Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Geoff Sebesta's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
10:18 pm	When first they saw the floating world. Know what? I'm busy. Having a great time but there's lots of stuff going on. ASG will have a table at Staple this year. A bunch of tables. The second I got that organized I found out that I jumped a two-year waiting list and landed a Small Press table at SDCC! How prestigious. So then I had to organize that, which was pretty easy because everyone involved is real excited, and so now all I have to do is balance the books and work out the tax ID stuff. I will tell you more about this once we have it all ironed out. It's gonna be awesome. In the mean time, I got an invitation to get a profile or something in some newspaper in Dallas or something, the only catch being that I have to submit "a work of classic art in web comics style." So what the heck does that mean? You want a jpeg of Guernica or something? So I have to figure out what they're talking about and draw it, preferably brilliantly, by December 1st. Which is next week. Meantimes I'm in Kentucky, yep drove up here in one long twenty-two hour drive during which time I drew precisely nothing but anyway now I'm here, helping my parents out and so on and so forth. It's wonderful to be home though! I love hanging out with Mom and Dad, and I made it to Marshall's surprise birthday party, and it was spectacular fun. Rang in his 35th year in style. It really did go well. Marshall appears to have said it was his "best birthday party ever." Certainly one of the best of them that I've attended, and I been to a few. I think this may have topped his bachelor party. Damn was that fun. Oh, yeah, that's why I didn't say anything about going to Kentucky. Because I was invited to the party, but then I thought I couldn't make it, so I told Cara, and she was all disappointed and it was very sweet of her, so when I did get a ride I didn't tell her so as to surprise her at her own surprise party, which went off without a hitch and was so dang fun. I love it when a plan comes together. Next week is Thanksgiving. Which means I have to finish my sister's Xmas present and my mother's Xmas present (because we have Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving, it's great fun). And we have to clean up the house before the big dinner on Saturday. I have a dentist's appointment on Monday and then theoretically I go home. Can'Got to finish the story for the anthology and lettering the Caveman script. Oh, and my sister's gonna be here. So anyway, I'm working on the poster, but it's not gonna be done yet. I hoped to have it out to you by Xmastime. I still hope for that. I'm an optimist. Once again, if you would like a free copy of this poster (when I finish it) get me your snailmail address somehow. You're probably better off with a private message or emailing me than posting it here, though. I would like a way to connect some aspect of this poster to some work of "classic art." That way I can do the Dallas thing and work on the poster at the same time (yo dawg we heard you like comics so we put comics in your comics so now you can...um....be way behind deadline...). Suggestions appreciated. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, November 20th, 2009
2:24 am	A liberal apologia for GI Joe, Part One (v. 2.0) I read GI Joe comics. All of them. Thank you internet! One hundred and fifty-five issues, plus 26 of Special Missions, 13 of European Missions, 4 of GI Joe and Transformers, and a bunch of other stuff here and there. They were great. I consider myself a liberal activist. You can dispute my effectiveness, whatever, the point is that's the way I see the world. I try to work on liberal causes and help make them happen, I go to protests and stuff, I work tables and sit in trees and so on and so forth. I love GI Joe comics. I always have, ever since I was a kid and they were new and I owned half the toys. I oppose military adventurism in all the forms that I can. I think America should get out of Iraq tomorrow. I protested the bombing of Iraq when Clinton did it! I think Bush should be tried for war crimes. But I do love G I Joe comics. Because they're that damn good. In this post I discuss issue #1. Note to new readers: GI Joe comics have NOTHING to do with the cartoon. There are characters in common but the structure, goal, and tone are entirely different. ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
6:39 am	Dante the Drunk Dialer....the end (or IS IT) So I think it's over between me and Dante. Dante, who you may recall, is a frustrated ex-paramour of a friend of mine who has taken to calling me to vent his pathetic rage. Here's the account of the first couple times: http://megatexas.livejournal.com/2009/09/05/ http://megatexas.livejournal.com/2009/09/07/ Well it has continued since then until last week, when I figured out what to do about it. Which is a stunning revelation that I am saving for a moment of maximum comedic potential. Maybe in four or five paragraphs; we'll see how it goes. If you're not interested in the setup just skip down until you see the word "ever" a lot. Anyway, he's been calling me. Always on "occasions," irregular spurts of nine or ten calls. He called me all through the Glow-in-the-Dark party back in September, but the calls were just too pathetic for me to record. I felt bad for the fool. Then I found out that Zach and I had actually been sitting next to him at a show and he didn't say a dang thing or even cough real mean. Seriously. I have no idea what he looks like, I didn't recognize