Metropolis: The Gallery Show

Hi all

As I mentioned earlier, Metropolis had been accepted to hang in some community galleries here in town.  Here are some pics of it hanging in the lobby of the Gateway Theatre in Richmond, BC.

I would like to thank my friend Morley for helping me hang everything.  (Check out his stuff here.)  He's an artist with lots more experience at hanging stuff.  Notice that the wall is convex, which makes hanging difficult.  Fortunately, most of the frames were the same size.

I look a little rough in this picture.  November was a tough month.

This gallery presentation will be hanging at the Richmond Gateway Theatre until Jan. 6, 2013.  Please stop by and check it out.  You might as well buy a ticket and enjoy Fiddler on the Roof while you are there.

I'll be there opening night to check out the show and watch people read Metropolis during the intermission (I hope.... gulp).

Joao

Metropolis is getting around..... kind of.

Ok.

So, I Googled myself today.  I've found my Metropolis comic strips hosted on sites that I never heard of.  It turns out that there are websites out there that scrap archive.org for content. 

I won't comment (too much) on how some of the sites don't seem to be 100% kosher....  I don't think I can ask them to take it down as my comic strip is Creative Commons.  It's free to anyone who wants to share it.  And some of the sites seem legit anyway, so why not let them.

So I just want to let everyone know that there is only 3 places on the web where I post Metropolis the comic strip:
1) On facebook.
2) Here on this blog
3) The Metropolis Comic Strip webpage


Joao

Metropolis - Chapter 21

Hi

I've almost got the gallery show ready to go.  I'm pretty excited.

Here's the newest chapter.

Please don't forget to like my facebook page and visit the Metropolis website.  Links are near the top right of the page.

Thanks for your support.

Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.



Have a great day.


Joao

Metropolis Presents: How to Fold Your Own Comic!

Hi all

This isn't the latest chapter of Metropolis.  This is just a comic style "How-to" about the Fold-Your-Own-Comic versions of Metropolis.  A few people had asked, so here is how you do it... as described by Mog.

Download the F.Y.O.C version here.



A new chapter is coming in October.

Have a great day.

Joao

Metropolis: The Comic Strip on Facebook

Hi

I'm really getting with it now...

I've created a facebook page for Metropolis: The comic strip.

Please go check is out!

Thank you.

Metropolis: The comic strip on facebook

Metropolis - The Gallery Show

Hi

So there is a community arts centre here in Richmond BC.  Along with being a place where kids and adults can learn things like pottery, yoga, painting and lapidary, they also curate a couple of gallery spaces.

Each year they put out a call to local artists to submit their work for the galleries.

This year, I submitted Metropolis.  They really liked it.  So much that Metropolis will be on display in two galleries.

The Gateway Theatre
6500 Gilbert Road, Richmond BC V7C 3V4
Nov. 26 2012 to Jan. 7 2013
Lobby Gallery
Phone the theatre for public access times.
604-270-1812
PS: They're putting on "Fiddler on the Roof" so come for the show and the gallery.

Richmond Cultural Centre
7700 Minoru Gate Richmond, BC V6Y 1R9
Feb. 1 - 28, 2013
Upper Rotunda Gallery
M-F 9:00am to 9:30pm
Sat & Sun 10:00am to 5:00pm

I'm very excited about this.  I hope if you are in town, you can come by and see it.

Joao

Metropolis - Chapter 20

Hi everyone

And hello to all my recent hits from the UK.  Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy the next chapter.

Click to enlarge.

Download the FYOC version here.









Joao

Metropolis - Chapter 19

Hello to all.

I'm happy to announce that "Metropolis" will make a gallery appearance late this year and and early 2013.  If you are in Richmond, BC I hope you will come by and check it out.  I'll post details very soon.

In the meantime... here's 19.

Click image to enlarge.

Download the FYOC version HERE.









Have a great day.

Joao

Hi

So I've been messing with the layout of the on-line version of the comic trying to get it to look consistent.  The problem is that "Metropolis" exists firstly in the Fold-Your-Own-Comic version.  The layout of the panels and pages in that format don't jive with a consistent layout for the on-line version.  It could be consistent if I make every chapter 8 full page panels, but I don't want to do that.  I wouldn't be able to make any groovy double page spreads.

After lots of work and experimenting, I think I've come up with a reasonable solution.  Over the next little while, I'll be updating the past chapters to the new layout.  Anyone who is collecting the on-line version will now have a nice clean layout to view them through.

Hope you're enjoying the story.

Have a good day.

