Cells: Issue #1 is out!

ISSUE #1 IS DONE!

This is undoubtedly the single best thing I've ever made, so lemme give some backstory on this sucker.

Originally, when I got into the Center for Cartoon Studies, I had intended my thesis to be this completed graphic novel that I had been working on for a little under two years about superheroes in a dystopian future, because I have very original ideas. Unfortunately, when the time came for our mini-thesis project last year, I was so bogged down with notes that I couldn't move forward.

So I scrapped that project, and I only had a few weeks left. While rummaging through old scripts, I found this piece of crap graphic novel called 'Cell', which I had written in the two months or so while I was dropping out of college. The story was horrible, but the basic premise, wherein the protagonist is dragging his battered best friend though an overwhelmingly harsh and confusing landscape, seemed perfect for my brand of humor.

What happened for the next six months is a longish story, but the point is that right now, the official first issue is done, and the second will be done in early April.

I've decided that I don't want to plan the story out and as a way to keep myself from getting to too serious or epic, I'll be making a point throughout the series to turn over a large piece of creative control to the audience.

It's gonna be funny, it's gonna be weird, it's gonna be good. Those of you who know me know how much I usually think my stuff sucks, so when I say it's the best thing I've ever done, I mean it. The first issue is available in downloadable PDF here. Print editions will be made available shortly.

Hope y'all like it!

Love,
Nate

Assignments

Surprise! I make comics!

For your consideration...

If you're reading this, chances are you're in my class and I asked you to come here to see the color version of my sixteen pages.

I've already posted the dream pages, which seriously benefit from color, but I mainly wanted people to be aware of what was going on in the background of the first eight of Revival.

EDIT: Having seen them printed, maybe it's for the best the pure blackness was there. I don't know. Some mixed opinions in my head on that one.

Nate Has Big Dreams

I also have little dreams. Here's a weird comic based on a little dream I had awhile ago.

The dream included a certain ladyfriend of mine, but I had it before I knew her so well, so my subconscious ascribed the personality that the majority of girls I'm into seem to have. That is to say, she treats me like a gay friend at best and is simply using me at worst.

CCS Monsters

The Center for Cartoon Studies is back and to help new students adjust to their new lifestyle, Jason Lutes gave a lecture (that I couldn't show up to, due to having class) about what cartooning does to you, and I made pictures!

Firstly, here we have a cartoonist, though she has no cartoonist trappings. From this picture, we can only actually assume that she's a comic fan, as she is carrying a Schulz Library bag and reading a book that has panels on the cover.

Aww... she's sleeping now, dreaming of comics that explode in dreams. Wait... were her fingers that claw-like in the last picture?

Whoa! This girl is EATING comics! Comics are surprisingly low in vitamins! I hope that glass has orange juice in it.

What a disgusting way to produce comics! But I guess it's a good thing she's enjoying it, as flushing it down would surely clog the toilet.

WH-WH-WHAAA?!? Who knew that reading comics had such a nightmarish effect on you, not to mention your community! White River Junction had not known such devastation since I drew it without any reference photos!

I'm fairly certain that Jason's lecture was about how this school turns you into a comic-producing monster, but had I been giving that lecture, it would've been a cautionary tale. "It's too late for me! Save yourself! Get out! GET OUT WHIILE YOU CAAAAN!" is what I would scream at them, uncomfortably close enough to breathe my creepy old man breath on their face, my bony fingers wrapped tightly around their shoulders.
 

Now I have to go to the bathroom - I got a novel brewin'.