Para~Somnia Comics by Knave Murdok

The Ballad of 'Ol Shootin' Jed: Page 2

2012-01-31T00:36:00.001-08:00

This old man gave me some trouble. I don't have a lot of experience drawing "old west" style things. I used to hate westerns and western related things. I don't know why, I just never liked cowboys. I used to joke that "Back to the Future 3" was my favourite western :P I think it stems from an early dislike of country music. It took me awhile to get over this, and even now there's still not a lot of westerns I really enjoy, but it's become a style that I admire. I tried doing a comic a long time ago with somewhat of a western feel, but nothing ever came of it. But doing it gave me the inspiration to do "Blood Will Tell" which a lot of people mistake for a western when they first see the cover... but... it is not... one. :/
So yeah! This old man! I sketched him a bunch of different ways. He ran the gamut from genuine, soft-hearted old religious man to a totally crazy sun-baked old hick. I think what I wound up with is sorta riiiiight in the middle.
Style influences include Yoshi's Island and Ren & Stimpy.

So the day after tomorrow is February 1st! and that means the Dave #2 isn't far away!
What did I say before? the 14th? something like that, I guess. The printer is notorious for creating delays, and there IS a splash page involved, so let's say the 14th is the optimistic projection.

The Ballad of 'Ol Shootin' Jed: Page 1

2012-01-23T01:19:00.001-08:00

So, I've been hyping this for awhile and now here it is, the beginning. Page one of "The Ballad of Ol' Shootin' Jed" is lad bare before you. I've been wanting to do this story for almost a year and a half, I reckon, and have had so many ideas about what I wanted to do with it, and where I wanted it to go. In all that time, I did not give much thought to how I wanted it to begin! And that's always the real kick in teeth, isn't it? I must have erased and re-drew these mountains at least five times.
The other thing I struggled with was whether to try and go more realistic with this one, or more cartooney. As you can see, I made my choice. My number one inspiration for this particular art style? Yoshi's Island for the Super Nintendo. These influences will probably stand out to you more as future pages are uploaded ;-)
At least it will only get easier from here, phew... I would hope.

Slightly off topic now. As always, I can't pick up on project without thinking about at least three others. Back when I was working on Dave, I was thinking about this. now that I'm working on this, I'm thinking about that magical girl thing I posted some pictures of a few months ago. Here's to refresh your memory.
http://herrdoktorknave.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4jqrek
I used to do Magical Girl stories (very much inspired by Sailor Moon) ALL THE TIME when I was in middle school and high school. Sailor Moon was (and still is) one of my absolute favourite cartoons. But, as cartoon addictions often do, my love for it kind of faded off by the wayside over time.
My inspiration to re-attempt the "Magical Girl" genre comes from two things.
Number one: The DC 52. I know, this seems like a long shot, but hear me out.
If you're like me, then you have a lot of really cool, hyper feminist, lady friends who really dig comics. ANNNNND if you're like me, then you had a front row seat to all the rage and hellfire that rained down when 52 hit and all the cool lady characters got transformed into fucked up sex dolls.
If at this point, you have no idea what I'm talking about, please take a quick break and read THIS because I don't feel like paraphrasing it.

Are you back? Okay, moving on. After this hit, I had a lot of conversations with my friends, and eventually the idea formed of a comic starring girls with realistic bodies and realistic personalities. you know, if wishes were horses kinda stuff. I turned this over in my mind a lot over the next couple weeks.

THEN! The next thing happened, I saw Madoka Magica! I saw it and I LOVED it and I remembered not only how much I loved Magical Girl stories and THEN I remembered the conversations about DC 52 and thought "what an amazing opportunity!"
I'm nowhere close to a story yet, and only in the very beginning stages of character design, I just know that if I'm gonna do it right, I'm going to have to out-dark Madoka Magica. No fucking around with this. If I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it RIGHT! I'm thinking of creating a theme, where every chapter is named after a Current 93 song. I'm thinking "Nature Unveiled" would be a great opener.

Buuuut enough of that! Stay tuned for a new page of "The Ballad of 'Ol Shootin' Jed" next week! Peace out, ya'll!

Okay! So...

2012-01-13T17:54:00.001-08:00

So yeah guys... so yeah...
It's been a relatively quiet January for me, and there's a lotta reasons for that. So brace yourself for my avalanche of excuses. The record store that i work at, which has kind of been like my home for the past several years has been undergoing some changes.
These changes are... that it closed... and alllll the stuff inside got boxed up and moved to a new location about a mile down the road that's about a quarter of the size.
That in itself wouldn't be so bad, I mean, yeah it's a hassle, but the real kicker was that the peeps who planned the move, and by that I mean the one guy who owns the company who doesn't trust anyone else to make any form of decision, or judgement call, planned it in the worst, least efficient, time wasting way possible.
I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but it really isn't. The only way it could have possibly gone worse was if instead of trucks, we wheeled it over to the new store on roller skates.
There was no foresight involved, no schedule of tasks made, it was just... the week deadline approached, and we all just started haphazardly pilin' shit in boxes. We were understaffed, low on supplies and severely lacking in direction. One of the most frustrating three weeks I can recall, in recent memory. Despite all the hardships I managed to get some halfway decent dough out of it. I worked more during this move than I think I ever have. Ever.

So that's only one side of this hilarious coin. Not only was I moving shop, I'm about ready to move house as well. My good friend and sometimes collaborator Tricia of Ratgirl Productions is about to move out of her house. What THAT means is that as soon as she's gone, I'M in! That's right, I'm a real estate vulture! So my home, which has been exactly like a home to me, is also about to move. Come the beginning of next month, me and my buddies from AnimeLane.com will be setting up home and shop there. This has me filled with excitement.

Here's the other huge stupid hassle thing that's got me down :P
So I signed up for Sac-Con (in Sacramento) a little while ago. I'm super excited for it, but in all the confusion of moving my store, and moving home house as well, I sorta wasn't keeping tabs on my shit as well as I could have/should have.
So THEN, I get an invite to Sac Anime! A different con put on by a lot of the same people, and ALSO in Sacramento. My stressed out, bug addled brain thought "Sac-Con... Sac Anime... same thing!!!" not taking into account that Sac-Con takes place about a month and a half AFTER Sac anime. So I RSVPed, booked myself a hotel and thought I had all my bases covered.
When I inquired about my table number, my friend Anthony, who is helping out with both cons, informed me that not only was I a n00b, but that I had the wrong con in mind! So I had to cancel ALL my plans for that weekend. I'll be damned if I'm gonna drive alllllllll the way up to Sac Town for a con i'm not even scheduled for >_<

So yeah, I'm a huge n00b.
I got it all sorted out in time, so it's no skin off my nose... I just feel really foolish about the whole thing.

So also! I have this book coming out, right? you know the one! The one I've been working on all this past year! Yeah, that's coming out.

So I'm hardcore running outta steam. Love you little guys!
Tune in soon for the first installments of "The Ballad of Shootin' Jed".

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 31

2012-01-01T22:57:00.001-08:00

Oh man, so wow, this took awhile right?
Here's the story.
I've been having computer problems for awhile. Problems with slowdown and crashes and the like. Conventional means of remedying the problem were not effective. Luckily, salvation came by means of an early Christmas present. An old co-worker/friend of my fathers dropped off an unused tower, full of parts and pieces. Some of which were better than mine. So I promptly took my tower apart and started doin' some SWAPPIN'!
It was kind of a project, mostly because I didn't REALLY know what I was doing. A lot of it was trial and error, but in the end, I put together a pretty cohesive little machine, which runs marginally better than what I had.
Here's the kicker though. In my mad quest of part-swapping, I installed a brand new boot drive that had been recently formatted and refitted with old version of Windows XP. It had, absolutely, ZERO drivers installed. Drivers for noting! Could not get online, my printer/scanner didn't work, I didn't even have sound O_O
So I went on a search for drivers, which was mostly fruitless because I didn't quite know what I was looking for or how to find out.

THEN CHRISTMAS HAPPENED!!!!!!

So I got really sidetracked by all that before I had the time to do an actual systematic search for what I was missing, which I just recently finished!

So here we are, Dave the Punk rock Cat's triumphant return to the internets!

Book will be out in about a month's time.

Yeah, big announcement.

Happy New Year, by the way.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 30

2011-12-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

Here we are, Page 30! Only one left! Don't ever say I don't hustle for ya!
I did this one while at the Japan Town's Holiday Anime Festival, this and one more, which I'll unveil next week. And this concludes Dave's second story ark, and it's time for him to take a well deserved rest.
This is not the end of Dave, not at all! I have so many Dave ideas coming up over the horrizon, but there are other worthy projects that have been forced to wait in the wings while Dave enjoyed two issue's worth of of a moment in the sun. He will be back, do not worry. I still really want to finish "Blood Will Tell". "Abyss Stares Back" is gearing up to be started, and "Oswald the Oddball" is finally finding it's direction. But first and foremost "The Ballad of Shootin' Jed" will be gracing these pages.
I do not know how long "Shootin' Jed" is gonna be yet. I haven't plotted it out exactly. The version written by esteemed colleague Micaela Youmans comes out to about three and one third's pages, which is pretty long consider it's pretty small text. I am estimating in between 30 and 40 pages for this one.
I won't be doing it in traditional comic style. When this project was conceived, we were pretty certain this was gonna be more of a "storybook", albeit a horrifying and grossly inappropriate one. That's why I love Micaela, she knows what it's all about when it comes to horrifying and grossly inappropriate. The short version is, don't ever read this to your children. Actually, no, DO read it to your children, give them haunting nightmare of terrifying visions of a world of an old west possessed by the appalling births of impossible demons and other abominations. I want to see what happens.

Here for your convenience is a short taste of what's to come.
Here's an early concept sketch of Shootin' Jed

Here's a preview of the first page's text, again, as written by Miss Youmans:

"Did I ever tell you the story
of Ol' Shootin' Jed?
With a gun for an arm,
and a gun for a head?
Born on a night with a red harvest moon,
when the wild dogs were howlin'
an unsettling tune
that made old-timers
feel weak in the knees
as a cold wind was blowin'
through the joshua trees.
"There's bad things afoot"
they muttered, and prayed,
"Lord Jesus protect us,
drive the Devil away."

Yeahhhhh, awesome, right?
Needless to say, I am very excited to get to work on this.

So this leaves us with Dave.
The book is nearly completed, but when will it be out?
I just need to draw a cover, and compose my totally not fake "Interview with Dave the Punk Rock Cat". I would say, give it a month, approximately. When it comes to publishing, I am at the mercy of the printer. But I will try to hurry the process along as long as it's cost-effective.

See you guys in the funny papers.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 29

2011-12-08T01:22:00.000-08:00

Ahoy hoy.
so apologies all around to everyone who missed me at the Holiday Festival. I came down with something awful the day before and was sick in bed for four days. That shit SUUUUUCKED. I feel really bad about missing it. I feel bad if I have to miss ANY con but this one miffs me especially because I'm also missing Sac Con. That leaves only one con left this month (that I know about) that I'll be able to attend and that's something or other in SF Japantown. It's gonna be the 17th and 18th and it'll be a blast, so don't miss it.

So wow, this book is almost done. I just hope I can think of a good clincher, a way to end this story and make it seem like an actual end to the story.
I've was thinking at first that the mouse should get because that's the cliche/expected cat and mouse ending. what if Dave just straight up ate the mouse? Just, abruptly, at the end? Like he finishes telling the story and then "GLOMP" mouse is gone. That's the end. Too dark? I dunno, it's not like I'm aiming for an all-ages audience with this book anyway.

Speaking of all ages stuff, I had a concept like that going for awhile, but it got put on hold as soon as I decided that I was gonna do "The Ballad of Shootin' Jed" and follow it up swiftly with "Abyss Stares Back" and tie it off with a third Dave book. I may have talked about this once before but I talk about so much shit every week it's hard to keep track.

Anyway, the concept is something I call "Oswald the Oddball". It was a series I did wayyyy back when I was just a little Knave. Back then it was simply titled "Weirdo", but it's undergone a lot of changes since then. The thing that made me abandon it at first was that it was a collaborative project with my old friend Jia Liu, who you may know as the creator of Planet Loser and Weapon of Choice. He is now a science teacher, and doesn't really do comics anymore as far as I know. I didn't feel right about continuing a series that we began together without his blessing, so I put it out of my mind for a long time in favour of other projects. Buuuut I started getting nostalgic for the old days, back when my comics were just silly sight gags and wacky, out-of-control story arcs. This nostalgia was mainly fueled by me re-watching a lot of cartoons from my youth which helped inspire those old comics. Ren and Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, Daria, Simpsons, Invader Zim, Futurama, etc. Even more so recently by shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show. It was that sort of humour that inspired "Weirdo" back in the day, and has rekindled my urge to start working on "Oswald the Oddball" again.

So I got in touch with Jia, I hadn't spoken to him in years (facebook really is a wonderful thing), and asked him permission to use two of his original characters in my new concept (Tripe, and Glint, you'll get to see them eventually).
To my relief, he agreed. He said he was grateful that characters he created that long ago are still alive, so to speak.

So yeah! I know I'm probably not conveying the excitement nearly as much as I should, but this is a big deal to me. I am going to start re-tinkering this project very soon. Results will be up... when they are up. Fuck you, I'm a freelance cartoonist, I don't adhere to your primitive notions of "deadlines".

PEACE OUT Y'ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 28

2011-12-01T00:55:00.000-08:00

So there's some bad news... Sac-Con is cancelled. They screwed up our table order somehow, so yeah... we're not going. Well, I dunno, we might still GO, but we don't have a table and ... yeah, what's the point?
I WILL however be at the Fremont Anime Holiday Fair on Saturday! Pretty swanky, eh? It was a choice between that and Bent-Con but I didn't get "picked" for that one as it were. I will get to hear all about it from my friends who will go, so if it's totally awesome, then I'll try and make it next year.
I also could have gone to Time Tunnel but I've already been there once, and The Fremont gig is a charitable event so it's for a good cause.

So that's all the stuff really... There's some other stuff, but it's stuff I don't feel comfortable talking about until I got s'more information. Otherwise, it'll just sound like i'm doing nothing but getting my hopes up based on nothing.

In the mean time, Dave is rapidly coming to a close.
I suppose i'm close enough to the end to reveal my next comic plan.

As soon as Dave #2 is finished, I will be working on a project I've had promised to a friend for ... well over a year at this point. coming up next, is "The Ballad of Shootin' Jed" written by the brilliant Micaela Youmans.

I look forward to shoving it down your eyeholes!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 27

2011-11-24T00:47:00.000-08:00

And after a short break for some political garbage, here's s'more Dave for y'all ;-)
I must say, I had a real fun time drawing the swing dancing couple. I don't give myself a lot of opportunities to draw dancing people, but it was a fun experiment, and I'm real proud of it.
So the way this is going, I think that this book will be complete is roughly 5 weeks. I know, i know, I keep pushing this deadline back, but I think this one's for real. This one I can stick to. I was hoping before Chrimbo, but it looks like it's gonna be slightly after. I'll whup my own ass to try and get it out before then.

So Thanksgiving is tomorrow! Yeah!
Are you thankful for something? I should think so. At LEAST one thing! Maybe even a few! I'm sure if I really dug down deep and sat down and thought about it I could come up with a mist of hundreds of things I'm thankful for. But who has the time? Certainly not me, and I'm betting not you either.
I will however talk about one thing, off the top of my head that I can think of that I'm not only thankful for, but in fact, I am SUPER thankful for!
I doing my best to not come off as super mushy and sappy so I'll just come out and say it.
I am thankful that I get to keep doing this, and I am thankful for all of you who allow me to keep doing this.
Sometimes it's a lot harder, but in a world of general apathy towards the arts and rampant internet piracy, the fact that I can actually make money doing this never ceases to amaze me.
So thanks to all of you!
Now keep telling your friends about me ;-)

My #OccupyWallStreet Comic

2011-11-15T03:58:00.000-08:00

So I got sidetracked from Dave the Punk Rock Cat... but for good reason! I had this idea and at first I thought it would be a page long and I could finish it in an hour.... but it turned into a 4 page long project that took three days!
YOU can't tell it's 4 pages though, because I smashed all the panels together internet meme style!
Like
...
a
...
Boss!

So yeah... interpret this! It's a political cartoon, it means something! Oooh, my metaphors are so very poignant!

No, not really. I mean, it's kinda like a political cartoon for children... except for all the violence and the eyeball hanging out. It is what it is. It should be really easy to figure out, but consider the following point-by-point a bonus!

So I dunno if you heard or not but there's this huge revolutionary thing going on now called "Occupy Wall Street"
If you haven't heard about it, turn off the TV and read some freakin' news :P It's happening now!

Hundreds of thousands of people are banding together, protesting the horrifying injustice of a conspiracy of corporate greed which has effectively bankrupted our whole country.
They are demanding justice, and doing everything in their power to promote reformation of the system, and a better world for us and our children to live in.

THESE people are calling themselves the 99%.
They're calling themselves that in opposition to the 1%, who became freaking multi billionaires by cheating and stealing from every fucking person in the world, so much so that the U.S. GOVERNMENT no longer has the money to pay the bills anymore.

It's not actually really 1% of the population. I think it's been narrowed down to something like 400 individuals which is actually FAR LESS than 1%... but whatever. It is for all intents and purposed 1%. We rounded up.

So those are the 99%, that's why the guy digging outta prison has a "99" on his hat.

Now HERE'S the kicker!
There's another group, who for whatever reason OPPOSES the Occupy movement! They call themselves the 53%... hence of course the ... "53" on the other prisoner's hat.
I am not certain what 53% actually means. I guess they think that 53% of the population isn't hanging below the poverty line or something, I don't know.
They seem to think that since they've been able to live relatively comfortably and scrape by on their meager little piece of this pie they've managed to cut out that it's A-OK to let these horrible criminals go free with the billions of dollars they've stolen.
I guess they believe that since their lives haven't totally fallen in the shitter, that there is no real need for improvement in the system and anyone striving for a better world is apparently a lazy, undeserving pinko commie terrorist who is just looking for a handout :P

Bear with me, because here's where the COMEDY kicks in!

The 53% doesn't get that the 99% are trying to help them to!
53 is a smaller number than 99. Our group includes you to! any change we manage to enact will be good for us AND you ^_^. That's what is meant by the term "better world," "better" meaning GOOD and "world" meaning ALL OF US!

This is why 53 and 99 are bickering so much in the comic! It's like the Odd Couple, except instead of arguing how the apartment isn't kept clean, they're arguing about how the system is fucking broken and the rich walk all over us in a world where the rules don't apply to them and they can commit crimes that bankrupt whole countries and someone should at LEAST be batting an eyelash at it to acknowledge that this is wrong.

And the horrific and violent police brutality in the second to last panel represents... the horrific and violent police brutality that happens in real life every day at the Occupy protests.
Because apparently, there is NO GREATER THREAT to our country than unarmed civilians who want the government to do right by them.

The fucking racist tea party can show off their awesome gun collection at their rallies which seem to not have any other cause than to... show off their awesome gun collections, and often times the police don't even show up.

But unarmed kids with signs!?
FUCK THEM! Put the boot to them!

So yeah, that's what my comic is all about. I didn't really need to explain this, did I? I don't even know. I often feel really spoiled living where I do because everyone I know is pretty smart and gets things, and are usually liberal enough to see the shit going on in the world and be appropriately appalled.

HOWEVER! I feel more often than not, when I see Youtube videos of shit that's going on at the protests, more than half the comments are from these bitter, angry, cynical people who just don't get things at all typing in all caps "TAKE THAT HIPPIES!" So yeah, you can never be too careful. Don't take for granted what you think people should already know.

Hell, I met a girl the other day who didn't know what a cassette tape was. I mean, that's more of a generational thing, and not really analogous to the subject at hand, it just serves to illustrate the point of taking knowledge of things for granted.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 26

2011-11-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

This comic is getting more and more elaborate by the page. I admit, I got a little lazy in the 3rd panel, but I'm a huge, huge fan of the rest.