him. Litsa, Dylan, Zach and I have now all met him and still have no idea who he is. So he did not come through on his promise that "If I ever see you, you will hear, that I will not be pleasant about this!" That was a pie-crust promise, Dante! Then he called me again a few occasions in October, but I didn't even bother listening to the messages. They just weren't as good as his first album. He messages me on facebook, I block him. It is no loss to American literature, I tell you that. He spelled "pussy" wrong. But now it's November and I'm bored with this. He calls me and tells my voicemail that he knows where I live. I ask my friend and she says, no, he absolutely does not know where you live. That's good. She's pretty depressed with him too, unfriended him on FB (and that shit is serious in this modern era yo). We don't really talk about it much because what is there to say? Dante's embarrassing her and entertaining me, and that is not usually much of a topic to chew over. Me and my friend, who I do not identify here but she is a true and wonderful friend, we have a sort of funny way of talking to each other. Basically we babble like five-year-olds. We just make lots of noises and funny faces and stuff. I get what she's saying, and she returns the favor. Anyway, we were having one of our goofy conversations and I said something that I wanted to emphasise, I think I was talking about how potato tacos were the best food ever. "Ever," said I. "Ever ever ever ever." "Ever?" "Ever! Ever ever ever ever ever." "Ever!" "Ever ever ever ever ever....wait. This gives me an idea." And now I knew how to take care of Dante. He called me later that day. I answered, which shocked him. "Bueno?" I said. "Hello Geoff this is Dante." "Hello Dante but listen I don't ever want you to call me again. Ever." "I'm gonna call you when I want~" "Ever." "The reason people have phones is so that people can call them~" "Ever. Ever ever ever. Never call me. Never ever call me. "I'm gonna~" "Ever. Ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever." "Lis~" "Ever! Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever never ever ever ever." I was riding my bike down the Greenbelt as this happened and mightily entertained all the overhearing joggers. The "conversation" continued as I biked to the grocery store. Sometimes I would hold the phone away from my ear, then bring it back, and he was talking and I'd say "EVER!" And I'd do that a few times. And then I'd shout, LOUD, "EVER! NEVER EVER EVER NEVER NEVER EVER EVER!" And then he'd say "Hey~" "Ever." "Thi~" "Ever!" "You~" "Everrr.....ever!" Let him rattle on for a bit, then "Ever? Ever! Ever? EVERRRRR." This goes on for SIX MINUTES AND FORTY-THREE SECONDS. I am giggling almost the whole time. Got to the grocery store, he's still going, I hang up, I go shopping, I eat a donut, I come outside, I find a stray kitten in the parking lot, I dump it on three tween girls, I get my bike, the phone rings. "Bueno?" I say. "Hello Geoff this is~" "EVER!" "Why are you~" "EVER!" "You~" "Everevereverevereverevereverevereverevereverevereverevereverevereverever..." This continues the entire way home, and for two minutes after I got home, because I wanted to show my roommates, but after they got bored with hearing me walking around the living room going "Everevereverevereverevereverevereverever" and chuckling, I said to Dante (who was still jibbering his damn mouth off about some stupid shit). "You know, if you like I can send you a recording of me saying 'ever' over and over again and you can listen to it in the comfort of your own home. There's no reason to involve me." There was a pause, maybe he was considering my generous offer. "In the meantime," I continue, "never call me again, Dante. Ever." And hung up. Last I've heard from him. TOTAL IMMATURITY FOR THE WIN! Heard later from my friend that he called her and said*, "I think that guy has problems. You shouldn't talk to him any more." "No," she said, "I think you have problems." "You wouldn't believe the things he was saying to me! He sounded so mad. That guy has anger issues." She laughed, because she knew precisely what I said to him, because I'd told her that was exactly what I was going to do and I had her permission. "That guy's just jealous," Dante told her. "He's jealous of what we had." "Actually it sounds like you're the one who's jealous." "I don't like the vibes he's sending me," he said. "I can tell psychically that he's full of hate and jealousy." "Geoff one of the least jealous people I've ever met in my life.** If you didn't call him he'd never think a thing about you." "I'm very sensitive. I can tell that he hates me." "He doesn't hate you. He thinks you're funny. He and his friends all sit around and laugh at you." And that is true. *this dialogue was conjectured from later reports. **she really did say that. It was very sweet of her. I do feel a certain sympathy for the guy, because after all I was brutally immature to him for something like twenty minutes straight. But, on the other hand, fuck him. Nobody makes him call me. I don't call him. I used the English language, it didn't work, I had to resort to funny noises and I am fine with this. I call it negative reinforcement. The next time Dante's a drunk, sad, sorry sack of shit with a cell phone I bet he'll look for my number, and start to call me, and say, no. Drunk dialing Geoff is no fun any more. All he does is yell "Ever" and giggle. (22 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 16th, 2009
