Been Busy!!!!!!!

Hey guys, I know I haven't been posting any new comic strips as of late, but before anyone rolls any eyes or grab any pitchforks, I want to give a reasonable explanation why. I've already storyboarded the strips that i've made (over at least 10 strips ahead of time), but As of late, I've been working on a project with my Co -Writers and friends: WIllinzy Jonri and Jose Sanchez on a comic series that was inspired by the band, The Protomen. I've been working with my friends for months since march on three projects, ( the protomen band inspired project that i'm currently working on is one of them).  I already made thumbnails and have already started on some pages ( and going). At this rate its looking like 25-26 pages or 30 to say the least in terms of the length of the fan inspired book. Here is a little glimpse. I'm focusing more on quality over quantity in terms of the amount of detail i'll be putting on each page. This stuff is as tedious as painting. But it's what I live for. So far, been going on with details. I've been taking my time adding details on the first four pages (gonna do the same for the next 22 pages or so) taking my time focusing on quality detail on the pages. Should be done with in a few weeks in the summer. 

               In between the one comic of focus with Will and Jose, I'm also hashing out some concept stuff with my friend Manuel in addition to Hansel and Juwill on some animation stuff. As of recent, I've been learning to dabble with Adobe Flash to get an idea of how the program works. SInce i have some experience and Idea of sequential story telling, I managed to make 30-40 frames of somewhat loose, fluid , animation that is able to give off a sense of fluidity. I'm still gonna be messing with the program .

In additon, I'm working on some stuff with my friend Sam, and some other people as well. One of the things I came uo with was an anthology project ( which I've been wanting to do since the freshman year of college at laguardia). 

So , for the past three years, I've assembled a list of illustrators that I've met, interacted with or know. The importance of this list is to assemble specific illustrators for specific short story anthologies. One because it's great for portfolio, two to see how well each artist would work together, three to see the amount of dedication and effort, and four, to simply showcase each others work for future collaborative efforts down the line or in the near future. I'm testing this out, but I already gave a friend of mine a five page assignment. I simply, plan out the five pages, and @_ty5on would draw it in his own style. It's an exercise that I'm testing out just to see how well it works depending on the artists, what they are comfortable with and such. Because personally, as an up and coming illustrator, I know how much work it takes to have to do a lot of things on your own, which sometimes (most of the time) causes you to have sacrifice time out of your personal life to make such things. Even more, a human being is not a machine, but in order to balance the work load, you need a team of people who can help balance the weight. I hope this test works. I know you'll do good Tyson. I can't wait to see how you'll translate what I storyboarded into your own interpretation.

I'll try to keep you guys updated on the status of everything. Just know that I aim to showcase some toptier quality work aside from the wacky comedic strips. Until then, see you guys soon. 

Every Day Life Comic Strip #5 Power Fantasy by Anthony Andujar Jr

I know, I'm a day late from the usual Wednesday release of a comic strip. But fear not, amongst all the busy stuff and projects that i'm juggling, I've completed comic strip 5. I hope you enjoy it despite all the chaos in the world. How about that Pokemon Go? Hopefully I won't be late next week, or I might have to just drop it on any random day every week. But I'll stick to Wednesdays.

Every Day Life Comic Strip #4 Power Cats by Anthony Andujar Jr

It's about cat's, which are inspired by my family's Cat's, doing things, imagining things, like how I'd always imagine cats. There. Nuff said. The comic strip of the week. Until next wednesday, Enjoy.  - Anthony Andujar Jr

Happy 4th of July 2016!!

I Was gonna go simple, but then I decided to exercise my freedom of expression. Expressing the idea of independence on a global scale beyond these specific borders. The kind where positive ideals flourish over negative ones. No matter how much we hate opinions, at the end of the day, you always have the universal right to choose. When I made this piece, Originally it was gonna be either Ironman in the Iron Patriot outfit, or Captain America. But I personally wanted stray from those established characters due to the amount of recycling used. And personally, at least for this blog, I wanted to stay away from established characters when it came to my art. 

 I kind of put in a lot of thought about all the things that plague America, and then I thought about how those same problems plague the world outside and beyond on a more universal scale. SO I decided to list all of those issues. I kinda went a little David Mack/ Frank Miller sorta in terms of design and graphic imagery with hand written texts going all over the place with a flurry of convoluted colors.

 I then wrote the following that humanity needs to be independent from regardless of how locked in the cycle we all are. :

Independence from Evil Politicians, Extremist Groups, Hate Crime Groups, Secret Societies, War Mongers, Yellow Journalism, Evil Cults, Monopoly Corporations, Puppet Masters, Oppression, and corrupt Bank Systems.  Because so often these are the shackles that tie humanity down to it's knees. Especially in a lot of countries and while the extremes may be varied , the common thread of these systems of oppression and hate are consistently seen throughout the world. But we can never let that dominate our rights and liberties to express, protect, educate, preserve, persevere, and do what is right in kindness and preserve the acts of kindness. It's easier said than done to look at ourselves as heroes, when every country has their fair share of blood and tragedy that has been inflicted onto each other as well as inflicted onto their own peoples. DO what's right. DO good, spread positivity, and outshine the vicious, barbaric, sadistic cycles that plague humanity. WHether the act is gargantuan or minor, keep inspiring the good in people. Happy 4th of July, Independence Day, for America and Beyond. - Anthony Andujar Jr

Thumbnails of a Comic Series Preview -Anthony Andujar Jr, WIllinzy Jonri & Jose Sanchez 7/3/16

   SO for the past few months since March, I've been working on some comic stuff with my creative writing Collegues Willinzy Jonri and Jose Sanchez. Currently we are working on three projects: 1) WIllinzy's stuff, 2) Jose's stuff, 3) A collective fan comic based on a certain video game character that a band made an album out of.   Willinzy, Jose and I all met after we were assigned together by our Creative Writing Professor Dean Kostos since he thought that all three of us had a very similar kind of genre of writing. So we started working together and made an expansion of a short story that Jose made. Little by little, we started to expand of Jose's short story and made two One Act Plays that are based within the universe that we collaborated on together.
     