I think some of you might be able to see where this is going. Just like how Dave made fun of the goths last issue, it's Rockabilly's turn. And JUST like before, i must reiterate, I am NOT making fun of Rockabilly because I hate it. I can only accurately make fun of things I love. Granted, the story I'm telling is a TRUE one, there WERE real live hecklers at this concert. Once again, I'm not trying to say the Robert Gordon is in any way a bad performer. He is in fact a legend in his genre, and is responsible for it's revitalization. If the guy who Dave was based on had been alive, back then, I'm certain we'd be doing comics about him making fun of Elvis or Carl Perkins!

However! That is not the case, so Gordon is who we're making fun of! Deal with it, yo!

So! My big trip to L.A. is happening TO-MOR-ROW! I dunno if I really even have any fans in L.A. but let's see if I can GET SOME!
I'll do my best to actually bring back some pictures this time. I know I've been getting really bad at that lately, but I'll try not to let you down.

I already talked about Sac-Con, right? Yeah ^_^
Once again, do I have fans in Sacramento? In the ol' Sac-Town? I guess we'll find out!

Not much else is going on! I am really struggling to get this book done!
In the mean time, show your support by GETTING THE OLD ONES or BUYING A SHIRT!

I love you all very much
-Knave

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 25

2011-10-28T01:35:00.000-07:00

Oh my God, I had SO much fun drawing this!
Very much like the goth side-story of last issue, Dave will spend THIS particular arc of the story making fun of yet another subculture. Today's victim... rockabilly :P

Now don't worry! Very much like the Goth story, I don't actually hate Rockabilly. In fact, I LOVE it. That is why I'm picking on it so! I can only ACCURATELY lampoon something if I already love it. That is the rule! Do you think Mel Brooks hated Star Wars? Hell no! Spaceballs was made with nothin' but LUUUV, baybeh~!
So, that being said, if you're a die hard rockabilly fan and have no sense of humour, then these pages aren't for you. However, if you have no sense of humour, then maybe ocmics jsut isn't your bag to begin with. If that's the case, I hear there's a real swingin' club downtown with a super strict strict dress code you can go and look cool in! Watch the hair, cat!
Hahaaa... but I kid :P

So, next week I'm gonna be in Los Angeles at the Comikaze Expo. I will be there reppin' with my friends at Anime Lane. Come check us out! We love you!

Also! In December, I'm aiming to go to Sac-Con once again teamed up with my all time partner in crime, Ratgirl!
Rumour has it Jhonen Vasquez will be there. I wanna see if my hero is as big of a dick as they say :P
Perhaps I'll make a fool of myself! I'll make sure to get the raw, uncensored footage to you somehow if I do!

Other talking points. I can't remember if I already mentioned this, but Dave the Punk rock Cat vol. 1 is officially back in print. I think it's been back in print for a month now, but I never made the announcement... yet somehow I've already sold 10 :/
I love my fans, what can I say? :)

Here's something that really DOES need a spotlight though!
So I got Dave Shirts now!
Here's what they look like!

Want one? Well you certainly CAN HAZ! Check it out HERE!!!
I only have one design up so far, but will be putting up more soon!

That's pretty much everything that's going on in the land of Para~Somnia land recently. See you all at the Cons! ^____^

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 24

2011-10-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

This... was a frustrating page to do, to say the least, but rewarding none the less.
My mind has been elsewhere recently, and doing comics has just not been the first thing on my mind. I was so scatterbrained this week, that I drafted and nearly completed two pages before this one... but then realized that I hated them. This happened once before during the time I've been working on this book, on Page 18.
In either case, after two failed attempts, I sat down at my desk (which is literally the WORST place for me to try and draw, it is RIFE with distraction), and FORCED myself to decide on a concept and finish it. I managed to do it, and am really proud of the result.
I had a hard time trying to draw the Wrangler jeans though. Not that jeans are hard to draw, but making them identifiable as Wranglers. I sat and stares at images of Rockabilly fans forever trying to get the lines right. Next week I get to learn to draw pompadours and jutting fringes. That should be fun.

Looking at my page count, I am seeing now that I might not be able to fit in all the stories I wanted in this book. I don't wanna go above 32 on this one, so that means I have 8 pages left. I'll do my best to make them good ones.

In other news!
Did you guys know I have a T-shirt store on facebook? It's totally true!
CLICK HERE to check it out!

I only have the one design so far. I am wondering what other designs might work on a shirt. Do you, the fans, have any suggestions? Like I said, I've been really flighty and distractable this week, so coming up with news ideas has been hard.
But yeah, the T-Shirts are there! There will be more to come, mos def!

Other things: I will be in LA with my pals at Anime Lane at Comikaze Expo.
This will officially be the FARTHEST I've ever traveled for a Con. Look at me, all taking big adult steps and stuff.
I almost went to Vegas over the summer, but that trip fell through due a lack of table availability. THIS show is totally locked in though! I cannot wait for this trip. I don't usually enjoy driving long distances, but I'll be with my three best friends the whole way essentially in a "caravan" of cars (two cars).

If you're in the LA area, come to the show, check us out, see what we all about! ;-)

Official Abyss Teaser

2011-10-11T01:23:00.000-07:00

Well, the time has come. I've finally put pen to page WRITING thing thing. This thing that's been in the "planning stages" for well over two years.

I am hoping to have chapter one mostly done before the new year. Or at least done enough to the point where I can start uploading.

Be aware of this event!

Also, another thing to be aware of. Coming soon this week, Parasomnia comics will be moving! AGAIN! I managed to keep a webby-site going for more than a year this time :D

It will be posted here when the move happens officially. We are looking at "parasomniacomics.com" and/or "knavemurdok.com"

Either way, when it happens, it'll be a big deal.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 23

2011-10-04T00:11:00.000-07:00

End of story story arc one! My god, that was 23 pages worth of bullshit!
There is more coming, don't worry. I haven't resorted to the "Arabian Knights" method as some sort of sick, twisted cliffhanger! you will all be getting your money's worth on this book.

So! The Berkeley show was a bit more stressful than I wanted it to be.

They sent us an email something like a few days before the actual show saying akin to "surprise! you need to pay MORE money to get into this thing, even though you totes already payed! u mad bro?"

I guess the venue was not aware at the time that hosting a comic show meant that the place would be crawling with PEOPLE! so they freaked out and insisted that all exhibitors needed to pay an additional "insurance" fee in order to cover whatever horrible mishaps might have befallen us and out precious collectables.
For those of you who are not familiar with the "behind the table" side of these kinds of things, a fee like this is totally unprecedented. I've not once had to pay an insurance cost in order to show my comics. This outrage is compounded by the fact that no insurance fee was ever mentioned in the paperwork we signed to get the table in the first place, AND they waited until the show was basically on top of us before taking the time to mention it to us.

Me and Trish were so taken aback and befuddles by the whole thing that she suggested that we simply bail out and get a refund for the table. I did not disagree with her.

So we bailed, or so we THOUGHT! The very next day, we got another email, saying something tantamount to "LOL we changed our minds! No insurance fees, come on in, yer alight!" I guess a significant amount of the vendors decided to follow suit with me and Trish and opt out of a con that was going to spring surprise hidden fees on us. I mean, what is this, a cellphone contract circa 1999? I've heard "No Hidden Fees" so many times now, the words have lost all meaning! When there ARE hidden fees, it's almost considered an attack! An affront to my very way of LIFE!

It's like how when you're a kid and you get chicken pox. After it's over, your parents assure you "it's okay, you'll never get it again!" You go on living your life, believing that this accursed itching will never again rear it's ugly head.

...but then it did!

and then it was like "s'okay guy! just kiddin', no chicken pox! LOL!"

SO! Long story short, we wound up going to the con ^_^

It was certainly no A.P.E., but it was nice and chill, and I think that's exactly what I needed, nice and chill.
I would go again... IF they do schedule it on top of A.P.E. again next year.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 22

2011-09-24T03:17:00.001-07:00

Guten Tag! How is everyone? Good? Awesome, alright! I'm so glad!
So Dave the punk rock cat is back on the move. The Gang of Four/Billy Squier Band story arc is coming to a close, and it's taken up more than half the book! The last issue of Dave, the main story arc was only 12 pages, and here we are at 22! Mein Gott!
I had originally imagined this as being a shorter Dave book, but that no longer seems to be the case. Also, the October deadline is out the window. I don't know WHEN this big bitch is gonna be finished, but i am forever chugging away at it. As much as I am enjoying this book, I am really anticipating finishing it. I have so many projects I've been working on on the side that I really wanna show you guys! the time is not right yet! To make up for my tardiness in new page updates, I WILL however have a special surprise for all of you in the following days. Some stuff I'm really proud of that I just cant keep secret anymore. Stay tuned, damn you! god help you if you don't!
In addition to all of this, I have another con I'm attending next week in Berkeley, my FAVOURITE CITY! :D
Anime Destiny, check it izzle.
http://www.calanimedestiny.com/
Last con of the summer.
Summer is over :(
I know, I know...
But what a summer it's been! Right up there with summer 2010, I've had two awesome summers in a row. I am a lucky little cartoonist.
So after Anime Destiny, I'm gonna do a write up of ALL the cons I've attended this summer. I've really been dragging my ass on this, and I need to do it, I NEED to!
As Ken from Legendary Brands once said "knave murdock is a good guy but he is too successful and busy ..to be hanging out and posting everything on every site".
He spelled my name wrong, he also didn't capitalize anything... but that's cool, he is ALSO successful and busy.
Which brings me to another point. The conversation I was having with him where this point came up had to do with me re-designing my website, as well as my entire online presence. He gave me a lot of really good ideas, and he did it all in less than 5 seconds! So this is yet another project I'm gonna be working on. As such, I'll need to commission the expertise of a web designer. Who shall answer the call?

On yet another topic:
December is coming.
And you know what THAT means!
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Remake, and Dir en Grey in San Francisco.

oh... and Christmas, I guess.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 21

2011-09-16T00:36:00.000-07:00

Dang, it's been more than two weeks. I am sorry guys, I am sorry, this should be getting updated every week. I am having a HELL of a time! A lot of this, I'm sure, has a lot to do with the fact that work is sorta exploding. Days I used to have off, I don't have off anymore. It sorta sucks. Also, the time that I HAVE been using for drawing, I've been getting really sidetracked into all these other projects. Last Sunday I drew something like five pages of a comic I don't quite wanna show you guys yet... but I DO wanna show you. Just... now's not the time... not YET.
Dave, for some reason, is not holding my attention like it used to. This is what happens when I have too many ideas. Usually I am good at focusing on a project, but this summer, yeah... not so incredibly much.

I do want to finish Dave, lord almighty how I wanna finish Dave! I even have storyline plotted out for a third volume after this one wraps up. Obviously it's not ideas I'm running short on, it's motivation. I am just a lazy mofo, and I need to not be.

I apologize if this page looks a lil' sketchy. I, being the genius that I am, left all my pens and markers at Mills College when I went to go visit my friend last weekend. Yeah, I'm a winner. I don't make trips up to Oakland as often as I used to, so my pens are still up there. I lot of the filling in I did on this page was digital, which I'm not THAT proficient in... but what I'm attempting was simple enough to not fuck up. Either way, I certainly like the page, so why the hell shouldn't you??

So... Anime Destiny is happening in Berkeley in October. I coulda SWORN I was gonna be there... but I guess all of this has been called into question... for some reason.
I wish that peeps who ran cons were on toppa dey sheeit more often! I think we're probably good, but we'll see. If this falls through for whatever reason, all it means is I can go to A.P.E. the first day instead. So, not a huge loss, just a hassle :P

Either way, I PROMISE a page on time next week. I am too lazy.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 19 and 20

2011-08-30T23:25:00.000-07:00

So! Dave is back! I am cracking the pages with renewed vigor, because I sold out of Dave YET AGAIN at the J-Pop summit! And not just of the regular Dave books, but the big floppy Alternative Press Expo versions as well! I am OUT OF DAVE! Right now the only place you can get him is at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco! Hy, you should go there, guys! Go get some comics ^^

But aye aye aye, what is there to say? J-Pop summit was outrageous. I am a poor little sunburned Knave at the moment because of it, but at least I had the time of my life. So many cute little gothic lolita girls is pretty dresses, so many wacky bands! Some of which were really excellent, some of them will haunt my nightmares till my dying day.

But now is September, a time of rest. I thought I was going to make it to S.N.A.F.U. Con in Reno, but it is not to be. It's just as well, all this conning has made me weary. I was never a huge fan of travel anyhow. September will be my month of rest, all that's going on are the two MC Frontalot shows in the area, and I have a friend coming form overseas. I'm gonna see her new baby!

October 1st will be Anime Destiny in Berkeley, and then the 2nd will be Alternative Press... which I don't have a table at, but will try to make it to anyway. There's also one in Fremont during the holiday season that I really wanted to look into. I guess you get a free artist table if you donate a toy to charity or something... which is totally doable... I have lots of toys I can donate :)

Either way... details on this will be discussed as stuff occurs in my face.

The good AND bad news is that since I don't have a table at A.P.E. I am under no pressure to rush the finishing up of Dave #2. Good for me, bad for you guys... I'll try not to drag my ass too much :D

No new page today >:(

2011-08-25T00:17:00.000-07:00

I am sorry guys! I have no excuse! This week, hell, this MONTH has been so ridiculously busy, and in what little time I've had off, I'm just so lazy... setting pen to page has been getting very difficult. Hell, keeping my attention on any one thing can be difficult. Most of what I've been doing are Abyss sketches, which are not really in any good condition to scan and show -_-
What I have instead is a scan of the poster the Cartoon Art Museum made for my appearance last Saturday ^^

Isn't that awesome? I'm not too sure WHO at the museum put it together, but I am very pleased with the choices they made on how to showcase me and my art on the poster. They picked some of my favourite stuff :D

The event itself was amazing, to say the least. Met so many cool and friendly people there, mostly just random folk who wandered in off the street and saw there was a thing going on. So few of my friends could make it, which saddened me. Some were going out of town, others could not get out of work, it's okay, shit happens. It's all good because this is no way my LAST appearance at the museum. Apparently, they love it when artists come in, and said they'd love to have me back sometime. When? I am not sure. But someday. I will inform everyone when it's happening.

In the mean time, if you're in the SF Area and you don't have my books yet, they are TOTALLY for sale at the museum :D Go getchoo some! It helps me out, AND supports the museum! What more could you possibly ask for? A sandwich? Well that's just selfish! Sandwiches are easy to make, you can do it yourself! You're already getting a comic out of the deal!

Speaking of things I am doing, this weekend I'll be at the Jpop Summit, again trailing alongside Ratgirl of Ratgirl fame.

There will also be an Anime Convention in Reno this September called S.N.A.F.U. which I'll be attending with my good friends at Anime Lane, NOT to be confused with the Anime Lane at the J-Pop summit! I know, it's all very convoluted and weird, but bear with me, it will make sense in the end.

Siiigh, I have been to a con or an event pretty much every weekend this month... and there's no sign of stopping. There's something going on in Berkeley at the beginning of October... and then A.P.E. after that. I probably won't be making it to A.P.E. in an official capacity. I'm like, 30th in line for the wait list... I need to jump on that shit so much sooner -_-. I'm still GOING though! It's too fun an event to not attend. It's just as well, there was no way I'd be able to finish Dave #2 by then anyway. I have too much story in mind to do it all in less than two months.

I've also been putting off my con reviews. mostly because so many of them happen so fast. I think when they're all done, I'll just have one big review for the whole summer ^_^

Well, I still feel bad about not having a page ready for you guys... so here's something else to stick in your eye holes.

This is a sketch I did for my friend Amanda for her birthday... even though i was super late getting it to her.
Been watching lots of Sailor Moon recently, so it's naturally wormed its way into my sketching subject matter ^_^

See you all next week.

Abyss Stares Back - The Featureless Expanse

2011-08-17T02:27:00.001-07:00

More Abyss related art coming atcha!
So this is the Featureless Expanse, this is a locale, or rather a realm, I should say, in the story. As the tension builds and the strain on poor Mathilda's psyche grows tighter and tighter, there will come a time when she will simply snap. The Featureless Expanse is the result of that mental breakdown. Whether it's a real, physical place like a true Lovecraftian tale of mental anguish or more of a symbol for mental breakdown like from Pink Floyd: The Wall.
Either way, the inclusion of this scene was very much inspired by the urban legend "Suicide Mouse". If you have ten minutes to spare and some good nerves, check out the video, be sure to read the description to know some of the story behind it.

I am still most definitely working on Dave #2. I have decided it will be done by October, and make its premiere at Alternative Press Expo, just like Dave #1 did last year ^^

Now, you'll have to excuse me, once again, I've been up way too late.

It's Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All Time

2011-08-09T00:14:00.000-07:00

So I'm back from the con, or cons, rather. Kin-Yoobi Con and Hyper Con, back to back. Two little ass cons, but they blurred together and formed one regular sized con in my mind. I'd go into more detail, but I DO have a con review page now, so I should save it for that. to my dismay, a lot of the pictures I took did not turn out as well as they looked in the tiny preview screen. So to everyone who I told you could find your picture on my site... I am sorry, not all of them made the cut :(

So let's talk about this picture, shall we?
So obviously this is Finn and Jake from Adventure Time, but who is that mysterious character in the center? He is certainly terrifying. That, my dear boy is none other than Tyler the Creator. I know it's not exactly PC. Tyler has sparked some badass controversy, I would say it's even HELLA badass controversy. That is how you can tell I am from the bay.

Anyway, Tyler is known for his grotesque, sacrilegious, anti-femininie and sometimes even homophobic lyrics. But little to people know there is another side to him, an adorable cartoon side. Listen carefully through that newest CD of his and you will start to realize how much this guy loves Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.

So, this sketch was inspired, and I coloured it during Hyper Con. I was pleased that so many people understood the reference.

Dave... Dave is still out there. I've been really struggling with the next page because it involves a very large and involved concert scene. I am considering making it a splash page just so I can fit in more detail. Also, I don't really do splash pages, and would love for this to be my first. Either way, I will try and get it to you guys soon, it's just become so easy to get sidetracked, especially with the cons going on.

Another thing I feel I should mention, I'm gonna be in a museum.
Yeah, THAT finally happened.
And it's about time, too!
I've already told all my friends and loved ones, but it's not enough!
I want word to spread far and wide about Knave finally getting his deserved recognition ^^

So if yer gonna be in the San Francisco area around August the 20th, come see me at the Cartoon Art Museum :D
http://cartoonart.org/
It's not on the events page yet, but it is coming. I will be there and so will my art. Come see me and make a big deal out of it, because the more folk I manage to attract, the more they'll want to see of me ^^

So anyway, that's the short version of this week and how nutty it's been. Tune in next time for more!

You Shouldn't Have Done That

2011-08-04T03:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry this took so long. I've been having a hard time focusing on Dave because I've been so hyped about Abyss. I've also been having one hell of a busy week.

As you well know by now, Kin-Yoobi Con and Hyper Con are this weekend. Am I ready? no. Am I anywhere near ready? Hahaha, not whatsoever ^_^ How will Knave survive?

I tell you what I AM ready for! the 20th of this month, I'm gonna be exhibited in the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco! Can you believe this shit? It totally happened out of the blue, no warning, nothing. I got the email about a week and a half ago, apropros of nothing at all. I had been schmoozing and dropping cards there for awhile, but it never seemed like any of them really ever knew me, or knew my work, At least not enough for them to think it'd be a good focus for an exhibit! But they did! and now I'm on my way! I can't even focus on the cons, which i know is a bad thing, but whatevs. Call me irresponsible.

