Today, instead of resting and putting myself together for the half school year ahead (and post-assessment), I decided to instead talk a little about my favourite webcomics.

I can trace my love for said genre of lifestyle back to one single person, in much the same manner as I can trace my preference for certain music to a one person. Now, this certain wonderful geek of a classmate introduced me to QC in what must have been late 2005 or early 2006 and got me hooked.

As I mentioned before, webcomics, comics, graphic novels, it’s definitely a certain style of life. The society I live in, webcomics are practically unheard of. There’s a number of them that people know, however those are chiefly boring or ugly. Usually both. Comics also appeal to a very narrow audience – there’s a large manga/anime following here, but for reasons of  MUCHO DISLIKE, I don’t consider that genre.. a genre..

There’s a number of people native to the likes of Batman, Superman, Iron Man, etc., but it’s nonetheless an imported habit. Unfortunately, Russia has no comic heritage and a very skewed outlook on this certain art. The one annual ‘comics festival’ held in Moscow is a big joke, where out of 150+ works, about 10 were worth looking at. And they were goddamn A2 sized posters. And a representative of a comic shop didn’t seem to have  a clue what’s this ‘Sandman’ I’m asking for. You get the drift.

Anyways, on. In the last 4 years I’ve been told about and discovered quite a number of lovely webcomics – some I read daily, some have since finished and perished, some I have forgotten and some I still want to return to. Here’s some of my favourite webcomics.

Questionable Content (QC)

First on the list if only it’s the first one I ever read, the first one I fell in love with, the one I read daily to this very day. Jeph Jacques changed his style numerously (in fact, learned to draw through the work on the comic), has gotten married, been to comic cons all over America, reissued various merchandise, has upgraded QC from a 3-days-a-week to 5, and generally been a great host, though with his ups and downs, all throughout this time. The comic too, has it’s ups and downs. Old readers have their ‘favourite QC style’ and sulk that it’s dull during some of the story-arcs, but I dare say none of us would drop it. It’s a tradition and it’s love.

Questionable Content

Girls With Sligshots (GWS)

I’m fighting the urge to write ’2 girls, a bar and a talking cactus’ just because it seems too trivia.. but see, I wrote it anyway. Content and humor-wise, GWS is probably my favourite comic. It’s b&w, a short 4-panel wonder. I dare say there isn’t actually a strip that lacks a joke, but then, with over 850 of them, I could be wrong. You are, of course, encouraged to read the entire archive to prove me wrong. It’s really worth it. Danielle is absolutely wonderful, even on occasion when opening GWS in a public place makes me blush. Dildos for the win

Girls With Slingshots

Joe Loves Crappy Movies (JLCM)

Arguably not a comic on it’s own, JLCM is comics based on/mimicking/somehow in reply of movies that the author, Joe Dunn, watches. And writes a review. Or the other way round. Joe has an amazing style and illustrates a number of other comics (check out Matriculated , another comic I love, only shame it’s a weekly). JLCM is spontaneous, however it still has a number of storylines or, rather, characters, that bring charm and continuity. Below is the birth of Leo.

Joe Loves Crappy Movies

Orneryboy

There’s violence, zombies, brains, monster-cats, drums, sex in the dumpsters and the sweetest cartoon style seasoned with multi-eyed flash (you’ll see what I mean). What’s not to love? On the minus side, Michael Lalonde is quite infrequent, and sometimes you’re left re-reading the same strip every 3 days for a few months.

Orneryboy

Girl vs Pig (HER!)

.. but if I said anything about infrequent, I must have actually been talking about HER! To quote – “we’re on fire!”. Which only makes rereading the archives  sweeter, really. And it’ll only take you half an hour to embrace the black-humour-morbid-simplicity of this gem

Girl vs Pig

Least I Could Do (LICD)

There’s sex, egoism, breasts, and.. stuff. In fact, one of the 4 comics I have bookmarked on the tabs menu, it updates daily (!!), and Lar has a wonderful style. Sohmer isn’t behind with the storytelling either. While sometimes the content doesn’t keep me comfortable, I still enjoy the comic a great load.