11:20 am	Supersmork A dumb cartoon that's been rattling around my head for a while. After watching the first one I understand how the Chicxulub meteor impact could have caused India to calve off Antarctica and take off hell-bent to Asia. (Comment on this)
Friday, November 13th, 2009
10:05 pm	Cloudhopper 126 and DWEX See when they talk a lot it's faster to draw... Anyway, gonna be at DWEX tomorrow, tabling and selling stuff. http://dwex.info/ I believe I'm at table 8. So if you're in Dallas tomorrow drop by, should be fun. (Comment on this)
3:23 am	I saw the most amazing car crash today. Nobody got hurt! It's okay! Actually it was the immediate aftermath, did not see the actual crash. It was so cooooooooool! I bike up to the HEB and there's this red pickup truck, flipped backwards on its side all over the road, and all these cops, and an ambulance but they don't seem to be in a hurry. So I wander by and watch the electricians, who are also there, turn off the power on a telephone pole. They had this giant yellow pole, you see, that was long enough to reach to the top of the telephone pole. And then they just unhooked this big breaker on the pole, one for each wire. And the pole was collapsable! Totally cool. Then I walked over to the bystanders and asked what happened. Is everyone okay? Yeah, said a lady who looked sort of dazed. "She walked out of the car like the Terminator." "It was this young girl. She was going way too fast, of course, around the corner, took that telephone pole out, and it flipped." What telephone pole, I said? They pointed behind me. One of the telephone poles was not actually connected to the ground. The base and entire middle of it was but the top was still hanging there, suspended by the wires, polite as can be. Wasn't even hanging much lower. Totally absurd. Teenagers will go to any length to entertain us. Which is I am glad that they build safer cars these days. I'm pleased that this story was amusing instead of horrifying. http://www.skytopia.com/project/fractal/mandelbulb.html#renders (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
1:53 am	Cloudhopper 125 and wallpaper Got this idea from Dresden Codak (one of my favorite webcomics btw): For the nominal donation of any amount whatsoever, including single pesos, you can have an extremely high resolution wallpaper of either of these images: From now on I'll post a wallpaper a month. It won't always be clouds, but I bet you that it will be sometimes. Tell me which one you want with the Paypal message and include an email address. (If you're curious what I'd do with the money, at the moment I am saving pennies to do one big print run of Cloudhopper. So let me know if you know anybody who wants to invest a couple thousand dollars). (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
3:01 pm	Cloudhopper 124 With this page Dan is done wandering aimlessly around on top of clouds. Forever, actually. Story's a year old now. Look how far we've come! It occurred to me the other day that the part we just read is about freedom, and the problems of freedom. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
2:07 pm	If it wasn't for unemployment we'd all be in real trouble. People are freaking out about losing their jobs. Guess what; we are all going to lose our jobs. All of us. The labor economy as we know it is over. Computers and robotics are going to replace nearly every single occupation. You work in a factory? You fix cars? You're a secretary at a dentist's office? You wash dishes in a restaurant? You pick apples off of trees? You answer phones at a call center? You are an accountant? You will be replaced. It's over. Computers can do nearly everything, including a lot of stuff we haven't thought to ask them yet. All we have to do is build the robots, and guess what, we have robots to do that. Let's make this less emotionally charged for a second and examine something that does not affect most of us too directly. Roombas. You know what a Roomba is, right? Ever see one in action? They work. But they don't work too good. They don't get in corners, or on top of furniture, or in between the legs of chairs. But they do bring the general level of dust down, and in a room that's designed for them they are flawless. No big deal, right? Let's say you're on the cleaning staff of a major hotel. A Roomba still needs to be supervised by humans. They require touch-up work after they're done. But Roombas take half the effort out of vacuuming a room. So you only need half as many employees to vacuum. On a small hotel, who cares. On a big hotel, they can cut a couple people. Just a couple. Most of the staff keeps their jobs. But those two people out of their hundred staff that get cut, what are they going to do? Work at another hotel? That hotel just bought a Roomba and fired 2% of their staff too. No, my friend, I'm afraid they are out of work. Permanently. Because wherever they turn next, they are going to find: a lot of other people who just got fired applying for that same job and anyway a robot is doing it now. This applies to all of us, all the way up and down the scale. Yes, even you. It will take longer or shorter to get to you but automation will eventually destroy either your job or its economic underpinnings. Everything. It's already happened and we're just waiting for the ramifications to play themselves out. Yes, even doctors. Even artists. Even musicians. Anyone who says "robots and computers will never replace live music" is probably correct but anyone who says "robots and computers will never destroy my ability to make money off music" is nuts, as even a casual glance a record industry news will show you. No, robots are not *exactly* replacing