So this! This page I've uploaded. Mathilda is aiming a gun at the sky, and the sky is full of teeth and eyeballs and gnarled gimpy arms and huge angry tentacles. Dare I say, this may well be the endgame of Abyss.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Zorbo. you know how Zalgo is like a parody of Cthulu? well Zorbo is a parody of Zalgo. We are opening too many windows! This is all getting so confusing! Either way, I'm too tired at the moment to get into a lot of detail... but rest assured, it's awesome.

Later on, after Hyper Con is over, I'll do a proper press release for my appearance at the Cartoon Art Museum.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 18 (Take 2)

2011-07-25T01:06:00.001-07:00

So I took another look at the page I posted last week. This very seldom happens, but I was really not feeling it. I go through several drafts of a page before I decide what to put on the site. I was all about this page when I was drawing it, but at the same time, i was also feeling kinda shitty. I've been battling ... SOMEthing, I dunno, some sort of sickness... and I was feeling really out of it when I was finishing last week's page. Bottom line, I took a second look at it, and knew I could do better. So here it is! I suppose if I was to go with the continuing theme of music terminology to describe what I'm doing here, then this would be "Take 2".

I don't know why sometimes Dave has paws and sometimes he has fingers. I dunno why he has 4 fingers sometimes and 5 fingers other times. A lot time ago, I remember seeing old, old video footage of Walt Disney being interviewed about his new creation, Mickey Mouse. One of the interviewers asked him why Mickey had only four fingers. Walt, very bluntly answered "because he's a cartoon, not a person." I've always remembered that, I dunno why, those words just stuck with me. As much as I've always believed that cartoons deserve to be held among the echelons of "high art", I know that cartoons also lend themselves to a degree of elasticity that other art forms do not. I take it seriously, but I also don't. I can't put it in any better terms than that.

So let's hear it for Dave, or as they know him in concert halls across America, "The Beer Bandit".

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 18

2011-07-18T00:27:00.001-07:00

Taking a break from the trauma inspiring madness of Stick Man to bring you more of that Cat you love to love. I've been feeling kinda ill recently, and thusly, haven't been drawing too much. I actually just finished this page mere hours ago so I could present it to you. This means I'm officially out of buffer for Dave, which means I'll need to work my ass off double time to keep on schedule! Yay!

I was kinda hoping that I'd have this book done by the time I got to Kin-Yoobi and Hyper Con, but that's seeming like it's gonna be an impossibility. Realistically, it's looking more like the newest issue of Dave the Punk Rock Cat might most likely make it's debut at this year's Alternative Press Expo :) But that's jsut a prediction. It might be sooner than that.

I've also been occupied with plenty of other stuff.
Remember awhile back, me talking about being on the writing staff for an up and coming teevee show? Well here's your first glimpse at the fruits of our labour.

This show is gonna be massive when it hits guys, so get on now! There will be plenty of more awesome teasers, and exclusive content coming up, so do me a solid and subscribe! Thanks for watching :)

In the time I've been taking to recouperate form whatever the heck has me so tired, I've been reading lots of other comics. Have you guys seen or read "Milk and Cheese" by Evan Dorkin? I am so amazed how blatantly Jhonen Vasquez ripped off this formula when he created JTHM and Happy Noodle Boy. I mean, I suppose Vasquez was unique in the sense that he attempted to make mindless killing into a cerebral and supernatural story. Dorkin has no allusions to the fact that what he's doing is, in essence, entirely mindless. Yes, he is trying to make a satirical statement about society in doing so, but we as the audience know that it's 90% cheap laughs and maybe 10% message. What Jhonen did was basically make up own character, gave him the exact same M.O., and then gussied it up a lot of teen angst inspired intellectual blocks of text to which MOST of the JTHM fanbase said "tl;dr".

Don't get me wrong, a huge part of my development as an artist. It was basically the only non-superhero comic I read as a kid (I count the Ninja Turtles and Sonic the Hedgehog as Superheros.) My style basically developed the way it did because I copied what I saw in anime, and copied what I saw Johnen doing, and then melded the styles best I could. Maybe that explains why to this day I still have such a hard time getting my human anatomy correct!

Slender Man to Stick Man

2011-07-11T02:15:00.001-07:00

So as you all know, Dave the Punk Rock Cat has been my main focus, but that doesn't mean I've abandoned Abyss Stares Back by a long shot. This story and my ideas for it seem to continuously evolve, sometimes in very real game changing ways, sometimes in merely cosmetic ways. This is my most recent cosmetic change. I wanted the recent internet urban legend "Slender Man" to be a central theme in this story. I felt comfortable doing so, because Slender Man doesn't really belong to anyone, and as such, many, MANY authors, film makers, and storytellers alike have their own take on Slender Man and his mythos. I was at first, comfortable, with following in their footsteps. However, more recently I've had more of a hangup on making these characters seem more original. Since I draw Slender Man a lot, and since he looks a little different each time, making that happen wasn't so difficult.
I'm not gonna lie, i know that this character is very much still Slender Man, but he's MY version of Slender Man. As such, he even has a new, Knave given name. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome, The Stick Man.
What makes Stick Man any different from Slender Man other than his mere appearance? Well, let me tell you.
Stick man is made of wood, he actually comes from the trees. Not in a new age, hippy bullshit sort of way. Stick Man is very much a malicious entity with the ability to invade your dreams. In addition to that, he can also enter your mind and either corrupt, or flat out erase memories. If you are too persistent in their attempts to get to the truth, The Stick Man is perfectly capable and willing to end a human life. The Stick Man is an entity employed by the Daemon "Zalgo", as a way from keeping the human world blissfully ignorant of the nature of his existence, which is to erase any semblance of sanity, order, and convention from the minds of every living creature.
The Stick Man is sort of like the Darth Vader to the Zalgo's Emperor Palpatine.
Stick Man does not speak, and the Stick Man cannot be reasoned with. Even being near the Stick Man can cause a human bodily harm, as well as a fair degree of mental anguish.
The Stick Man's other abilities involve a seeming sense of omnipresence. He can be summoned if it becomes known that a human being is aware of him and his existence, or Zalgo and Zalgo's existence. The same applies to many other agents of Zalgo, which I'll elaborate on at a later date. The Stick Man also has the ability to stretch his limbs to impossibly lengths, as a means to pursue his victims' physical bodies. The Stick Man is approximately nine feet tall, and yet, no one seems to notice his presence... except for Mathilda Milhouse Weathersby, the main focus of the story :)
So that's the long and short of it (pun intended), that's the skinny (pun again is intended). Feedback is, as always, appreciated.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 17

2011-07-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

Oh my God! He's finally getting in! He's even taking the time to give a little "eff you!" to the peeps who prevented him from getting it. I realized too late that I didn't put in the girl at the will call counter with the squirt bottle... but there wouldn't have been room anyway. Either way, he's totally in. There is more though, don't worry none about that, I'm not gonna cut the story short just because he actually made it inside! Also remember that this is Dave the Punk Rock Cat, and leaving it off at one story is not his style! He's a rambling, old cat, he's got TONS of stories in mind!

This is considerably longer for a main plot in Dave history though. The last book's main plotline took 12 pages to tell, this one took 17. Hell, even before I was putting Dave into book form, his longest stories were only 3 pages. Does that mean I'm becoming a better storyteller? Or am I just good at adding fluff? :P

I've been flashbacking a lot recently. No, that doesn't mean I'm on drugs, I'm stealing a reference from the end of the Fight Club movie, when Chuck Norris finishes his long and elaborate flashback sequence, which is the movie and then segues into the final act. At that moment, Brad Pitt jokingly says to him "flashbacking, eh?" as if his character is aware that he's in a movie. This is interesting, because this isn't the only time the characters break the forth wall, but it's the first and only time in the movie that they reference, albeit subtly, that they know they're in a movie.

That has nothing at all to do with what I was going to say, however. That was a whole 'nuther tangent there. I was gonna say that I'd been flashbacking, and realizing how much my comics have changed. I feel like I do this a lot, because when you do a webcomic, you are kind of forced to confront your back-catalog on a weekly basis, if not more often. But it's been hitting me more recently, especially with the dramatic success I had with Dave while I was at Fanime, vs. my somewhat moderate success I had with other comics before. When I first started doing the whole comics thing with any amount of seriousness, my mission was to fill the hole of dark and moody comics that seems to have been left unfulfilled when Jhonen Vasquez became a professional royalties collector. I still want to do dark comics, hence my attention to the "Abyss Stares Back" project, but darkness has changed so much when I was a kid, or at least, being successful at it.

In the mean time, Dave the Cat is a good way for my hold my place as a cartoonist, while at the same time, being able to tell some decently dark stories, but with a comedic overtone to 'em. Plus... people love cats! I learned this hard, hard lesson at Fanime when I fucking ran out of books to sell.

So, I still strive to create that next generation of genuinely disturbing comics. The mean time though, we must keep our hearts light :)

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 16

2011-06-24T22:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry this one is late, guys. I lost track of time. However, I think this might be a happy little accident. Updating on Fridays makes more sense, so I'm gonna try and stick with it. I have s many schedule changes that stem out of sheer laziness, I'm like [adult swim]. Ha! Zing!

So you know what it's like when you see an idea so good that it pisses you off that you didn't think of it first. Yeah, that's how I feel every time I read "Tales Designed to Thrizzle" by Michael Kupperman. I am infinitely jealous of that man's ability to turn sheer and utter nonsense into something witty, droll and clever.

Kin-Yoobi and Hyper Con are still looming dangerously on the horizon, yet at the same time still manages to seem so far away. Like many cons, I am sure it will be here before I know it. Are you guys going? You should totally go. All the info is on the Events page: http://parasomniacomics.blogspot.com/p/event-calendar.html
Go check it out! Help me sell out!

But how is life outside of the comic world? I don't really keep a regular blog or anything, and I HAVE talked about my real life before, just not often. I guess it couldn't hurt.
I am in fact working two jobs now, the record store and my friend's anime company. I haven't moved yet, but I'm hoping to soon. Seems like a plan that was really cut and dry in the beginning has mutated out of control. I am not certain how long everything can remain all up in the air like this. All I know is, we've been talking about moving for several months now. First it was supposed to happen in May, then it was supposed to happen in June and now we're looking at August... oi vey, as they say. There's also somewhat of a girl in Knave's life, but I seem to have a penchant for extenuating circumstances. She lives about an hour away, and as in the same boat as me, where she could be moving away any day now :P
The really crummy part is that we've only had one, really good successful date, and we keep talking about another, but no one has the time to take off. I think it will happen, I hope it will, at least.

In the mean time, it is summer. We had a rough start, it rained during Fanime, but now the sun is out and it's sweltering. I honestly couldn't be happier. As unpleasant as the heat can be sometimes, I much prefer it to the cold and the rain. The sun makes me cheerful, and the heat means I can go swimming. These are facts.
The weather must reward us with the sun still being out in November, and wait till at least December for the crap weather to start again.

Other news: Frontalot is back in SF this September.
http://frontalot.com/index.php/?page=info
If you Bay Area nerds know what's good for you, you'll be there.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 15

2011-06-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

Not unlike the two dark figures in the last panel, we are rounding the corner of this particular chapter of Dave the Punk Rock Cat. Next week you'll get to see who they are, and how Dave finally gets inside that concert! I figure I've strung you guys along enough.

The girl in panels 2 and 4 is designed after someone I used to know :P I am not certain how well she'd take me turning her into a total bitch in my comic pages, but rest assured, the actual girl is actually very sweet.

Like last week, there is not much to say, comic wise. My life has taken a very busy turn, in which I don't get to work on drawing nearly as much as I used to. I work two jobs now, which keeps me busy through most of the week. It's summer, so all my friends who aren't done with college yet wanna hang out now. Also, awhile ago I was talking about moving, well that's starting to look more imminent. I suppose we'll see, eh? Either way, rest assured that the pages will keep on coming, i'm not gonna neglect Dave.

Also, remember that this August, 6th, 7th, and 8th will be Kin-Yoobi Con and Hyper Con respectively. I will mos def be there, and I hope to see as many of you there as I possibly can. will i have this book done by then? Hmm.. I suppose we'll see, won't we? :)

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 14

2011-06-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

Ol' Dave is at it again!
I know a lot of you are probably getting anxious about how this story is gonna move forward. So is the mouse, apparently! Remember? Back in the beginning? He was totally chasing a mouse! woah! See, I did it again! Last time with the bum, and now with the mouse. Is that my thing? I don't even know what you call that, so can it be a thing if it doesn't even have a name? I dunno. From now on, whenever people decide to tell thier stories in this way, where it's obviously being narrated, but it goes on for so long that you begin to forget who it's even being narrated TO, and THEN there's that silly little reveal of "hey! remember this character? He's still here!" then then call it a "Knave Murdok reveal". Finally, I have something to compete with Wilhelm and his scream!

So I said last time that I sold out of Dave the Punk Rock Cat vol. 1, well worry not, because new ones are on their way! July, hopefully. So get your mouse button clicking fingers ready to hit that order button, because baby, they're on their way!

I don't really have much else to say tonight, in the way of comic-ing and stuff. The next cons aren't until August, so I have lots of prep time. I'm STILL feeling too lazy to upload the pictures from Big Wow, and I'm just tired in general. All that's really going on is Florence and the Machine this Sunday, but that's not comic related... yet... ^__^

Bottom line is, Knave is pooped. But not so pooped that he can't keep giving you that cat that you all apparently love so dang much. Yessir, things are looking for for that darn cat.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 13

2011-06-01T16:18:00.001-07:00

So I am back from Fanime, which seems to have hit me like a ton of bricks. A tsunami of bricks, if you will, has just washed over me, in as much as bricks CAN wash over someone, or something. It was actually pretty sweet, just really tiring, I'll get more into it in my Con Reviews section, along with some pictures.

One thing that I WILL talk about that happened at the con was the stunning realization I came to. Dave the Punk Rock Cat fucking SELLS! I ran out of his books at Fanime, straight up ran out! There's none left! What started out as a mere distraction from what I thought of at the time as my bigger story (Blood Will Tell), became a phenomenon!

I guess I didn't see it, or didn't want to admit it at first, because I was so proud of Blood Will Tell, but when I come home form a con with 20-ish each of each volume and ZERO Daves, well... one is forced to consider one's plans of action.

I suppose a lot of it has to do with the demographic as well. I mean, this is Fanime we're talking about, and Dave is a sarcastic talking cat who goes on funny adventures. What about that doesn't appeal to the Fanime crowd? Even though it was somewhat unintentional, I am really glad it happened in that way. It also makes me glad I am about tits deep into my next Dave book ^^

I still wanna work on Blood Will Tel, and all the other stories I've gotten lined up, but Dave will probably continue to be my main focus, for now.

Once again, i can't help but thank my good friend Steve for being such an inspiration for this character.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams Page 12

2011-05-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

...And we are BACK with the CAT!
These past few weeks have been exciting, and they will only get... exciting-er as the days go on. I just got back from Big Wow Comic Fest. For all it's flaws, it was a really successful con. I will go more in depth on it in the "Convention Reviews" section.
That reminds me! Take notice, there is a "Convention Reviews" section up at the top of the site now, along with an "Events Calendar" which you can use to track my every move.... at Cons at least.
The most important change I want to make all you lovely people aware of is in the shop ^^
ALL of my comics are back in print! ALL OF THEM!
This is the first time, since I've had this site up, that all three have been available at the same time! There are "special offers" available to anyone who wants to buy all three.

I think i finally have this thing down about shipping overseas. I know a lot of you Para~Somnia fans across the pond were having trouble before. Those times are OVER now! Place and order and your comics will be shipped THE VERY NEXT DAY! WOOT!

Those are all the major changes I've been dealing with. SUPER looking forward to Fanime. If at all possible, leave in the comments or hit up my facebook to met me know if you'll be there.

Let's talk about this comic really quick.
So poor Dave has been abandoned by his groupie friend. Obviously she doesn't care about getting him in, she's just there to bone rock stars.

What do you think about that?

How does it... make you FEEL?

I feel like things like gender roles have been getting discussed around me a lot.
I say "around me", because I happen to think I have some pretty far out opinions on the matter, and I know for a fact that not many people would agree with me. So when I get on the subject with someone, I tend to just sit there and listen to them talk more than I actually chime in.

Either way, it was this talk of gender role that inspired this comic.

I feel like the general consensus among people, among rock fans in particular, is that groupies are no better than prostitutes. Starfuckers, as Trent Reznor puts it, people to be looked down upon, even pitied.
Yet, in my mind, the reality is very opposite.
Here we have the woman, who is obviously displaying her sexual powers, and she carries home free entry to a concert as her war trophy.
I am sorry, but I do NOT feel pity towards an individual who can pull that off. On the contrary, I am in awe, and a little jealous. That's not to say that if I had a vagina that I'd use it in such a way, to each their own. All I'm saying is that someone who CAN do it, that person is anything but a lowly whore.
Sadly, we've all grown up in this society where we can find something wrong with ANYTHING that a woman can do well, whether she be a politician, or is sneaking in the back door at a sold out show. Lindsay Lohan is such a great example, because she was such a public figure, and everyone took such great fascination with her so called "downfall."
Sure, she did some drinkin', she did some druggin'... tries it in the butt one or nine times (quote stolen form Sarah Silverman). But can't we all agree that through all the turmoil, she emerged a better person for it? Not that I'm advocating drugs or alcohol (I am sort of advocating anal sex...), but think about where Lindsey is now, vs. where she WAS. We went from Avril Lavigne photo copy... to a GUN TOTING NUN in "Machete"! Granted the Drugs and alcohol were probably less cause and more symptom of the massive Disney Media Machine (DMM) trying to shove her into the mold of the modern-day Disney Princess. If you were any kind of semi-interesting person, you'd probably go on a bender or twelve as well.
The question you have to ask yourself is... Do you even WANT the old Lindsey back?? o.O

But anyway yeah.... this all... relates to comics somehow... I'm sure...

Abyss Stares Back - Cover?

2011-05-17T23:39:00.000-07:00

So I've been really distracted lately. I've been kinda taking off with this Abyss Stares Back idea and as a result, have been somewhat neglecting my Dave the Cat pages. I swore I wouldn't do this, but I'm SO doing it anyway! If only there were more hours in the day... and I was less distractable :P

So lemme kinda explain where I'm going with Abyss.
You all saw the pages from before, with Mathilda Weathersby in the asylum, right?
If not, here's some links
http://parasomniacomics.blogspot.com/2010/10/abyss-stares-back-page-1.html
http://parasomniacomics.blogspot.com/2010/11/abyss-stares-back-page-2.html
http://parasomniacomics.blogspot.com/2010/11/abyss-stares-back-page-3.html
http://parasomniacomics.blogspot.com/2010/11/abyss-stares-back-page-4.html

Well, I'm pretty much going in this same vein. But with a few difference.
I had my first draft set in a very "Lovecraftian" world, was even thinking of having the plot head towards something Cthulu-ish towards the end. I became somewhat disillusioned with this direction when I was reading over some of my rough drafts, and realizing that none of it was actually scary. Most of it was just weird.

So I went on a soul searching mission to discover what it was that actually DID scare me. I've become so desensitized to fear by scary movies and whatnot. Translating that into comic form seemed to pose a challenge that I was not certain how to tackle, so the project went on hiatus.

Recently however, I've been very much losing myself in these online half urban legends-half memes. You have have seen or heard some of them, Zalgo, Slender Man, Smile Dog, Ben Drowned, etc.
If you've no idea what I'm talking about, go look 'em up! That is, if you have the marbles!
Either way, needless to say, I've become inspired. I am re-organizing my story structure, to incorporate many of these elements in an attempt to write a story that is not only original, but also, genuinely disturbing.

In the mean time, I have all these page of Dave the Cat I haven't even scanned yet... so geez... I'm gonna hafta get on that :( Sorry guys!

