So hey!  We got a fanclub here: made by !  It's been quiet for awhile, so I decided to organize it a bit and add Fanatic rewards to it.  Also, posting a journal for newer watchers that may not know that this exists!  Remember, any new fanart/fanfics/fananythings can also be added to ZiBaricon.org's Fanatic's section for points.  The more points you guys get, the closer you'll be to getting awesome bonus art!

What kind of bonus art?  Like this one I posted recently, of course!


So yeah, submit to the club, hang out, whatevs!  You can of course submit work you already have up on ZiBaricon, too!  And remember, you can also post fanart for Strangers & Friends and Verboten too!  I got folders for them up!

ALRIGHT so NoBrandCon went INCREDIBLY WELL!  So many books sold, so many cool people, and so many signatures on our Signing Board of Signing!  I'll probably get that up this weekend (I don't access to a large format scanner anymore so I'll have to do some really clear photographs of the boards).

As last journal stated, we are also confirmed for CONVERGENCE in Bloomington, MN in early July!  AAAAAND I just got an email confirmation from Daisho saying we're in there as well, which is in November at the Wisconsin Dells!  We plan on trying to get to some others, and we'll keep you posted here and on ZiBaricon.org if we nab some more tables!

In other news, I got tagged by

Rules:
1. You must post the rules.
2. Each person must post 5 things about themselves in their journal.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create eleven new questions for the people you tag to answer.
4. You have to choose 11 people to tag and post their icons on your journal.
5. Go to their page and tell them you have tagged them.
6. No tag backs!
7. No stuff in the tagging section about "you're tagged if you're reading this". You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

WELP

* People screaming angrily makes me laugh every time.
* I am not ADD, contrary to popular belief.  In fact, I am very not ADD and have an attention span of steel when I really need to do something to the point of tuning out people yelling my name to get my attention.
* I wish there was a play place big enough for adults because I really wanna play in the play place but hate that I'm too old to (I'd say big but all play places measure by age, not size for whatever reason?).
* I hate things between my toes.  I HATE IT.
* I really love old timey radio shows, in particular Boston Blackie.



QUESTIONS FOR YOU!
What is your purpose for drawing?

Is this one of the questions?  It's not numbered.  HMM.

I draw to tell stories, and also because I'm compelled to do so because I don't feel right if I don't.

1.What medium/program do you use the most in your art?

Photoshop by far.  Lots and lots of Photoshop and pencils.

2. How would you rank your art? (poor, mediocre, good, etc.)

I say I rank my art as good!  I know there's better out there, but I think I do some things pretty well, myself.

3. Do you believe there is such thing as "bad art?"

Yes.  I've done quite a bit myself back in my day.  Just because art is art doesn't mean there's no "bad" or "good."  It's like saying there are no bad movies, bad cooking, or bad experiences.

4. List at least one of your "artspirations."

WILL EISNER.  WILLESINERWILLESIIWAJFAOWEFJAOEF

5. What culture(s) would you say you identify with and why?

Umm... American!  Yeah!  White American!  Because I'm white and American!

6. Your bookshelf caught fire and one book is left. What book would you want it to be?

My old Pokemon Red/Blue player's guide.  It's a great read actually and I've had it since I was a kid.  I love it to bits.

7. Top 10 favourite songs.

I SEE I'M JUST FEEDING YOUR ADDICTION NOW YOU SICK SICK WOMAN.

Inspector Gadget - Main theme
Inspector Gadget - Dr. Claw's theme (unused in the show)
Rhapsody of Fire - Land of Immortals
Masterplan - Crimson Rider
Oingo Boingo - No One Lives Forever
The Nightmare Before Christmas - This is Halloween
The original Pokemon theme song
Egypt Central - White Rabbit
Queen - The Show Must Go On
Queen - I'm Going Slightly Mad

8. When you were a child, what were three things you wanted to be when you grew up?

Art teacher, cartoonist, and book illustrator.  Yep.

9. Any advice for a struggling artist/storyteller?

Just start your project already.  Seriously, the beginning's always gonna be shaky compared to your later stuff, but that's because you're improving.  Just knuckle down and just DO IT.

10. Favorite movie of the last two years? Of all time?

Last two years: DESPICABLE ME I love that movie so much and Tintin!

Of all time: GOD uhhh The Nightmare Before Christmas and Who Framed Roger Rabbit!

Yeah no I couldn't pick just one.

11. What is something you wish you could do, but because of reasons, never will?

Write my name in the snow with my pee. :c


OKAY HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS:

1. What's the dumbest thing you did as a child?
2. What TV show did you grow up on?
3. Did you have a near death experience, and if you did, what happened?
4. If you could choose someone to narrate your life, who would you choose?
5. What do you fear most?
6. What is your favorite internal organ?
7. Favorite Pokemon?  DON'T DENY IT YOU ALL HAVE ONE EVEN IF YOU DON'T PLAY THE GAMES.
8. What's your LEAST favorite movie?
9. If you were a cool scientist that could invent anything you wanted, what would you invent?
10. Zombie apocalypse.  Weapon of choice?
11. First stuffed animal?


