Greetings once again, everyone!

Has it really been several months since my last update?

Yes. Apparently, it has.

So, some time ago, I put the whole project on hiatus for some reasons that are kind of hard to explain. Then, I went and brought it back in the form of a merchandise store, but then failed to add any really interesting pictures to it that anyone would actually be willing to buy.

Oh, more pictures are on their way, definitely.

So why did I stop? Well, as it just so happens, I've found a few of the last rough sketches I did of CSG characters I ever did, before I dropped the project... and yes, I haven't really drawn anything CSG-related in a very long time. So, let's see here...

(This is going to be one long post.)
Read More...

Greetings, Vaca fans!

If you're just tuning in, you might be wondering why I hadn't posted anything in this blog for the past fifteen months. Here's as much of the story as I can remember to write.

Years ago, I came up with an idea for an online comic about a college girl with a magical cow-suit and the cute and whimsical world they live in, with its heroes and villains. I came up with the details of this world and these characters slowly, in a process that took years, and I owe a lot to a few specific people who were a great help, to the extent that I needed somebody to talk to and sort out all my ideas, and I really appreciated all the feedback I got from everyone I shared my ideas with.

Lauren, Karina, Aimee, Zach, and ... someone else ... helped me the most when I was starting out, definitely.

There's not an easy way to explain what went wrong, but I guess it all started with to a personal disagreement. I guess I did something wrong, but I still have no idea what. All I know is that, three or four years ago, this someone else ... a person who meant a great deal to me, just as these four others do ... decided she could no longer stand to talk to me or be around me, or even answer my email regarding why she was upset with me.

Although I've tried, I can't get over it, and the way things have worked out with other important people in my life (of the five I've mentioned, only Zach and Lauren talk to me at all, and Zach is probably too busy these days to talk about cartooning anyway.

Worse yet, every single thing I've tried to do with this project since then has just not felt right. The comic has neither a vision nor a definite direction to go in, so I honestly don't know if I can continue with it.

And so I abandoned it about a year and three months ago, without so much as a word in this blog and told myself I'd take a look at it again, in time.

Now that I'm back, what I've decided is to put the CSG septilogy on official hiatus, indefinitely, until further notice. I'm sure a lot of people are going to be disappointed when they come back to the site after a year or so and see that this is what has been added, but I believe that this is what I must do.

In the meantime, I've come up with a few other comic concepts I'd like to try out. When I have something regarding this that I can show people, I'll be sure to link to it here in this very blog.

Also, for CSG fans, I've decided to do something special. I've made an online store, which only has two images in it as I'm writing this, but if I keep on with it, all the best conceptual drawings I did for the CowSuitGirl world will be represented and purchasable, for those of you who would like to have a piece of Vaca's world to wear or carry with you in your own home.

These images, I must emphasize, are not the same images you see on the site. I mean, they are, but ... I have high-resolution pictures that I've never shown anybody. They're cleaned up and shrunk down for use on the site, with the original files remaining untouched.

Well, what I've done so far is I've taken the original scans and cleaned them up, using the GNU Image Manipulation Program, (a great bit of free software that serves as an alternative to Adobe Photoshop,) and modified specifically for the item it will be appearing on.

What's more, and I must emphasize this as well, I'm starting out offering these items at cost. That is to say, I don't care about money as much as I care about finding out whether people out there in the world actually want these things.

If this new direction is successful, I'll start periodically adding new artworks, possibly even full color digital paintings. I'm also taking suggestions, hints, and criticism for the store. Use this blog's contact form, leave a comment on any of these blog posts, or open up your favorite electronic mail client and send a message to shop@cowsuitgirl.com! I'll read it and do the best I can to make this thing work.

Thank you for reading.

~~ dave ~~
Merchandise is cool.

Okay, so it's been a while; nearly two months since I last posted here, in fact. So you might be wondering what's happened during this time?

Well, something odd happened to me as soon as I finished that last post. Suddenly, and for no reason I could discern, all my plans, ideas, and inspiration suddenly melted into a metaphorical pile of mush and I just couldn't write at all after that.

It's not that I haven't tried, of course. It took me a while, but I was able to get to where I could jot down notes again, think of new amusing things to put into my comic, and even get some writing on the script done. And yet, something was wrong.