Abyss Stares Back - Page 1 - Draft 2

2011-05-05T01:58:00.000-07:00

So!
I just got a new computer.
Not really a new computer, an old/new computer.
As such it was better than my old one, that poor ol' box was shaking on its last legs.
This one... isn't so much better... but it IS better, and that's the point.
I've been struggling with it a bit, the previous settings did not make a lot of sense.
I don't have a lot of things up and running yet, such as my scanner or my image editor... so I was scrambling to find something already scanned and edited to upload, as it's been awhile.
So here we go, a second draft of Abyss Stares Back.
It's very timley as well, because in my time between Dave the Punk Rock Cat pages, I've been toying with and re-tooling Abyss.
I think a huge part of the reason I was having such a hard time with it was because I grew up watching horror movies, and as such have desensitized myself. So I'd go over my plot synopsis for Abyss and realize to myself that it wasn't scary, it was just weird. I wasn't going for weird, I was going for SCARY! Scary is so hard to do in comics, since you're turning pages and can pretty much see what's coming anyway.
So I did a little experiment. Over the past few months, I've been testing my own fear tolerance. Conventional horror really doesn't work on me anymore, so I delved into the deepest, darkest realms of the internet, looking for inspiration in all the wrong places :)
After months of scowering the pages and short films of some of the most twisted minds online, I think I've pretty much figured out... exactly where I'm going with this story. I'm still thinking that it will start this way... although I am still not overly thrilled with this art...

It will have to do until i can get my scanner operational again :)

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 11

2011-04-15T01:59:00.000-07:00

I told you all that this would happen. I had... foreseen it...
So yes, Dave is back! Sorry for the two week hiatus, I had a lotta catching up to do, and not a whole lotta time to do it in, but everything is better now! Well... almost everything at least!

I have a (partial) schedule of events planned out, that I'd like to share with you all now!

May 21st - 22nd is BIG WOW COMIC FEST
http://www.super-con.com/

May 27th - 30th is FANIME!
http://www.fanime.com/

August 6th is KIN-YOOBI CON
http://www.gzronline.com/kinyoobicon2011.htm

August 7th - 8th is HYPER CON
http://www.wix.com/hyperbooster/hypercon

September 2nd - 4th is SAC ANIME
http://www.sacconventions.com/

I will be in ALL of these places, with my dear friend Tricia of Ratgirl Productions. She has been, hands down, THE most helpful person to me and my comics recently. Aside from maybe Maddy, who pretty much created my first website for me back when I was just starting.
Tricia however has really been kicking my ass, and getting me to cons! Which is great, because for some odd reason, I lack whatever sniffing ability is required to sniff these things out. I basically knew about Fanime, WonderCon and Alternative Press, and those were all spread out throughout the year! Now there's four more JUST THIS SUMMER that I'm going to! Amazing! Thanks Tricia! You rock!

The only concern is that the majority of these are "Anime" conventions, which, while I love anime, I feel slightly out of place selling at... because I'm not form Japan... nor do I even emulate the anime style. However, anime fans love the whole talking animal thing! I actually sold fairly well at Anime Overdose just this past winter! i just need to learn how to adjust my salesmanship for this new crowd.

Will I have a new book ready for May 21st? God, I hope so!

Killer vs. The U.S.S. Enterprise

2011-04-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

So once again, no new Dave.
As with last week, I am taking a break, so I can build up a buffer; and with Wondercon having punctuated last week's update to this week's, not much buffer got done. Now I wish I hadn't scanned EVERY Catman sketch page at once, but what can I do about it now? Huh? Well I'll TELL you what I'm gonna do sucka! Here is a picture of my buddy Killer (not her real name) dueling the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC 1701 D aka "The one form the Next Generation). This was a request from Killer after she had a few at our favourite bar, and she was utterly amazed not only that I took the request seriously, but finished it within a few minutes of her asking. I am also very proud of that fact.
As you can see, they are fencing, and the Enterprise is gripping the foil with a huge arm that is popping out of the deflector dish. From here, it sorta looks like Killer is supposed to be gigantic, but I assure you, she's a normal sized person. The reason the picture appears the way it does is because of the crazy perspective. Killer (in the foreground) is clashing swords with The Enterprise (way off the in background). This also means that the sword The enterprise is wielding is gigantic in scale, to be able to be as far away as it is, and still reach the tip of Killer's.
By the way, in case you hadn't noticed, Killer is also drinking form a cup. This is funny because she seems only slightly distracted form her cup in order to parry The Enterprise. What's in the cup, you might ask? Well isn't it obvious? Earl Grey, Hot! That's the reason they're battling! Killer totally stole Picard's tea, and now he'll stop at nothing to get it back! Sure, he could just replicate another cup, but it's the principle of the thing, dammit! Sadly, Killer's lured Picard into a game he cannot win! D:

So i'm gonna do my best to get back on track next week with the Dave updates :(
I dunno what's been keeping me so distracted lately. sure work has been busier, and there's cons on the horizon, but years ago I was able to keep up a weekly update schedule with busy work schedule and cons at the same time. What it all boils down to it I get really tired when I get home, and even though that's perfect time to update, I usually just wind up goofing around anyway. Also, I think I have way more of a social life than I used to, back when I started this comic, so that's another huge factor, I'm sure.

I am taking a stand, here and now, declaring that I WILL get my updates back on track! I will have a buffer, and I will work more on Blood Will Tell in the down time!

THIS
I
SWEAR!!!!

Catman Sketches

2011-04-01T01:43:00.001-07:00

Deciding to take a break from Dave this week. Partly due to work, partly due to prepping for WonderCon and also because I desperately need to catch up on my buffer :(
To use terribly geeky term, I've been "top decking" for awhile now.

But let me tell you about this little guy, Catman :)

I know, i know, I seem to not be able to help but draw cats. Honestly, cats are the funniest animal, I would go as far as to say they're the BEST animal! Remember that episode of Futurama where Fry was trying to buy a present for Leela, and he winds up in the pet shop? He asks the shop owner "What's your best animal?" and the owner says "Best? Well that's a matter of opinion!" What he SHOULD have said was "Cats! Cats our our best animal, and also, THE best animal, period!"

So yeah, I think cats are funny, but apart form that, they're also interesting to draw. Over the years, I've probably drawn over a dozen comics which feature feline main characters. Dave the Punk Rock Cat was easily the most well received, but before that I had done a short lived strip called Zao the Cat about a hellbound demon imprisoned in a cat body, attempting to wreak havoc on the planet but always fouled by his kitty form. Before that, I had Oswald the Oddball, which evolved from a comic series that I did when I was just a boy called "Weirdo the Cat", which was co-created by my friend Jia Liu, who left the comicing world to become a teacher.
Even before that, when I in grade school, I did a whole series of comics called "Small Bear" about a whole world of talking animals, and cats were features heavily!

So as you can see, Cats are a big part of my cartooning history. Catman is exactly what he sounds like, a superhero with a cat theme. However, in the vein of Batman and Spiderman, Catman doesn't exactly DO all the things that cats do. I mean, when you think about it, what does Batman do that a bat also does? He doesn't fly, he doesn't suck blood, he doesn't use echolocation to find his prey. The only thing Batman does that is bat-like is have ears and a cape that sorta looks like wings, oh and he's black. Spiderman shoots webs, but that's out of a device of his own design. He also climbs walls, but that's something a lot of animals can do, not exactly exclusive to the spider race. If I had it MY way, Spiderman would eat the criminals he catches in his web, and have eight arms!

In short, Catman is a parody of animal themed superheroes in general. He is also a parody of the modern day advent of the "behind the mask" archetype that has been crawling its way into superhero literature ever since Watchman in the 80's, and very eloquently retold in this most recent decade's "Kick Ass".

Catman is just a boy who used to pretend to be a superhero when he was playing with his friends. In his teen years, he randomly decides one day to revitalize the character he created in his youth, and become a real live crime solver! His day to day life is somewhat auto-biographical, but his adventures will be fueled by sheer wackiness. One of his arch rivals will be Kanye West. In a botched attampt at time travel, Catman tries to stop Kanye from interrupting Taylor Swift at the MVA's, and finds a lifelong enemy in him, who he will battle on and off throughout the series.

I have not gotten any more specific than this yet, but I am thinking this is a project I will be taking up very soon.

That's just what I need, another project :P

I can never be satisfied with what I'm working on, but at the same time, I think Dave very much needs a rest after this book is done. I've not forgotten about Blood Will Tell and Abyss Stares Back though! you will be seeing those before you see Catman! I promise!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 10

2011-03-23T02:21:00.000-07:00

Few days late, sorry guys!

So! Maybe things will work out for Dave after all, right? Yeah, I'll just let you believe that, until next week.

There really isn't much to say this week! which is funny, because i'm usually so darn chatty. The down side of which is of course that I tend to repeat myself a lot. That's something I'd like to avoid on these blogs ^^

Wonder Con is a mere week and two days away!
I'll be there, but in no official capacity. I don't have a table, but I DO have a seller's permit. I'm sure I'll be able to get away with some beneath the table tom-foolery. How awesome is that?

As awesome as Wonder Con is, it's May I'm really looking forward to.

System of a Down, Big Wow Con and Fanime!

Big Wow is now official for me, I have my table.
Fanime will be very similar to Wonder Con, I'll just be hangin' around, doin' mah thang! But... that is what Fanime is for anyway.

System of a Down though... well that's just System of a Down! A concert I've been wanting to see for five years. I don't wanna blur the line between this and my music blog, but the last time I saw System was somewhat of an unpleasant experience, because I lost a ring at the venue that my ex-fiance's father gave to me. Despite the show being incredible, i was pissed off at the loss of the ring, and the general attitude of most of the attendees. System is a damn god band, but since they first came around, it seems like a lot of their fan base is made up of snotty, self righteous teens who believe themselves to be br00tal because they're way into this nu-metal band. That can be a difficult attitude to deal with, especially in a small venuse filled with more people than it was probably meant to hold :P

Despite that, I am very much looking forward to this show :)

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 9

2011-03-14T02:52:00.000-07:00

I'm getting lazier and lazier, and as a result am up later and later finishing comics.
I'm also getting more and more particular about how I want my finished products to look, so that's been keeping me up even later. The unfortunate side effect is that I need to forgo a lot of my other projects, like my music blog, and also sleep.

I am however relived, because I'm managed to write myself out of my little corner. I was worried at first, because I thought the direction this story was going, was going to end it prematurely, and after only 9 pages, that's not something I was prepared to do.

I know real writers have these things called outlines, so they know ahead of time where the story is headed and how many pages it will take up. I don't believe in outlines, or planning anything, or for that matter, about doing anything real. My outline is in my head, dammit! I am riding this comic like a rocket ship into a wormhole! I don't know where it will take us anymore than you do. Granted I have a vague idea of the course, but these controls are shaky and the wormhole in uncharted! A lot of this would make a lot more sense if I were writing a Sci-Fi comic, but you will have to do with the punk rock cat for now!

I'd like to note: lots of girls again in this comic, get used to it, you'll be seeing girls and girl's legs for many pages to come!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 8

2011-03-07T01:56:00.001-08:00

As you can see, my preoccupation with wanting to draw girls has insidiously found its way into DtPRC. Be prepared for at least 3 pages of super cute rock girls! :D
At least I'm not just throwing them in there, they have a place in the story and serve to be more as mere eye candy. They even deliver some decent comedy. You will see, in the weeks to come.
So, WonderCon! You got your tickets? I've got mine! I don't have a table, as I've said, but I WILL have comics on me and I WILL be taking "donations".
This is sort of a legal grey area, I suppose. i mean, I HAVE my permanent business permit now, so while it may not be technically "illegal" for me to sell my comics, would it be in violation of any con rules? As far as I know, you can't sell there if you don't have a permit, but what if you don't have a table at all? Can I be a mobile merchant? I don't know, I'll sell comics until they threaten to kick me out, I guess. I think I'll be too fixated on just the aspect of being there, and having fun. WonderCon is too fantastic to be working anyway.
Last WonderCon was such a goddamn experience, but that is mostly due to the people I was there with. Sadly, most of those people are gone now, either moved on to greater experiences, fell out of touch, or are totally dead to me. I am pretty convinced though, that this time around will kick as much ass. I've met so many badass comic peeps since then, not a thing can possibly go wrong! It's a fact! ;-)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo who Leapt Through Time

2011-03-02T04:36:00.000-08:00

In the absence of a new Dave comic, I present you instead with this! My silly little mash-up that I've been talking aobut for months.

I wish I could write this as a whole comic, but I'd have no way of releasing it, I'd probably be getting slapped with lawsuits from at least two sides, probably three, considering the delicate nature of the rights to the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.

I've been drawing with a mouse a lot more recently, at first for a piece I was commissioned during AOD, and now this. It sucks, it's terrible, I hate doing it, but I am getting better at it, I admit.
Drawing eyes is the single most frustrating task... but after hours of agonizing, I've been able to create eyeballs I'm proud of :D

Dave will return next week, but this week really got away form me, time wise.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 7

2011-02-24T19:58:00.001-08:00

Dave the Punk Rock Cat is back with a roaring vengeance!
I like that this woman has a spray bottle handy, just in case a cat tries to sneak in. I guess in the NY club scene, you need to be prepared for anything. I'm jsut glad I had the opportunity to draw a girl, I never do anymore! It's all the time with the cats! She is actually modeled after a friend of mine, who as of yet, doesn't even know I've put her in a comic ;-) Let's hope that goes well.
The "War" shirt is there for no other reason than to date the scene, and set the tone of the club and the character. I myself don't listen ot a ton of War, even though I really enjoy them. i had to look up the logo on a friend's iPhone in order to recall the specifics of the logo.
I am very much aware that this current incarnation of DtPRC is a lot more slapstick than previous incarnations. I am not sure why I'm doing this, it's just what's calling out to me at the moment. When I was at AOD with my buddy Patricia, we got into a conversations about the choice of the cat as a protagonist. What it boils down to for me is that cats are the funniest animal. They do funny things like chase things, jump on things and sometimes miss and freak out. This, also coupled with the fact that they're adorable makes the cat the perfect comic protagonist. If I can successfully combine those aspects of cattitude with the punk rock mentality, then i think Dave will take off as a character.
Speaking of AOD, that was a rousing success. I did a little better financially this time around than I did at Alternative Press, but I think it was mainly due to the sheer amount of people the con attracted. It was strange I've never seen this kind of setup for a comic convention before. It has three main floors, which sounds like a lot at first, but all the floors were really small. The first two floors were artist's alley, the floor above that was the dealer's room, and off to the sides were all the panels.
I don't wanna badmouth the con, because it was actually pretty great, but the dealer's room was absolute shit. I saw the whole thing in about 5 minutes, and there was seriously nothing interesting for sale. The Artist's Alley was where it was at. The whole two floors oozed with awesome creativity. Seated next to us was a couple that sewed custom beanies, I've already forgotten what their company name was. Off to the other side was a guy who created awesome T-Shirt designs who called himself "Crazy Go Lucky." You can find his company's facebook page here. If you look through his pictures, you can see a shot of me and Patricia at the Ratgirl Productions booth. I'm inadvertently hiding behind some random passer-by.
Aside from the minuscule dealer's room, the only complaint I have about AOD was the fact that it seemed like everything closed down really early. Maybe my memory is jsut foggy, as it's been awhile since I've manned a booth at a con, but it was 5pm when we were told to clean up our tables, and that seems way early to me. A lot of peeps stuck around, despite the scheduling gods, but it was all for naught, since it seemed like the crowds had died down anyway.
All in all, a pretty good con. It took place in Japan Town in SF, which is a great setting. Got to meet all sorts of interesting characters thanks to Patricia, and partook in some excellent sushi.
As cons go, I give it 3 out of 4 stars.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 6

2011-02-15T18:36:00.000-08:00

Gah! where did Dave get the wallet from?
Where did he put it afterward?
Cats don't have pockets!
this is absurd! D:

...

Sorry for the late update, everyone. I got beat down by the lazy stick! :(
I've also been listlessly preparing for Anime on Display (this weekend).
I got my permanent seller's permit, proving that Murdok is for real!
Truth be told, there was not much to prepare aside from that, since for this one I am going along for the ride as opposed to leading the expedition. I will have all the regular books for sale, some stickers as well, some art prints, and if I get time I'll try and make s'more T-Shirts.
Mainly I've been busying myself with other stuff, ParaSomnia related and otherwise. I've goth my other stories working in the background, Blood Will Tell and Abyss Stares Back. I've also got my work with the Babel Records script keeping me pretty busy. we are now working on the 3rd draft of the first episode's script, the "ultimate" edition, as it were. We're going form the 22 minute format to the 45 minute format, taking all the best bits from the old drafts of script 1 and 2, and sewing it together with a more flowing story. A script writer's work is never done. They did callbacks for the first round of auditions already, and a second round is supposed to be happening really soon. I am really pleased with all the progress this show is making. Hats off to Cellar Door Pictures for making this all possible.
That's all there really is to share at the moment, Happy Valentines Day (belated), see you next week!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 5

2011-02-07T00:31:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the madness of page 5.
I will warn you now, form here on, this story takes a turn for the goofy. This is Dave the Punk rock Cat if it were a French bedroom farce. Well, maybe not that raunchy, but there's just as much slapstick involved. Need I remind you, that all of this is based on a true story, but it is merely BASED on it. There are many cattish liberties I need to take, in order to maintain the character. But bearing this in mind, know that this situation did happen, in real life at one time.
On the subject of true stories being the inspiration for Dave, there is a bit of a crisis on the horizon. I am in all likliehood moving soon, as in moving away. Amoing many concerns, this means that I will no longer have direct access to Steve, the man on whom Dave the Punk rock Cat is based, and from whom all the biggest inspirations come from.
Steve is cool with me continuing the character, my worry is that doing it alone, the character will lose some of his original charm. i am not certain, I suppose I'll see what occurs, burn the bridge once I've come to it, as they old saying goes. Either way, it is a concern of mine.
Various conventions are coming soon! I cannot hype this enough. In a mere 12 days I Anime On Display, formerly Anime Overdose, but what can you do?
http://www.aodsf.org/
In a mere 3 months is WonderCon
http://www.comic-con.org/wc/
THEN in 4 months is Big Wow Comic Fest!
http://www.super-con.com/
and then the VERY NEXT WEEKEND is FANIME! ^_^
http://www.fanime.com/

I will be at all of these places, come find me, because I love you ^o^

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 4

2011-01-30T03:03:00.000-08:00

Hello again! Knave Murdok here! ^_^
Last weeks update was extraordinarily minimal, and I apologize for that. I've been under a tremendous amount of stress, this past week has been remarkably busy, and I haven't been doing the best job of managing my time.
Here's a little update on everything that's been going down. So, I've talked in the past about my television project, yes? The terrific peeps at Cellar Door Pictures have been working hard on "Babel Records", a television series created by my good friend Aaron that I've been helping to write for.
Production is chugging happily along, but we're still very much in our beginning stages. We just got through with three days' worth of auditions, and it's left me tired and frustrated ^_^
Here's some of the info on Cellar Door and Babel Records

Cellar Door's Main Website
Babel Records on IndieGoGo

If you're the facebook type, Cellar Door has it's own fan page for you to join! :D

And here it is!
There's one for Babel as well!

Bear witness! For every new fan we get, we inch ever closer to much needed funds! At the bottom of each main page, you will also find all kinds of info on how you can help make this production a reality ^_^

Aside from this, I've also been working my ass off on ANOTHER blog! A MUSIC Blog! It's not like... critical review or anything like that. I've always wanted to write about music, but I wanted to be unique about it. So here's my schtick! This is a blog about music history, BUT, it's also about my personal experience with the music that I write about! So in that way, it's not unlike an online journal, but told through songs throughout the ages.
You can see that one HERE :D

Now! Back on to comic related news!
The convention circuit is upon us again!
I will be exhibiting at Big Wow Comic Fest (formerly "SuperCon") as well as at Anime On Display (formerly Anime Overdose).
I will be showing off with my dear friend Tricia, of Ratgirl Productions. She writes a comic about a talking rat, I write a comic about a talking cat! Why SHOULDN'T this work out??