AND BY YOU I MEAN I'M AIMING THIS AT READERS BECAUSE YEAH I CAN:
(ps Ziggy did you get your puzzle yet?)

HEY BRO DAWGS

NOBRAND THIS WEEKEND

YES

VISIT US

ALSO

CONVERGENCE, BLOOMINGTON MN

WE HAVE

SOME TABLES

AND WE'D LIKE YOU TO VISIT

JULY 6-8

BE THERE

DUE TO SHENANIGANS, the ONLY time slots available for NoBrandCon panels is either Friday at 4 PM or Sunday at 9 AM.

Yep.  Really.

We here at ZiBaricon pride ourselves in our creativity, so this is what we're going to do instead.

Our table this year is in more of an open area, with plenty of places to sit in a very large hallway, and even tables and chairs behind us.  We got this spot by accident last year and it ended up being an AMAZING spot to be at, as we're close to the vender room, have open space on BOTH sides of the table, and so on.

SATURDAY.  2 PM.

COME TO OUR ARTIST ALLEY TABLE.

(we're also be putting up signs at our AA table about this for other people to see Friday and early Saturday)

COME TO OUR TABLE AND RICK AND I WILL DO OUR PERFORMANCE PANEL WITHOUT A SLIDE SHOW, JUST ALL ACTING TO ENTERTAIN YOU.  It will probably run about a half hour, and is completely open for discussion about MAKING WEBCOMICS.  You can even stay as long as you want afterwards, since there's no rush of a time limit!

If you have friends going to NoBrandCon and wanna pass it along, please do!

EDIT: AND SO WE BEGIN!  Try to get past the first two gym leaders of your game before next Sunday, and post about your adventures in the ZiBaricon topic!



OKAY SO FIRST OFF, FLINT WON THE POPULARITY CONTEST because he's such a whore SO next month you're getting a super rad Flint themed wallpaper for the donation incentive!  Like... super duper ultra rad you don't even know.

ANYWAYS, I thought of something cool you guys might wanna do together as a community and all that!

I started a topic here that explains exactly what I'm gonna explain in this journal (it's also somewhere to post what you did and some drawings you might've made!): [link]

So I'm watching a Pokemon movie with some friends and the idea sprang there of doing a Pokemon play-together!

What's a Pokemon play-together?

You pick a Pokemon game, ANY of the GameFreak games, and we all play it at the same time together!  I set up a really easy schedule for people to follow about how far along the game they should probably be to keep up, and we talk about what we did and maybe write or do some art about our adventures!

Here's an example: let's say I wanna play through with Pokemon Platinum.  Every week, I'm going to try to beat two of the gym leaders.  After four weeks of that, we fight the champion and the Elite Four at fifth week!  While doing so, I'll post in the ZiBaricon topic about stuff like what starter I chose, what Pokemon I caught, some of the events that happened that week, and so on!  I may even feel inclined to draw some silly things or some exciting things that happened, like maybe drawing my rival battle!  We just sit and play Pokemon games together at the same time and talk about it.

SO HERE'S MY PLANNN:

I'm gonna give you (and me) a week to get the games/get stuff done/all that jazz, then we'll start playing the games!

MARCH 25 TO MARCH 31: Get through the first two gym leaders of your game!  Remember, ANY VERSION is cool!
APRIL 1 TO APRIL 7: Get through to the fourth gym leader!
APRIL 8 TO APRIL 14: Get through to the sixth gym leader!
APRIL 15 TO APRIL 21: Get through to the final gym leader!
APRIL 22 TO APRIL 28 (hurr Rick's birthday): Defeat the champion and beat the game!

Any of you guys interested in joining me?  If so, tell me what version you're gonna play!  I myself am thinking of playing Pokemon Platinum.  Unsure of my starter at this point...

Edit: SOOOOOO I got a lot of votes in but the issue is there are a TON of ties! XD  IF YOU HAVEN'T VOTED YET, VOTE NOW!  (seriously there are at least four or five ties it's insane)


Okay so I don't really read a lot of manga, and Rick was like "HEY WE SHOULD DO LIKE IN MANGA WHERE YOU WRITE IN YOUR THREE FAVORITE CHARACTERS AND THEN WE TALLY UP THE VOTES AND ANNOUNCE WHO WON IT'LL BE GREAT" and I'm like "they do that?" and he screamed at me and proceeded to ignore me.

SO GUYS, SEND ME A PRIVATE NOTE TELLING ME WHO YOUR FAVORITE THREE CHARACTERS ARE AND I'LL TALLY IT UP AND DO SOMETHING ~**SPECIAL**~!



Since it seems like being live might be a problem, I was thinking maybe we could have more like, thought-out responses for questions if we did it like a mailbag and answered the questions in post-post like we did in the latest podcast.

SO, if you have any questions to ask ANYONE ANYTHING on the podcast, comment here, send me a note, an email, anything!

