How many Citizen Kane jokes are too many Citizen Kane jokes? I don't know the answer to that question.
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Conrad's mad goal of becoming the AIGA Director of Chairs (?!?) for fun and profit continues unabated this day. There's a point there, which, when reading up on the AIGA page, throws the concept of being on that board into sharp relief. You are required to give or raise $10,000, and that does not include sponsorships. So, outside of asking your dad for some serious scratch or sending your kids door-to-door selling M&M's for $1 ten-thousand times, I'm not sure what options you have for not just writing them a check for some cold, hard cash. This is a barrier for entry, no doubt, the responsibilities of which are surely not lost on the organization. It gets you an upper-crust of designer leader, or at least some scam-artists who are good at price-jacking clients (I have no information that the latter has ever occurred).
But to me, it sounds an awful lot like that WK12 "internship" that students and young designers go batshit for. It's an internship, and it costs you unknown thousands of dollars. That's if they accept you. Now, I've actually known two people from my town that have gone through that internship, and they are not doing poorly -- not by a stretch -- as a result. But still. Not the highest road.
AIGA was kind enough to send me an electronic letter the other day, which suggested I might nominate myself (or someone I know) to their national board. Of course someone sprang immediately to mind, and the wheels were set in motion.
I never really see a lot of this process, though there's a handy webpage to introduce you to it, and it all seems unintentionally secretive. No-one really campaigns to be on the board of directors, it all just sort-of happens. You don't see posters or viral ads, campaigns spitting bile back and forth at one-another. It's all rather boring, I think, and that's why we never see it. Debbie Millman's President of the AIGA now, and that just sort of makes sense. But did anyone run against her? Was there a smear campaign and a debate? Perhaps a spunky, back-water running mate? Obviously this process has a long way to go.
To help it along, show your support for AIGA's next National Director of Chairs, Conrad H. Thompson, by downloading this extreme-election wallpaper to your computer or iphone:
I'm not even sure how I got this comic done today, really. Between designing websites, updating online portfolios and job hunting, plus, well Modern Warfare 2 on my Xbox, it's almost a miracle. So, that being said -- here! Enjoy!
I really wasn't happy with Conrad's exclamation in Monday's strip -- the bold type today nails it a lot better I think.
I am not "Oscar Mike"
"Welcome back!" I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately. I honestly thought, coming off of the weak summer schedule, that Fall would be different, and return me back to the salad days of months and months of uninterrupted, three-comic weeks. Alas, it seems I was mistaken, and the workload of managing a full-time independent design career along with part-time professoring has steadily crept back into my comic schedule. So my goal is to start working up a buffer, writing strips ahead of time and roughing them out whenever possible. That should help.
Today's strip is based on me, last week, pouring through old notebooks looking for ideas for strips. Occasionally something will happen in life and I'll say "dag, I gotta write that down. That's going into the comic someday." This happens quite a lot, and dates back a year now. So please believe me when I say I have no idea what happened to cause me to write down the words "Newton has a client who is a stalker..." but we're going there anyway.
UPDATE: Whew! Look like this break I've taken needs a few more days to rest its legs and recharge its creative batteries. We'll be back Monday with more 1PT.Rule -- thanks for sticking with me!
Original post:
I hope everyone enjoyed the tribute to the spookiest of holidays, and my selfish homage to The Spooky Old Tree. The Halloween Spectacular started off as a Clue-like murder mystery, and at another point (during the plotting stage) everyone was going to start getting murdered with various supporting characters from the strip popping up. In the end, I'm really happy with the way it went down, and the last panel of this eight-parter is one of my favorites I've ever drawn.
1PT.Rule will be back to it's regular, non-Halloween schedule on Wednesday. I need a little time off after this endeavor to refresh (and wrap up a children's book).
Ahoy!
Looks like we're going to get a Saturday, proper Halloween episode after all! Be sure to tune in tomorrow -- SATURDAY -- for the exciting conclusion!
Boo!
Big delay but we're still rolling on this tomb... er, tome. Whichever.
The Meat Puppets poster by the good fellows at Aesthetic Apparatus has long been a source of the feelings of both love and hate within my peer group. Basically it's a poster-child (no pun intended!) for meaningless, clip-art driven design, and yet you can't deny the thing is a beauty, and it kinda looks like the mask is made out of hamburger. So that's hot. So for me I have days that go one way and days that go another, but I'll bet you never knew what he looked like beneath that mask. As the piece that I can most directly tie to the resurgence of the gig poster as an art form, I have no trouble putting it along side the other works in this story, that's for sure.
Mwa ha ha! Back again two days in a row to bring you the complete story.
Matt outed me in the comments of yesterday's strip -- this whole thing has been building up to a parody of the greatest scary book of all time, The Spooky Old Tree, which does, in fact, star the Berenstain Bears. This riveting piece of illustrated fiction is a high-bar for the entire publishing world, as far as I'm concerned, and while my copy has long since been destroyed, the story sticks with me to this day.
If you're no Lester Beall fanboy today's strip may be a bit obtuse. Start here and come back whenever you're ready.
And here we have come to the meat of it... prepare yourselves for sheer, unadulterated terror!
Of some sort, I think.
Be sure to tune back in tomorrow, yes that's right I said tomorrow, for the next chapter!
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Tom Nemitz says: Well played, sir. Well played.
Donovan Beery says: Nate, you are still wrong on these. I stand with the 3rd best Star Wars movie being Episode III and Jedi (up to the leaving of Tatooine) being the best 30 minutes from any of the Star Wars movies. I
notstevegordon says: Candye Kane? now she's hawt.
Nate Voss says: Tom, I don't know what you are talking about. Charles Foster Kane's name has always been spelled correctly in this article. Always. [/Stalin'd]
Tom Nemitz says: I don't know the answer either, but I do know this: Charles Foster's name is spelled KANE, not Kain... [/journalism'd]
Stephanie says: It seems Newton is missing his eyes in panel three.
Geoff Thibeau says: You're going to have to explain this legs thing to me.
Prescott Perez-Fox says: Once again the design-as-dating metaphor rears its ugly head. I have definitely been here before. Baggage, it seems, translates into our work life as well. Some folks are just carrying too much.
Nate Voss says: This is EASILY the best interview graphic we've ever had. And I stand by my answers to the above questions — though I'm interested in what everyone else thinks, for sure!
Geoff Thibeau says: Haha, glad you stringed it along until Saturday. And I'm thinking that this is maybe how the original storyboard for The Spooky Old Tree went, but since the villain didn't have pants, they opted for P
Todd Weber says: It's too bad no one has commented on this podcast. Really entertaining interview. Ann Willoughby is smarter than me. Smarter than I could hope to be, in fact. I admit I didn't know her name before, bu
Heather says: Just saying that this applies pretty darn well to career scientists as well.
Matt Secoske says: Don't worry, I already have it.
Nate Voss says: Matt figured it out first. I wish I had a prize for you. If I did, it would be a copy of that book.
Matt Secoske says: I love that book. You know which one I'm talking about. The one neither of us has read since we were 5, and definitely not every year before halloween like some people say. Those people are WRONG. D
Joe Sparano says: Design Ninja is the highlight for me. It started the "black and white era", and basically, that's when it got really Vossome.
Tony Montgomery says: Love this comic... laugh out loud. Yeah, it's so good, I spelled out lol!
Steve Hartman says: I asked for this...LMAO!!!
Enrico says: Mind = Blown. Dawesome.
shughes says: Good luck guys.