us in the arts (though I bet there are a lot fewer spotters and background inkers these days...). But the Internet is making it impossible for us to get paid for what we're doing, so factor that in. This is scary to most people because we're looking at a whole new world and it's got some very bad things about it. But in the long run I think we'll all be better off. This is a new form of life. It's always scary at first. Unemployment is never going back below 10%. Even if we had more manufacturing in America we all know that it would be robots doing the manufacturing and we would not be able to absorb the products they make. Unemployment will continue to climb. Forever. I am not afraid of this. Why should anyone be? This is freedom! This is it! This is exactly what human beings have dreamed of since we evolved the ability to dream -- a world without hard labor. Everyone will be free to do exactly what they want whenever they want. Actually, I can see why you'd be afraid of that. But I'm not. I've lived like that for some time and I spend a lot of time in the company of those who live by their own volition, it's quite pleasant. This is a very good thing because, I don't know if you saw the news, but according to the rules of the "old" economy we LOST. HARD. China BOUGHT us. If we do not evolve the fuck out of this old economy right away and get into something where humans are more valuable than money we are all going to be working in factories making cheap crap for China. What will probably happen...what I hope will happen...is that unemployment and SSI will be turned into de facto doles, where people are born, live, and die getting a check from the government. This will shatter their motivation and leave those left in control with an uncomfortable degree of authority that they will certainly abuse. Britan has proved that. It's still better than the alternatives, which are this: a) everyone who doesn't have a job starves to death in the midst of plenty (and I mean literal plenty, we're about ten years away from robot-raised and robot-cooked food). b1) we invent busywork for the entire population (management, security guard, sales jobs for everybody! Everything where you produce nothing is fair game) b2) we put half the population in jail and hire the other half to guard them (the Republican plan) c) things split into two economies -- walled cities surrounded by sharecropping farms, basically d) things stay the way they are. Which is more than bad enough. I'm fine with a fat, lazy, pointless future where people are forced to search for meaning within themselves instead of plugging into a pointless economic caste system and holding on to boring, loathed cubicle lives with all fingers and toes. Nobody should have to spend all day in a cubicle** if they don't want to. If you do spend all day in a cubicle, you should be shorn of the easy excuse that "you have to" and forced to confront the fact that you either want to or or are scared not to. My average day is not a whole lot more interesting than anyone else's. But it's mine. If I stay inside on a sunny day staring at a computer, it's on me. I know this. I think automation is going to bring this to all of you. Freedom. Ready or not. Then you be forced to live your life, your entire life. Shielded from brute necessity, you will be forced to recognize that things are the way they are because you wanted them that way. And you will have to ask yourself the two toughest questions in the world: "Why do you want that?" "Is that really the best you can do?" *People are going to take this as smug, because of my current situation. I assure you that you are putting the cart before the horse. I'm not laughing from a sheltered place; rather, I saw the way things were going, and got out of the rain. The only thing I'm worried about is that I might be too soon. But when you consider CA is up to 77 weeks of unemployment, and probably going to go further, this might be it. The "dole" may have begun. **if you change "sit in a cubicle" to "wash dishes" or "shovel manure" you will instantly see why this is so good. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
4:03 pm	Cloudhopper 123 Ka-CHUNK! Another tooth in the gear that is this story. It's at a difficult, labor-intensive stage right now. I expect when this story is done I will have taken apart the Campbellian storyline as thoroughly as ever I could. It all feels a little tame these days. In a world with stuff like this: Terrifying Sniper Prank on Japanese TV - Watch more Funny Videos I bet you the people who made this aren't in jail right now. I bet they got rich even if they are. What this demonstrates is that narrative can now reach right out and grab you. Art is interacting with the audience in new and unexpected ways, and it's certainly unpleasant at first. The poster and page 124 are on the way. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
12:50 pm	Superman Special #1 and twenty-four hours with Gil Kane Hello there, I would like to present to you two works, or perhaps one and a half. The first is Gil Kane's classic Superman story, "Behold, the Ultimate Man!" The second is my 24-hour comic where I attempted to redraw and retell the story, with mixed success. I don't know how easy this will be to read -- you're reading two things at once, and it can be confusing. There is a lot of writing below. Take your time and please feel free to respond to only part instead of the whole. Superman Special #1: "Behold! The Ultimate Man!" 44 pages, of which the equivalent of 14 are reproduced below interwoven with 24 pages of hasty reinterpretation. ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Monday, October 19th, 2009