There's a podcast here: [link]

OUR FORMSPRING FINALLY! here: [link]




EDIT: OH MY GOD IT'S SO SHINY AND NEW AND ALSO IF YOU RUN INTO ERRORS TELL ME SINCE THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IT HAS SEEN PUBLIC EYES: [link]


Firstly, if you haven't done your secret Santa PLEEEEEASE DO IT I don't want people hangin'!  I know one of you has it inked and the other spent their holidays dying(notreallyshewassickit'scoolguysnoone'sdying) so understood.

SECOND, SOME COOL UPDATES:

The site redesign is ALMOST DONE!  I want it to launch on the 23rd, so expect me to spazz everywhere about it next week!  ALSO NOTE: our donation incentive goes up that day, and just to let you guys know, any and all donations go towards paying for webspace and advertising so COOL BEANS.

ALSO, are you going to NOBRANDCONNNNNNNN?  Well, we already have an AA table there BUTTT I ALSO GOT APPROVED FOR A PANEL!  YES, I will be doing a panel about making webcomics, from art to story to marketing!  So, if you're signed up for NoBrandCon, not only stop by our table, BUT ALSO MY PANEL!  I'll let you know the date and time once that's scheduled.



To   from
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HERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL CHRISTMAS PRESENTS TO ME FROM MAD RAD PEOPLE:
From
From
From

There's a podcast here: [link]

OUR FORMSPRING FINALLY!here: [link]


NUMBER ONE: GET YOUR SECRET SANTAS DONE SO I CAN POST THEM HERE IN THE JOURNAL AND WE'LL ALL BE HAPPY TOGETHER!

EDIT EDIT: I KNOW SOME OF YOU STILL HAVEN'T DONE IT.  COME ON DON'T BE A LAME BRO!

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HERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL CHRISTMAS PRESENTS TO ME FROM MAD RAD PEOPLE:
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From




NUMBER TWO: SUPER SPECIAL PODCAST TONIGHT!

NEW YEAR SPECIAL STARTING AT 10 PM CENTRAL.

WITH NICK MEYER OF NICK MEYER'S VERBOTEN.

HERE AS ALWAYS: [link]

THERE'S A SUPER SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT WE'LL MAKE AT MIDNIGHT TOO!

Be there or be dumb.

SUN 6PM CENT There's a podcast here: [link]

OUR FORMSPRING FINALLY!here: [link]



Hey, here are the secret Santa pics done already!  When you get yours done, I'll add it!

To meeeeee from
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EDIT: First off DON'T FORGET ABOUT SECRET SANTA!  You guys have a little more than a week for those, and I don't want people not getting their gift! D:

SECONDLY, next weekend at 10 PM CENTRAL, we will be doing our New Years podcast WITH NIIIICKKKK!  We also have a very special announcement during that podcast, so be sure to show up!




EDIT EDIT EDITTTTT: Alright, since we're starting a little late, we're gonna have the due date for this be January 2!  LET'S SPREAD SOME CHRISTMAS CHEER!

LETTERS TO SECRET SANTAS:

NOTE TO ME IF YOU WANT SOMETHING SPECIFIC.

You can have a list to choose from, but if you're looking for a certain character drawn or something, note me and I'll update this journal so it's easy for everyone to see what their santa person wants.

REMEMBER NOT TO TELL WHO YOU'RE DRAWING FOR THAT YOU'RE GIVING THEM SOMETHING.




OKAY LADDIES!

We're gonna do a Secret Santa with ZiBaricon fan peeps peoples! 8D  You're all more than welcome to sign up if you want.  What I'll do is I'll take names for like a week probably?  And when I got peoples I will randomize your names and you will be doing your secret santas for one another!  I may even enter too so it'll be cool yo!

WHO WANTS TO JOIN?

SECRET SANTA WISH LIST:


"Any of my OCs would be fine, but if my Secret Santa's looking for ideas;

Chayne ( [link] / [link] )

Dimitri ( [link] )

or Solomon ( [link] / [link] ) would be pretty swell!"



"Also if you'd like you can draw me Holiday themed Ardracon [link] [link] "



"AW YEEAAAAAAAH THIS IS GONNA ROCK

AS FOR PICTURES I WOULD LIKE IN EXCHANGE I THINK SOMETHING WITH CALLIE WOULD BE AWESOME "



"Okay basically anything from
Here; [link]
Here; [link]
And Here; [link]
: D <3"



"I'd love something with my OC Seven. (Reference here)"



"Before i forget, i would like a pic of my character; Viper (his real name is Vincent). Heres a profile of him. [link] "



"uuh..i guess just anything related to my ocs? i honestly dunno i hate asking for stuff it makes me feel bad"



"Well cool! I don't have much in particular to ask, other perhaps the big 3 in my gallery: Wild Fox, Zamba and Mehphisto."