I will be at WonderCon, but I won't have a table this year. WonderCon is too fun, I can't be working there! It's unjust!
I think the same may be true of Fanime, but I'll do my best to get a table there, strictly on principal!

I also have another piece of comic related news that I desperately want to share, but i CAN'T Not yet! It's too super secret! It's so totally exciting and when I'm able to speak on this subject, I am certain a lot of you will be crapping your pants right off!
Just bear with me, children! The time will come!

Until next time, please pimp those links out to everyone you know! If all goes according to plan, I'll be seein' ya all on the TeeVee! ;-)

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 3

2011-01-22T02:42:00.000-08:00

Here is the proof, the proof that I was not lying when I said There would be more Dave the Cat! I literally have nothing to say right now, today has been really rough and i kinda just wanna not write right now. Enjoy the comic! There will be more to come shortly.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday To You Part 3

2011-01-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

Sorry again for the late upload. I am having the worst goddamn time trying to keep up with an updating schedule. This is very unlike me, I USED to be a very punctual kind of person. I remember sweating over unfinished pages, making sure they were done and looked good so that I could submit on time! I think I have shifted my priorities in such a way that I would rather give myself the time to make a page look excellent (by my own standards, admittedly) than to rush a page out in time to submit in 7 days time.
If I had more time in general to work on pages, this wouldn't be a problem, but work has been kicking my ass recently, in more ways that one. Either I have way too full a schedule and little time for anything else, or they've left me almost completely off the schedule, and I am reduced to grinding poverty :/
This is why it's so important for you (the reader) to help me decrease my dependence on foreign means of employment, and buy my comic! :D
You can do so HERE
You can also help by patronizing my services at Comic Art Commissions
I work cheap (relatively).
So anyway, this is the last of the filler you'll have to deal with for awhile, I'm not gonna go all Naruto and Bleach on you. I have many pages prepped for you guys now. More Dave the Punk Rock Cat is coming your way, I've been working diligently on Abyss Stares Back, and Blood Will Tell has been receiving some attention as well :D
My hope is, if i work on them all simultaneously, I will finish them around the same time, and be able to present them to you one after the other, nice and convenient.
So yeah, be on the lookout for amazing things, and help me make some moneys.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday To You Part 2

2011-01-05T21:30:00.001-08:00

Here you are my friends, have s'more of this delicious FILLER! MM-MMM Good! and I HELPED! Honestly though, I jsut got over my recent artist's block, I've been putting out some pretty good stuff, or at least, stuff that I am proud of. I still however feel very lethargic, and I know for a fact that this has to do with my sleeping patterns over the past several months.
Honestly, I can't sleep at a reasonable time, it kinda sucks! :O I go to bed when the sun starts coming up and then when I get up during the day, I feel awful. Making myself draw during these times has proven to be exceedingly difficult. I do well when i'm tired, but I guess not THIS tired. I will... try to fix this.
So, it looks like tables are full for WonderCon this year, phooey. I guess I'll just have to go there and... HAVE FUN! or terror! Whatever shall I do? Well, I have my forms all ready for Big Wow Con, a Con I've never been to, but I'm willing to try it out. Chances are, i'll be there with my good buddy Tricia Peterson of Ratgirl Productions. She draws a comic about a rat, I draw a comic about a cat! Seems like it should work out, right? RIGHT?
Regardless of what you think, fun will be had.

A Very Merry Un-Birthday To You Part 1

2010-12-28T02:40:00.001-08:00

It's been stupidly busy holidays, so I'm uploading some classics for you.
I know some of you have seen these pages before, but a lot of you have NOT!
This is sorta what I did before I had a coherent system in how I did comics, before I was concerned with things like books and publishing and conventions. I did short little stories, usually spanning 1 to 3 pages. This particular story is about a somewhat obscure piece of fact about Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. did you know that chances are, he wasn't even born in December at all? Yeah! It's somewhat well known that December 25th is Christmas only because it shares it's roots in some pagan traditions (winter solstice), but there's way more behind this story than we care to think.
You know what other awesome extraplanar badass was once December 25th? You know who I'm talking about, right? Yeaaah, you know his name! Mithras! Yeah!

Wait, you've never heard of Mithras? Well, he was a very popular deity within the Roman Empire in between the 1st and 3rd centuries. He was known as the God of the Sun Disc, which was different than the God of the Sun, who was Helios. Where the distinction lies, I am not certain. Either way, Mithras had 12 disciples, and was most noted for having died, and then rising from the dead. Sounds kinda like a certain long haired hippie God a lot of us might be familiar with! Here's the M. Knight Shymalan twist! Guess when his feast day was? you got it! December 25th! BOOYAH!

Long story short, down the line, assimilation turned all of the existing Roman holidays into Christian holidays, changes were made and suddenly Jeezie Chreezie landed December 25th. The last cult of Mithras disappeared early in the 4th Century, so no one really made that much of a fuss.

We've been living this lie ever since, a festive lie, but a lie none the less.

I'm sure Jesus doesn't mind though, I mean, we;re talking an all knowing, all seeing, ever present, and all benevolent son of the creator of the universe here, right? He won't get pissed if we get his birthday wrong... by 6 or 7 months... every year... for two thousand and eleven years straight... right??

Great Scott!

2010-12-21T00:45:00.001-08:00

The holiday season will claim me yet, as its latest victim.
I had a new page of Dave the Cat ready for you, but I couldn't get past the penciling stage, work is at its busiest and what little free time I have I've been spending on having WAY too much fun! Me and my buddy Dani took ASSLOADS of pictures to help kickstart her modeling portfolio, then it was her birthday so we went to see TRON, which was ... good... I'll write a serious review of my facebook eventually.
Then, there was an EPIC holiday shindig at the record store I am a slave at, I danced until my heart stopped. Later on the week, my good friend, and ex-collaborator Courteney came back into town form Japan (yes, I am very jealous). I spent the evening with her and her family, watched some movies, had some epic food and had a very beautiful pre-Christmas gathering. THEN I had the face the evil of the Saratoga hills! The downhill part... at night... in the RAIN! It was terrifying... but I survived.
So yeah... I haven't had tons of time for drawing :( I am sorry, but consider this a placeholder until Dave the Cat can continue.
Happy Holidays, and Merry Eclipse-mas!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 2

2010-12-09T19:43:00.000-08:00

I am trying my best to get back onto a Friday schedule for this comic, and plan on doing so via a rigorous regiment of strict procrastination.
So here's the curve ball for you, Dave chasing a mouse, reminding you that in all of his gritty, DGAF attitude, he is still very much a kitty cat. Perhaps that is why the concept of a punk rock cat works so well, because punks couldn't give a shit about you, and neither could a cat, it was a match made in heaven.

So what's going on now?

Well, a few things you need to be aware of.

Thing Number One:
In an attempt to rake in some extra dough, I've signed up for "Comic Art Commissions" a website where people like me try to rake in some extra dough... by doing comic art commissions. It's EXACTLY what the name sounds like.
You can find my public profile HERE
a Knave Murdok original is ideal for both home and office, and make a delightful holiday gift. Rates are reasonable!

Thing Number Two:
In an attempt to further broaden my readership, I've begun to upload oldskool Dave the Punk Rock Cat comics onto Drunk Duck.
I know this probably doesn't mean tons to YOU, because if you read this website, chances are you've read all the oldskool Dave the Punk Rock Cat Comics ALREADY, but if you were interested in reading them AGAIN, you can do so HERE

Aside from that, there is not a lot to report.
Have a happy winter, you guys.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat Kicks Out the Jams! Page 1

2010-12-01T05:16:00.001-08:00

Dave is back, as I promised he would be.
I apologize for the update being late, but there's been lots going on here, too much, I'd say. There are big changes in order here, and I'll be honest when i say I am in no way ready for them. I'll try to not let them get in the way of comics too much though.
So yeah! Dave! People responded to this, like a lot! Here's a little history lesson for you. I did Dave first as a doodle, and used that doodle to fill a place during a week when I had no comic prepared. This was back when I was still doing Blood Will Tell vol. 1, and THAT was back when I was still calling it "Another Place, Another Time." So anyway, Dave filled space for that week, but he got some laughs! It wasn't long before I was having Dave guest star every other couple weeks, just because I kept on hearing great stories from my friend Steve, and kept on figuring out ways to turn them into jokes, with punchlines. After that, the full fledged story was pitched. I culdn't help but think about the Simpsons, a giant phenomenon which spawned form little animated shorts that aired on a random ass variety show back in the day. Dave the Punk Rock Cat is FAR from phenomenon status, but he is my most successful character to date! And lo and behold, he spawned from nothing but a little doodle I did to fill time!
When you get right down to it though, isn't that all I'm doing with comics? Filling time? ;-)

Clearance Sale Updates!

2010-11-23T03:43:00.000-08:00

Blood Will Tell Vol. 2 is officially out!
All we have left are copies of Dave the Punk Rock Cat vol. 1
These are only just now becoming available outside of the comic convention circuit.
Help me clear out my back inventory buying up these il' guys, to make room for the new stuff!

Buy now at the shop :)
http://parasomniacomics.blogspot.com/p/parasomnia-shop.html

Abyss Stares Back Page 4

2010-11-21T23:30:00.000-08:00

Aaaand here we go! Final page of the much talked about rough draft of Abyss Stares Back! While I work on the final draft, I'll be uploading s'more Dave the Cat comics! you'll like these ones! It's more of the Dave you love with a mix of other chilling tales of the macabre and awesome.
I had a birthday, did you know that? Yeah, I'm 26 now. 26 and a successful cartoonist, how do I do it? Lots and lots of procrastinating, and sudden crashes, that's how.
So, there's some changes coming to Para | Somnia, in how I do business. My friend Sean, who is also my Kung Fu teacher has some people, some "investors", interested in my little comic empire. It's kind of frightening, territory I've never ventured into before, but I guess the short version is they'd be de facto publishers.
I've been trying to sell off my old inventory of comics to make way for the new ones we're gonna be printing out. It will be interesting, no doubt.
I'm sort of at a loss for more to say at this point. I've been sick, I've been having birthdays, I've been doing comics, I've been at school, I've been at work, I've been looking for a new job. I need a life, jeez.

Abyss Stares Back Page 3

2010-11-16T01:46:00.000-08:00

Abyss Stares Back, coming at you in full force. This page I remember having particular difficulty with. I had done one version with Mathilda simply grabbing the needle and wrestling it away from the doctor. A friend saw it before it was finished and simply said "what is she, super woman? isn't there even the slightest bit of a struggle?"
So here's version two, yes, there is a slightest bit of a struggle. I had at first considered drawing out a more elaborate fight scene that ends with her getting the needle, but I wasn't sure, to me that seemed like unneeded fluff. So I have one quick panel of struggle, and then a grab, what happens next... well... it's awesome :)

So you might have noticed a lot of comics are on sale now. Well, what I have left is on sale.
Guys... I really, REALLY need you to buy those! I'm in kind of dire straights right now, and that extra bit of cash could really help me get things going again. I have a show coming up in 5 months, and I want to have all new book printed out for them.
Right now, the shit job that I have aside from doing comics is completely fucking me out of decent paychecks, and I'm thiiiis close to broke. I'm looking for work elsewhere, but in the mean time all I really have is comics. I know a lot of you don't have Dave the Punk Rock Cat yet, aside from that, please, spread the word, tell your comic loving friends, i'm sure you have them. I need readership, and funds, desperately.

So that's the long and short of it.

I have one more page of Abyss to show off, then I might go back to more Dave stuff, since I got a lot of great reactions from that :)

See you guys in the funny papers.

The Para~Somnia HUGE FREAKING BLOWOUT SALE!!!

2010-11-09T14:43:00.001-08:00

Okay guys, here's the deal. I have a few leftover comics from Alternative Press and WonderCon, they're pretty much just sitting here :)
I am trying to clear out these old editions too make room for new books in the future.

So here's what I'm doing!

That's right, Blood will Tell vol. 2 and Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure!
BOTH of these comics... half price!
That's right $2.50 for as long as supplies last
This is also the first time Dave the Punk Rock Cat has been made available in print outside of a convention! ;-)

Purchases can be made at the SHOP

Remember that supplies ARE limited, I only have a few copies left of each and I WANT THEM OUT OF MY HOUSE! :D

Newer and better things are on the way, so grab hold to your peice of the past while you still can! ;-)

Abyss Stares Back Page 2

2010-11-08T00:31:00.001-08:00

I told you I'd give you more Abyss Stares Back, I promised to deliver, it only took me two weeks, but it finally happened! On the cartoonist to promises ratio, I'd say I'm ahead of the game.
I am, however, like the bullfighter who came before me, on the horns of a dilemma. When I first began uploading these pages, i made clear that this is a rough draft, and that I'm working hard on the final draft as we speak... literally, while I'm typing this this one hand, I am drawing Abyss Stares Back with the other... while also watching Metalocalypse... I am the king of multitasking, and I NEVER get my homework done on time! So here's the dilemma... i may have put too much effort into draft one, because now that I'm trying to replicate it, but better... I am finding that I cannot. This is a problem I ran into a long time ago as well, when I finished "No Tomorrow", the first comic that I ever finished, don't worry, you've never seen or heard of it... mostly because I'm a nobody, but also because I've never even attempted to publish it. "No Tomorrow" was the first comic I ever finished, it was 255 pages of pure comedic mayhem, and I love it to death. The thing is... I did it when I was in high school... and it REALLY looks like something that was drawn by someone in high school, not something I want the world to see. I've tried replicating it many times, with punched up artwork and crisper writing, but no matter what I try, and how many times I try it, I am never satisfied with it. I can't possibly capture the magic again. I haven't tried doing it again in awhile, it needs its rest, but here I am again... in the same situation with Abyss Stares Back!
Draft 1 looks like awesome magic to me now, and attempting to re-create it is frustrating me. So... yeah, I'll keep putting up the pages, and keep working on the new draft, but for now the future of Abyss Stares Back is in question.

This... Is... HALLOWEEN!!!

2010-11-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

Before I begin, I know I promised more "Abyss Stares Back" this week, but this came into my head, and I figured that the world needed to see it. I had a long moment of introspection before I put pencil to page on this masterpiece, and I asked myself a very important question, one that needed answering before I could do this. "Does the world need another "300" Parody?" The answer was a heartfelt, emphatic YES!
I looked around, I couldn't find this particular parody ANYWHERE! It seems so natural, doesn't it? this is SPARTA! vs. This is HALLOWEEN! Does that connection only make sense in my head? Probably.
I haven't drawn these characters in so long. I used to draw Jack and Oogie all over my notebooks in school, so the muscle memory is still there, but it's been a decade at least since the last time. I think I kinda got it :)
This reminds me, i need to do more stuff in pencil. Seeing this now, and also my APE sketches make me realize how much I lose when I go over in ink, and erase the remnants. Perhaps this marks the dawn of a new era of exploration of Para~Somnia, or Para | Somnia or Para.Somnia, depending on what kind of a mood I'm in. I should really settle on a permanent format for how I write this out.
Anyway, yeah, Halloween! How was yours? Mine was pretty boss. I am sick with candy, though :P
Apparently, so called "society" has deemed 25 "too old" for trick or treating. where is the justice, huh? Where is MY march? no matter, since I'm 25, I also have a job, and when you have a job, you can buy your own candy! Neat, huh? I even had a pillowcase to put it in. I got the most nostalgic blend of candies I could tink of. Tiny candy bars, smarties, caramel apple suckers, tootsie rolls and tootsie pops, each of assorted flavours, it was grand. On top of all of this, I had a quaint little movie party at my place with my friends, as we passed the pillowcase around, like a common floozy. Old age may have taken trick or treating from me, but it hasn't taken monster movies away, not by a long shot. This almost makes me want to have children someday, just so I can get that experience back, going out at night, door to door, in costume, totally awesome. The best part is, monster movies will totally be there when I get home and the kid is in bed, or he can stay up, and watch with me, I don't care, that would be okay. I'm gonna be the worst dad ever. :D

APE Sketchbook Pages

2010-10-23T17:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delays, everyone. The weeks leading up to and the weeks directly following a big convention like APE are troublesome. I had lots of work to do, lots of loose ends to tie up, and on top of that, lots more work piled on top of me after the fact. But here I am, I have a moment, and I wanted to show you all what I did while actually AT APE.
Granted a lot of it was set up, and then interacting with the crowd, but there were plenty of lull moments where it was just me and my sketchpad, and here is what I came up with. This is something I've been seeing more and more, especially at APE, people who make it a point to gussy up and publish their sketchbooks, which i think is a great idea. It's good for getting your work out there, in a more widespread sorta way, and it can make you a couple extra bucks on the side, ingenious. I am thinking i might compile all my sketches from the various books I've filled this year, and see if I can make anything cool and coherent with it.
So let's talk about what I have here :)
A lot of these are just sketches of frustration, because getting prepared for APE, and getting set up there was a fuck load of a frustrating experience. That's where the contorted hand and the giant eyeballs come from. For some reason, I have kind of an eyeball phobia, I don't like shit in, near or around my eyes. So when i get stressed, these people with enormous eyeballs seem to come out. The contorting of the hand and the limbs placed into impossible positions, that sorta self explanatory, coupled with the phrase "nothing stays where it's supposed to." The other portraits are jsut people that I saw at the show, the guy with the hat, the angry atheist girl, the man in the mask, they were all there. Sadly, none of them stayed still long enough for me to actually finish drawing them, so I filled in the rest with my memory and imagination.
Page two is just one big piece, as opposed to a dozen little ones.
As you can tell, it's Lady Gaga playing the Baphomet, a creature which represents opposites, pointing at the sun and the moon, wearing half black and half white. The hidden comedy of this piece is that the Baphomet was originally supposed to also be a hermaphrodite, (opposites, get it?) and since that's an urban legend that will probably follow Gaga for the whole of her career, I saw it as slightly poignant.
What is "All The Girls Waiting in the Line at the Bathroom" mean? Well, aside from being the chorus to a popular N.E.R.D. song, I also felt compelled to write it, as my table was positioned right across from the bathrooms, so i got to see lines form and shrink most of the day. But why is it "Coming Soon?" Who knows? Jaut wait and see ;-)
The third page, in keeping with the pop star theme is a portrait fo L:a Roux, and MC Frontalot, who looks like he's about mid body slam. I never finished it... never will!
Thanks for enjoying this installment of Knave's shitty doodles! Tune in next week for a much better episode! For now though... courage!
In keeping with the October theme, next week i will be posting another page of "Abyss Stares Back", so keep your pants on!

A.P.E. TOMORROW!!!

2010-10-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

Alternative Press Expo! It's tomorrow! And yours truly will be there in spades!
Just in case you've managed to dodge every single blog entry and link I've posted on the subject and have no clue what I'm talking about, check this shizzle izzle!
I will be at table 650B, so come check me out! I'll need all the support I can get :)

I do have a touch of bad news...

I was never able to get those Dave the Punk Rock Cat shirts printed up :(
Life got in the way a little too much, and I couldn't find the time to make it up to where the press is. Don't despair though! I will find the time after A.P.E. and will make them available via the website :)

I have some GOOD news to make up for that little hiccup though.
Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure is IN PRINT and will be for sale AT THE EVENT! WOOOOOOOOOO!

Some more bad news though... global warming is very real...

but some good news! I GOT STICKERS! WOOOOO~!

So! If you can't make it, then wish me luck, but if you CAN make it, then come by and show your support!
I'll have the books for sale, stickers of course. Some original artworks will be up for sale as well, so this is your chance to own a piece of Para~Somnia Comics!

