The Chux Wagon

Do you plan on returning to work on Brightest ever? It's been in my bookmarks tab for ages and, well, I get kinda sad seeing it. Sorry if that's blunt, I just feel I never read a concrete answer anywhere.

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:05:11 -0400

I’ve had a few people mention that I’m not unlike the characters I write, in that I don’t give straight answers either - though I feel like I do. :P

But I’m afraid there are no plans on getting back to Brightest. May as well just lay it all out now. It just takes more time than I can give anymore.

Chux! Is everything okay? The Brightest site went down and your tumblr is dead quiet.

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 20:03:33 -0400

Funny story! (But not actually funny.)

My server host charged me a couple hundred dollars without warning, and when I looked into it I found out I had no say over what I was being charged, and couldn’t cancel bill-able features. So I pulled the plug with them, feeling nervous about them being able to just use my credit card info willy-nilly.

But this meant I lost all my domains/sites/etc.

I’m going to look into archiving the comic somehow, maybe on Tumblr, maybe as a CBR or something. It’ll probably take me a while, but I’ll get it up somehow, and hopefully with the rest of the script of Season 2 so people can at least read it.

This Tumblr is quiet because I haven’t drawn anything! Just don’t feel it anymore.

For anyone still here, I went an opened a new Tumblr account for...

Sat, 19 May 2012 16:10:27 -0400

For anyone still here, I went an opened a new Tumblr account for the new website and comic! I don’t know if there’s much cross-over here, so I figured it would be best to start fresh somewhere else.

Not closing this one down, because hey, maybe I’ll draw a pinup again!

But if you want to keep up with what I’m doing now, this is where to go.

http://monstergamers.tumblr.com/

http://www.monster-gamers.com/

monstergamers:

Read the comic and full banter here!

http://monster-gamers.com/skyrim-sweetroll.html

near Monsters - And another experiment. I like the look the...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:33:05 -0400

near Monsters

- And another experiment. I like the look the messier I get with it.

This one’s practically a one-frame comic!

Monsters Experiment! - Going to post these here, because it at...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:29:26 -0400

Monsters Experiment!

- Going to post these here, because it at least shows I’m drawing something. This is so very different than what people on here probably are watching me for, so I’m not too sure what kind of reception it’ll get. :P

Anyway, I’ve been drawing! Experimenting with some line-less monster designs for a possible project.

Summer Pinup Charlie And the final bit of fan-servicery for...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:23:26 -0500

Summer Pinup Charlie

And the final bit of fan-servicery for this series. Charlie!

Like I’ve said, I’ve already got an initial run of these printed (I think it’s 20 each? 15? Something), along with a few other prints actually. Charlie hair experiments and…the group shot for Season 2?

Just checked the box again and they seem to have survived the fire unscathed - any sort of smoke smell is long gone by now too, as it turns out. Maybe I’ll try to get around to selling them at some point. But I’m a terrible businessman.

http://www.brightestcomic.com

Summer Pinup Alex And now Alex’s turn on the fan-service...

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:28:11 -0500

Summer Pinup Alex

And now Alex’s turn on the fan-service pinup wagon. Oh summer. Where you at?

http://www.brightestcomic.com

Summer Pinup Coop More of the fan-service pinups I was going to...

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:08:58 -0500

Summer Pinup Coop

More of the fan-service pinups I was going to sell as prints. Coop’s just about the most UN-fan-service-y, so I like her being in this set.

http://www.brightestcomic.com

Summer Maggie Pinup I did a series of fan-servicey pinups last...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:02:03 -0500

Summer Maggie Pinup

I did a series of fan-servicey pinups last year with the intention to sell them as prints. I even printed them out! And then the fire happened, and while they made it out, they kind of vaguely smell like smoke and now I’m just put off of the whole thing. So I figured I might as well post them up.

First is Maggie!

http://www.brightestcomic.com

- Personal art time! The baby’s 7 months happens on the...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 01:38:47 -0500

- Personal art time!

The baby’s 7 months happens on the same day as Valentines so here’s the both together in an image.

More experiments with line-less drawings and textures. All the textures here are actually taken from stuff around our lives. Shirts, knit blankets, rugs, baby blankets. It’s an idea I’m thinking about doing for a photo album of the baby’s first 6 months.

Just wanted to let you know that I find your art amazing and that I really look forward to reading the story to the end, no matter how you decide to ride it out (:

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:57:42 -0500

Thank you! I’m totally flip-flopping on how to finish the story, but really want to find a way.

Thanks for writing something up! It’s interesting that...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:49:09 -0500

Thanks for writing something up!

It’s interesting that you mention that I had redundant descriptions, because in the comic she describes each character as young, then says that she feels old now too. She tends to have redundant narration - it’s honestly a conscious effort for that kind of repetition and style.

I was definitely working against a deficit since I was cutting up art made for something else into a written scene, which isn’t ideal and isn’t what I would want from a ‘final’ result either. There are ideas to try and meld the art into the prose more - like even using key moments/dialogue into a comic panel. I’m not too sure how well that would work though.