Joao

Metropolis - Chapter 18

Here is the latest chapter.  I've really don't have too much to say other than that.

Except that I been showing my son how to build catapults!  We've been launching this stuffies across the living room all day!

Enjoy the chapter.

Click image to enlarge.

Download the F.Y.O.C version here.








Joao

Roger Calico Bunny! The Assonance Song.

Hi

Here is a song I wrote about Roger C. Bunny. 

My wife named him.  I suggested that Calico be his middle name. 

I always thought that Roger was a peculiar name for a bunny.  It was only weeks later that I realized that my wife never intended his name to be Roger Bunny.  The name she had in mind was Roger Rabbit.  I'm can be a bit vacuous sometimes....

Anyway, Roger C. Bunny became his permanent name mostly to remind me of how I sometimes miss the point.

Assonance is when you rhyme the vowel sounds but not the consonants.  Assonance was given some notoriety in the film "Educating Rita" when the title character described it as "getting the rhyme wrong".

Here is the Assonance Song:

Roger C. Bunny
He likes your tummy
He thinks your nice
And he know what he likes
He thinks your fun
And he has cotton on his bum
Cotton on his bum

Have a good day.

Joao

PS: you can see Max in the background of the picture.  He's pushing buttons on the DVD player again.

Metropolis - Chapter 17

In this chapter we learn the dangers of not properly grounding yourself during computer repairs.

Download the FYOC version here.








Have a good day.

Joao

I can finally keep up on Prince Valiant!

Creating my Metropolis comic has reignited my interest in comic strips.  (Metropolis is modeled after the Sunday adventure comic strip format). Unfortunately newspapers are becoming rare and newspapers with comics rarer still.

And if you are a fan of Prince Valiant, The Phantom, Spider-Man (the comic strip version) and Flash Gordon, then you've probably been on the search for where you can read them on-line.  A very frustrating search. 

If you own an Apple product you can shell out $20 for a subscription for an app called DailyINK.  That will give you access to all of King Feature's strips for 1 year.  I'm only interested in about 3 or 4 of their 60 strips, so I didn't do that.

Fortunately, you can get access to about 1 month's worth of all the strips at a website called http://www.oregonlive.com/comics/.

Now I can keep up on all my adventure strips on-line.  I hope you enjoy them too.

Joao

Things to Come - Part 14 - A Hymn For Liebowoh

Liebowoh was a Papa.  A Papa was a lemming that had, despite the odds, lived to a very old age.  If you became a Papa, you weren't one for very long.  Old lemmings were easy prey for a predator.  The Papas had two duties.  The first was conducting the moonly tail counts.  The moonly tails counts were far from accurate.  They really didn't involve counting either. 

Liebowoh made his way to the centre of the herdlet and asked: "Anyone missing?"

"I don't think so." someone replied.

The old lemming moved on.

So the moonly tail counts were far from accurate.  Nor were they exhaustive.  Some herdlets would see many moons before they were counted. 

Being a Papa was position of respect. They could wander the herd as they wished; they were not required to stay with a herdlets.  They would share stories with the young lemmings or gather with the other Papas to share the very same stories.

Liebowoh was a Papa of notoriety as he was also a Knoght.  It was not unheard of, but very few Knoghts lived long enough to become Papas.

"The Knoghts sure are small and thin these days." Liebowoh often thought.  Which was true, but not more so than any other member of the herd.  Food was scarce.  Every lemming was smaller and thinner these days.

Liebowoh missed being a Knoght.  It offered him a release for his secret shame.  Liebowoh liked to be alone.  He had long ago stopped thinking himself a deviant.  His weird desire only put himself at risk and didn't seem to affect the herd in any negative way. 

He was able to keep his secret his whole life.  He had a perfect pretence.  As a Knoght, he offered to perform outward patrols by himself.

"Could be dangerous!  No sense in all of us going.  If I'm not back in a little while, count on a predator being close by." he would say.

This added to his reputation of being a brave and selfless Knoght.  No one ever guessed that he did so solely to have time alone.

Liebowoh had not had the chance to go off since they made him a Papa.  He volunteered to remain a Knoght, but the other Papas insisted.

"You've served your time, Liebowoh." they said.  "It's time for you to take your place with us and let younger lemmings serve."

Liebowoh was at the herd rim the first time he saw Loganoh.  He did not know his name but he knew about the young lemming that had been banished.  Loganoh was walking outward.  Liebowoh felt a pang of envy.

"Lucky son of a rat!" he thought.