Love you all to pieces.
Knave

Abyss Stares Back Page 1

2010-10-11T00:50:00.001-07:00

Funny is over with, your mind is now explosions.
Welcome to "Abyss Stares Back", my newest endeavor, a Lovecraft inspired thriller, laced with plenty of action, insanity and grotesque violence and adult situations.
I was worried at first that titling my comic this would grant me a reputation as a Watchmen biter, and while I AM a fan of the graphic novel, I'd like to remind everyone that "When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back" is actually a pretty frikkin' famous quote from Frederick Nietzsche, so... why don't you all go choke on that?
What I'm showing you here is a rough draft, I am still kinda working on the final version, but I am still very proud of these pages so I wanted to show them off anyway. On top of that, it serves as an excellent buffer while I flesh out this and a few other projects.
Things have been rough these past couple weeks. Prepping for A.P.E. never seems to be done, so much for haivng everything ready, yeesh :/
On top of that, school has started again, and keeping up with that as well as maintaining a work schedule and the social life that I've fought so hard for has been "rough", to say the least. I say "rough" of course in the context of "that's rough buddy" also known as "First World Problem" because I know, in my heart f hearts, that all of this shit is painstakingly trivial, yet I cannot keep myself from talking about them as if they were real, actual issues.
Sigh, so anyway, here's your glimpse into the future, more pages to come.
Also, please do be checking out my weird little extracurricular, non-comic project, my Lady | Gaga remix.

I have no idea why I even did this.
When I was a boy, I used to mess with my favourite songs' audio all the time.
This was before the time when releasing an instrumental and acapella was a commonplace thing. I kinda fell out of it... mostly cuz I sucked. But I dunno, I'm pretty proud if this one. I got all these Gaga acapellas from the singles, and I figured, shit, why not use 'em for something?

IS THERE A RIGHT WAY TO SPELL ACAPELLA??

RRGH!

Comics, yeah...

Today, This Happened

2010-10-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

So! Hi! Sorry for no update last week. Got 21 messages reminding me. Things have been, well, hectic? School has... not been working out. I dropped most of my classes, and am trying to re-sign up for new ones. It's been a bitch and a half, and I'm not even in the clear yet. Geez! On top of that, I'm readying all my papers for A.P.E., that is THIS MONTH by the way! If you are interested in coming to see me, my table will be 650B. I'm not sure WHERE that is in the Exhibitor Hall, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out once you're there. While there, you will be able to purchase a special edition copy of Dave the Punk Rock Cat Vol. 1, limited shit! There will also be some T-Shirts and stickers for sale, awesome :)

As far as what's coming up?
Well, as you may have noticed, it's October, and October can only mean one thing, fuckin... HALLOWEEN bitches! What does this mean for you though? Well, I've been talking a lot about "The Abyss Stares Back" and I think that this is the next project to debut. I have a five page preview ready for upload over the next five weeks, during which time I'll be working on the finished draft. I also have a Part 2 for Dave ready. Off time will be filled with these little biographical comics I've been doing. They're fun!

So anyway, yeah! Happy Halloween soonish everyone, and I hope to see you at A.P.E.!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 31

2010-09-21T22:32:00.001-07:00

So this is the end of the story huh?
No, not actually, spoiler alert, this is a false ending. I promise I won't write as many as there were in Return of the King, or DO I?
I am currently rushing to get this book finished, Alternative Press is looming, fearsome, like a giant whale. i am pleased, because I have a place to stay up in SF, which eliminated the tiresome commute from MV to SF, then back to MV to SF, then back to MV... instead I'll be going from SF to MV... and then when the con is all over... back to MV. Don't you see? It all makes so much sense! so much sense it must make... nooo seeennsssee!
Yeah, I dunno, I don't feel like I have tons to say today. I've started back at school this week and am multi-occupied, and on top of that, people are disappearing... mysteriously! Only to be replaced with other people, people who are REALLY ANNOYING! It's put me in kind of a lonely place, which seems to make sense, with the onset of autumn, and soon after it winter, the most depressing half of the year. I don't have anything to particularly be depressed about, I know this, but as the grey skies start to settle in, the temperature drops, the rain, it affects me ina terrible way, makes me realize just how big and lonely the world can be. The only distraction is my birthday and the holidays. However, while my birthday is often awesome, it only lasts a day, and the rest of the holidays can have their trade-offs. A.P.E. is really the only thing I'm really looking forward to, and that is gonna be a scheduling nightmare, I can tell, ugh!
Bah... Autumn!

Now That's Progress

2010-09-14T00:42:00.001-07:00

Hey now, this is different? do you remember when i used to do these comics all the time? Well, okay, maybe not all the time, I did one or two, they were fun. I wanted to make this joke with Dave, but it doesn't have anything to do with music, or cats, or ... well, pop culture as a general rule. SOMEONE had to tell it, and that someone had to be me, and MC Cheshire Grin. I actually stole the joke, from a rapper named Random, who Chesh knows, or knows by reputation, I have no idea. I dunno if he authored the joke, or if it's a widespread internet thing, either way, I'll just play it safe and say that the concept of the double meaning of the word "burn" as it applies to the Qur'an and CD-Rs was not a magical stroke of genius by me, I took that joke and told it this way... and that's what comedy is all about, right? Stealing jokes.
I have absolutely no shame.
I feel kinda bad breaking up the continuity of Dave the Cat, especially so close to the end, but I've been upholding a very fine tradition of 9-11 comics for... well.. okay, two years now, I've done a grand total of two completely tasteless 9-11 jokes, one of which involves a poke at the Muslim Holy Book. Why me? Because Marilyn Manson won't do it. That's right, you heard me! Manson feels A-OK ripping the shit outta the bible, but he won't touch the Qur'an! Probably because he doesn't want to be murdered. Rip up the bible and a bunch of snot nosed born-agains make a bunch of signs, or some hilarious youtube videos, and it's all comedy and peaches and gravy. Burn the Qu'ran? you get General Petraeus jumpin' down your throat, along with the FBI and the rest of the Army... and that's if you're LUCKY. If you're not lucky, you get death threats from radical fucking fundamentalist Muslims, or worse yet, assassination attempts, OR assassination successes!
It's weird that we all have this kinda disconnect between the Bible and the Koran. They're both highly revered Holy Books by major religions, but one of them is okay to destroy and the other is not. What's up with that? I would say we need some Christian suicide bombers, because most problems caused by violence can be solved by violence, this is what television has taught me. However, suicide bombers are a cliche now, it's 2010 for cryin' out loud, we need to think outside the bomb, i mean box! Here's my idea, and maybe this is a little radical, but hear me out, it's one of those "it's so crazy it just might work" kinda deals.
What if... everyone... just chilled the fuck out? Hm?
I know, it sounds insane! But just push that outta your mind for a second and think about it.
If no one cared if Holy Books got destroyed, then... it wouldn't be a big deal! If it wasn't a big deal, then people wouldn't make a huge spectacle out of it, and if it weren't a huge spectacle, there'd be no need for the Army, and the death threats and the what have you.
Marilyn Manson taught us that if you rip up the Bible enough times, eventually people will stop caring.
So what's the solution?
Burn LOTS of Qur'ans?
Draw LOTS of Muhammad Cartoons?
Sexy bikini girls washing a car with a burqa?
I'm not sure, I feel like I may be rambling... I guess what I'm trying to get across is this.
Religion is fake.
Science doesn't Work.
The world makes no sense.
Let's just have fun with it, okay?

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 30

2010-09-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

I showed this page off to a friend of mine.
She had already seen the page I had done where I did the Iron Butterfly cover, and had already commented on how good at looked. Her reaction to this one was "Wow, you should get a job designing album covers!"
Normally, I'd be flattered, because hey, album covers are awesome. But then after a few seconds of thinking, I said to myself "wait a second, all I've done is mimic album covers that have existed for years, decades even. Where on Earth can I get myself a job mimicking album covers? Seriously honey, I love ya to death, but that's just silly, you're silly."
Okay, well enough of my condescension, welcome to page 30!
I need to get working, it's goddamn September 7th! A.P.E. is a month and a week away, and this book isn't done yet. I have Page 31 and 32 nearly finished, I HAVE the cover, but not formatted properly, but no back cover. I also need to write my dedications. While I was writing this book, two of the people whom characters are based on actually died :(
Willy DeVille as you know passed on last year, leaving his band Mink DeVille lead singer-less. What I learned this week is that Malibruce, the long haired dude with the handlebars and the badass ride suffered a heart attack! This was relayed to me by my friend Steve, for whom Dave is based on. He got the call from Bruce's sister whom he hadn't heard from in years. They way he tells the story is that as soon as he heard her voice over the line, he knew something was wrong. Because according to him, as you get older, the longer periods of time you go without hearing from someone, the worse the news is gonna be. She wasn't gonna call him up and catch up, she wasn't gonna call him up and invite him to their 50th high school reunion back in New York, no, that's not how these things work. You haven't heard from someone in forever, you get a call, it means someone's dead. Sad, but true.
We can take some solace however, in knowing that Bruce died as he lived, doing what he loved doing, keeping rock and roll alive. According to Steve and other reliable sources, Malibruce was a party animal till the day he died. To me, that is a good way to die. I'm sorry he died, obviously, but I'm glad it wasn't cancer, or a drug overdose, or a shot liver or any other kind of shitty slow death that exists today. He literally partied until he he couldn't party anymore. He was like Slurms McKenzie from Futurama, except he wasn't being held hostage by an evil galactic corporation.
A good way to go.
So let's give a moment of silence to mourn Malibruce's passing, him and his stories live on in comics.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 29

2010-08-30T00:50:00.001-07:00

I can't believe this story is going on for so long. I really need to wrap it up soon, right after this little arc is the end of the book, I swear!
Nothing too much has happened recently, all my A.P.E. stuff is kinda prepared, just waiting on that. School is starting up again in a few more weeks, going to be spending this quarter focused on my writing, mostly because that's what I've found myself putting most of my energy into recently and that's cool. Aside from that, nothing really big comics related has been happening, a slow news week, as it were. My markers are runnin' kinda dry and I'm way too lazy to replace them, I suppose that' kinda depressing in a funny way. Mostly I've just been tired, doing lotsa stuff, and getting tired doing it, little projects, big outings, been to lots of concerts recently. I feel like a huge part of being IN the character of Dave the Cat is to rock out as hard as I can to as many shows as I can get tickets to. Has it helped my mindset? ?Yeah, has it given me more time for drawing? No! :P I can almost guarantee that this will all pick up again when school starts, and I'll be back to a few pages a day rather than a few pages a week, that's always how it seems to work with me. Other than that, I just need to get back to this mindless quest of where the hell my life is going. I seem to be splitting my time between so many different directions. Are the comics taking off like I want them to? Is the television writing project the way to go? Go into business with my friend? Keep going after the teaching credentials? I've always lacked focus, mostly because I didn't have anything to focus on, now it feels like there's way too much! Yarg! Oh well, I keep on drawin', through it all.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 28

2010-08-25T02:56:00.000-07:00

Hi again! Knave Murdok reporting from what seems to be the center of the sun. This heat has been absolutely BEASTLY! This is swamp ass weather, the worst. It's so hard to get things done like this, working, drawing, even sleeping is difficult. Yeesh.
On the good side of things, I've gotten my information packet from A.P.E., this gets officialler and officialler all the time!
So what od you think of my rendition of Santa Monica Boulevard? I've never been myself, but I seen it in movies, that is to say I SAW it in a movie! I think i did a pretty good job from memory.
On the subject of drawing things I have no freaking idea about, let's hear it for Willy Deville's re-appearance in Dave the Punk rock Cat. first time I drew him, I had no freaking clue what he looked like, so I looked him up on Google images, and found the ONE picture of him with long straight hair to work from. Of course after it was published, I was informed by numerous sources that I had "gotten it wrong." Thank god that version never made it to print, and it was a mere private embarrassment.
But here he is, looking a tad more accurate, and wouldn't you know it, today's his frikkin' birthday! August 25th! I'd like to say that I purposely delayed the posting of this comic to coincide with that event but the truth is I just wasn't done with it :P
But all that aside, Happy Birthday Willy, we miss you, keep on rocking. \m/ >___< \m/

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 27

2010-08-17T15:03:00.001-07:00

Welcome to page 27.
I can't believe how long this story has been going now! :D Usually I'd be wrapping things up at this point, but I've had a good long string of comedic events going for awhile, this book is gonna be epic when it's done.
So I talked last time about being accepted into A.P.E., but now it's officially official, because I mailed in my check for the actual table yesterday, you don't get more official than that. Had to overnight it, which was rough on the ol' pocketbook (damn me and my not paying attention to deadlines) as evident by my updating schedule.
Regardless of my tardiness, I am really going to enjoy this convention. The book will be ready in time, almost certainly. I always seem to cut these things close, I dunno what's wrong with me. I might find some time in the coming weeks to go up to the Foothill T-Shirt press to make some Dave the Cat, Blood Will Tell and just regular Para~Somnia Shirts, and I might go all out, purchase some sticker paper and do some rad designs ;-) I feel like I'm the at the center of the scummiest of all D.I.Y. home factories right now. "Here! Buy this shit I made in my house for almost nothing!" It's how I roll, ladies and gents. But the promise I make to you, the "Knave Murdok" promise, is that the shit that I make in my home that I'll make you buy will be only the tippest toppest quality of shit. The books are legible, you can read every word! The shirts? Guaranteed opaque, no one will be able to see your boobies through them. The stickers? They will goddamn STICK TO SHIT! That's the Knave Murdok promise, and you can take that to the bank! This is more airtight than a handshake from George Zimmer.

On a different subject, I've been contemplating my style a lot recently. When I first started this webcomicing stunt, I had a few sheets of computer paper and a black ballpoint pen, and that was it. Granted, I was in a much different place then, much darker and I feel like I've come far since then, as an artist, as well as a person, but I've also been reading a lot of my old favourites recently, like JTHM, Love and Rockets, Strangers in Paradise, Ghost World. I am amazed at what those artists were able to do with simple black and white. I've never been a colour boy, I was for awhile, but that's when I had someone else doing the colour for me. I am a little sick of the grey scale markers. They were fun for a good long time, but I think that when I start my next project, I might go full on stark black and white again. I love it so.

Speaking of next projects, after Dave is done, we have "Blood Will Tell part III" coming up, as well as the adventures of Mathilda Milhouse Weathersby in "The Abyss Stares Back" both of those will be heading your way this fall and winter, respectively.

I have a short preview of "Abyss Stares Back" in the form of some character sketches available at my DeviantArt page.

So this is me signing off for another week.
I love you all.
See you at A.P.E. ;-)

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 26

2010-08-10T03:06:00.000-07:00

I start this post of with good news! I've been accepted as an exhibitor for Alternative Press 2010! I just got my confirmation letter today! I just have some minor paperwork to fill, but it's pretty much in the bag. I have two months to prepare my table, get Dave the Punk Rock Cat finished and published, and then, I'll be jumping headlong into this vast, vast world in indie comics officially for the first time. i mean, I suppose I've already overcome the milestones of setting up a blog, publishing a few books and being at cons before, but I'm flying solo this time, this is the big one! I'm terrifyingly excited! I won't have to face it alone though, I'll be getting support from my best friends Johnny and Roxy, so it's not nearly as frightening. i'm so freaking excited ^^

But let's talk aobut this page real quick.
I was getitng somewhat bored by the monotony of this scene. As much as I enjoy writing the interaction between Dave and this behemoth of a customer, the drawings have been a little tough to slog thought. The reason I was looking so forward to this extended Dave the Cat project was because Dave's characters and scenery change up so often, so it's always fun and interesting to draw, but this scene in the record store has been pretty much the same. Don't worry though, the next scene is gonna be fun! :D
Another thing I didn't count on when I first started this project was how long it was gonna run. I was worried at first this book was gonna be significantly shorter than the last, but as it stands, it looks as if it will be a great deal longer. My loyal followers will be getting their money's worth with this one :)
Also: I need to finish making my Dave and Para~Somnia shirts! It's been rough to complete all this extracurricular stuff recently, life keeps getting in the way. This summer is not at all as I imagined it would be, since I've been spending MOST of the time working, and sadly, not on comics :( The upside is that I've been making lots of money, money to spend on things like Alternative Press... and thusly the vicious cycle closes in on itself, devouring its own tail, such as the Oroboros! Om nom nom, it says!

In either case, I'm looking forward to seeing you all at A.P.E., keep me in good thoughts.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 25

2010-08-03T01:12:00.001-07:00

I don't know where the heck my mind has been. Well, no, that's a lie, I actually do. I've been spending a disproportionate amount of time on so many other projects, and I fear that Dave the Punk Rock Cat is being pushed into the periphery... which is sort of the opposite of what I want, because Dave is the project that everyone actually SEES, while these other projects... are nowhere near ready for their debuts yet. I must strive to change this.

So what do you think of my Iron Butterfly cover?

I got into a conversation with a bunch of my friends while they were kinda watching me draw this, about how and why this album/song came to be named "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and what it means. The currently circulating rumour of course being that the song's actual title "In the Garden of Eden" (a piece of music trivia immortalized in the Simpsons Episode "Bart Sells His Soul.) was either misheard through a pair of headphones, or misspoken, through a heavily inebriated lead singer.

Which was it? We are not meant to know! It is lost in the vaults of Rock and Roll history forever!

This guy though, this fat guy with the big spikey hair. I've mentioned it before, but he sort of looks like Blanka from Street Fighter, right? I've also been told he looks like Murderface from Metalocalypse. I've been drawing this character for a long time, he usually has different hair, but his face and rotundness are always intact. I'm not sure why, but he always make appearances in comics as the guy you love to hate. Is it because I hate fat people? Yes. But that's beside the point, the point is, we all KNOW this guy. This guy who just... talks, despite his inability to communicate. His question may have been answered ten minutes ago, but he insists on formulating and re-formulating his thoughts over and over in an endless cascade of aural diarrhea, like a garbage truck of words tipping it's contents, and every single piece of trash lands directly inside your ear. I know many people like this, in my line of work I feel like I meet them every day, and I've had to endure this particular exchange on multiple occasions. That is why this sequence of Dave the Punk Rock cat is different, because it's something that happened to me, and not a story I heard secondhand. In the future, I'd like to implement more of my own stories into Dave the Cat, but the guy who initially inspired this character has this endless wealth of stories he keeps asking me to use, and I am happy to oblige him :)

Well, i suppose I'd better devote myself to another project for a week, until it's time to update again. I love you all, I swear!

P.S. I don't actually hate fat people.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 24

2010-07-27T01:34:00.000-07:00

A little late on this one, sorry guys and gals. More and more the rest of my life is seeming to interfere with my cartoonin'. Even if I can't update on the same day every week, I promise at least one update a week, at least! I suppose in the business, we'd call this a "filler page" in that it is not a page which moves the plot along at all, and basically serves no purpose other than a cheap gag. This cheap gag, however, much like most of the rest of Dave the Punk Rock Cat is rooted in some amount of truth. Note: by saying "some amount" that amount is eligible to be at little at 1% truth. Unlike most of the other stories encompassed by Dave the Punk Rock Cat, this one actually happened to me. It's not much of a story, basically I was at work, on my lunch, and a weirdo customer walked up to me and asked me a question. I explained to him that I was on my lunch, and he just sat there and watched me eat. Weird right? But like I said, not much of a story. I eventually told him to scram, and he scurried away, but that part didn't make the comic, things working out for the protagonist is seldom funny, unless the protagonist wants something funny, like a midget stripper wrestler juggler clown on a unicycle, juggling circular saw blades and a new born child, as he unicycles on a tightrope suspended over the grand canyon, WHILE he duels a unicycling samurai Abraham Lincoln, WHILE the tightrope is being burned from both ends, by Godzilla and Mecha Godzilla respectively... and all of this takes place on MARS! Hmm... I think I jsut dreamed up the plot for my next comic.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 23

2010-07-19T00:28:00.001-07:00

One of the main criticisms I receive when I'm busy being a show off and showing off my comics is often my lack of background. I confess, backgrounds are my weakness. When I DO draw them, I try to do either one of two things. Either I feature the background prominently, as to make it less of a background and more like scenery, or else I'll just draw an abstract pattern, of lines, or shades of gray. This page was different, because I really wanted to give the reader a feel for the kind of record store Dave worked at, and like most things in this story so far, it is modeled off real life. I think that I was successful in portraying Dave's store, although I am always loving to hear feedback from the gallery, even if it is "yo Knave, you suck."

