Back in 2011, I was interviewed by Kurt Sasso (and surprise co-host Trevor Kent!) for his TGT Webcomics (now TGT Media) podcast. (Here’s the link to that episode: number 150.) Kurt’s a kind host, and we had a good long conversation about Odori Park. Two years later, now it’s my turn to plug for Kurt:

Starting soon, Kurt will have an IndieGoGo campaign running to build funds for his new documentary, Little Person Among Media Giants.
Update: Here’s the link to Kurt’s IndieGoGo campaign page!
Here’s Kurt’s Facebook page about the project.

Kurt describes the film thusly:
“Everyone struggles for greatness. This is the journey of one person striving to get an interview which will make or break my career. I have interviewed many people, however, that one great interview has not happened and has been elusive…until Fan Expo:”

To make this extra cool (for me, at least), Kurt has asked me if I would consider some original artwork to be used as a funding incentive. I promise you, whoever walks away with that prize will not be underwhelmed. Overwhelmed, perhaps, but sufficiently whelmed, at least, to be sure. (Apparently, the IndieGoGo system limits the number of perks Kurt can list; my artwork is part of the deal, although it may not always appear on the campaign page as a reward. Not sure what that really means. I’ve never done one of these myself.)

Once the IndieGoGo page is live, I’ll post a link here for you to check it out!
Update: Here it is! Little Person Among Media Giants at IndieGoGo

Today is my birthday.
Last month was Odori Park’s birthday.
I let it fly by simply because I haven’t had the time to give a proper little celebration.
A blog post is hardly a surprise party with balloons and a magician, but it’s better than nothing.
So, please allow me to supplant hoorahs over my own birthday (which, as I continue to age, feels simultaneously less desirable, but more worthy as an accomplishment–I’m still alive!) with hoorahs over the fourth birthday of Odori Park on the Web! By my quick rough count, that’s over 600 comics I’ve posted online since the first one in March of 2009. That feels pretty good!

A couple weeks ago I got myself a new phone–a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (or, as colleagues refer to it, my “what-the-heck-is-that-it’s-HUGE!-aren’t-you-embarrassed-to-use-that-as-a-phone?”). I chose this particular model largely because it has a Wacom-powered pen. I grabbed a copy of Layer Paint (great little drawing app for $2.99, though I wish the screen would rotate), with visions of drawing comics over my lunch hour or at random traffic stops. I put it through some paces tonight, so…

Here’s a birthday sketch for you to say thank you for reading!
(Click to embigify…)

-Chris

If you’ve seen the last couple posts I made about the kid-friendly graphic novel I’m working on, you’ve probably gotten the entirely accurate sense that I’ve been having trouble nailing down my character designs, and the overall art style they’ll live in. I think things finally clicked tonight, and if I’m not done done with these guys, I’m at least done enough to push forward. For the curious, here’s a peek

Here are some more character and exploratory sketches for my new kids graphic novel. I’m all over the place stylistically on this one. I have a hazy vision in my head of how it will look, but it’s taking its sweet old time to solidify for me on the page.

Enjoy the peek!

Between 2000 and 2005, I actively ran a comic anthology site called BorderWalker, which focused on fantasy adventure serials, and branched off into a few other genres, as well. I often refer to this as my “past life” in webcomics. It’s where I cut my teeth creatively and as an entrepreneur.

Through BW, I posted the odd one-off short comic here and there, and two regular series: Legacy Dawning–an epic fantasy that was intended to bend some genre lines as it carried forward–and Electric Spirit–a sci-fi comedy told in an interactive format that allowed it to teach Japanese. I wound up spending most of my time with BorderWalker, though, acting as publisher for the comics and articles of some other really wonderful creators, like Jack Pendleton, Craig Schaffer, Ray Kim, Neal VonFlue, and Peter Delgado Jr. That, plus editing pieces, writing articles and news posts, and coming up with marketing ideas left me with very little time for actual comic-making. In the end, the lack of focus was a big part of what put BorderWalker into the cooler of indefinite hiatuses.

I have future plans for BorderWalker, and the ideas I explored under its banner, but for now, they have to stay back-burnered while I focus elsewhere. Up ’til now, I’d been content to leave the site to its own devices, letting folks who stumble across it enjoy the archives there. But earlier this month I received the inevitable email from BW’s web host who wanted to know, in essence, how the heck it got on their server.

See, when BW went online, its hosting was provided free of charge via the kindness of my then boss at the start-up Internet company where I worked. That was in 2000. Over time, his company grew, I left, they grew some more, and eventually, the hosting business was sold. And through it all–for over a decade–BW got a free ride. I knew it was only a matter of time before the files changed enough hands that real cash money would be requested to keep it live. Rather than pay hosting fees on a site that’s on hiatus, then, I’ve decided to finally pull BorderWalker from the web–for now, and in its current incarnation, at least.

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to let you guys see some of that old work. A walk down memory lane. Bear in mind, though, that I consider most of this stuff to be pretty…rough around the edges. So enjoy the peek at the past–and feel free to ruminate on what I might do with it in the future–but please be gentle with me

Click here for the BorderWalker archive hub.