"ALRIGHT. Well here are a few ideas of what people can draw me if they want, I'll give three of my characters-

There's Finley --> [link] --> [link] and Bleck [link] But I'd be happy with just about anything really c:"



"lol, um, I guess I don't really care, but if someone wants to draw me something spacific, I would love a drawing of Zinc in a suit... don't shoot me *hides*

otherwise, if someone wants to draw me a super awesome picture of my character Ikon, that would be the shizz, bro
[link]
[link] "



"Preferably K.Luci. I will be posting her ref in a few minutes.  That or some really derpy picture of Zibaricon Character(s)."


Here's the ref.



"Uh, not really anything specific... I guess just one of my characters????"



Actually I'd like him; [link]

and here's a colored one;
[link]



Pick one of the following:
"Luke Wilson and Aziraphale
technically Neon and Valda
Smallwine
Sam Lohengrin
Paloma
Frank O'Ratherty
Owen Pierolau
Carlson
Technically Harris"



"Oh! And anything is fine. I wub it to death. "



"Verboten fanart's always cool. :3"



"I dunno whatever."

SUN 6PM CENT There's a podcast here: [link]

OUR FORMSPRING FINALLY!here: [link]

PS MAKE SURE YOU LOOK AT OUR CON STUFF AND TELL US IF YOU'RE GOING OR PLAN TO GOOOOO here: [link]

Edit: Nothing to discuss with the comic not updated (it'll be updated in like, a day or two but UNTIL THEN).  I'm however busy at work on this redesign, and I'm sure you're all gonna LOVE ITTTT.

EDIT: REAL TALK RIGHT HERE GUYS [link]

Edit: Once again ripping off my dear friends, I started a Tumblr for Dr. Kate Zinc here: [link]


Felt like ripping off a good friend .  I'm putting together a bunch of songs that reflect stories we got going/have done/will be doing!  Her journal on it can be found here: [link]

PS Nick if you wanna toss up some Verboten songs I'll edit this!

I'm just doing like, overall themes.  If you want a relink to the older journal about character-specific themes you can check them out here: [link] and [link] with reader suggestions in the comments!

A LOONATIC'S TALE
A king needs a team of elite experts to help fight crime and uphold the peace of Mercia.  Unfortunately, he hires crazy people for the job.  This didn't quite pan out the way he thought it would.

[link] Inspector Gadget Soundtrack - MAD's Theme (unused in the cartoon)
[link] Grandia 2 - II Battle Theme


VAGABOND
A story about a mysterious traveler with a strong sense of justice.  He's so fast, you can't see his body.

[link] Grandia - Duel with Gadwin


CROSSBONES
When traveling with the royal family of Mercia, an ambush strikes and attacks the royal airship.  As his duty to his country, airship mechanic Troy McKelski must venture through battle and escort the prince to safety.

[link] NemesisTheory - Rose at Twilight
[link] Masterplan - Crimson Rider


MASTERMIND
When an brilliant scientist can't seem to take over the earth, he takes his robot with him into space to finds a more "suitable" planet to conquer.

[link] FreddeGredde - Lonely Starlight


NOIR
(this is like a kinda-summary I may change it)
A news reporter is found dead and involved with near-unintelligible shadow creatures.  It's up to her husband, his "friend," and his accountant to solve the mystery of her demise and figure out what these shadow creatures exactly are.

[link] Egypt Central - White Rabbit
[link] Homestuck - Black


DIVINE INTERVENTION
A group of divine beings do their best to help society by granting wishes.  Only problem is that they're (mostly) completely incompetent.  Be careful what you wish for.

[link] Disney - When You Wish Upon a Star


CHOOSE YOUR OWN EXISTENCE (yeah I think I may keep doing this every so often if you guys liked the original)
The story is whatever you choose it to be, right down to how the very world itself functions.

[link] John Cage - 4' 33"


I'll probably add more to this if Rick/Nick have suggestions to pop into this, and you guys are more than welcome to toss in some suggestions too!

SAT 6PM CENT HEREEEEEE There's a podcast here: [link]

OUR FORMSPRING FINALLY!here: [link]

ALRIGHTY GUYS, so I hear you guys like conventions, y/n?

WELL

HOW ABOUT YOU HELP US DECIDE WHERE TO GO?

You may remember that I made a poll awhile ago to ask about people going to ones of longer distance, so I'd like to hear from you guys about our possible choice AND the choices that are a bit closer to us (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, ect.)!

HERE ARE CONVENTIONS OF 2012 WE ARE AIMING TO GO FOR/WOULD LIKE FEEDBACK ON!

OHAYOCON: Columbus, OH January 27-29
THIS AA is actually judged, not first-come-first-serve!  So we still have a chance to nab this one, if you guys are interested!

ANIME MILWAUKEE: Milwaukee, WI February 17-19
We're not really sure if AA is still open for this, but we can try out certainly!

KITSUNE KON: Appleton, WI March 30-April 1
AA is opened, but I'll see if the slots are filled.

NOBRANDCON: Eau Claire, WI May 4-6
AUTOMATIC WE'RE GOING IF WE CAN, AA OPENED TODAY I'M SO EXCITED I LOVE NOBRANDCON

CONvergence: St. Paul, MN sometime end of July
I don't think they've updated their site yet so I'm presuming AA isn't opened!  Also, right in our kind-of-homeland of Minneapolis area!