Least I Could Do

Wapsi Square

An honourable mention. Though I hadn’t actually been reading this comic for a number of months, I plan to get back to it. There is a reason for that – Wapsi has great art and is very interesting, but is also way, way too complicated to keep up with a storyline, even when updated daily. So one of these days, I’ll find the one strip I left off from, and get the whole picture in a day

Wapsi Square

Here I’d like to insert a number of other honourable mentions, but honestly, now I’m very, very tired. So to finish off, there’s just one. This girl, Cattish, I’ve been keeping an eye on her ever since deviantart 5-6 years ago. I mean that. The art is absolutely amazing and I’m a great fan. So when around a year ago I found out she’s doing a comic, I couldn’t be happier. One of my favourite artists and a comic! Notably, she and her colleague won the Moscow comic fest I mentioned earlier, for which I was endlessly happy. So please, please, check this out – while everything I mentioned before is well-known and doesn’t need additional introduction, Alabama just as well might.

Alabama

Thus far, I have 2 and a half unrefined screwdriver models (presumably for further testing), around 7 A2 boards ready for printing, a bunch of ideas in my head and utter despair at the knowledge that the idiot I am, there’s no way they’ll get translated into anything even remotely… good.

So, obviously, instead of getting on with work that I have TOO much of, I’ll ramble a little about my own ALOHA habits, things I’ve been keeping up with, some things that I like and others that I like less. However much patience I have to keep going.

First, naturally, a brief description of ALOHA. “The state of absolute despair that comes about at any time starting from 2 weeks prior, up to 12 hours before a project/portfolio is due in”. Now, if we’re talking about a single project or, say, an essay, it’s only just a mini Aloha. ALOHA is the one before assessment. It’s that time when you manage to not sleep for 3 days and nights in a row, staring into the screen. Last time, during the spring ALOHA, I actually had hallucinations. And also I managed to fall asleep for half a second each time *while* modeling in 3D, with my eyes open. In fact, I managed to see tiny little mini-dreams in that half second. But wait! I then switched to Photoshop and couldn’t actually believe the workspace is actually flat. I couldn’t believe that something could be *not* 3D. But wait again! That’s not all either! For about 4 days after the torture finished, I could dismantle things in my mind and disconnect all the parts and have them float around. In my head, of course. Actually, I’d dearly love to have that ability all the time. Well, maybe except for the humans. People do tend to deem you weird if you stare at them for a while, then become very amused and start giggling. What they don’t know is… in my mind their head just disconnected from the neck and I can see how it all works. Ah, ALOHA. You do strange things to me.

Now for some of the habits I mentioned earlier.

1. Rock’n'Roll. Oh yes. Though originally ALOHA came to be when a friend and I spend said time rushing projects in the middle of the night to Hawaiian traditional music off the radio, it’s rock’n'roll that gets me though the time. I have this favourite iTunes radio, plays 60′s and 70′s stuff, and though it seems almost on repeat, it’s still my wonderful work music. And sleep music. Which brings me to the next point -

2. Napping on the couch. This, too, is a tradition. See, ALOHA time is incredibly rush-rush, but once in a while (say, 2 days), that 3 hour sleep really is needed. But no more than that. The rule is – don’t sleep on the bed. So far I’ve slept on various couches around our flat and on the floor in 2 rooms, but you know that if you “nap” on the bed, you’re doomed for 8 wasted work hours. So the least comfortable you are, the easier it is to wake up. That’s where rock’n'roll helps too. I just keep it going. While it might slow falling asleep a few minutes, it makes waking up a whole lot easier. And more fun

3. A mess. Every ALOHA I take traditional photos to capture the state of the mess I manage to make. When I say mess, it’s that sort where you aren’t sure you’ll be able to find your legs anymore. In my case that is aided by the fact that I don’t have a single proper work surface in the flat and no chair that would stay comfortable for any longer than 2 hours, hence the entire process is solemnly floor-based. And painful.

4. Procrastination. Well, what I’m doing now. “Oh, I can read another blog page, right?”. No, actually. I ran out of time even before I started. This point would not be complete without what is probably the most widely loved animation among my uni friends.

