The passing of a real Marvel hero

One of my favorite Marvel artists, Mike Wieringo, past away Sunday August 12th. I just found out about it today when I received the weekly newsletter I subscribe to from Marvel Comics. I took this picture (a self portrait of Mr. Wieringo) from the Marvel article about his passing (I also made the picture a link to that article if you would care to read that). I never met the man personally but I loved his art. It was during his run on Fantastic Four that I jumped back into comic collecting. My friend Chuck and I were browsing at one of the local comic shops and we happened upon Fantastic Four #511. Which ironically is about the FF in heaven and they meet God who Mike Wieringo drew to look like Jack Kirby (co-creator of FF w/ Stan Lee) as a tribute to him (who had been deceased for a few years at the time).

As you know I am a big fan of comics, thats why we have Hatman & Indigo, and since we have been in the process of creating our own comics for a while now, I have an even greater respect for those who do it professionally. As I said before, I never met the man and I don't know much about him personally (other than from articles and such) but I will miss his art.

Problems with printers and growing my face back

Over the past week and a half I have been trying to buy a printer that will print up to 13"x19" paper. (So you, our wonderful fans, can purchase posters of our stuff in that size for a cheaper rate than if we were to outsource it, aren't I nice?) Why try and not just buy, you may ask? Well, I did buy one printer (from a company I will not mention as to not defame them or sway you in any way to or against them) on the 3rd of this month and I received it much to my joy on the 7th. However, when I hooked it up and installed all the software and drivers, it wouldn't print on photo paper! So after several arduous hours on the phone with the support people, uninstalling, re-installing, troubleshooting and trying my best to remain pleasant and kind, we came to the conclusion that it was indeed a problem with the printer. So, I was instructed to call the online store for this company (where I originally ordered it from) and request an exchange, after another hour or so of working with someone who barely spoke English and was bound and determined to sell me more stuff, I got the exchange set up. I received the replacement printer (which was not refurbished by the way) this Monday (August 13th), much to my frustration, this one had the same problem! So, before I called the support people back I had my good friend, Jason Joslin (who works on copiers and printers professionally and also built my computer) to come take a look at the printer and my computer to see if he could help me get it working. I figured out of the 6 billion+ people in the world he was the single most qualified to help me figure this out, because in my mind it must have been something with my computer because the odds that I got 2 faulty printers would have to be astronomical and I am the least lucky person in the world so that would be like me getting struck by lightning while winning the lottery and being the correct caller for a radio call in contest. But as my poor luck (which I really don't believe in anyhow) would have it. It turned out that it was the printer AGAIN! So, I called the support people back and when I mentioned to them that I had a professional look at it I was put on hold for almost 1/2 an hour and ended up with a manager! Who was able to connect me to someone in the online store department that spoke English as their first language! Well, I was getting somewhere! And now after re-returning the faulty printer, I have ordered a completely different model that I have been assured should work just fine. We'll see.




On a lighter note, some of you may have seen me out and about, or seen the photo my brother posted of me on my facebook page (or above this text). I recently dyed my hair blue and shaved off my mustache and goatee, leaving only a blue soul patch on my facial forest. Well, after receiving many comments on how I look too much like Andy (my twin brother) again (especially from my wife), I am growing back the old look. However, I may continue to have differently colored hair for a while, I'm still up in the air about that. Before yesterday I hadn't shaved since Saturday (one of the benefits of working at home), so when I did finally shave I left the old stuff there and Michelle noticed and was overjoyed, so I think the old facial forest is probably back to stay.

