Only just took a full week of time to get this thing off the ground and reformed to look the way I wanted it to. Been a complete mess having to learn how to work with html/css, but I got some nice things working now and was able to get rid of a lot of clutter that blogger typically has on their page.
I had also gotten the whole website up to around 95% before it had a large crash, taking all the images that I had ever uploaded before to here and replacing it with lovely empty black boxes. Took a few days to work up the patience to sit down and rebuild a lot of it over again, but alas it's done. Some of the oldest pokes are still missing links, so keep that in mind.
As time goes by I want to add some more stuff design wise here, especially as I learn more about programming and working with interactive content so stay tuned for that. I also have plans to try to put something together to show how I actually produce my comics sometime around christmas time. So stay tuned for that!
Friday, December 7, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Symbolia Magazine Launch!
Hey everyone, I got some really exciting news about a new start-up publication set to launch on the iPad next month called Symbolia: The Tablet Magazine of Ilustrated Journalism. It's a monthly publication that fuses comics and journalism to bring interesting stories from all over the world for your viewing pleasure.
Erin Polgreen , co-founder of Symbolia, has this to say:
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Our preview issue features illustrated and reported work by many of the amazing folks on this list: Susie Cagle, Sarah Glidden, Andy Warner, Lauren Sommer, Kat Fajardo, Chris A. Smith and Damien Scogin.
I'm writing today with an early request: Can you help get the word out next week? Your support will help push the entire comics journalism field forward and bring Symbolia closer to sustainability.
Here's why your support matters: I am committed to paying Symbolia's contributors, and am working to raise my rates to more competitive levels. Our main source of revenue right now is subscriptions. The more subscriptions we can sell in the first month of publication, the sooner we can raise rates and book more content.
More about Symbolia: Each issue of Symbolia is packed with ground-breaking, insightful stories by world-class illustrators and journalists, stunning infographics, video reports, exclusive audio, and more.
Founded by Erin Polgreen and Joyce Rice, Symbolia is available as an interactive iPad app and will be available as an ebook and via PDF subscription soon. Subscriptions to Symbolia are $11.99 for six issues, and single issues are $2.99.
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You can read more about Symbolia at:
The Chicago Tribune
The National
The Columbia Journalism Review
Be sure to support!
Friday, November 9, 2012
Elections are over...
Still alive here and been meaning to update lately, so here's a little teaser from a recent page. Pampanga, I miss you.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Invisible News: Green Party Candidates Arrested Outside of Presidential Debate
On October 16th, 2012 in Hempstead New York, presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and her running mate Cheri Honkala were arrested outside of the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney after trying to gain access to the venue. After trying for about 20 minutes at the front door to gain access, the two candidates were turned away for "lack of credentials" to sit into the debate. Their only intent was to speak with reporters and not disrupt the ongoing debate as it was happening. After being turned away, the both of them both took a seat and draped themselves with the American flag, while a Nassau county officer asked the two candidates to move because they were "blocking traffic." Finally, the encounter leads to their arrest by police where they are taken to the local jail till at least midnight tonight.
Stein and Honkala being arrested outside the 2nd Presidential Debates
The Presidential Debate Committee (PDC) stipulates that in order for any candidate to be a part of the debates, they must hold a 15% standing in national polls prior along with having the perceived ability to win a majority of the electoral college votes. According to a campaign release, the Green Party is expected to be on about 85% of national ballots this election season. So what's the problem? Are the Democrats and Republicans really afraid of a third (or more) voice that they would have to contend with at a debate? And is this a reaction from both major parties who recently have been exposed to popular movements from the Tea Party and the Occupy movement in order to maintain their monopoly in American politics?
So we should be asking ourselves, what is the point of these debates when a third voice isn't even allowed to intervene? Are that far down "democracy" that we don't need that voice? I know there's quite a few issues that I don't agree with either party, not to mention a lot of topics that aren't brought up in the slightest at these debates. Where's my voice about the influence of superPACs in elections, my voice about how the US incarcerates more people than any other country in the world? And who decides the values of these national polls and why aren't they disclosed to the public? If you have anything to add please respectfully place a comment.
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1: Cirilli, Kevin. "Green Party Ticket Arrested at Debate." Politico, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1012/82490.html.