I am anxiously chomping at the bit trying to complete this comic. It is nearly completed, i jsut need a suitable ending, something worthy of Dave the Cat! I will try not to reveal too much, but I WILL reveal one thing, the existence of a new character, ye tto be introduced, to the Para~Somnia library. No sketches exist yet, okay, well one sketch does, but it's hiding in the corner of a no longer valid Pathfinder character sheet, which probably got thrown out, but the point is, I still REMEMBER what he looks like! So sadly I have no image to show you, I'd like to introduce you to the concept of Rap Cat! He is either Dave's antithesis, or else a sillier form of comic relief to compliment Dave's wry wit. He is almost exactly what he sounds like, a cat who raps. I have very skilled rappist MC Cheshire Grin. With a name like that, you'd think he'd have no problem writing a rap about cats, but you might be surprised to know that this will be the first song he's EVER dared to touch on the complicated subject. You should listen to his other tracks on his myspace, even though for the life of me, I can't think of anyone else who uses the myspace anymore... well except for me, and about 40 kajillion other people. I say kajillion, and I am aware that not only is that more people than there are on Earth, but it's also not a real number. I can say thins because I know (for a fact) that roughly 75% of people on myspace are spam bots, OR are people with multiple accounts, and none of them have logged on in more than a year :)

A.P.E. fast approaches! No, I'm not talking about some German scientist's new, better, more efficient ape robot, I'm talking about the Alternative Press Expo! :) I'm not 100% on if I have a table yet. The kind people who run it sent me a seller's permit, so I can only take that as a good sign, but so far no table assignment, and they have not yet asked me for a check, so... it might still be up in the air, who knows? Please continue to keep your fingers crossed for me, don't uncross 'em for nothin'! Nope... not even for THAT. ;-)

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 22

2010-07-12T18:58:00.001-07:00

Greetings and welcome to a late entry, page 22. another true life record store occurrence! That hearkens back to the days when people were making that difficult but all too necessary transition between 8-tracks, and cassette tapes. It goes without saying that there's gonna be some confusion in the great media change.
Now the logical mind sees a cassette tape as a thing in a box, a thing to be taken out for a box and put into a slot. However, the mind is not always logical, and to a former 8-track user, the concept of taking your media out of a case to be played might go a little over your head. Needless to say, this had to be explained to a lot of people in record stores back in the day, it's not that people were stupider back then, you have to realize, people are still stupid now. I can just imagine the first guy who tried jamming a CD into a tape slot, or jerry rigging their mp3 playing through their CD slot. Morons exist everywhere, in every era, and we can't keep them from acquiring new technology.

On a much sadder note, I'm sure a lot of you have probably heard the news about Harvey Pekar. Harvey was found dead in his home very early this morning. No cause of death has been announced, but Mr. Pekar was an old man, so you could just say it was his time. Godspeed Harvey, thanks for so many years of wonderful comics, and for being such a prominent voice behind so many good causes, and powerful proponent of the jazz music scene. You will be missed, but your legacy lives on.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 21

2010-07-05T04:47:00.001-07:00

I swear to God, every little thing distracted me from getting this page done, but I frikkin' did it. It's funny how a guy like me can never learn from the past. Every summer, i always say to myself "THIS summer, I am gonna get MORE drawing done, MORE often! I'll have a huge buffer set up, so that when school starts again in the fall, it won't be a huge deal to keep up!" But every year, inevitably, my work ethic goes way, way down in the summer, and I'm overloaded with other projects to take on. I dunno what it is, but my most likely guess is that I can only work on comics while I'm AT school, while being told to do something else ;-)
I am certain that over this coming week, I'll have more than enough time to draw, chances are I'll be shipped off to Denver sometime soon. My Grandmother isn't doing to well, and in true American tradition, I have to go there and.... watch her suffer :(
I'll never understand death, and people's reactions to it. I can accept that my grandmother lives this long and fulfilling life, and now it's over. She suffered long with a horrible sickness in her last years on Earth, and she's about to be released from it. If you believe in heaven, or an afterlife of some kind, she's about to go there. By all logic, we, her relatives, should be rejoicing. Her pain is finally over, she's free now. But somehow, this feeling translates into a lot of tears, a lot of weeping, huddling together and mourning. Yes, this is a loss for us, but logically thinking, it's nothing but a gain for her. What keeps us reveling in our own pain and sense of loss, and keeps us from feeling relief that she's passed? That she's no longer suffering with her sickness in this world? I am of two minds on this subject, because I feel both right now, pretty intensely. I wish it could learn to channel out this pain, and focus my mind on being glad that my grandmother, whom I grew up with and loved very dearly all my life will soon exist in a world without pain. I don't know, i'm not there yet, and neither is the rest f my family, and without a doubt I'll be sharing in the huddling and the sobbing, and we'll all have a brand new piece of pain to hold onto for awhile. I am not looking forward to this trip, i am not looking forward to seeing what this does to the rest of my family and I'm not looking forward to bringing this home with me.
Oh well, i am only going to have to focus on making the rest of ym summer as fun as possible, and really, actually try to get more art done.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 20

2010-06-29T03:06:00.000-07:00

Ooohhh... what a sad and drastic turn this already bizarre story took! Slightly autobiographical, not in the sense that I'm accusing Annie Lennox of stealing a song I supposedly wrote. Does this comic count as libel? CAN a comic be libel? i mean, by a nature, a comic is... well... comic. I am making light of a situation in a comic way. I'm not even necessarily saying that the events are true. It's like one of those stories some drunk rock and roller would tell you in a bar. "I TOTALLY wrote one of the most popular songs of the 1980's! But that BITCH Annie Lennox stole it from me! BARRFFFF"
So let me clarify, I am in no way trying to insinuate Annie Lennox is a plagiarist, in fact, I love Annie Lennox! Without revealing too much, I will admit she was my first celebrity crush, unless you count Chun Li, of Street Fighter fame, but I don't usually include her, because she's not a real person. But no, all I was trying to insinuate when I said this was autobiographical is that I know how much it sucks when the girls don't call back, especially the famous ones!
So! I had tried to make plans to go to Pride Weekend in SF, to try and represent the Lovebian brand. Sadly, I was not able to pull it together in time, but thankfully the rest of the Lovebian company was there in full force, representing themselves, and my designs :)
However, on a slightly more sour note, I am a little glad I wasn't there. Another friend of mine who WAS there had a close call with some erupting violence.
Here's a link for those of you who haven't read the news yet.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/baycitynews/a/2010/06/27/castro27.DTL&tsp=1
My buddy was three feet away from this firing, and came back somewhat rattled.
My first worry was that this was some kind of hate related shooting, which would be wretched enough. Thankfully, this suspicion was alter revealed to be false, as the rumours go, this violence was the result of some sort of personal feud between the shooter and victim, the others who were injured were just unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire. I was relieved to hear this wasn't a hate crime, or as relieved as someone can be in the face of such ugly news. But even still, what is Pride? It's supposed to be a weekend where people come together to embrace their lifestyles and how people's views on love have changed so much in the 20th and 21st centuries. The point being that this is supposed to be a gathering all about love, and it's being invaded by some gross, ugly kinds of violence. I think that most people are offended by this, but I'm offended on a level that I'd imagine is deeper than most straight people in this country are offended. I've always viewed gay love as this weird kind of beautiful thing, like love vs. the animosity of almost the entire world. Despite all this, the gay couples I've had the fortune to know in my days have made it work, and that's beautiful right? Or at least it is to me. Not that I don't think ALL love is beautiful, but this is more of a hot issue in my generation and demographic, so maybe I pay more attention to it. Either way, it doesn't seem fair to me that these folk, who have to deal with so much crap anyway to simply express their love for one another now have to deal with the threat of gun violence. And even if there's never another shooting at a gay pride parade, it its place, attendees will need to deal with the insane amounts of security that is sure to be a backlash to this incident. If I've learned one thing about violence in this society is that you can never go back. It's the sad truth we have to deal with, until mankind grows the hell up, and realizes that we're all in this together.
With all this crap going on, it's hard to focus on something as trivial as drawing a comic about a punk rock cat, but I'm sure I'll manage somehow ;-)
I got some paperwork back from Alternative Press Expo, I haven't read it all through yet, but there's some stuff I need to fill out. I may be celebrating prematurely, but I think I may have my table ^_^
So come this October, join me at my first ever exhibitor convention flying solo :) Help support the cause! Dave the Punk Rock Cat will surely be in print by then, and there's still plenty of Blood Will Tell ;-) Maybe shirts, and other wicked sick paraphernalia. In the mean time, I'll be drawing, and prepping, like hell!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 19

2010-06-22T01:25:00.000-07:00

So the arm is probably, definitely all healed now. Like an idiot I even fell on it AGAIN, and I thought the whole wretched cycle was gonna start all over. But some drugs and some time with an ice pack later, I was right as rain again. Summer is coming, and hot on its heels is the Warped Tour. Aside from just being a really crappy music festival, me and the Warped Tour share a strange past, a past I wish I could forget! The really hilarious part about this bitter rivalry is that I do not believe I've ever been to a single Warped Tour, the bands are never that good, and even if there are one or two bands I might wanna see, it's not worth going to an all day festival of shitty ones in order to see them. No, the reason me and Warped has such a bitter past is because last summer, I think I literally lost a girl to that acursed music festival. It's difficult to explain, she went to Warped Tour, and when she came back, she was not the same girl. I later learned that the change had nothing to do with the festival, but regardless, as a result, things between us became rough, which resulted in a "break up" you could call it, or maybe a "falling out" is more accurate, since to this day, I'm not 100% certain that we were ever together, things around me get complicated like that sometimes. So, long story short, for lack of a concrete direction in which to channel my rage, I plan on blaming the festival, forever :P Why? because it's a funny story to tell, and despite our falling out, I don't wanna stay mad at that girl forever. It's so much more fun to hate a festival, and have a weird, dark and ultimately uninteresting story behind it. for many, summer is full of romance and excitement, for me it's filled with weird stories like this? you know what I learned this summer? "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is NOT a good date movie, not unless the girl you're taking with you loves, and I mean frikkin' LOVES violence! I am so desensitized to violence in movies, regardless of how intense or horrifying it is, it makes me wonder how I relate to real people at all sometimes. I was sittin' there in the theater, just taking in the story, meanwhile the poor girl next to me was being traumatized by the horrifying events unfolding on screen. I don't wanna spoil the movie for anyone, I'll just say, enter the theater prepared, prepared to the best of your ability.
Normally, I spend this time talking about my art, there are not a lot of new developments in that area, sadly. Summer time is just summer time for me. I draw, I do what I do, you don't wanna hear me write about that all the goddamned time, do ya? when shit happens, I'll let you know. If I'm in a gallery, or I put out a book or if my art is used for some kind of malicious purpose. Until then, you get fun stories that go nowhere. Deal with it, suckers.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 18

2010-06-13T23:56:00.000-07:00

So the arm is healing up nicely. The bruise is gone for the most part, there is some tightness in the wrist, but I can grip a pen or pencil and draw again. Kung Fu is still kinda tough though, eh. So here we are, delving deep into the famed Annie Lennox story. I am going more detailed this time around. because my last attempt at this story was more like a summary of an event, whereas this time I am trying to convey the event itself, as it may or may not have happened. Also, at the time I drew this strip, I was dealing with a lady in a similar fashion ;-) Not a lady as famous as Annie Lennox or anything. but famous in a different way. I know I said awhile back that if you hear me talkin' about ladies again that you should stab out my eyes, or some similar act of violence. I implore you, please put down your pens, protractors, bowie knives and pool cues, this is not THAT kind of lady friend :P I won't bore you on the details, but let's just say that when all was said and done, i made a damn good friend out of the deal. This cartoonist is not going soft on you, the fire in my belly is still raging at a temperature hot enough to rival the fusion within a star. With luck I can still use my cartoons to do that very thing, alter the gravitational pull within the solar system just enough to re-direct a mysterious time traveling energy ribbon towards the planet I'm on, so it can carry me away, at the expense of every other living thing on the planet. If none of this makes any sense to you, don't worry. I know as well as you that blowing up a star won't have any significant effect on the gravitational pull in a solar system. What the sun loses in mass it makes up for in density, even if it's dense enough to become a black hole (which our sun is NOT) the gravitational difference between a black hole and a huge, dense, fucking sun is... eh... just don't go near the black hole and you'll be fine... but I suppose the same can be said for a huge fucking sun as well. Really, gravity isn't what you should be worried about at all, be more worried about the huge sheets of radioactive run-off the sun will shed just prior to super nova. This plan has ALL KINDS OF HOLES IN IT! But you know what, smart guy? That's whay it's called SCIENCE FICTION, okay? Stop stomping all over my fun!

Why I Can't Update Right Now

2010-06-05T01:25:00.000-07:00

So remember when I said I fucked the shit outta my arm, well yeah, it's still got the shit fucked outta it. Like, hardcore, here's a series of photographs of it over the past couple days. It's getting "better" but I still can't grip a pen or pencil in it. Doc says i need to keep hittin' the pills, I guess at first I was taking only a quarter of what might have been considered helpful. Actually, even less, because I was taking one 200mg pill a day, and he wants me to take 4 200mg pills thrice a day. It won't be long before I am a total, hopeless pillhead. I'm so paranoid about pain killers, penicillin and all those other wonder drugs. I guess that's the kinda paranoia that was keeping me at one pill a day for this past week, but whatever, the doc says it's safe, and I guess I can trust him... i mean... unless he wants to hook me! Hook me on OVER THE COUNTER MEDICATION! NO! It's a plan just insidious enough to work! I shoulda known, the medical professionals are always up to no good.
All kiddin' aside, we know it's not broken and that's good news, but I was told that if it's not better by Monday, I'm supposed to go in to get the lil' guy X-rayed. Might be nerve damage, might be something else, either way, I'm just hoping for as little time on pills as possible and a full recovery. If I couldn't draw anymore, all I could do is go home and... marry a SKUNK! Oh no wait, that was my contingency plan for if I lost my nose, and that's totally serious! That's all I could do! Marry a skunk! Something I couldn't smell. you might think a man without a nose could marry something that doesn't stink to high heaven, but it's not true, there's some weird law about it, and I think it's probably in the Bible, and part of Hammurabi's code, I'm surrounded on all sides by this pungent obligation. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, my nose is safely secured to my face (for now) and I'm off the skunks of the world's "hottest bachelors of 2010" list. My concern now is my arm and it's speedy recovery. As soon as I'm tip top again, i am going to finish Dave the Punk Rock Cat page 18 and upload it as soon as possible., This might result in another mid-week update, but I'm sure my sturdy readership can handle it. you guys are just so wonderful, I love you, but... as a friend, or rather, as a friends. Our bond transcends romantic entanglement as well as English grammar, which can rot in hell fors all I cares.So yeah, there you have it, nothing new perhaps, but then again, what is?

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 17

2010-06-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, this update is late, I am sorry, Fanime totally owned me. Whenever I come back from a con, I'm always feelin' pretty good, because that's me in my element, you know? But I always leave such a mess behind me at home when I'm away. I came home to this horrific stack of papers and comics and art supplies and random other shit on my desk, and I'll be damned if I just wasn't too dang lazy to move it all over to actually do my update. But the show went well! Despite not having a table at artist's alley, I managed to sell something like 4 or 5 books, of vol. 1 and 2.
I also have scads of pictures from the event, if you want to see 'em, I highly suggest you add yourself to my facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/KnaveMurdok
Seeing all the shots I took (and I took a lot) kind of rekindles my undying love of photography. That was one of the original things I had in mind as a major when I went back to college, but I never followed up on it. Now, I kinda want back in. I got lotsa compliments on my shots, and we all know how dangerous a bolstered ego on Knave can be. There was a bit of bad news to come out of Fanime though. On Saturday morning I totally fell the fuck outta the shower and gimped up my drawing arm! :( As expected, this has made continuing on the comic very difficult, so I'm gonna be burning through my buffer pages while this baby heals up, I'm really hoping for no further delays. What else has been up? I got some of my art and designs in two galleries recently, I'll be trying to upload pictures of those as soon as I can get some. In the mean time, I'm just trying to get stuff prepped for Alternative Press Expo which is taking place in October, but all my shit has to be in order THIS month, so I'm scrambling to make that happen. Apart from that, I've gotten myself way too involved in way too many projects. There's Lovebian, this TV project I'm taking on with my friends, school has been very difficult to keep up with, and tutoring hasn't exactly been peaches and cream either. The real problem is that I can't seem to discern which of these are worth my attentions and which are just wastes of time. i mean, I LOVE working on all these things, but it's tearin' me up inside thinking about if they're really going anywhere, or if I'm devoting myself towards just another corrupted endeavor. I'm counting the days till Spring is over and Summer begins, then I can cast off the worries of school. and delegate a little more focus to the rest of all this bullshit I'm surrounded by. Maybe when that time comes, I'll be able to see the rest in a little more focus, and make some more informed and responsible decisions about them. The especially sad part of all of this is that it's taking place on the backdrop of some very sick family members, who may not be around for much longer. An extended hiatus may be on the horizon while I go away to visit them, but I'm not too certain of when that will be. I'm trying to to dwell on it too much, there's no sense in diverting my energy worrying about something as inevitable as old age. I'm just trying to do my best making sure that my life and my time here is spent doing something that matters, but even still, I can't help but be affected by it.
Life ain't east for us artist types, especially not for one as brilliant as me.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 16

2010-05-24T02:53:00.001-07:00

This page has a lot of white in it. I am just now noticing that after having scanned it. I think the day I "finished" this page I was in a huge rush for something, probably something school or Lovebian related. Either way, I like it, I like the old woman especially. She doesn't have a name, but I think hat if she did, she'd be called Bea, like Bea Arthur. I think Betty White is forcing the world to love old people again, and showing them that they can be funny on purpose as well, and not just comic foils because they're out of touch, and spew hilarious out of context old timey lingo. Besides, I think we've all figured out by now that dated slang is better when spoken by a young person, someone too young for that particular vernacular to be making any sense. Anachronisms are hilarious, we know that now.
I'm not sure how much sense it makes for this woman to have a Eurythmics tape, maybe? I mean, they were pretty popular in their heyday, right? Popular enough to transcend the age barrier, I would think. They weren't particularly abrasive or wild, Annie Lennox's voice is agreeable to the ear of even the most staunch and crotchity old guys and gals. Or maybe I just love Annie Lennox so goddamn much that I just want to believe these things about her, to propagate the myth that she's untouchable and applicable for any kind of gag setup.
I suppose people who've been reading Para~Somnia comics for awhile can already tell where I'm gonna go with this, the famous Dave the Cat/Annie Lennox joke. If you're new, then prepare yourself for a story way too absurd to be true, and yet it is, to the best of my knowledge. That's the best part of Dave the Cat stories, ain't it? you know it's all true, one hundred percent, except for the fact that it's a cat, but armed with that knowledge, the truth can be twisted and bent to a weird kinda messed up hearsay and rumour kinda truth. The kinda truth that you hear coming from grizzled old bar bums who swear to God they totally knew Sid Vicious back before Sex Pistols and swear even louder that they gave him the idea to invent punk rock. By the time you realize how many holes are in that story, you just got over the fact that you sat and listened to a story told to you by a cat for 28 pages. BY A CAT!!!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 15

