First Hurdle Jumped. On To The Next One.

What's good people? (i.e., whoever the hell is actually reading this)

Just a quick update with zero substance. Today marked the official end of the first semester for me, having handed in all my final projects, attended all classes, and sufficiently ground my brains down to some material slightly resembling oatmeal. Apart from administrative shit, I'm actually at liberty to (finally) recollect my sanity, and more importantly spend the next few weeks devoting some real time to Gun. Another relatively useless screenshot is below, for shits and giggles.

So my plan is to attack attack attack (x3) this shit with a fervor and obsessive mania rivaling that of my approach to my grad school classes. I'm basically going to try and drive myself insane with creativity, doing shot after shot (not alcohol... well, maybe. lol), and scene after scene, hoping with a sense of unappealing desperation that I can not only make major progress with this last giant scene, but that I can actually finish the episode in its entirety. Aiming high? You bet.

Yeah, I know... I've stated similar hopes in the past several months, maybe even years. However, I'm hoping that my now habitual diligence will rub off on my artistry, and turn me into a productive monster. If that means I need to hurl myself crash-test-dummy style into my works, then so be it.

What I'm really hoping is that in so doing, I can effectively undo the massive left-brain damage of the past several months of academia by giving my right brain the masturbation it so desperately craves, and rightfully deserves.

Prepare for an artgasm. Wear a raincoat.

- Fred.

click thumbnail to view larger version... bitches.

Ready. Set. Create.

Hallo wunderbare Kinder,

In case you missed the headlines -- Heretik Studios is back in New York City... and only New York City. I'm about to embark on the next chapter of my life here, beginning graduate school at NYU. Life shall be chaotic, intense, and harrowing... but at least it won't be boring.

As I've been preparing for the next stage, I've produced some funky updates for Gun the Animated Series. Yes, yes, I know... Episode 2, it's still not out. Although, admittedly, some of the updates are indeed the flesh and blood of Episode 2.

I'm trying to get a steady pace going in this masochistic race I'm running. In just two weeks time, I'll be setting foot through the doors of graduate study and setting my social life and free time sail in the ocean on a dinky, tattered, makeshift raft to be rescued at some point. God only knows when that will be. I'm planning to push myself to even greater heights, make even bigger sacrifices, all in the pursuit of something higher than I've ever touched before. Included among these efforts will be the steady push to improve and complete the one bit of personal work that I've treated with any seriousness in recent times. You all know what that is (yes, of course I mean my art, and more specifically Gun).

I should also mention that my friend, frequent victim of my insults, and fellow artist Ramon Rodriguez has been working at producing a new t-shirt piece at Threadless. Click here to check it out, and be sure to cast your votes!

In waiting, I'm currently contemplating the release of some crazy, ancient, hilarious, interesting goodies from way, way behind the scenes of Gun. By contemplating, of course I mean planning.

Stay tuned for that and much, much more. Auf Wiedersehen.

- Fred

A sip of the latest visuals are below, amigos.

Transitions and Tribulations

Happy July -whatever-day-it-is-today,

I have one more week.

In that time I will tape up the remains of my life here at Yale inside of dusty, used cardboard boxes addressed to other people for other purposes. I will take my earthly possessions and toss them haphazardly into the back of a van that has seen untold locations and carried an untold number of unknown people. Then I will pile these things against the walls I remember so well and hours later, I will step back into this setting that I've grown accustomed to for the past 14 months, as a visitor as opposed to an inhabitant.

I will say some of the hardest goodbyes I've said in a great while. It will not be easy. Life has a funny way of making things beautifully fucked up sometimes. I won't get into it, but suffice it to say, I'll be doing the one thing I never imagined doing when I got here - I'll be leaving something behind when I turn my back on Yale.

This all means that in 6 weeks, I'll be starting up a brand new leg of the race, namely graduate school. I'll be back home where things make sense and people I care about surround me. It should be good.

This means that during those 6 weeks, I can take a bit of time away from the stresses I've become acclimated to over the past year-and-then-some to boost my productivity, and in the process try to ignore or work through the things that have made the past two months so difficult for me on the personal side of things.

I have no idea how things will turn out, but I'm confident that when I know, you will too.