Happy Birthday Dee!

Scott Wegna

In VERY EXCITING BIRTHDAY NEWS, I woke up next to a smokin’ hot redhead this morning! As it turns out, she is my wife. But I didn’t recognize her because yesterday she was thirty-florbli*cough cough*, and this morning she is one whole year older!

They grow up so fast. It seems like just yesterday I was telling Marge down at the salon that little Dee was turning fourteen hundred and fifty-six weeks old. And now here we are celebrating the anniversary of that special day yet again.

As usual I made her a card, but she snagged it away from me before I could scan it. Maybe I’ll get to share it with you later.

Other than that, not much is going on. Brian told you all about Digital Robo, and you know about the awesome statue. (I won’t bother telling you that even though I designed the stupid thing I HAVEN”T GOTTEN ONE.) I could bore you to tears with another report on our Sunday night Pathfinder game, but I’ll spare you. There were head crabs though, I will say that.

So TONS of people are emailing me asking what’s up with the Digital Robo story. Did Red5 go out of business? Did they fire us? Is this the new format for Atomic Robo!?!

Jesus Christ people, calm the fuck down already. It’s just a little story we did. For you. To enjoy. There’s no trick. Honest.

Originally this was supposed to be a big experiment. I was developing some weird hand pains from inking, and frankly, I just hate inking. It bores me to death. I’ve already drawn the page once, and now I have to do it again? Lame. Also, the truth is that I’m just not a very good inker. Just look at Mark McKenna’s cover inks on Robo 3.5 and to my eyes the difference is apparent.

Anyway, I says to Brian, “I wonder how Robo would look if it was just pencils?” And the result was the Digital Short. It would be more of an event if I hadn’t done the entire issue of Human Torch as an all-pencil affair I guess. So we already knew that it would work. But we still thought it was a smart idea to do a Robo story specifically.

One of the things I hated about my inks was how stiff they were in comparison to my pencils. Anyone seeing the end product would probably never notice, but I did, and it bugged me. Brian and I were both very happy with the pencils only approach and as a result Vol.4 is going to be done in this style.

One of the little ironies to come out of this though was that in an effort to simplify my working process I ended up creating more work for myself. On ond Robo stuff I never worried about how sketchy or sloppy my pencils were because I could just make the blue line work disappear in Photoshop. I can’t do that now. So once I draw a page I have to erase the entire thing until all that is left is the faintest hint of the blue lines, and then I go in with a regular graphite pencil and draw the whole page over again.

Somehow though, this is still faster than inking the pages, and I am much happier with the end results.

Other than that, some big events are afoot that could possibly have a massive (and awesome) impact on Atomic Robo. But I don’t want to count my eggs before they hatch. I learned my lesson from that movie we may or may not have almost made a few months ago. Just like I learned that lesson from the Eisners, and told myself not to get excited about any movie possibilities. It’s enough to say that I am totally distracted, and stressed out, and excited, because my mind works in such a way that I am unable to just “go with the flow”. Instead my imagination is in over-drive as I explore every possible hypothetical outcome of a meeting I’ve got later in the week.

Stupid brain.

And now, here are some phots of my wife that will embarrass the shit out of her. Happy Birthday hon. Love ya!

Taken on the sly by some perv other than me and found on the internet.

High Fashion Girl at work back before we were married.

Now is the time on Sprockets . . .

Obviously, we're a tad older now. But at least one of us still looks good.

Best part of SDCC 2008 -having Dorinda with me. Worst part -having to share a room with Brian and our friend Jason, resulting in ZERO hotel porno sex.

And of course, this is what happens when nerds breed . . .

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 7:31 amand is filed under comics, Role Playing Games, volume 4. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Ben L

RE: the last picture: Is that a Stikfas on your desk? Very nice.
https://me.yahoo.com/a/K7VcdYAIzovSLd9Mmz6EtMGHmjrj#2813e Brian #483

Um, dude? A robot appears to have eaten your daughter's head… Just a heads-up.

Congrats to Dee on her 28th birthday! Seems like just yesterday we celebrated her 28th birthday. My, how time flies!
http://mattcrap.deviantart.com/ mattcrap

i loved your inked stuff, but i can definitely get behind the new process. As a nerd who's lucky enough to have a little of your pencil work- i have to admit there is a bounce to it that's lost in the inks stage.