2: "Green Party Candidates Arrested at Debate." SFGate, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Green-Party-candidates-arrested-at-debate-3954374.php.
3: LongIslandReport. "Jill Stein, Green Party Candidate for President Gets Taken." YouTube. N.p., 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKwwPVO8bNk.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
The American Immigrant update
Hi everyone just giving my bi-monthly post up on the blog to give everyone an idea where I'm at and what I'm doing. Below is the inks of page 16 from my graphic novel that I'm working on The American Immigrant. I'm sure I have a few followers here that can guess where I'm going to in this page ;).
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The Red Fez "An American Toilet Paper Nightmare in Southeast Asia"
Last week, The Red Fez has been so kind to publish one of my articles in their 49th issue of their publication. The article itself, one that I did back in university a year ago titled "An American Toilet Paper Nightmare in Southeast Asia", is a fun story about my experience dealing with culture shock when I visited the Philippines for the first time. Short and sweet and it's been a while since I published something. Hoping that The Red Fez puts out another excellent issue for their 50th issue and that they make it to issue 100 someday!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
The American Immigrant Pencil Previews
Hey everyone, finally got a scanner! Meaning I can finally post a few things showing what I'm working on lately. Below are a few excerpts from the book "The American Immigrant." They're pulled about midway through the first part of the Philippines book, and illustrate a little bit about the area that I traveled to during the summer of 2011 in the Pampanga province. Hope that you enjoy!
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| Chapter 6: San Juan's Blessing Page 45 and 46 |
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| Chapter 7: Sanctuary Page 59, 60, and 61 |
Thursday, August 23, 2012
"What the English Book", a project by students this summer at Taereung High School of Seoul
During our two week summer English camp, students from Taereung High School in East Seoul worked diligently to put together stories that are important to them. Well, we'd like to show you some of their stories, stories that are important to them. I give you "What the English Book", enjoy!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Going to Malaysia, out of work soon, comic exercise
Plans are all set and I'll be traveling abroad again for the first time in year, this time out to Malaysia for a little bit of journalism work and partially for vacation (first time ever?!). Hope to actually produce a comic coming up for a publisher in the next few weeks, so going to keep things under wraps until I can provide more information about that. But I promise this story is going to be a good one!
As far as an update on life, my contract with Taereung High School in East Seoul is coming to an end in two weeks and I still haven't found a job here in Korea. Things might be a bit tricky and I might have to take time off from the bigger book that I'm working on to tend to life problems. I know I keep talking about this "American Immigrant" novel and yet not showing that I'm producing any work for it, but trust me I'm almost already up to 50 pages penciled on it so far and I'm going to be inking in the near future.
Last thing is that I do want to show some art that I had originally did in university, got halfway done on, and gave up. Been sitting on my external hard drive for almost 1 1/2 years and I just took the rest of a day to sit down and finish it off. It feels so good to paint again after pencilling for months. So here it is, pulled from a small prompt I got out of Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" trilogy (a must read for all visual artists, not just comic artists). Goal was to tell an ambiguous story about a cop, a crook, and a third person and be a bit more complex and subtle at the same time in the storytelling. Figured to add another challenge by rendering the whole thing digitally. Originally had the story called "French 25," but looking back I'm not too crazy about the name, either way here it is...
As far as an update on life, my contract with Taereung High School in East Seoul is coming to an end in two weeks and I still haven't found a job here in Korea. Things might be a bit tricky and I might have to take time off from the bigger book that I'm working on to tend to life problems. I know I keep talking about this "American Immigrant" novel and yet not showing that I'm producing any work for it, but trust me I'm almost already up to 50 pages penciled on it so far and I'm going to be inking in the near future.
Last thing is that I do want to show some art that I had originally did in university, got halfway done on, and gave up. Been sitting on my external hard drive for almost 1 1/2 years and I just took the rest of a day to sit down and finish it off. It feels so good to paint again after pencilling for months. So here it is, pulled from a small prompt I got out of Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" trilogy (a must read for all visual artists, not just comic artists). Goal was to tell an ambiguous story about a cop, a crook, and a third person and be a bit more complex and subtle at the same time in the storytelling. Figured to add another challenge by rendering the whole thing digitally. Originally had the story called "French 25," but looking back I'm not too crazy about the name, either way here it is...