ANIMAZEMENT: Raleigh, North Carolina May 24-27
Again, they haven't updated their AA page so we're presuming it's open!  This is what won the poll for our long-distance one, so tell us if you're going since we'd hate to go all the way and not see anyone!

DAISHOCON: Stevens Point, WI mid November
WE CAN'T MAKE THIS YEAR'S, BUT MAYBE 2012!

SAT 6PM CENT HEREEEEEE There's a podcast here: [link]

Heeey alll! 8D

EDIIIIIITTTTTTT: sorry to keep updating this like a chump, but we've UPDATED OUR FORMSPRING FINALLY!  You can ask any character any question (make sure to address who you're talking to) here: [link] and we'll respond!

EDITEDITEDIT:  To further the incentive of our fanfic contest (found here: [link] ), we have an additional prize for you!  For a completed fanfic, Rick and I (IF AND ONLY IF YOU GIVE US PERMISSION TO) will do a "dramatic" (see: silly) reading of it (probably during a podcast)!  Remember, we don't take anything seriously, so we'll take anything and everything and reverse gender roles, do dumb voices, and so on.  IF YOU ARE INTERESTED AND HAVE ALREADY WRITTEN YOUR FANFIC, COMMENT OR NOTE ME!

IF YOU HAVEN'T ENTERED, we're still open for submissions!  REMEMBER: there is a best and worst category and you CAN make us read it aloud for you!  Do what you will~

So I got my cat and he's a bit of a handful (constant meowing and the like) so we've been kinda busy as of late THERE WILL BE AN UPDATE BY THIS WEEKEND THOUGH!  We have named our kitty Sergeant Ben Romero, after Dragnet.  It's pretty cool.

Also, podcast at 6 PM Cent Saturday again BECAUSE WE TOTALLY FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT PEEPS JOINING ZIBARICON LIKE DERPS!  If you do have any questions and can't make it to the podcast live/are a bit shy in the chat, go ahead and send us notes too of questions and comments and we'll answer them on air!

IN OTHER NEWS, A Loonatic's Tale just got featured on DrunkDuck!  [link]

RAD.

I feel sorta proud, since this is actually my second feature there (they featured Crossbones last year), so whoo! o/  THANKS, DRUNKDUCK PEEPS (since I know a few of you go there)!  Glad you're enjoying the comics.

So yeah, check out that post.  THEIR next podcast will be talking about the features, too, so I'll probably toss a link up once that's up for you guys to listen to.  Also if you wanna help promote the comic, you can always visit the comic on DrunkDuck here: [link] and "like" it too!

ALSO, I maaaay be getting a webcam too (one that isn't attached to my laptop) and do some ustream of drawing things that way!  It'll be a bit though (spent a lot on this cat thing), but when I do, I'll be sure to let you know!

SAT 6PM CENT HEREEEEEE There's a podcast here: [link]

OKAY SO I WAS GONNA GO TO SLEEP SO I WAS IN BED LIKE "MAN WE DON'T HAVE THINGS TO TALK ABOUT IN THE PODCAST BUMMER, BROOOO" AND THEN I WAS LIKE

W

WAIT I KNOW

Podcast will be sometime this weekend.

BUT FOR YOU GUYS WHO CAN'T WATCH US LIVE (OR THOSE WHO DO AND JUST WANT TO DO THIS ANYWAYS), I am opening up submissions for PODCAST MAILBAG!  You send us questions or comments, and we'll read it during the podcast!

You can ask us questions about the comic, us in general, video games we've played recently, movies, life, the universe, whatever (as long as it's not a "forbidden topic" for us [like me talking about Pokemon or Phantom of the Opera 8D;; ]).  You can just send us comments to read that you have about ZiBaricon, too.  Wanna just say you like the latest page?  Totally cool, bro.  Wanna hear more about a certain character?  We'll talk about it (though more specific subject matters is more handy [like instead of saying like "TALK ABOUT ZINC" you can say "TALK ABOUT ZINC'S TIME IN SCHOOL"])!  ANYTHING!  REMEMBER: just because Nick isn't with us doesn't mean he can't answer questions, too!  Send me any Verboten questions and I'll forward those to him, and we'll read your question and his response on the podcast!

Note me your questions/comments and we'll answer them this weekend for you to listen to!

I go back to bed now!

There's a podcast here: [link]






ALSO: THERE'S A NEW FORUM GAMES BOARD ON ZIBARICON, AND I'M HOSTING A RAD GAME OF MAFIA: [link]

Don't know what mafia is?  Read the thread and find out more!






Alright, prepare for an ultra long journal!  RAD.

First off, I would like to thank you all for being so patient with me, from sending mail stuff to messages I need to respond to, the comic (UPDATE COMING TODAY I JUST GOTTA COLOR IT), to the website, to other DA-related art that needs to be done (Nightmare, I'm looking at you).  I know I haven't been the most god awful webcomic artist on the planet in terms of updates, but I still always feel guilty when I'm late with something I promise.