Liebowoh sighed deeply and tried not to think about it.  Someday soon, it won't matter anymore.  The Great Run will begin and all of our troubles will be over.

As mentioned before, the Papas had two duties.  The second was that the Papas were the secret keepers of the herd.  They alone knew the truth of the Great Run...  Or so they thought.

Metropolis! Now formatted for more printers!

Hiya

Someone has very kindly let me know that my FYOC versions of Metropolis are not very printer friendly. 

The problem is that some home printers are not very good with printing close to the edge.

I have just now finished reformatting them all.  Hopefully, they will be better suited to a wider variety of printers.

All the newly reformatted versions are up at www.archive.org

PS: For those who don't already know, FYOC stands for "Fold Your Own Comic".

Have a very good day.

Joao

Max Power. Superhero for the Whole World

I have a very old 18 volt cordless drill.  In the past, it would charge in 3 hours and hold that charge to 24 hours.  Recently the numbers reversed. 

I thought it was very funny that my drill is labelled "Max Power".  This become a brief nickname for my son.  This was the spark that inspired the following song.

I'm Max Power, superhero for the whole world.
I'm Max Power, superhero for the whole world.
And I punch the bad guys in the face.
And I don't know one plus one.
But I know right from wrong.
I'm Max Power, superhero for the whole world.
I love small animals and old people.
Please don't tell mommy and daddy my secret identity.

PS: This is sung while I hold Max's hands and make him punch the air and strike superhero poses.

He loves it.

Metropolis - Chapter 16

In this chapter we answer the question: what was that little thing in the trees at Arboropolis?

Download the FYOC version here.








Have a good day.

Joao.

PS: To date, most of my page views come from Russia.  I have no idea why...

About the Children's Music

So ever since Max was born I've been "writing" children's songs. 

I say "writing" because if you consider free-styling funny words and phrases set to rudimentary tune a tune, then yes I have been writing children's songs.  If you were to ask me what are the notes?  I couldn't tell you.  I don't know that much about music.  I'm a word guy, the lyrics have always been more important to me anyway.

Over time, the songs evolve.  If Max laughs, then the lyric stays.  If not, then I keep free-styling.  I will share the final version of the songs here.  Feel free to set them to your own music until I work up the courage to record myself singing them.

Just click on the label "Children's Songs" (located near the top right) to see them all.

Enjoy.

Metropolis - Chapter 15

Hello all,

This chapter is a quiet interlude from the 8 action packed pages that this comic usually is.  (Tongue placed firmly against cheek.)

Download the F.Y.O.C version here.








Have a good day.

The Owl and the Hippo

This song is based on my son's bib.  It has a picture of an owl sitting on a hippopotamus.  Underneath the picture is the word: "Friends".

This struck me as a very odd paring of animals.  So I started free-styling lyrics to a song which I sang to Max often.

Here is the final version of the lyrics.  Enjoy.

Chorus:
The Owl and the Hippo are natural friends
The Owl and the Hippo are natural friends
The Owl and the Hippo are natural friends
Just like me and you

The Owl and the Hippo hunt prey together
By means of a complicated ruse
Which involves a baseball bat
And a large hydrangea bush

Chorus

The Owl and the Hippo were natural enemies
Sixty-five million years ago
But they developed a symbiotic relationship
Over many thousands of years

Chorus

The Owl and the Hippo share accommodation
Made by the industrious Owl
He builds a nest in a sturdy tree
With very very thick branches

Chorus

Things to Come – Part 13 – Big Mother is Watching You

"For someone who has been banished, you sure do spend a lot of time around the herd."

At first, Loganoh thought the voice was a dream.  Except for the occasional Knoght with a gruff command, no one had spoken to him since he had been banished.   He looked up and realized that a female was actually talking to him.  Loganoh assumed the worst.

"I'm only on the herd rim.  I'm allowed to be here."

"I know you are." she smiled at Loganoh.  She was a very old female.

"I know you." he said.  "You were at my trial."

"Yes, I was.  Do you know my name?" she asked.  Loganoh shook his head.  "It's Dicrostonyxo."

"Dic... Dirco..."

"Yes.  It is a very old name.  Call me Nyxo.  Come walk with me, Loganoh."

Loganoh was shocked to see Nyxo saunter outward.  Mamas seldom strayed from the herd core let alone away from the herd.  Loganoh scampered after her. 

"Is this whelp troubling you, ma'am?" huffed a Knoght.  A trio was just returning from an outward patrol.

"No, I'm fine.  I'm just teaching this one the finer points of banishment.  You can carry on." she said.

