Poor Despair. Between midterms, my brother and his girlfriend visiting, and my newest addiction, Farmville, she’s feeling left out! We only need the Lunar Festival title to get our Long Strange Trip achievement, and most importantly, our violet protodrake mount!
Almost Normal will continue to be updated on a fairly random schedule for a while. Thanks for sticking around. 
I decided to give this Formspring thing a shot and created a site up there. http://www.formspring.me/LonnieAnn
Since I have to be different, I’m going to try using it to be artistically productive. Ask me or any of my characters a question and I will answer it in the form of a comic! It may not be a full color three panel comic, but it’ll be a comic just the same.
I’m looking forward to what you guys come up with!
Tech Drawl posted an article about the Art History of Games Symposium that Martin and I attended a couple weeks ago; The Art History of Games in Atlanta. We’re pictured in the bottom photo playing one of the games commissioned for the conference. (I’m the one in the tan coat, he’s across from me in the hat.)
The game we’re playing is, Vanitas by Tale of Tales. Some of you may know Tale of Tales as the designers of The Endless Forest. Their games are about play and experience, not necessarily end goals. Vanitas is a contemplative experience, turning your iPod Touch or iPhone into a box you can open and close. Each time you open the box there is a different combination of gorgeously rendered real looking object for you to interact with. You can move them around by touching them or by tilting your “box”. Some of the objects are living creatures that move of their own accord. I lost myself in the game and seriously want an iPod Touch now just so I can play with it some more!
The Art History of Games symposium was a great experience for Martin and I. He’s a hardcore gamer, and as much as I game I consider myself an artist first. I learned a whole lot about the history of video games and Martin has a better understanding of the concepts and ideas that are the basis for Art History. Our different perspectives on the topic made for some excellent lunch and dinner conversation. I am very happy we decided to go.
Next weekend is the Art History Symposium 2010 – Africa on My Mind: Contemporary Art, Home and Abroad here in Savannah. It should be another great experience, though for this one I’m on my own.
Wow! Wow wow wow wow!!! And not the World of Warcraft WoW either!
This week my webcomic, Almost Normal, is the Webcomic Pick of the Week for the Comics Coast to Coast podcast!
Wow!!!
The guest on CC2C this week is O, the artist of Commissioned Comic and also the “scary little dude” who got me started doing my own webcomic. I met Brian Dunaway, the host of CC2C on Twitter through O and the two of them gave me a very nice promo on their show.
Head over to http://www.comicscoasttocoast.com to listen to the Podcast. You can also find them on iTunes.
Head over to http://www.commissionedcomic.com/ to read O’s awesome comic. He’s experimenting with new coloring techniques so this is a excellent time to start reading him. He’s also an illustration professor at a university in Colombia. I’ve learned a bunch just from following his work.
I’m totally psyched about this. It’s very nice to have your work recognized.
Why Defend Freedom of Icky Speech, an article by comics legend Neil Gaiman, is a must read for anyone who wonders why certain types of art are allowed to exist alongside “appropriate” material. It is the truth that if we want freedom for the things we like, we must defend the freedoms of others to do the same, even if we don’t agree with their tastes.
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/12/why-defend-freedom-of-icky-speech.html
It’s in my head! I know I need to do it! Even my Mom is wondering where it is! I know it’s just a matter of sitting down and DOING it. My list of excuses are:
My brain is so tired from all the learning I’m doing at SCAD!
It’s too easy to give into brain-vacation gaming when you have another gamer to give into it with.
Seasons 1-5 of LOST were SUPER Addictive!!!
My time management skills are CRAP!!! (What day is it?)
I know none of those are valid reasons for not doing my comic, but they are the demons I’m battling currently. Plus, if you check back to the comic before Thanksgiving, Dalia said she wasn’t going to stick up for me anymore, and I don’t think she has! Where are you Dalia???
I need a deadline. Someone set it for me. Not Martin.