I am moved in, almost completely unpacked (eheheh, uhhh Rick did most of that), and about ready to get back in the swing of things.  There are still a lot of things I need to do (OH GOD NEW STATE?  NEW LICENSE GAWD THIS IS LAME), but the massive bulk of it is finished and I finally got spare time on the weekend!  My job is going well and pays plenty, and Rick's got an interview for one coming up (yes, it takes me two months to find a damn job let alone an interview and Rick waltzes in and two weeks later has an interview the goddamn cheating whore).

OF COURSE, our first love is doing ZiBaricon stuff, so don't think for a minute we'll drop that for real life.  Real life is lame bro!  I need adventures of the mentally ill to satisfy me!  So there is a TON OF STUFF WE'RE DOING/ARE GOING TO DO!

--

First off, let me tell you ABOUT OUR RAD CONTEST WE'RE HAVING AT ZIBARICON!

Ever after the whoring of fans, we're doing a FANFIC CONTEST, hosted in the Creative Convention at the ZiBaricon forums!  You are more than welcome to submit your fanfics for the Fanatics section at ZiBaricon as well for points!  We are doing this contest for the BEST and the WORST fanfic.  Worst fanfics will be voted on by the forum goers, because Rick, Nick, and I are all competing for the worst as well!  Meanwhile, the ZiBaricrew will be judging the best.  Depending on the amount of entries, I'll be either doing a sketch for all submissions or the winners.  Sketch of what?  The characters you feature in your fanfic reacting to reading your fanfic, of course!

Details can be found here: [link]

A CURIOUS QUESTION FROM THE PERVERTED:

"Can we write porn for this?"

WELL, THAT'S CERTAIN TO END CATASTROPHICALLY AND GET YOU A LEAD IN THE "WORST" CATEGORY!  The answer is "yes."  Yes you can.  Really, you can do whatever rule 34 you want in the forums or this contest.  Anything pornographic won't get points or be put in Fanatics, though.  BUT you can share your perverted mind to your heart's content on the forum MAKE SURE TO LABEL IT AS [ADULT] OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT IN THE TOPIC THOUGH.  I'll update the rules for that.

PS romance is not porn.  How do you know?  If your fanfic involves "penis," "vagina," or "blowjob," it probably ain't a romance fic!

--

Another fun forum thing would be Rick's choose-your-own-adventure, drawn by him!  It's about a nameless (as of right now, YOU GUYS CAN DECIDE HIS NAME IN THE GAME) Mysteel guard on a wondrous adventure!  

The topic can be found here:  [link]

Be sure to join the forums and take part in this beautiful journey!

--

ZiBaricon is getting a redesign!  I'm in the stages of planning how it'll work, and probably won't go into effect for a few months at least while I work on it.  It'll be rad, though, with better Fanatics layout, our con and social media on the front page, ability to reply to the front page posts, and so on!  I'm also currently in the progress of sorting all the character emails for a much cleaner experience and have it set so we're alerted if you PM a character on the forums.

JUST FOR YOU GUYSSSS!

We're also adding more boards/organizing the forums, too.  COOL.

--

Some miscellaneous things:

Thinking of getting a PO Box in the future (probably once Rick has a job).  How many of you would be interested in MAILING US THINGSSS?

Also, make sure to take part in the convention poll.  IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER SUGGESTION OR WANT TO TELL US YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE CONS WE'RE LISTING, PLEASE TELL US I found most of these from Google, with a few from fans mentioning them.  SO if you want to pimp one or warn us about another, HERE'S YOUR CHANCE!

PODCASTS WILL probably start being on Saturdays now.  Maybe afternoon-ish?  Tell me what you guys think.

--

EDIT: HEY GUYS!

I've now switched all email accounts over to Google, making this a lot more smooth.  I'm still tinkering with settings, but NOW

- WHEN YOU PM A CHARACTER ON THE FORUMS, AN EMAIL ALRERT WILL BE SENT TO THE CHARACTER EMAIL AND TO ME SO I KNOW YOU PMED SOMEONE!

- FOR DIRECT EMAILS, I CAN EASILY SWITCH ACCOUNTS AND REPLY TO YOU!

Before it was a mess of logging in shenanigans, spam, and so on.  THANKS, GOOGLE.

However, Google is being a little bit of an buttgobbler at the moment and some of the emails don't forward correctly yet.  I'M FIXING IT and I gotta get into the accounts to fix them anyways so YOUR MESSAGE WON'T BE MISSED o/

Here are the following characters you can email to.

NOTE: I'M LISTING THE NAME BEFORE THE @ZIBARICON.ORG BECAUSE LULZ SPAM

SO REMEMBER TAKE THESE NAMES and put them in front of @zibaricon.org to use them!

