, Gun is kind of on a hiatus right now. I'm in the process of moving, and my technical limitations will be many and arduous. Not to mention, I'm starting a new job and I simply don't know yet when I'd find the time to work on it, even if I did have the tools at my disposal. As it stands right now, I'm unable to move forward with the episode for the time being, due to boundaries of equipment and productivity.

The second episode is in no way, shape, or form scrapped. Gun WILL be completed. It's not over. Not by a longshot. It's just going to take a few extra steps before I can get there.

What this means is simply this - until I can get back to Gun work, I'm going to be pouring my artistic energies into areas that I've largely ignored in recent times, just in order to stay sharp and focused and give my mind that casual bit of respite it seeks from time to time. What this means is that in the coming weeks, there will actually be consistently new content on the damn website for once! As soon as I find the avenues through which I can air new things, it will be on the world's stage that we call the internet.

I'm wishing I could just cap off my pride and joy and finish this episode now, but I'm looking forward to the active reprieve. It should result in many fun and interesting things. Fingers crossed.

See you there.

Whirlwinds.

Hi, hey, ho,

What's good.

I'm updating people on the status of shit in "Heretik Land", AKA my life. So basically here's the scenario... I haven't had chances to work on Gun consistently, and that does suck. But it's with very good reason. I'm gonna explain to you now what's been happening and what's about to happen (sort of).

In early April I started a new job with Yale. I'm a survey administrator, based in New York City. This means that I've been going around to countless elementary schools in Brooklyn and Queens and administering surveys to students and teachers. It's a pretty cool gig. I get to hit up so many different parts of New York that I've never explored before and I'm never in the same place twice, which I like. I enjoy working with students and teachers are usually cool and have interesting things to say, and they and their principals have valuable insights into American education.

However, this job entails that I generally wake up every data collection day sometime between 4:30AM and 5:30AM. Then I have to take very long, very irksome, very early subway journeys to various neighborhoods in the outer boroughs of New York. Then I have to go to sleep around 10PM. This is not normal for me at all. Usually, I work on Gun during the wee hours, since this is my only real quiet time. But now that quiet time is dedicated to sleep. And what little other time there is, I devote to my social life, because I am NOT giving that up.

So that's the current sitch. This gig lasts until the end of this month. THEN, the people at Yale have offered me another research position, to begin in June. This one might actually require that I move. It's a summer position, from June through August. I still don't know if I'll take it, but it's very tempting, and I am leaning towards saying yes to it. The work is really interesting, and is largely related to what I'm working on now. Additionally, this could turn into an even further development beginning in September, depending on the work I do and the choices I make in the next two weeks. Suffice it to say, my brain is like a cauldron right now. Not to mention there's lots of personal shit at stake that I won't even get into right now.

So you see where I've been and why it's been difficult to really move forward on this final scene of my pride and joy of a cartoon. I'm devoting as much of that downtime as I can to finishing it.

These weeks have been a fucking storm of epic proportions, and I'm taking it one day at a time. Thanks for bearing with me. I'm the suckiest animator ever for making people wait so long to see my shit. I apologize again and again.

I'm trying my best. Just stay with me.

- Fred

Sexytime.

Hey lovely little people...

wow that was really gay. Sorry about that.

Anyway, this is a quick update. I just threw up some lucky charms on heretik studios.. if you visit the site now, you should notice a shiny little badge in your address bar, declaring the glory and splendor of Heretik Studios that is filling your browser like a slutty girl's mouth on prom night. And that ain't a milk shake she was drinkin either. Sticky icky icky. ooh-wee. Too bad her last name was Spitzer... ooooohhh.

Disgustingly vague sexual references aside, I also hopped on here more importantly, to show you fine folks a little something i've been working on lately. I mentioned awhile back that I was toying with a new illustration for Gun. I won't go into details of how this came about, but suffice it to say Artboy is a douchebag and I have a really big fucking mouth. It will be fully developed into something totally new later on, and its very much in the creation stages, but here's a little preview of it!! cha-cha-cha.



By the way, that's not a screenshot from episode 2, but there actually is a similar-ish shot in the episode. i wont bother posting that because... well frankly I don't feel like it.

What can I say, I'm a little shit! haha. My birthday is tomorrow and I'm feeling some pressures outside of this creative artwork world of mine. But the Times isnt for personal ranting normally so... Ignore that last part.

OK back to Gun!!!