What i like about these pages is the fact that the line weights aren't effected at all (you still have healthy variation there). I like that the lines are dark but not black- it's kinda like when you scan an inked drawing, in grayscale, and don't do any adjustments to it. It retains that warm and fuzzy look that it has on paper without altering it or adjusting the threshold so it's sharper.

i dig it.
Thomas S.

Ah, so that's why the cover of 3.5 looked so good. I was looking at it going “Wow, Mr.Wegener's been brushing up on his inking skills!” Ha ha, anyway, nice to hear you're enjoying your new drawing process.
tetsubo

I can remember the year I 'discovered' that it was the third year in a row that my Mother was celebrating her 29th birthday. Crafty women.

Happy Birthday Dee!
Josh_B

This is something like the fourth cryptic comment we've been given about something that may or may not happen that may or may not be awesome for the world of Robo. Too much anticipation creates physical pain, y'know…
comicarthouse

Hey Dee!
Happy Birthday and thanks for putting up with the talkative art rep. I'll tell Kim to knock it off.

Bob
MarkMckenna

Thanks for the nod, Scott…Ill have the original inked 3.5 cover up for sale at Baltimore and Boston in October if anybodies interested and maybe I can get some copies of the book then?

Good luck with the new process, your stuff will work fine that way and Happy Bday!
MarkMckenna

…to the Mrs, I mean… )
Scott!

@Ben -Yes!

@Brian 483 -I'll pass that along to her.

@Matt- yeah, exactly! It's the “bounce” that gets lost. Perfect descriptive. And thanks. I've actually got 4 different sized mechanical pencils I'm using -so the inking mentality is very much in effect still. It's fun to still mess with line weights or to see how a darker line translates compared to a softer line.

@Thomas – =D

@Tetsubo -They are a sly bunch, that so-called fairer sex.

@Josh -LIfe seems to be a roller coaster around here. What can I say. Other than “please pass the antacids.”

@ Mark -Hey man! I'll bring a stack of comics down to Boston (just remind me a day or so in advance -so much happening I can't remember anything anymore).
http://serge-lj.livejournal.com/ Serge

Happy Birthday to your lady.

Go for it, with the inkless art. The first time I came across it, I was in college, and Mike Ploog had done an issue of “Planet of the Apes” all in pencil. I loved it, and wished more people had done it.
Mike

You could show me a piece of art from Mike Ploog, and then told me he had drawn it with his FEET, and I would find myself thinking that more artists needed to give that a try. Guy's stuff is gorgeous.

Admittedly, the subtleties of art are generally completely lost on me. That's not to say that I don't know what I like, I just can't begin to fathom a reason to give you for why I like it…I just do. Talk of line weights and composition is completely lost on me. That said, I have really enjoyed the art of Atomic Robo thus far, and even though I'd never have guessed that you had actually changed anything, I think I do like the “all pencil” style a little more. Hell, I always used to think that everybody did inks like Rob Schrab did on Scud; do the pencils on paper, then lay a piece of acetate over it and ink on that. That was the first way I'd ever heard the process done, and it just stuck with me.
Josh_B

Ron Garney took the no ink approach on Son of Hulk and got slated for it, but I thought it was awesome. I like it when artists try new styles.
Pingback: zomg!!1! atomic robo (statue)!! :
Dave

As an owner of one of the Human Torch pages, the art is just elegant. You and Brian are just pouring yourself into this book, and works this personal and this consistent always get noticed. Always. So whether it's a big media deal, animation, movie, tv, etc.. all that the two of you have done will pay off, and more than just monetarily. You'll look back on all that you've gone through to get there, it's the journey that matters.
http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian!

Right now, it's a journey to the poor house
Dave

As an owner of one of the Human Torch pages, the art is just elegant. You and Brian are just pouring yourself into this book, and works this personal and this consistent always get noticed. Always. So whether it's a big media deal, animation, movie, tv, etc.. all that the two of you have done will pay off, and more than just monetarily. You'll look back on all that you've gone through to get there, it's the journey that matters.
http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian!

Right now, it's a journey to the poor house