5. Food. For some reason I always believe that after thiiiiiiiiis cake I’ll start working. It never happens. It’s light Aloha when food is even remembered, however. When difficulty strikes, like the 3 days-non-sleep, I couldn’t quite understand why I’m swaying *that* much when I left the house (in the morning, 4 hours before the deadline. To the print house.). Well, turned out I hadn’t eaten for over a day too.

Now, concluding the rant on ALOHA, I must insist that no one, ever, should repeat those stunts. Firstly – it’s my torture and a way I punish my own stupidity. Because, frankly, I’m a rubbish designer, I can’t manage my time and I also am unlikely to ever achieve anything. And secondly – well, just take care of yourself, guys.

In fact, this concludes today’s post, since I got absolutely off writing and can’t come back now. ALOHA, people!

Breathtaking!

Ladies and Gentlemen! The finest bullshit I’ve seen in a very long while. It’s a lot like some ideas I can come up with *during* a presentation just to sound more convincing and ‘thought-through’. Except I don’t use drugs, while these guys seem to be riding them.

Pepsi Planet.

Pepsi Galaxy.

Pepsi Universe. 

Makes me sorta nervous. 

http://bunnitude.com/misc/files/pepsi_gravitational_field.pdf

P.S. The rebranding hadn’t as of yet reached Russia. Thank you, Almighty Local Market God. 

P.P.S. http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/7w0i2/pepsi_logo_a_response/c07k9l7 With some of the best comments EVER. 

For that, here’s a cute little guy

But on. Like I’ve said before, I’m in love with things that could  be 2D but are done in 3d and become 2d, and things that are cut out, and things that are colourful and things that look simple but took so much effort… but really, beautiful things.

Jen Stark meets so much of that. What she does is absolutely lovely

Also, she does awesome paintings

http://www.jenstark.com/

I’ve known the place for over a year, at one point spent an entire day of school playing with the head. Just go and see for yourself and you won’t regret it. Well, not unless you need to finish something urgently but get hooked instead. Good luck. 

Second there’s this marvelous video for the song Animals by Minilogue. I’m not really into this music, but the video is rather awesome. 

(click to watch on Vimeo, youtube quality is awful)

They’re sorta similar, in a way.

That’s all, I need to do project. Sleep and do project. I’ve been getting heartaches when I undersleep now. Ohh, getting old.

Paintings with fireworks? Huh? Ask me to imagine, it’d all be burnt paper. Ask me to do it, it’d be all limbs burnt to ashes. The results of this unlikely and, in fact, unimaginable combination, are rather amazing.

Fireworks isn’t all she does. There’s also using weird machinery (lent off a playground?)…

… and oil painting, among everything

http://rosemariefiore.com/

Generally it’s 4 in the morning, and I’m supposed to be working on -slash- *finishing* a 6-week project I hadn’t really started. Oh, and that essay. 

I’ll do good work one day. The same day I leave institution. It sucks my brain out and freezes the remains. 

One day I’ll make a post with various pieces of ‘funny’ design. My favourite kind. For now, just this I pulled off omami.ru. Adorable and funny (tea bags, if you’re wondering)

(what’s up with all the leather ‘one-use’ bags and parcels, ceramic ‘crumbled plastic’ glasses and other pseudo one-time-only objects lately? Oh, and the deer heads. You know when there’s just too many.)

Because they look like spirits.

Because they are beautiful. 

Because they are different. 

And basically, because they are amazing.

However.

There’s things that inspire and pictures that absolutely blow your mind and there’s things you want to share and there’s knowledge you’d like to keep all to yourself. When I see images that are particularly amazing, I tend to get tears in my eyes and that feeling of dry salt in the throat and all signs of a break-down. This happens very rarely and no one’d ever agree that things that blow my mind are all that special. 

In product design I like things simple and genius. Not much to ask for, eh?  Extra points for humour.

In graphic design I love 3D. Things not drawn but  cut out, layered, installed. Think Yulia Brodskaya with PAPERgraphics.

And adding the picture disorientated me strangely. So this post will be continued… later. 

For now, enthusiasm is me.

I’m talking to myself. 

I don’t talk about feelings. 