"We encountered no predators out this way.  But I can't say that will remain the case, ma'am.  We will escort you."  The Knoght and his two counterparts took positions in front of the Mama.

Nyxo looked up into the air and then said, "There are no predators around.  I won't need your escort.  Continue your duties, Knoghts."

The Knoghts stopped and exchanged concerned glances.

"Are you deaf?" asked Nyxo, twitching her whiskers.

"No Ma'am."  And the three Knoghts were gone.

Loganoh was puzzled.  How could a lemming know whether there were predators or not?  He looked up and all he could see was a gull.  This Mama was powerful.  And she knew things; things that Loganoh didn't understand.  Could she possibly have the answers Loganoh sought?  This would have to be handled delicately.  Questioning Mamas was not polite.  He had hoped that she would begin a conversation, but Nyxo did not speak for some time. They were well out of sight of the herd now.  Loganoh was becoming discouraged.  He decided to throw caution to the wind.  He was already banished.  How could it get any worse?

"Please, ma'am.  Can you tell me what Herd Crime is?"

Nyxo hummed with amusement.  "It's a crime against the Herd."

Loganoh had heard this too often.  "I understand that part.  I just don't know what it is I've done.  I can't see my family or my herdlet anymore.  No one has spoken to me for I don't know how many moons.  And nobody can tell me what I did."

"That's not entirely true is it?  You know what you did.  You just don't know what you did wrong." She replied.

"The Great Run." gasped Loganoh.  "Miriao thought I was talking about the Great Run.  What is it?  Why is it bad to talk about it?"

Nyxo looked up at the gull again.  She looked disappointed and sighed.

"We don’t have enough time.  There’s a predator close by.  Let’s head back to the herd." she said as she turned herd-ward.

Loganoh's heart leapt and he looked up expecting to see an owl.  He only saw another gull.  Or was it the same gull?

"Do you like being alone, Loganoh?" Nyxo asked.

Loganoh did not know how to respond to the question.  Admitting it would be tantamount to admitting you were a deviant.  But lying to a Mama was always a bad choice.  Could she already know?  Was the question some kind of test? 

Loganoh looked at Nyxo and saw that she was smiling at him.

"Yes.  I like it too." she said.  "But the herd doesn't like to see such behavior in a Mama, so I don't get to enjoy it as often as I'd like."

Loganoh couldn't believe his ears.  Could it be that there were others like him?

"Maybe I should get banished too?" Nyxo laughed.

A Juicy Rationalization

I’m a big fan of “Watership Down” by Richard Adams.  I first saw it on TV when I was a kid.  Get it.  Watch it.  All the voices are done by these really great old UK actors.

Then I discovered it was actually a book.  I remember thinking: “How could a book about bunnies be that big?”  This was not a children's story.  At least, not entirely a children's story.

What I found most fascinating about the story was the society Adams created.  You get a totally compelling bunny society and culture that, for the most part, does not defy what the average person observes of bunnies.  Maybe bunnies really can’t count higher than five.  Maybe some bunnies have the gift of precognition.  How would we know different?  Pretty cool thought, at any rate.

I was also really fond of "Silverwing" by Kenneth Oppel.  The idea of echo chambers storing bat history was cool.  If bats developed a "technology" that would totally be it.  Wouldn't it?  I mean, really, that was so cool.  "Silverwing" takes Adams idea one step further; an animal society, culture and technology.

Since reading "Watership Down", I always wanted to write my own animal Sci-Fi story.  Then I discovered lemmings.  I don’t remember how or where.  What I found most striking about them was the phenomenon that lemmings, for some debatably unknown reason, committed mass suicide by jumping off a cliff into the sea.  Some thought it happened naturally because the lemming population reached critical mass.  Others thought it was part of some primordial urge to migrate to the sunken continent of Atlantis.  Atlantis!  Really!  I’m not foolin’.  It seemed the perfect fodder for a story because it also fed my desire for apocalypse science-fiction (Blood Music, Childhood’s End, A Canticle for Leibowitz, etc.).

Then disaster struck my young writer’s mind.  I learned that lemmings don’t actually commit mass suicide.  It was a wild and ill-conceived notion.  How could I write a story about lemmings based on a myth?  Adams would turn over in his grave.  So would Oppel if he was dead.  I shelved the idea for a very long time.

Then I started to toy with the idea of basing my story on lemming myth and not lemming fact.  I've read a lot of early pulp sci-fi.  Some of which was written based on some pretty dubious science.  Why not?  I decided to go for it.
                             