12:29 am	update, Cloudhopper Zach and I are working on a comic called The Red Calf. It could be described as "Flintstones meet Deadwood." It's easily the strongest collaboration I've ever been part of and we got all sorts of pages done. Post it as soon as he's ready; I think the general plan is to make it an Iphone app. Cloudhopper: The next three pages and the poster, which all need to be done at once, are the most complex pages yet. So they take time. The poster alone has absorbed twenty hours and forced me to relearn perspective drawing. So when you see them, yer gonna plotz. But it's taking a minute. To tide things over, here's all of Cloudhopper book Two to review. Please, y'all, you know how I love art criticisms. If you like the work, please be generous with critiques and paintovers and the like, so we can take this thing to the next level of awesome. ( Read more... ) oh and I am not exactly sure what this is but what the hey, vote for it: http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/unnecessaryg.com/artwork/ Please? And I'll do my part and update my art portfolio web pages very soon, I promise. It's only a couple years out of date, anyway... (Comment on this)
Monday, October 12th, 2009
3:18 pm	look at this look at it. ( Read more... ) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 9th, 2009
2:43 am	Cloudhopper 122 (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
4:21 am	Twenty-four hours with Gil Kane Twenty-Four Hour Comics Day, October 3 2009 Thanks to Dragon's Lair for hosting! I had a great time. So...this is the 24-hour comic I did this weekend! For those of you unfamiliar with the exercise, you draw a 24-page comic in 24 hours. This is the fifth time I've done it. I tried something different this year. Taking a cue from Zach, I "covered" an old comic instead of writing a new work. I chose Superman Special #1 by Gil Kane, published in 1982. It was originally 44 pages -- I took it down to 24. The main character was originally Superman but I changed that to make things a bit more interesting. ( Read more... ) (Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
11:41 pm	Cloudhopper 121 I am giving away free Cloudhopper posters to anyone who would like one. Message me below (or email, facebook, whatever) with your snailmail address and I will mail one to you. I have also dropped the price on Book One substantially -- it's $12 now, shipping included (if you live in America or it's not too expensive). Here's a button you can press to buy it: (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 28th, 2009
1:45 am	Cloudhopper 120 Considering the vile and uncouth nature of my next project, and the ease of doing so, I have made Cloudhopper kid-safe. Which was not very difficult. I just went back and drew little lines over the curse words. There are only three. That's page 007, which is funny because it's Dan's least suave moment, ever. Seriously good to be home. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
3:48 am	Cloudhopper 119 (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
3:23 pm	Economic Ultimatium Alright, America, this is how it's gonna be. As you know, I'm an artist, and I don't get paid much. I don't even make enough to live on, let alone to pay for health insurance. I'm thirty-four. Sometime in the next ten years I will almost certainly have a major medical incident. Unless I stumble onto that one-in-a-million project that makes a fortune, I will not be able to pay for it. This will leave me with four choices: dying slowly of whatever condition it may be, borrowing money that I will never be able to repay, forcing my family and loved ones to pay for me, and suicide. None of these are acceptable to me. So you have a year. My brother's getting married in France about a year from now, and I'm going. And I might stay. I don't really want to stay -- I want to live here, in the land of my birth, with the people that I love. But you don't give me any options. Either fix health care by next September, or cede me enough money that I can buy health care for myself. I would prefer the first, but am willing to accept the second. If you don't, I'm going and I can't come back. I can't force my family to pay outrageous sums for something that should be free, or watch me die for something completely preventable. I have to live somewhere where life is respected enough that I can survive. I'm sorry it's come to this, America. I really do love you. (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 17th, 2009
3:14 am	Cloudhopper 118 This one took forever and I don't even know why, it's not the most complicated or anything. And I'm still not precisely satisfied with it. Other stuff is happening fer shure. There's a lot been going on since I got back to town. I did a bit of the music for one piece in this here modern dance performance: http://www.nowplayingaustin.com/event/detail/440121943 That was very interesting. First time I've ever heard my music played for an actual audience, it went better than I could have hoped (in that nobody stood up and said BOY THIS SONG SUCKS. So my expectations were low). Zach Taylor and I are working on a comic right now. It's about cavemen in Kentucky, seven thousand years ago. And there are all sorts of other excitements about right now. Oh, we're riding our bikes to Enchanted Rock in October. And there's the ASG art show! And Alicia's wedding! And the glow-in-the-dark party at my house tomorrow... Yes, this is probably why the comics are a bit slower... (2 Comments |Comment on this)