Bunny Brothers Comic

Check it out!

Mike and I just did some pages for a comic book project entitled "Hot Mexican Love" which is a collection of comics with a 'Mexico' theme that an acquaintance of mine publishes every few years. We did another comic starring these same characters 'The Bunny Brothers' in a previous issue.

Mike Penciled the pages (you can see his original pencils here) and I did the layout, as well as set everything up in the final comic pages with balloons, lettering, and borders. Normally I would ink over Mike's pencils, but in this case due to time restraints, I left the pencil line alone, and used high-contrast scanning to let the lines 'self-ink'.

This often works well with really tight pencil lines, given that the original line art is a large size that can be shrunk down, however I usually prefer good ol' fashioned ink.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

To everyone, we wish you a very, Merry Christmas, and a safe and happy Holiday Season! Here’s hoping that Santa has whatever it is you were wishing for loaded up in his sleigh. (As of this writing, he should be departing the North Pole in his reindeer powered sleigh, and popping up on radar screens across the world.) We also wish you a bright and bountiful New Year 2006 as well.

This year I’m unfortunately not going home to spend a nice snowy Christmas with my family back home in Virginia, but I will be enjoying the holidays with my lovely wife right here in sunny southern California. No white Christmas for us as right now the skies are blue and it feels like summer out –hopefully Santa can park his sleigh in the top of the nearest palm tree. Meanwhile, Mike Milo is back east in New Jersey/New York visiting with his family and friends for Christmas, though he’ll be back in town for his annual New Year’s Eve blowout.

Take care, and once more, best wishes for a very Happy Holidays to all!

Random Zaptoons Sketch

A sketch for a show idea we developed called "The Undie Warriors"

eBay is Truly Amazing!

Imagine my dismay when the power cable for my favorite laptop became frayed to the point it would no longer charge my laptop, thereby making my #1 piece of writing equipment worthless.

The notebook is a few years old- basically for writing one doesn’t need a top of the line brand new notebook- one that’s a few years old works great- in some cases better. No overkill 3ghz+ processor means quiet and cool operation- no one needs all that power for writing. So my ‘older’ 700mhz laptop was doing just fine- until this.

But the problem with an older laptop is that power accessories for it aren’t readily available at computer stores. Even so, a new power adaptor for this laptop was running in the $70-$80 dollar range at online sellers. So much jack just to get my equipment back? No fun.

Enter eBay. What an incredible invention!

A quick search of eBay turned up tons of accessory parts for my exact model of laptop. And the price for the power cable I need? $14 out the door! A lot better than shelling out $60 to $80!

For those who’ve been living in a cyber-cave, eBay is an auction site where you bid on most items and try to really low-ball a price- but this is time consuming and there’s no guarantee you’ll get what you want as you can be outbid. But keep in mind many items have a “Buy It Now” price you can pay to secure an item instantly- and many times these prices are very reasonable.

I ordered my new power cable on Sunday evening, and just received it today, Tuesday evening! The seller shipped it out yesterday! Now that’s fast service!

Sorry if this reads like an advertisement, but I had to sing eBay’s praises, that’s how happy I am to have my laptop working again! Now I can get back to my current project, outlining a brand new book for the coming year, 2006!

In the future if you find you need some little hard to find do-dad that’s the key to getting back up and running, check for it on eBay first thing. Chances are, you can probably find someone selling what you need, and get it far cheaper than from local stores or online retailers.

For me, eBay saved the day!

Busy...

Had a great Thanksgiving season, and hope everyone out there stateside did too. Unfortunately haven't had much time to post here on the Zaptoons Journal. Busy with a full work schedule at Fox Television Animation where I work.

Meanwhile Mike has been busy creating 3D like a machine! Check out the ongoing blog that chronicles his latest creations if you haven't already at his site Milowerx.