Fecal Matters

A cartoon I did for The Hawaii Independent about how Honolulu is, once again, inundated in smelly, poo-poo water (500,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled onto Waikiki beaches and shorelines alone - the entire island has "brown water" warnings posted at all beaches). The cause? Less than 4 inches of precipitation. Now I know that's not an insignificant amount of rain, but if we can't even handle 4 inches in 6 hours without our sewers exploding diarrhea water all over our streets and beaches, what happens when we get another 40 days of rain scenario like we did back in 2006? What happens when we add an estimated 20,000 new residents to the urban core over the next 25 years? 

If we don't fix the sewer infrastructure now, we may very well be up a literal shit river in a canoe with no paddle. We have very few politicians who will actually fight for better sewage infrastructure. Our councilmen joke that infrastructure is "not sexy." Well it's also not funny, and it's vitally important; so stop joking about it and actually do something, please (like drawing a cartoon about it).

INhonolulu 3.0

We just switched our lifestyle and entertainment website INhonolulu​ over to a new platform (again!). The new platform gives us a new, slimmed down, simpler look, and does a lot of great things for us structurally as well. At the same time, it does sacrifice some of the "flair" of our elaborate Wordpress template.

Sweet Jesus Christ though, I'm so happy not to be using Wordpress anymore. It's like suddenly having a bed that isn't infested by bedbugs after having slept in one for roughly a year-and-a-half. Maybe that's an exaggeration but, if so, it is a slighter exaggeration than you might think. Which reminds me: I need a new bed.

We're going bat-shit overdrive on Pow! Wow! 2015 coverage and I'm personally playing both Deltron albums back-to-back on repeat getting ready for next Tuesday's performance at The Republik. The image above is of local musician Mike Lundy's "Tropical Lightning," the debut press from Roger Bong's new Aloha Got Soul record label. It's rare groove goodness.

"Bottom line is, just keep trying things 'till you find the way that works." - some asshole

Do Not Judge Us

"It takes a weak heart to judge one another." - Groundation

Working with a new WACOM Cintiq 24"

Shots of me working on an album artwork project with my new WACOM Cintiq 24" - prior to getting this technological beast, I was using an old, but trusty, WACOM that had no screen. It's live-drawing area was a gray square, forcing me to look at my monitor to see what I was drawing, rather than be able to focus on my hands.

This made line-work in particular take much longer than it needed too (constantly having to redraw lines that didn't quite come out right, and then shave those lines down with the eraser tool after). It also made working on art projects much more frustrating than need be (9 of 10 doctors recommend their artists use Cintiqs).

Speaking of doctors, using the old WACOM, which could only be laid flat on a desk that is, really, at a terrible height for my own ease of use and comfort, was giving me some serious Carpal tunnel syndrome in my right wrist (a combination of the height and angle of my arm and the extreme pressure I was exerting to keep those lines on target without being able to see what I was really doing). The new Cintiq, as you can see, is mounted on a stand that allows one to rotate the Cintiq to a comfortable angle. Placed on a new desk, it actually allows me to stand while I draw, which is also a relief for my back.

“A man of purpose is a man on an assignment.”

Episode 1, Page 1: First Born Pencil-work

Episode 1, Page 1 initial pencil layout for my in-the-works graphic novel: First Born. Can't believe I'm actually drawing it finally. 6 years since the initial idea, 2 since the initial season 1 writing and now I've got 1 page of pencil work. Woohoo!