Sometimes it is lonely at the top

Alexis is napping and I've been working with Andy on and off over the phone on refining/rewriting some Hatman scripts for this fall and Christmas. But, sitting here all alone really makes me feel lonely sometimes. I like having the freedom of working for myself, but I sacrifice the companionship of coworkers. Yeah, I have Alexis to watch and love on, but she's only almost 18 months old, I can't exactly carry on a conversation with her. And even though I can call people its still the solitude that gets to me the most. Michelle should be getting out of work about now so I know she'll be home soon. But it seems like the time from when she should be out of work until she gets home is the hardest part of every day. Alexis and I both can't wait for her to get home. Its like the atmosphere around here changes from a workplace to home the minute she steps in the door. I don't travel anywhere physically, but having Michelle home makes it feel like home. I know thats probably sappy and dumb, but, oh well. I just figured since I hadn't posted anything in awhile I'd let you all in on my world. Its a world filled with adventure and comedy but all that stuff only exists on this machine I'm sitting at. Of course every day with Alexis is a different kind of adventure, but I think that sometimes I take her preciousness for granted. I shouldn't do that. Its like every time she's napping I see how sweet she is and I feel bad for getting after her for getting into stuff or trying to eat the dog's food etc. A lot of times when I'm doing busy work on the computer I turn on my media player on shuffle and just listen to what comes out. Its truly divine some of the songs that come up when I'm feeling like this. I know its on shuffle, but sometimes its like the big man upstairs is choosing the next song for me to feel better, or to help me with an idea I've been trying to iron out for a script or set piece for Star Fetched or whatever. Well, this is probably really boring for those of you who came here to learn more about the inner workings of 3twins.net. If so, I apologize.

Christmas in July is getting good reviews!

So from what I've heard in my small circle of influence is that you all love the new Hatman issue! We actually streamlined the process quite a bit with this last one. And I'm glad to hear that many of you liked it especially the new Fairy Queen character. Hopefully we'll have part two out in a couple of weeks so you don't have to wait too long to get your Hatman fix. Also, Steve is working on a whole new set of Midieville teasers that will feature a couple of the main villains for the show. Hopefully those will be well received as well.

I really want you to use this blog to tell us what you think about our stuff, tell me what you love and what you hate. If you think we fell short on something, or if you just didn't get a joke, or thought a joke was lame, let me know. As long as you keep your comments in a constructive manner, I'll entertain them. I just don't want "you guys suck" and no reason. If you truly think we do "suck" than let me know why you think that and what you think we should do differently. We really value the opinions of our fans and want to keep you coming back again and again.

The only thing I must stress is that we will not ever stoop to vulgar language or adult humor. We all feel that those are the easiest laughs and they are also the ones that you wouldn't want your little children or your grandma hearing. So since we are running a "family friendly" site, we want it to be accessible content for everyone from the little babies up to the old grandparents and everyone in between. So, gladly give me your thoughts, comments, and suggestions. I'm ready for what you can throw at me.

-Jason

All's quiet at the JK corral

Today Michelle (my wife), and Alexis (my daughter) are both sick. So I stayed home from church to help take care of them. They are both back to sleep now so I thought I'd let you in on what I've been working on lately. To understand this fully you'll need to read my first blog posting.

Have you read it? Why not? I know its long, but its a quick read. Go on, scroll down and read it...



Are you done now? Okay, good.

So, on to what I've been working on lately:

I've been working in our animation program (SWiSHmax) and drawing the elements for the Star Fetched cartoon in that program. I do not consider myself an artist by any means, however I have come up with a unique art style for the characters. Here is a picture of the character I'm going to voice, Jonas.


So, now you see the style I'm talking about. Its not the best thing in the world but its unique and different and you can tell its a face. I made the heads then the bodies for all the main characters each in one pose, which is really just the very first step, because in order for it to be animated, I'll need to make several poses. I've also been working on some background elements too (again all drawn in the program). Don't hold your breath for Star Fetched episode one to be released anytime soon. I'm working solo on this project and I'm going to have to create everything in the program. Why do it in the program you ask? Well that is a good question (even if you didn't actually ask because you don't really care haha.) The SWiSHmax program uses vectors in the drawing tools. Which basically means that a line is a line and not a series of pixels. Because it does this, I can make these pretty complex drawings and the file size will remain very small. Which should be really helpful for those of you who think that the load time for a Hatman issue is too long (it should cut down the load time significantly). Anyhow, I've been working on the Star Fetched stuff in conjunction with helping color any new Midieville drawings (Steve hand draws those and we color them in the computer just like we do for Hatman). As well as coloring the pages and editing the audio for the new Hatman issue which should be on line July 25th 2007. Yup that's right after almost 5 moths we're going to squeeze in a new The Adventrues of Hatman & Indigo. The reason it has taken 5 months? Well, we've been working on Midieville and now that we've gotten a little ahead it has given Steve enough time to draw the first part of a comic.