But the days are getting longer. And that fact can’t not make me happy. I’ve grown used to the cold a few weeks ago and life’s become so much more comfortable. The February agonizing freeze isn’t kicking in for a while, yet, and after that, the spring. What spring is for me, how I recognize it here, it’s firstly the entire GRAYNESS of everything. The utterly gray sky, it meets the gray city, it meets the gray, mushed up mess that was the snow, it meets the gray tarmac. But the air in this whole grayness is different, it’s a tiny bit softer, it’s a tiny bit more humid. The gray doesn’t depress, it’s a new beginning, not from black or white, because neither are even colours and there’s never this purity, but from their inexistent mix. 

And the ice in the river, it breaks up, you see the thin bits first as little dark spots in the white mass of immobility, then they grow into large black holes, eating at the freeze. And the next stage, the ice is the minority, lumps of it trying to hang around, looking like particularly huge bits of fat in a smoked sausage. We get those here. 

And then the next stage, you see all this bare black earth. But you pass it everyday, and you notice that there’s that greenish haze about it. Above it. Barely visible, just a new tone. So weak. But day in, day out, it becomes more solid, until I’m overjoyed and realizing that this is it. This is new and the brightest of this year. The grass won’t be as fresh and green as it is just then. 

And this is spring to me. 

But I got carried away. I really did mean to write a design-related blog, but here I am, being all wishful. 

So in my design life, well, stuff’s happening but it’s behind closed doors, while my hands are a map of veins from typing and losing weight, and my eyesight’s going down so fast, I can see it happening. Well, so far I can *see* it. 

Coming back from a month “holiday”, which consisted mostly of portfolio work, school is all different and you forget how angry you are at the moron IT guy in the print office, at not having a base room, while all the other courses do, at not having enough teachers, at your curator being way too soft and unable to fix everyone’s problems. But you have to talk about it at the PCM, and the headmaster is missing again, and even the link tutor. And again it’s a new little disappointment, but you hope once more that everything will work out. It will. Maybe when it’s too late for my marks. Everything’ll be fine. 

In good news, I made that accessory  disco ball, to hang round the neck. It’s not perfect, but I love it, need to find a tiny metal chain for my baby.

Now, hands really do hurt from the typing, hence no useful information today. Maybe next time. Maybe with pictures of the lousy stuff I do. Maybe not. Whenever I remember this blog exists next.

Till then.

Usual story. Made this blog over a year ago, intending to write random things down, anything that happens to visit my head at the time. Wrote one post. It was absolute gibberish, do believe me.

And then I went to a friend’s blog and commented. Not anonymously as I thought it would be, but my username connected. OH HORROR! So then I returned here and promptly wrapped it all off, deleted the post and never came back. 

Well. Until now.

So, uh, hello blogging world! It’s a strange place, or so I’ve heard.

But I have reasons to be here. Don’t we all?  Right. Well, what are we talking about here, then? I’m in Moscow, Russia and study at the British Higher School Of Art And Design. In Moscow. We’re a branch of some UK university. Anyhow…

Basically I want to use this blog as a way to keep track of myself. Keep track of process (what process?!), improvements (what improvements?!) and stuff (what stuff?!). Oh, all sorts of stuff. Design stuff. Life stuff. Music stuff. You know how it is.

But basically, in case anyone will ever read this post, this blog will not be interesting. I’m warning you. It’s for me. Yes, it’s online but it’s for me, but, hey, you know colour printers cost just way too much. And links don’t work on paper. 

Alright, enough for now. This blogging feels just like talking to yourself, except then I have way more fun because I can also dance and be all musical and giggly about it.

It’s time I grab an hour of sleep on the couch and make 4 presentations for Creative Processes when I wake up. Undersleeping and overworking, there’s 2 things I do 90% of the time. Alright, scrap the overworking. I overwork when I underwork in the weeks when I should be systematic, and then try to scramble everything into the last night. But there’s just these presentations left and the holidays begin. Well, theoretically they do. Really it’s just another week of spending all waking hours in school for another 5 days. 

Do tune in for numerous rants on studying to be a designer, rants on why I hate the word ‘designer’, rants on why design is more than you think and rants about trying to be funny. Maybe ‘funny’ only works with ‘proper sleeping hours’.

Ciao, loves!