From A Loonatic's Tale:
boris
captain
chimera
det_renswick
dr_chester
dr_lutetium
dr_nobelium
dr_terbium
flint
gen_aramis
gen_esteban
gen_jackson
dr_jasper
king_lawrence
king_malcolm
laguna
lynch
miya
pilot
polly
troy
vagabond
van
zinc
dr_qubert
fraud
lee

From Verboten:
king_giovanni
aryssa
shoju

From Divine Intervention:
angels
geno

From Noir:
charlie
coyote
pendulum
cheshire
dr_boyer

From Mastermind:
dr_truman
grand_inquisitor_wisteria
robot
sandwich

TODAY 4 PM CENTThere's a podcast here: [link]

Alright, so here's the story:

We plan on expanding our books!  As in, get them available in bookstores like Barens and Noble and so on!  Rad, right?  We're planning on just trying Crossbones and Talking to Myself to get a feel for what the market's like.

Downside: we have to up the price of the books.  Not a terrible lot, but enough that we can make some sort of profit (since it's more expensive).  SO, HERE'S THE DEALIO:

I'mma give you until NEXT SATURDAY to buy either Crossbones or Talking to Myself from the online store at its current pricing.  NEXT Saturday, I'll bump up the price and have those two books set for mass distribution.  Do you get your books from cons?  Don't worry, you'll be getting a discount on your book still since we don't pay royalties to ourselves (that's just silly).  Can't see us at a con, though?  Then you may wanna snag these books before the price goes up!

In other news, moving next Monday.  I apologize (once again) for delays on well... EVERYTHING.  Once everything's set up, we should be okay.  YOUR FANATICS PRIZE IS ALMOST DONE and I hope you really like it because it's a doozy compared to your previous prizes.  I quite enjoy it!  So yes, thank you for being very very patient.

There's a podcast here: [link]

My dear Tower Tourney buddy is offering discounts on her commission services!  You can check them out here: [link]

She's saving up money so she can move in with another good friend and room together in Wisconsin.  I'd love to see them out of their current situations and living together _{especially since that makes them only a few hours away from where I'm going to be living}.  SO, if you got some extra cash and you want a good commission, check out her art and see what you like!

There's a podcast here FRIDAY at 8 PM Central: [link]

Edit: Hey head's up.  Rick and Nick are doing a podcast, but it won't be live.  It'll be updated next week when my work shenanigans is all getting used to.

So first up, general updates:

I GOT A JOB WHOOOOOOO!  I work for a screen printing company and I'm one of the peeps in the art department.  I even get my own desk!  Hot dayum!

I'm getting an apartment pretty soon (and by soon I mean end of the month because GOD I hate living with my parents), and it sounds like the one I'm interested in has someone moving out at the end of June, so WHOO!  Hopefully I can snag that.  So yeah, I'll be moving again soon, but hopefully this will be the last move for awhile.

So yeah, everything seems askew since most of my belongings are still packed and I constantly have my parents interrupting me so we can go pick up 15 phones randomly.  Once I get my own place, everything should settle down into an actual schedule rather than this frantic, "GET APARTMENT GET FURNITURE CALL FRIEND ABOUT APARTMENT GET COMIC DONE GET PHONES GET GROCERIES AHHH" that I'm not really a fan of.  I also plan on getting a kitty or two once I got the cash and if this apartment allows pets (I think I heard they did for a fee).  I ALWAYS WANTED A KITTY! o/

SO YEAH a million things going on and I hope it gets normal soon.  In other news, my good friend and I are entering !  I'm entering with Kate (as you might've seen in my deviations) and she's entering with her character Zach.  .  She's doing the fun drawing/inking part of the comics while I script, color, and letter.  There's already a page up if you wanna check it out:   They'll be posted under her account, so if you'd like to see Kate and Zach shenanigans in an OCT, go watch her!  Also, if you're interested in OCTs, definitely check out .  It's well organized, the peeps running it are rad and drama-free, it's got a good premise, the NPCs are interesting and flexible, and everything's very open for creativity.  Want a fight on an iceberg one round and in a cemetery the next?  Totally cool with them, man.


and HEY I GOT TAGGED BY

Rules:
→Each tagged person must post 10 things about themselves on their journal.
→You have to choose and tag 10 people and post their icons on the same journal.

1. I own well over 40 ties.

2. Though I may seem ADD, I actually pay attention well when I need to.  Never had any problems in school about it.

3. I adore animals, despite my utter lack of animal art.

4. I'm incredibly heavy-handed in terms of drawing.  I can't use mechanical pencils because of this, always had the darkest penciled comics in art school, AND I have to brush my teeth with my left hand or my dentist yells at me for brushing too hard.

5. I love old stuff.  I have four old chests/trunks, one dating back 100 years at least.  Another is a WW2-era trunk.  I bought a bike that looks like a 40's Schwinn, but it's a modern bike with gear shifting and the like.

6. I have no tonsils.  I had them removed when I was five.

7. Chinese is my favorite kind of food.  I looooove cheese wontons especially.  Cheese in general, really.

8. I've actually had six years worth of piano lessons before, and two years worth of band class playing the baritone.  I'd like to (someday) learn to play the electric violin.

9. I'm also a brown belt in karate.  Since I'm working in the same area as my karate studio is (and not three hours away), I may try for black someday.