Recently I saw the movie "The Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" (I should mention that I only saw the movie and didn't read the book.)  In the story, owls were forging metal weapons and helmets.  It was a pretty neat story, but forging metal weapons?  It wasn’t like “Watership Down” or “Silverwing” at all.  It wasn't owl technology.  It was human technology used by owls.  In my mind, the story crossed some line.  Since then, I’ve felt less conflicted about writing a story based on lemming myths.

So that’s what my “Things to Come” is all about.  It is an apocalypse story based on lemming myths we once thought were reality.

That’s my juicy rationalization for the year. 

I hope you’re enjoying the story.

PS: I really love saying the word bunnies.

Joao
 

Things to Come - Part 12 - Perched upon a bust of Pallas

Arvico had not seen her brother for many moons.  Her mother refused to speak of Loganoh.  Many lemmings in the herdlet refused to admit that he had ever existed.  This did not prevent Arvico from reminding them all on numerous occasions.

One day her mother relented.  She explained that Loganoh had been banished.  Arvico couldn't understand why this made her mother so sad.  Loganoh was now allowed to be alone as much as he wanted.  "That sort of thing would make Loganoh happy." she thought.

Since then Arvico ventured out regularly to search for Loganoh.  Just because he wanted to be alone didn't mean he wouldn't want some company, she reasoned.  Today was the first time she had found anyone. 

"Hello." said Arvico to the gull.  "I thought that was you."

The gull recognized Arvico and walked away.

"Who was that lemming I saw you with?" she asked, hurrying to the gull's side.

The gull froze in mid-step, balancing on one foot.

"Am... Am talking with no lemmings but you."

"Yes you were.  I saw you just now."  Arvico walked around the gull and examined his single-legged stance.  "That's why I came over here.  I saw you talking with a lemming and I thought it might be my brother.  But then I started to think it wasn't you, because you don't seem to like lemmings.  So why would you be talking to one?  That's what I wondered.  But then I caught your smell on the wind and I said 'That's him all right'.  That's when I asked myself why you were talking to my brother?  But I'm pretty sure it wasn't him, because he walked away and my brother doesn't walk away from me until after he's talked to me.  How can you do that for so long?"

"Am doing something?" asked the gull, relieved that the subject had changed.

"That!  Stand on one leg!  I've seen birds do it before but never from up close like this."  Arvico defied the gull's smell and made a closer examination.  "I could try all day and I would never be able to do that."

The gull resumed walking.  "Rat, being you finding your brother and being you leaving me."

"I'm not a rat.  You can call me Arvico.  That's my name.  What's yours?" she asked.

The gull stopped in his tracks once again, but he paid close attention to stand on both feet.  He tilted his head and squarely fixed his left eye on Arvico.

"Am never asked this before...  Being lemmings named?" he asked.

"Of course.  Isn't everyone?"

The gull became very irritated.  "Am no!  Am gull.  Am not named!  Being no gull named."

Gulls have a very individualistic society.  They are solitary creatures.  The only thing that will make gulls flock together is the presence of food.  But even then there is no sense of community.  The only words spoken between gulls are claims of ownership over food.  Gulls never formed a system of names because there is never any need to address another gull. 

"That's strange.  How do you call your friends?"

The gull was clearly agitated now.

"Being gulls no friends!  Being named...  Bah.  Being named useless!  Am "me".  Being all others "you".  Being only "me".  Being no "us".  Being no friends.  Being all gulls greedy.  Being all gulls selfish.  Being all gulls together but being all gulls alone.  Am always alone.  Am having no friends."

The gull started to walk away.  He unfurled his wings in preparation for flight.

"Why are you so mad?" Arvico asked.

"Am leaving.  Am wanting alone." huffed the gull.

"No you don't." said Arvico firmly.  "I know what wanting to be alone looks like.  My brother does it all the time.  And you don't like him at all.  I don't think you want to be alone."

"Feh!" chocked the gull.  "Being you leaving, little ra...  Am leaving, little lemming."

The gull broke into a run and flapped his wings.  He rose into the air.

"Wait!  Do you want a name?  I could make one for you!"

Not far off, an old female lemming watched as the gull left Arvico.  "She saw me, but not well enough to know me." she thought.  She knew Arvico though.  Loganoh's sister has come looking for him.  She wondered how this might affect her plans for the banished lemming. 


 

Metropolis - Chapter 14

Hello

Thank you for visiting this fiction-blog.

Enjoy the stories.

Download the FOLD YOUR OWN COMIC version 

Have a good day.

Joao