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Korean Students, Wobbly Heads
Final days of being a teacher at Taereung High School are coming up, and definitely makes me sad to have to say goodbye to all of the students. During the last two days of the semester I got some time to do some painting demos for class (my students found out I can do more than just talk in English ;) ) and figured to show some of the better ones that came out. Enjoy!
Btw, even though people have been supportive of this idea of a weekly comic about recent grads, I haven't had ANYONE submit a story for it! Tell your friends, anyone that's grad recently that has to now pay off some student debt. Have a great day and see you all around.
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| The "So Mang Ban" Crew -- Taereung High School |
Btw, even though people have been supportive of this idea of a weekly comic about recent grads, I haven't had ANYONE submit a story for it! Tell your friends, anyone that's grad recently that has to now pay off some student debt. Have a great day and see you all around.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Weekly Comic Idea about Recent Graduates
As we all know, times have been very tough for recent graduates who face a workforce that doesn't have a place for them, while saddled up with loads of debt that they can't possibly hope to pay off. Where people have been forced to move back with their parents, held off kids and marriage, and taken jobs that are well below their education level just to make minimum payments. Most of these people who are having to suffer through this feel like they have no voice to actually communicate their pleas to a great audience. Well...I want to try to communicate those voices.
Lately I've been tossing this idea around in my head and with a few friends, about doing a weekly small one page comic about people who have recently left university (through graduation or for other reasons.) Just something to tell others who they are, where they are from, and where their student debt has prevented them from going. I want to hear real stories, real events, from real people anywhere in the world. The idea is pretty small and I'm still contemplating how I want to work it out so that's why I'm posting today here in the blog. If you think you have a worthwhile story (or even if you don't but still want it told) please contact me here on my blog or email through my contact page. I want to make this a larger collaboration of people to bring awareness to a growing problem in our generation.
Lately I've been tossing this idea around in my head and with a few friends, about doing a weekly small one page comic about people who have recently left university (through graduation or for other reasons.) Just something to tell others who they are, where they are from, and where their student debt has prevented them from going. I want to hear real stories, real events, from real people anywhere in the world. The idea is pretty small and I'm still contemplating how I want to work it out so that's why I'm posting today here in the blog. If you think you have a worthwhile story (or even if you don't but still want it told) please contact me here on my blog or email through my contact page. I want to make this a larger collaboration of people to bring awareness to a growing problem in our generation.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Call for a Reliable Editor and a New Comic
Today I want to bring up a difficulty that I've been having for the past several months, finding a reliable and consistent editor to take a look through my drafts and thumbnails for my stories. Many times I find myself entering arrangements with fellow artists and writers in which we edit each others work, but I always feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick. I always try to be extremely diligent in getting someone's else work edited (most often before I even touch my own work) and all I ask in this sort of arrangement is that the other person commit to being consistent in return.
An example were I had trouble with this was with my last editor, who I asked for two chapters to be reviewed within three weeks. Not only was this timeline not met, but this person completely disappeared for over a month without giving me any notice or chance to find someone else. When given a second chance on another couple of chapters over two weeks, the person disappeared once again for a month. And this is a person who I've pulled through on many a night to make sure that their work was completed for reviews when they were a university student. At the rate of speed that I work at, I can't be held up over a minor edit for over a month.
So what I'm asking through this post is if anyone would like to enter a mutual arrangement of editing, where we can both look over each others work within a reasonable amount of time. Ideally I'm looking for a comic artist, but any creative writer or visual artist would suffice as long as they can give worthwhile feedback and have a general understanding of a comic artist's workflow.
An example were I had trouble with this was with my last editor, who I asked for two chapters to be reviewed within three weeks. Not only was this timeline not met, but this person completely disappeared for over a month without giving me any notice or chance to find someone else. When given a second chance on another couple of chapters over two weeks, the person disappeared once again for a month. And this is a person who I've pulled through on many a night to make sure that their work was completed for reviews when they were a university student. At the rate of speed that I work at, I can't be held up over a minor edit for over a month.
So what I'm asking through this post is if anyone would like to enter a mutual arrangement of editing, where we can both look over each others work within a reasonable amount of time. Ideally I'm looking for a comic artist, but any creative writer or visual artist would suffice as long as they can give worthwhile feedback and have a general understanding of a comic artist's workflow.
ie. Rough draft -> Breakdowns -> Thumbnails -> Pencils -> Inks -> Lettering
If you'd be interested please contact me and I'd love to work with you.