10. I'm double-jointed.  My fingers bend backwards (and they can touch my wrist), my thumb can stick out at an abnormal angle, and so on.

I tag:

There's a podcast here FRIDAY at 8 PM Central: [link]

Formspring [link] for ZiBaricon!




OKAY IT'S TOTALLY GONNA BE FRIDAY OKAY GUYS OKAY



Stuff from my previous journal about con extras are still available here: [link]



Hey guys, just a fun little thing Rick and I thought of/semi-stole from the MSPA forums.  You list off all the quotes you like the best from ZiBaricon comics.  Then, we'll make a poll of the top ones.  The best quote will have a wallpaper done of the character who said it.  So yeah, wallpapers!

What are your favorite quotes from the comics?

There's a podcast here Fridays at 8 PM Central: [link]

Formspring [link] for ZiBaricon!



Stuff from my previous journal about con extras are still available here: [link]


AWWW YEEEAHHHHHH, 23 SKIDOO.

I'm mostly making this journal to pimp some things people made me for the occasion. 8D  THANKS, GUYS!

There's a podcast here Fridays at 8 PM Central: [link]

Formspring [link] for ZiBaricon!


1) Podcasts will now always be on Friday, 8 PM Central time zone since I DON'T HAVE ANY CONFLICTING CLASSES!  YOU KNOW WHY?

BECAUSE 2) I AM NOW AN MCAD ALUMNI WITH A BACHELOR IN FINE ARTS, WEB & MULTIMEDIA DEGREE!  CAN I GET A, "HELLS YEEAHHHHH?"  No seriously, this took me four years to get and I'm so happy.  Though, that does bring me to

3) I'M UNEMPLOYED!  AWESOME!  So I'll be job hunting for... however long it takes.  Hopefully I won't crash a taxi in a tree during this hunt.  HERE ARE MY THINGS TO DO:

THAT NIGHTMARE COMIC?  GETTING DONE, SON.  Anything commission-wise is being FINISHED starting next week AWWW YEEAHHHH!

SIGNING BOARD OF SIGNING FROM NOBRANDCON?  I FORGOT TO POST THAT ON DA, SON.  Seriously, I posted it on ZiBaricon but was a derp and forgot to post it on DA, so sometime soon I'll post that with all appropriate links!

VAGABOND?  GETTING THAT STARTED, SON.  Seriously, I got a few pages penciled and we're updating two a week (Monday/Friday).

FRAUD'S DAY OUT?  STARTING THAT TOO, SON.  Two a week now, Tuesday/Thursday we're thinking.  May be only one this week just so I can get other stuff done, but that'll be the regular schedule until I get a more stable schedule of... having a job.

OTHER COOL STUFF?  THAT'LL COME TOO, SON.  Character sheets, namely because I haaaaate digging out my damn sheets from my trunk o' papers every time I need to see if someone's got a tattoo or scar somewhere or not.  I'M EVEN POSTING 'EM ONLINE _{(unless they're spoilers, then I won't show you those parts)}!

AND WAIT, THAT'S NOT ALL!  WE HAVE CONVENTION STUFF!  Here are the leftovers from NoBrandCon for sale!  Here's the dealio with these:

THESE ARE EXTRAS!  So, we can be prone to running out of stock.  However, all books are available online at ZiBaricon.org's Shopping page.  With every package, you will get a custom letter from a character of your choice!  Want Nobelium telling you why you made a poor financial decision?  Want Terbium to tell you Nobelium's a nerdy fucko?  Want Lee to personally thank you for giving him money?  Want Shoju to go off on a random tangent not relating to anything?  BY GEORGE, HERE'S YOUR CHANCE!  

Due to the fact that the US Postal Service like to give people surprise sex, we will have to ask for $10 for shipping.  SINCE THIS IS KINDA LAME, I'm offering a free sketch commission for every book you buy (if you just get a poster or something, I'll put a sketch in there too)!

And now, the products!

From
Verboten Ch. 1 AND 2 [link] : $6 (NOTE: THIS IS THE NEW AWESOME CREATESPACE VERSION WITH COMMENTARY AND EXTRA STUFF!)
Bookmarks : $1
B/W Postcards : $1
Color Postcards : $2
This rad Shoju poster : $5
This rad Aryssa poster : $5
Fanart cards : $2 each WARNING: THESE CARDS DON'T PLAY WELL WITH MOISTURE!  They're coming in their own protective sleeve, but be careful with them!

From ZiBaricon
Talking to Myself (GOT SOME EXTRAS FROM MY GRADUATION SHOW) [link] $12
Job Hunting: Rehired [link] : $7
A Loonatic's Tale Collection 1 [link] : $21
Crossbones [link] : $12
Vagabond [link] : $6
Bookmarks : $1 OR A FREE ONE WITH EVERY BOOK YOU BUY
Mastermind poster : $5
Loonatic's Tale Silent poster : $5
Noir poster : $5
Crossbones poster (without the text) : $5
Character stands $15 for custom stands, $6-$7 for stands of pre-made images we have



Note me if you're interested!