      To their credit, Jose and WIllinzy were prominently hashing out the story ,plot points, character motivations, etc etc. I helped with some throw away suggestions just to help guide them to the direction that they or better yet, We envisioned. So, every tuesday and thursday we'd meet after class and head to the cafe across the street from the E building of Laguardia Community College and hash out stuff. Willinzy and Jose would write, and I would start making concepts or thumbnails to whatever was brainstormed collectively. It's safe to say that I like working with these guys. There are others that I'm hoping to work with ( especially for a variety of projects be it Anthology, short story, concept for album or whatever may come). In between all this, i've been working on a black book that i've been drawing for nearly a year and half now, another blackbook where I do all the comic strip stories (before doing the digital colors and edits that you see on this very blog) and some painting. It's safe to say that I've been utilizing what i've learned from my Professor Jessica Boehman's Graphic Narrative/ Illustration course, Dennis D'amelio's Life drawing/Gesture course and Dina Pizzarello's intermediate drawing/beginning painting courses, which have all helped me crank out alot of content since taking those courses.

  Admittedly, so far we've been making some steady progress where we meet up at least once a week, communicate online, and hash out whatever and send each other notes and pictures of the content that's in the works. Since it's my colleague Jose Sanchez's birthday, I figured I could show a little blurred preview of whats in the works. it's ambiguous because I want the content to be viewed once its completed. Heck, once the first issue is completed of this and the other story, maybe I can have time to work on coloring the Comic book that I made ( but never released) last year call Memory Detective. Just know, I'll be posting this on my blog soon. Till then, stay tuned for the next couple of comic strips on the blog and Happy Birthday Jose! Here's the preview thumbnails:

Every Day Life Comic Strip #3 Job Interview #1 by Anthony Andujar Jr

        Hey guys! I've got some comic strips in the works, pre scripted in a black book of mine where I basically do the rough drafts/ storyboarding of the comics. SO far I've got two of the upcoming comic strips that I'll be posting up on Wednesday ( as all comics are usually released ). But I figured I'd drop a little one of strip for Saturday since I recently got my work schedule done for workstudy at Laguardia this summer. I make a joke to my colleagues and co workers and then decided to take that joke and turn it into comic strip number 3. Originally I was texting my sister about the pitch for comic strip number 3 (which was prior to me starting this new blog separate from my Foods and All blog where I talk comics etc). I even pitched 4 and 5 and such, and then i figured that I might as well draw and dialogue it all. Long story short, I made this based on some of the job interviews that I've experienced ( because everybody LOVES job interviews right!?!??) and I decided to take my general thoughts that I tend to have during interviews and interject that into the comic strip. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did drawing this little saturday gift.

    Also, shout out to Erika R. ( who is also a friend and writer of the http://erikalrita.blogspot.com/ blog ) for being my first follower on this comic strip dedicated blog of mine. To be honest, I don't know where these stories will go, whether they will ever be big, or become a major success ( I'm just saying, I would be happy if it was Picked up by Adult Swim, just saying), but I wanted this specific blog to be a place where I can use my art to reflect on my life and thoughts that I have currently as a 22 year old. Generally I'm a huge comic book fan (obviously), and I figured that I could possibly color that 31 page comic of a character made for Jessica Boehman's Graphic Narrative class on here. I don't know when I'll get to it ( maybe in the following weeks) but point is, This will feature more stuff than just humor , ( although it won't be about superheroes a lot either) just a good mix of things I hope. Look, what I'm trying to say is, I'm trying to channel what i felt when I read a newspaper comicstrip of Tarzan, or The boondocks, or Calvin and Hobbs, in terms of making one shot stories or strips be it one page ( or 25) and sorta leaving something for the audience and myself to want to revisit and come back to. Heck, the Paul Giamatti American Splendor Film was always in the back of my mind for years as the sort of stuff I wanted to make in between all the WHAM ,BAM stuff.  In addition, this is something that I wanted to do for myself (unfiltered), with no hampering of editorial deciding who I should reboot or drastically change inorganically or kill off or to bring back ( not throwing shade at Marvel and DC, because I love the characters from those companies, but there is a reason why the independent stuff from Image, Dark Horse, BOOM, and IDW are becoming more prominent). I just want to tell stories. No matter how WACKY or dumb or possibly humorous or witty they may come off, as long as I can keep doing it, and people like it, and maybe, who knows, one day it could be something more, at least I hope so! till then, in between my stuff with college, and life, this will be my own little publisher right here in this little blog of mine. SO, without going on and on and on in this intro for a One page comic strip that you'll be done with reading in like 510 seconds or less, I present: Comic Strip number 3!