On one last note, my girlfriend and I have just finished up a new short story, "What Haunts Us," hopefully to be released this Fall. Keep your eyes peeled with more information in the future!Friday, June 15, 2012
Much needed update, Mt. Pinatubo Rememberance Day
Hey everyone, terribly sorry for the past 9 months without a single update or post, making me look like a horrible blogger. Just giving a shout from Seoul letting everyone know I'm still alive, even if the trip to this point has been one hell of a wild ride. Students are great here and definitely loving my life in South Korea with a good set of friends, my girlfriend who I've been with for about 9 months now, and plenty of writing and comics done.
During this time I want to direct you to a couple of publications that I've been in recently. The first one, a small but incredible literary journal found in the East Coast of the USA, 5x5, tells of grand stories in a small package. Definitely worth checking out at http://5x5litmag.org/. Check the 2011 Fall Issue, Visitors, for a comic about my brief travels through Taipei, Taiwan.
The second piece that I had published was with my old university's literary journal, Reed Magazine (http://reedmag.org/drupal/?q=node/150). It's a comic article about my experience as a student at that university for 3 years and how tuition rose dramatically while I was there. Yet the university had plenty of money for outrageous construction projects to lure in prospective students, not to mention extravagant perks and salaries to the people running the university. I'm actually surprised that the university published my article there after all the defaming material that I wrote about them. To see a much better quality print of the comic you should check out my website, www.erikthurman.carbonmade.com in the comics section.
Finally the last thing I want to bring attention to is Mt. Pinatubo's eruption anniversary. It's been 21 years since one of the biggest eruptions in modern history happened in the Philippines, causing massive lahars to flood the valleys of the Pampanga region and causing many people to have to evacuate the disaster zone. The Pampanga government has just this year recognized a special holiday where all government businesses and offices are closed today to mark this anniversary. My heart goes out to the people that were affected by this natural disaster and the trouble that it causes the livelihood of people through yearly floods even today.
Currently I'm writing chapter 5 of my novel, "The American Immigrant" that goes into greater detail about the history of this region which covers Mt. Pinatubo. I figured since it's been a long time since I've updated anything here I'll go ahead and post a couple web cam pics of my comic about this story. Please keep in mind because I'm still traveling often, I don't have access to a scanner so I hope you'll forgive me. Here are some of the pencils of the story...
During this time I want to direct you to a couple of publications that I've been in recently. The first one, a small but incredible literary journal found in the East Coast of the USA, 5x5, tells of grand stories in a small package. Definitely worth checking out at http://5x5litmag.org/. Check the 2011 Fall Issue, Visitors, for a comic about my brief travels through Taipei, Taiwan.
The second piece that I had published was with my old university's literary journal, Reed Magazine (http://reedmag.org/drupal/?q=node/150). It's a comic article about my experience as a student at that university for 3 years and how tuition rose dramatically while I was there. Yet the university had plenty of money for outrageous construction projects to lure in prospective students, not to mention extravagant perks and salaries to the people running the university. I'm actually surprised that the university published my article there after all the defaming material that I wrote about them. To see a much better quality print of the comic you should check out my website, www.erikthurman.carbonmade.com in the comics section.
Finally the last thing I want to bring attention to is Mt. Pinatubo's eruption anniversary. It's been 21 years since one of the biggest eruptions in modern history happened in the Philippines, causing massive lahars to flood the valleys of the Pampanga region and causing many people to have to evacuate the disaster zone. The Pampanga government has just this year recognized a special holiday where all government businesses and offices are closed today to mark this anniversary. My heart goes out to the people that were affected by this natural disaster and the trouble that it causes the livelihood of people through yearly floods even today.
Currently I'm writing chapter 5 of my novel, "The American Immigrant" that goes into greater detail about the history of this region which covers Mt. Pinatubo. I figured since it's been a long time since I've updated anything here I'll go ahead and post a couple web cam pics of my comic about this story. Please keep in mind because I'm still traveling often, I don't have access to a scanner so I hope you'll forgive me. Here are some of the pencils of the story...
Anyways hope you have a great day and as always love life.