Maybe there isn’t a smooth way of mixing in panels into the writing - like you said, it’s hard to switch between paying attention to art and then the writing and back again. There could be a way of doing like, full page shots with art with lots of empty area to fill with the prose (which sounds really interesting), but that has the potential of running me back into taking way too long with the art and not enough room for prose and I’m back with the same problem.

unicornorgy:

chuxwagon:

Scene Experiment!

Trying something new with Brightest, and would appreciate feedback. Re-writing the last scene for prose and using art assets already drawn for the scene.

http://www.brightestcomic.com

Hm hm. One of the things I like about your comics is how much you say with so little. Your writing is less eloquent to me, because parts of it are redundant. For example, you call attention to the other people’s youth many times. You don’t need to write, then, “And suddenly I’m really conscious of how old I am” because you already told us.

Perhaps it’s because ‘show don’t tell’ takes SO much work in comics (esp. with how much complexity you bring to that…moods, relationships, pauses, not just action) that if you’re gonna use prose, I expect the same level of quality/effort from it that I can see in your comic.

Also, the minute I start reading, I form mental images of the characters and the place. Your style doesn’t lend itself well to flipping from mental image to real image because it is very cartoony and very strongly its own thing, and unfortunately I found myself ignoring the images completely as I read. Then later when I looked at them, it was hard to relate them to the words. Perhaps because they were so explicitly connected?

I hate being such a downer :(

There’s gotta be a way to do this well…Have you read anything like it? Paul Madonna’s All Over Coffee comes to mind as a cool way to integrate text and images. The two play off each other in a clever non-literal way.

Actually, now that I think about it, children’s books are often pretty clever about this sort of thing. And you gotta get a good library going for when your kid is old enough, right?

Scene Experiment! Trying something new with Brightest, and...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:51:00 -0500

Scene Experiment!

Trying something new with Brightest, and would appreciate feedback. Re-writing the last scene for prose and using art assets already drawn for the scene.

http://www.brightestcomic.com

Charlie Painting Toenails Request! Decided to try a quick sketch...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:53:40 -0500

Charlie Painting Toenails Request!

Decided to try a quick sketch - the goal was definitely to be loose and fast with it, and that’s what actually happened, thankfully. Basing this off a request (but minus the bra and panties. Though those are in here, I suppose, just underneath!), because I’m not good enough to think up random ideas on the spot right now.

Can’t promise I’ll do any of the requests, but I appreciate the ideas! As you can see, they can sometimes work out.

HOLY SHIT. I'm sorry! I really should have asked you before I made that thing! I put a link showing where the character is from and I hope you don't hate me. I can take it down or something if you want. Because I really like the comic and I really like your art work.

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:00:00 -0500

No no. That wasn’t a sarcastic “awesome”, it was genuine!

It’s awesome to see Brightest get referenced! I’ve got no issues with that, heh.

purplepandapudgemiz: There was a Who I … meme on 4chan and I decided to do one From left to...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:51:23 -0500

purplepandapudgemiz:

There was a Who I … meme on 4chan and I decided to do one

From left to right

Charlie (Brightest) [x]

Serenity (Serenity Rose) [x]

Jamie (Girls with Slingshots) [x]

I don’t see what I make get dropped/referenced too often, so this is awesome to see.

Charlie Vintage Pinup Sketch Got something actually sketched...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:01:19 -0500

Charlie Vintage Pinup Sketch

Got something actually sketched up! Again, spent more time poring through my favs on Tumblr and devouring more vintage livingrooms/furniture and pinups.

Still working towards that quest of finding what I like about drawing and comics again. My plan is to try the whole lineless/construction-paper look to this one, too. It’d be nice to get it done in time for posting up Monday on the site to give an update to all the people waiting for the next page and at least let them know “hey, no page coming anytime soon”.

Charlie Ideas?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:34:01 -0500

Alright, let’s try something this weekend.

I want to try to do another lineless-style drawing, and I want to go with what I know/love drawing, which is basically Charlie.

Looking for ideas on shots/fashions for Charlie, and hoping that something will spark me to draw SOMEthing this weekend. Thanks for any suggestions!

Charlene’s Coffee Experiment Found some amazing, inspiring...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:55:32 -0500

Charlene’s Coffee Experiment

Found some amazing, inspiring art out there of lineless work (and paper cut-outs), and I wanted to do some work with it. Never having done this kind of thing before, this was slow and painful and not great. But I kind of dig the idea of this look and want to do some more with it.

Didn’t want to put the effort into a background, though.

Fashion based off of this outfit!

How is Connor doing =3?

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:31:20 -0500

He’s great! Sits up on his own now, can stand if we hold his arms (from lying down, even), just sprouted a tooth, and is still the cutest baby ever. I just really wish he would sleep, haha. Been 6 months of almost never getting to sleep for even 4 hours in a row. Starts wearing you down.