2010-05-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

This has been a really strange week, in fun ways and in stressful ways as well.
First off, I got caught up in a surprise art show at my school, that's actually taking place today, and I may or may not be too lazy to attend. I'm one of those people now, I guess, can't bother to attend my own show, wow. To be fair, it's not really MY show, I just have 6 pieces on display, among many, many other talented artists at the school as well. So it's an art show, it's not MY art show, so I can get away with being tired and lame :P However, if I don't have to go to work today, then I might pry myself outta the house to go see it. Granted I've seen most of the pieces already as i know the artist, but it'd be nice to see them all nice and pretty and on display. There will be pictures and stuff, which I'll post when I get 'em, but in the mean time you can see what I've contributed on my deviantart page.
http://herrdoktorknave.deviantart.com/art/I-m-Catmaaaan-152960742
http://herrdoktorknave.deviantart.com/art/You-re-Shouting-Again-Bert-152618856
http://herrdoktorknave.deviantart.com/art/Dangerous-and-at-Large-150976369
http://herrdoktorknave.deviantart.com/art/Pourquoi-Si-Serieux-150971239
http://herrdoktorknave.deviantart.com/art/How-to-Read-a-Dance-150457443
Oh, also I forgot to mention they're all for sale :) Give me money!
Dave the Punk Rock Cat is now segueing into another story. I thought at first that I'd end one story and begin another, with all the paper thin continuity of a Garfield strip, but I thought far reaching segues were more the way to go. The longer I work on this, the more ideas I get for it. I'd like for this volume, when it's finished, to be as long as a volume of Blood Will Tell, that'd be really sweet, let's see if I can make it happen.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 14

2010-05-08T23:05:00.001-07:00

So I literally have only one page left in my buffer after this, and I'm a little panicked :P A lot of my free time has been co-opted by storyboarding, and the sleepless nights I used to spend drawing have been re-directed towards House of Leaves which has left me paranoid, and terrified. Also, a lot of my drawing time used to take place during the slow hours of my time at the tutoring center. However, since mid-terms are fast approaching over the horizon, and lots of students are beginning to feel the pinch of a semester spent slacking off, there haven't been many slow hours at the tutoring center :P
Either way, I have one more page, and a whole week to work, so I'll be building up again anyhow! Dave the Cat's story is nearly over anyhow. I honestly thought this story was gonna be longer, but here I am nearly finished at page 14. I might double on this, and add another story before I send it off to the publisher. Dave the Cat can be a two-or-three-story-in-one-book deal, right? It's be like one of those little comic serials they used to have back in the 40's. Dave the Cat can be the new "Detective Stories" right? I can pull that off, no problem! Also, in true "modern indie comic" form, I'm having an open casting call for Dave the Cat fan art or even fan comics. With the book nearing completion, I think it'd be nice to have a cool thing like that in the back, especially since I have so many talented artist friends :D
I've also been fooling around with The Abyss Stares Back, I started that project back in the day, and no one's really seen it yet. I think as soon as Dave is over and Blood Will Tell 3 is gettin' uploaded, I'm gonna jump back on the "Abyss" pony, and see what I can make of it :)
All these projects I wanna do! I've even been toying around with the idea of making a music blog. I was reading David Heatley's graphic novel "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down" which is interspersed with some really insightful music reviews, and since music is such a huge part of my life, I became inspired.
Wish me luck, everyone! Do it, or be destroyed.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 13

2010-05-04T01:14:00.001-07:00

Here is page no. 13, it is unlucky because of it's number, but I actually happen to like it, quite a lot actually. Even though there's not a lotta action on the page, it's jsut Dave talking and then walking away, and then talking s'more, which is kinda his strength, I guess. I like this page because it showcases Dave's strengths, talking and walking away, despite how lucky it is. do you remember funny hobo man? Haven't seem him since page one! Betcha didn't know he was standing there listening to that whole story, and now he can't be sure whether it was actually told to him by a cat, or if it was all in his head. Are you, as the reader, sure about such things? Does this not force you to question the very nature of narrative? A cat who may or may not be able to talk, who may or may not have had all these experiences, being filtered through the perception of a man who's judgment is constantly in question, and he looks to you for assurance. I think I just broke the 5th wall, and I will not stop until all walls lie broken, defeated, underneath the strength of my mighty pen!

In other (somewhat) related news, I got my own nylon screen, so the Dave the Cat prototype shirts I've been gabbing about endlessly may very well be seeing mass production. By the time Fanime hits? I'm not certain, but Alternative Press, most definitely.

I am like Snoop Dogg, in that I am always "on top of things."
Also, in that I cause girls to go wild, but that's a story for another day.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 12

2010-04-26T00:54:00.001-07:00

I'll bet you think this is the end, don't you? DON'T YOU! Well you're... wrong! This is simply the end of the story that Dave began telling on page one. Remember, he's still sitting there, telling this story to a strange man who may or may not conceive of the fact that this cat is talking to him. What ARE the rules on Dave's world? Who can understand him and who can't? WHY can they understand him? How did Dave live this long to relate stories about things that happened in the 60's, 70's and 80's to us future folk of the 10's? There are perfectly rational and reasonable explanations to all of these questions, I assure you. It's just that you don't get to know them, not yet, not now! It would ruin everything! It would steal away all of Dave's magical comedy powers, and you wouldn't want that, would you? WOULD YOU!?
Oh, I see now, I'm hip to your little game, I'm diggin' the hip groove, daddy-o!
You want to destroy my funny! You HATE my funny! Well mister (or miss) if you hate funny so much, then you'll just have to start reading Blood Will Tell vol. 3! It will premiere on Parasomnia Comics this summer, and you can just bet it will be dark and depressing, and just plain horrifying, a real testament to the bleakness of the life and the emptiness of the soul and meaninglessness of existence. Also, there will be action. Tons of heart pounding action! Chapter one was all setup, and chapter two was character development. Chapter three is all action, baby! In anticipation of the unveiling of this volume, I implore you to bear this quote in mind. "No more tears; now I think upon revenge." - Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 11

2010-04-17T23:46:00.001-07:00

I can't quite keep myself on a schedule, which is really half the battle when you've chosen the life of a web-cartoonist. I'm thinking I wanna stick to a Saturday night/Sunday morning-ish kinda thing. More people will be checking their bookmarks, am I right? or their newfangled RSS feeds.
So yeah, while I'm working on this comic, I've also been taking this class on designing and silk screening for shirts. At first the goal was to gain the know how on how to make Dave the Cat shirts (prototypes are currently being tested on humans) but as a direct result, some friends of mine who own a clothing company have snatched me up as a graphic designer. Those prototypes aren't quite out yet, but even still, I insist, no, I DEMAND that you go visit their website! http://lovebiandesigns.com/main/Lovebian.html
I know what you're thinking! This seems far too cheery a project for Knave to get all mixed up in, and you'd probably be right! But I dig the philosophy, and want to be part of it, plus, I got some cool lovey romantic designs crawling aorund inside of me, and it's about goddamn time I had an outlet for it! This will be erupting very soon, and I wanted to make sure you, my dearest and most valued readers, got in on the ground floor. You could say you were into it before it was cool, but please, let's face facts, we started out cool, and will remain that way forever and ever, amen.
Dave the Cat's big adventure is nearly complete :D I am gonna try and get this book out much sooner than Blood Will Tell came out. I've had two books out and I sorta get how this whole publishing thing works now, i get the rules now. You know what they say about the third time, and how it's supposed to be a charm, right? Lets keep our fingers crossed that we won't be dealing with any hellishly long delays this time.
Also, I am currently on the wait list for a table in Artist's Alley at Fanime. Keep your OTHER fingers crossed that I get that as well :) Granted I don't draw anime, or anything remotely close to the anime style, but there's no publicity like bad publicity, is there?
Even though I'm quite sure that's not how that saying goes, and I'm even more certain that I didn't quite mean to say that, I shall sign off for tonight. Hear hear!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 10

2010-04-12T00:37:00.001-07:00

So I'm gonna try and get back to a Sunday/Monday schedule for updating this lil' guy. Doing it during the week interferes too much with school crap.
Let's talk slightly about this page. So after reading this page again after having finished it, i'm not certain that the overlying joke is as apparent as I wanted it to be. I mean, the four miniature jokes on each panel play just fine, and that's great, but there is a deeper level of parody here.
So! Just in case you're one of those folks who never got aorund to seeing a 45 year old movie, I'm putting here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the Beatles movie "Help" there is scene where the fab four takes refuge inside of an "Eastern restaurant" in order to obtain information about a mysterious red bejeweled ring that Ringo has somehow acquired, and that many strangers are willing to try and kill him for. Upon entering the kitchen and the back room, each Beatles asks a different member of the staff a different weird question that never receives an answer. George asks a man standing on his head "doesn't the blood rush to your head?" John asks the kitchen staff "doesn't the Eastern flavor run rather expensive?" Paul asks a belly dancer "doesn't the blood rush to your stomach?" and that's what sparked the idea to do this page as a parody/homage to a classic rock and roll film. The last question which appeared in my comic, where Luke (the ladies' man) mistakenly asks a guy out for drinks was all mine however. I didn't want it to come off as some kind of comedy of errors gag though, because that for some reason stuck me as being terribly anti-homosexual, and that's a really tawdry way to get laughs in my opinion. Gays have just as much a place in comics as straights do, and the fact that they're gay shouldn't be put on display as comedic relief. Too many comics have gone down that path "oh my gawsh, a gay! how unusual/gross, and therefor funny! oh noez! a straight male has run afoul of a gay! how embarrassing! His sexuality is therefore called into question! comedy time!" No, I think not. I may be writing a comic about a talking cat who goes to punk shows, but if I can help it, I'd like to not re-enforce negative stereotypes. Besides, there are plenty f other minorities and social groups to mercilessly make fun of! Like the goths! And Cure fans! HA! Point and laugh, my dear readers, point and laugh! :D
Naw, I kid the goths and I kid The Cure. It's all out of the utmost love and respect that I giggle at how silly they are!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 9

2010-04-07T00:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the late update folks! I spent all my weekend at WonderCon. Not as an exhibitor this time, but merely as a consumer, a consumer with a backpack full of "Blood Will Tell." I have not done the official count, but I think I sold about 10 books. Not a personal best, sadly, but it covered the cost of the ticket! Then con itself was phantasmagoric, to the highest of extremes. I got to meet a lot of great people, made some connections, did some networking, which is all well and good. I sat in on a few really informative "how to" panels, which I found rather enlightening. I saw the "How to Pitch a Cartoon" panel, which was inspiring to say the least. It really got me thinking about an idea for a cartoon I had awhile ago, and now want to revisit. I feel a little more confident taking it on now, with the knowledge from the panel under my belt. I also met a rather pleasant young woman from school who says she's down to help me with colours! The other great panel I saw was the "Fundamentals of Storyboarding" panel, which segues well into the storyboarding class I'm now taking. Basically, I've been spending a lotta time wondering where exactly Para~Somnia comics is heading. Print is all well and good, but a geek like me can't sit still for too long without trying out the animated medium. Needless to say, I've done a lot of thinking on the subject since getting home form the Con.
After getting home, I SHOULD have prepared for my first day of the new school quarter, but instead I ran off to THE CITY again to see a concert put on by my ol' buddy Alice Hejna, whose music can be attained here So THEN I began school totally unprepared, but despite that, it was a good first day back. I'd go as far as to call it a great day! And I hope it sets the tone for the rest of the quarter.
So now i'm home finally and have some time to update and stuff. Sadly I've not had the time to just chill in front of the comp-u-tron and upload all my old pages. They're all scanned and ready to go, but the actual digital act of clicking and uploading, is a daunting task. Technology frightens me!
Anyway. I'm gonna be at Fanime this year as well, not as an exhibitor, I work better on the DL I think. I'll definitely be getting a table for Alternative Press in November, APE is more fun as an exhibitor anyhow, whereas Fanime is more of an experience. Either way, I plan on having the time of my life, kick ass.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 8

2010-03-30T01:03:00.001-07:00

Let's do it, dive right into page 8! Wooo! This is where the second massive plot point is revealed, the first being the dropped bottle of ether, the second being GOTH HAIR! But really, I kid the goths, I KID CUZ I LOVE! I think it was Mel Brooks that said that you really need to love something in order to parody it property, I think he said that in reference to Spaceballs. Either way, it will go without saying, after reading the several mean spirited jabs I'm about to make at the goth subculture, that I must really love goth! I'll let my Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus CD collections speak for themselves. But as much as I dig goth, you know what I gosh darn hate, and will ALWAYS hate? THE CURE! Especially BIG DUMB CURE HAIR! Damn you Robert Smith and your permanent swirly, and how it influenced an entire generation! So anyway, that's what's going down here, fo' shizzle.
I'm still getting used to this whole new blog thing. Learning how to make stuff, and make stuff work. Granted this is tons simpler than building a website form the ground up, but it's still a lotta buttons, many of which I am fearful of pushing.
In time you will see, I'll get my whole back catalog up here, and make it look pretty and all that fun stuff you expect from an online comic. But for now, I at least have the shop up and running (go purchase your copies of Blood Will Tell 1 and 2 today! Supplies are limited!) and the Parasomnia Family of Artists page as well :) Go check out my cool artist friends, they all rock the mad socks.
Links up top, under the banner, I swear to God none of them are a total and unforgivable waste of your time.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 7

2010-03-23T01:45:00.000-07:00

So looking back on what I've done with this comic so far, I came to the realization that I'm almost finished with it. The story arc is at its apex, and it ready to come to it's dramatic close :) I think this is the fastest I've ever pumped out a book, and the real kicker is, i'm really happy with it so far!
Here's a thought to ponder, people are really used to Dave the Punk Rock Cat dealing in comedy, albeit a darker style of comedy, but yuck-yucks none the less. I wonder how the audience would react to Dave if he were telling a more dramatic story. While the convention of punk rock, and rock and roll through the ages is rife with parody-able moments, there are plenty of rough and tumble, hard nosed heart break stories a person can tell as well. Maybe I'm just missing working on Blood Will Tell, and I'm ready and rarin' for some dramatic tragedy. Regardless, how would a melancholy tale of rock gone wrong feel coming out of Dave's muzzle? As always, I welcome thoughts and opinions.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 6

2010-03-15T23:52:00.001-07:00

So you mighta noticed that the look of these recent comics is somehow different. No, I'm not becoming a better artist or anything drastinc like that, but I DID pick up some new markers recently! I used to do everything in these silly Japanese markers called Deleters. They were fairly inexpensive, but they left streaks like a mofo, and dried up way too quickly. The ones I'm using now are Prismacolor, and they make much less of a mess.
I'm no brand loyalist, I just use what I like, and when the time comes that I find something that works even better than Prismacolor, I'll drop them like hot rocks as well!
I've also done something else unprecedented in all my comic drawing history. I actually finished the cover for Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure. Usually the cover is the last part, and the part that drags me down the most, because I never know what I'm gonna do with it. For this, i have school to thank. We were assigned a pattern project, and for some reason, I was inspired to do something Punk Rock Cat related.
I won't reveal it to you just yet, I just want you to know that it exists! I'm teasing you, on purpose, because it amuses me!
Also, just in case you didn't get the memo!
parasomnia.10001mb.com is officially dead!
Until I can find more permanent lodging, comics will be posted here
http://parasomniacomics.blogspot.com/
please inundate me with pageviews! pretty please? :D!!!!

The Triumphant Return of Para~Somnia Comics!

2010-03-12T11:03:00.001-08:00

So after wrestling with the inconsistency in .10001mb's service for a almost two years. I've decided to relocate somewhere a little more stable. Granted this is now a free account, and for some reason on the internet, that lacks credibility, nut as the man once said "We don't believe in credibility because we know that we're fucking incredible."
So think of this as the test post, I am going to be working over the weekend re-scanning and re-uploading all my back pages, maybe adding some "Limited Edition Anniversary Commentary" to them. Think of this blog as the Criterion Collection DVD of Para~Somnia Comics, it looks better, and the creator talks endlessly about it, the only difference is that you don't need to pay out the ass for it... JUST YET!

In the mean time, enjoy some "art"

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 5

2010-03-09T01:12:00.000-08:00

So for reasons unexplained, http://parasomnia.10001mb.com has gone down again. Sadly, my magic working webmistress is without an internet connection for the time being, so that kinda throws a monkey wrench in my plans. But even if she was connected at the moment, she's got too much goin' on for me to trouble her. I think I'll be starting up a Blogspot instead, as soon as I can find the time to sit down and churn out a whole new blog from scratch :( Or an account at Drunk Duck. Either way, making a new blog isn't the big deal, it's re-uploading all my past entries, THAT'S the time suck. Oh well, come spring time I might have time.
Enough of this gloomy shit, I should be excited! Blood Will Tell Vol. II is (supposedly) gonna be out NEXT WEEK! Plus Blood Will Tell vol. I has been selling well on top of that, I may need a third printing here pretty soon. When the time comes, there will be a thunderous trumpet from the heavens, and all will bear witness to the miracle, the fucking miracle that Knave managed to get his shit cleared with the publisher on the FIRST TRY! HUZZAHS ARE IN ORDER!

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 4

2010-03-02T01:10:00.000-08:00

I know it seems like my updates are getting farther apart, school is partly to blame for this, but I also had a major furniture re-arrangement in my house, and temporarily lost my binder of unscanned drawings. That was pretty scary!
So are you guys liking how Dave the Cat's first long term story is panning out? Good, cuz I'm not changing it! I on the other hand love this story, mostly because I'm an egomaniac, this is the best Dave the Cat story ever conjured! This one truly deserves publication, and so it shall be. Speaking of which, the release date for Blood Will Tell vol. II is silently ticking away! With vigor as well as gusto! I hope you're as excited about my second book as I am, if not, then you got a serious attitude problem buster! Can't you just be happy for me? Why is it always about you, huh?

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 3

2010-02-22T01:09:00.000-08:00

Homang, it's been so incredibly hectic around camp Parasomnia that keeping up with updates is getting insane. Everything's been getting in the way, and I should have been in be d an hour ago... early classes tomorrow :( I can't freaking wait for spring, I am NOT doing this ot my schedule again, I'll die, straight up, just give up the ghost. And as romantic a notion as it would be to die for my art, I have a lot more art to do before I can let that happen, oodles more!
The sad news that I regret to share with you today involved WonderCon. Turns out, even though my book will be finished by that time, I sorta missed out on my oppurtunity to get a table. This all has to do with my crap-tastic schedule as well, but i'll be there anywhere, WITH my book. So if you happen to catch me wandering about, I'll be happy to "transact" with you, otherwise, they'll be available on the site, and I'll be trying to get 'em in comic shops around the area as well.
I'll plan better for SuperCon and Fanime, I promise ^^

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 2

2010-02-15T01:06:00.000-08:00

I don't usually draw cars. Each time I try it's a new adventure in lines and form. This one was a little easier, because it was a specific car. Usually when I get in a situation where I need to draw one, it's just a made up make and model, and that can be even more difficult, in a way.
The weeks keep on passing me by, it feels like it wasn't any more than a few days ago I put up page one. I left page two unfinished because it took me awhile to find a suitable font in which to do the Malibruce Logo, and I needed the correct amout of mismatched greys to make that car look REALLY janky. I thought I had plenty of time to work it out, but the weekend just snuck up on me, like that!
In either case, i'm pretty pleased with the result :) I can only pray you are as well.

Dave the Punk Rock Cat's Big Adventure Page 1

2010-02-08T01:04:00.000-08:00

Remember Pee Wee's Playhouse? Paul Reubens pre-theater stunt, Laurence Fishburne played a cowboy, Phil Hartman played a grizzled sea captain, Rob Zombie was a... production assistant. Saturday mornings opened up with 22 minutes of sheer wild craziness. Problem is, the scope iof ti's pure awesomeness was too much for a weekly series to handle. Pee Wee needed to broaden his horizons, think bigger! And so, in that sunny August of 1985, Pee Wee moved to the big screen, in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, a 90 minute epic which accurately captured the sheer power, the tragedy and the wackiness of this Saturday morning legend.
Wow, so that was a long build up to explain why I chose this title for Dave the Cat's first full length comic, and maybe it's presumptuous of me to compare my character to an iconic behemoth of a media figure like Pee Wee, but hey... that's just the way it is, got a problem? Let's fight over the internet!
Anyhow, this is based off an almost true story, read it and weep, you now you want to!