Now that I've rambled for a while and let you in on some of my craziness, I need to get back to coloring the last few pages for the new Hatman issue. Feel free to comment. I'll post again in a day or so.

Me, this blog, and a little history of how I got here.

Since this is my first post on this blog I think I'll bring you up to speed on what I've been doing, so you can have a little appreciation for the head honcho/behind the scenes guy who is largely responsible for making 3twins.net happen.

Well, maybe first first I should thank my wonderful partners: Steve Surine (best friend and the honorary 3rd twin) and Andy Kuder (twin brother and the real twin to me) whom without there work 3Twins wouldn't be nearly as good as it is. So thank you Andy and Steve.

That said, I'll get into what I do and mostly what I've been doing lately. My main "job" for the website is to make sure it happens. I make the phone calls and type the emails to the people that get the whole ball of wax start to get waxy. Then I'm the one who makes sure their making the wax (and by wax I mean the various shows/comics on www.3twins.net) and if there is a lack of said wax, I pick up the slack and fill in the gaps (which is most of what I do all the time). I'm also the guy who pushes and promotes and excites the workers (mostly just Andy, Steve and myself, with the exception of a few guest artists from time to time). You get the picture I think.

Up until about a month ago 3twins.net was only home to Hatman & Indigo and some random video clips from our friend Chris Secondi who drew the first Hatman issue. But that isn't how I've envisioned the site for longer than I knew it would take the form of a website. It actually started with Star Flick: The Motion Sickness, a movie script I wrote way back in 1999. It was a parody of various sci-fi movies more so Star Trek than anything else. Well, the movie turned out to be a lot more difficult to pull off than I had originally thought. So, one day my friend Chuck Bedard (you may know him as the voice of the Narrator in Hatman & Indigo) suggested that we pare down the script so it didn't have so many characters or special effects. Which I did in the form of making a pilot episode for Star Fetched a show based on the movie script (which would take place before the movie). And that begot several other scripts for more episodes that would lead us ultimately to the story for the movie. Well that also spun out of control with as many characters as the movie and then some. So, Andy and I sat down and decided to make a prequel show to the prequel show for the movie (I hope I haven't lost you yet). This actually seemed like it was going to work. We had pared down the cast to a mere 5 characters and after writing about 8 scripts we wondered how we were going to pull this off. It was still too much sci-fi for live action on a zero budget so we thought about trying our hand at a cartoon. Well, animation was something we knew nothing about. So we came up with the idea for shelving Star Fetched until we had access for the technology we would need to do it. And I remembered pretending with Andy when we were in early elementary about this guy who had a hat he could pull anything out of called Hatman and his sidekick named Indigo who was a weird jumble of animals. I asked Andy if he thought it would make a good cartoon and he said he thought it could be really funny and a lot of fun to revisit those characters we invented in our childhood. So, Andy and I sat down and hashed out the premise of the show and then I wrote the origin story for Hatman and Andy wrote the origin story for Indigo (which together became issue 1 of The Adventures of Hatman & Indigo). Not long after finishing the first couple of scripts, Andy came to me with the idea for Midieville and he mostly had the show planned out which I thought was really cool. And that gave way to a few more shows that we dreamed up. At the beginning we wanted to launch our website with one of every show (which we had 5 in the works) but after starting work on the first Hatman concepts and seeing how long it would actually take we decided to stagger them as we got better with the process and more efficient with our time. We also realized that traditional animation is a lot of drawing and way too much for any volunteers to pull off in a reasonable time. So we redeveloped Hatman into a comic book, which seemed fitting for the superhero story that it was; but in the spirit of a cartoon we would not have the text in bubbles on the page but rather act out the story in audio form. And in the process we invented a crossbreed of a comic and a cartoon.

All the previous ramblings took almost seven years before we finally put Hatman issue 1 on www.3twins.net. The ball was finally rolling, albiet ever so slowly. So around January we began work on Midieville and discovering shortcuts to make our characters move with the least amount of drawing. When we finally put out the first teaser (which is just a very short snip it to show our characters and still not exactly what the show will become) it seemed like it had taken a long time. But, right now that I think about how long it took us to get Hatman online I think we're doing alright.

As for what I've been doing this last month, I think I'll post a blog on that tomorrow because, man, this one is huge. Thank you for indulging me and taking the time to read it.