They say that writer's block is caused by fear -- a fear of failure, the fear of the unknown, or some combination of both those things.

Perhaps something has been holding me back all this time from finishing this first comic, but I won't allow this to happen any longer.

Unfortunately, I still have that crappy day job, which takes a good chunk out of my time and attention every day, and makes me feel tired and grouchy even when I'm not at work.

My goals, then, have to include getting a new job, or at least finding a way to make money off the Internet so I can support myself doing the thing that is in my heart to do.

At the same time, I've begun work on the newest incarnation of the script for "The Minotaur's Curse".

I've also decided that my HTML code for the CSG site sucks. I've been meaning to replace it with something else for a long time, but somehow, I never did. I have a plan, though, and it will involve updating everything from boring old HTML 4.01 to XHTML 1.0 (or possibly 1.1) and relying more on Cascading Style Sheets.

I have other stuff I'm working on as well. Stay tuned here for more information on that, eventually.

The related link at the bottom of this article will take you to a new side-project I've decided to work on. There's nothing there yet, except for a logo... but I like the logo.

That's all for now. Thank you for listening.

Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes.


~~~ dave ~~~
My own muse.

A lot of people get an idea for something and rush right into making it. New webcomics, for instance, tend to go online within a few months of being announced to the world and having a domain name reserved. I, on the other hand, am completely different.

From the right point of view, this is a good thing. It guarantees that, when the project really is ready for public viewing, it will be special and unique and done to the best of my abilities.

From a much more substantial point of view, however, this is a major problem. The project is definitely not going according to schedule. Why am I so behind on this project? Why can't I set a deadline? I worry about stuff like this a lot.

Here, then, are some of the things that need to happen with the CSG project:

The Script
The comic itself depends heavily on The Minotaur's Curse being written, and being written well. That's the book that introduces Vaca and her world. As long as people can't go on the Internet and begin to read some of this book, nothing else on this list really matters.

The Site
There's another type of scripting that's very much important to the success of this comic. PHP scripting. As you can see, this blog uses PHP; however, I didn't write the code for it. It was designed by an expert in PHP and Flash named Alexander Palmo along with three other master Web designers.

It's actually a very simple set of PHP scripts. Others that I've tried, like PostNuke and Drupal are constantly being developed by a large group of experts.

Most webcomics run on PHP because it's a free standard and relatively simple. I could have gone a different route, but chose not to because I can't think of any better options.

Your basic script has index.php pulling up the front page of the site, which includes a large image (the currently displayed comic). The four standard links are usually right below the comic (so they can be clicked immediately after it is read), but need only to be located where they can be seen easily by someone who is looking right at the comic image. The standard links are:

"first", (which always sets the image in the middle to page #1),

"previous", (which sets the image to the page before it, which tends to be a number one less than that of the current page, although doing anything other than directly incrementing the page's number upwards from 1 (like using titles instead of numbers, or having the numbering start from 1 with every chapter) complicates this a bit).

"next", (which sets the image to the page after it, or one more than the number of the current page), and

"last", (which sets the image to the final and most recent image in the sequence).

It gets more complicated than that, of course. This might require reading from a file, which could be in text form (like Simple PHP Blog uses) or in a MySQL database (which Drupal uses), or some other way of storing data to be conveniently accessed later. There are a lot of things that can be done with a database, but that's something for another time.

Also, the links would need to fit into the context. On the first page in the comic, for instance, the "first" and "previous" links might not be there at all, or may be inactive. Same for the other two links if you're on the last page.

All this will require some planning, and indeed, I have done a good deal of planning; however, this post has gotten pretty long and it is late. I guess I'll pick this back up tomorrow night.


~~~ dave ~~~
Temperamental artist.

Okay, so it's finally here.

If you're just joining us, I recently saw a very interestingly made silent movie which gave me the inspiration to finally come up with a character design I'd neglected to finish. So, without further ado, here it is:



That's all for now.

Thank you and have a nice day.


~~~ dave ~~~
King of my own fantasy world.

One of the important supporting characters in the first book is a grouchy museum curator named Dr. Kurt Metzgar. I had kind of a vague idea of what I wanted him to be like, but all the visual designs I'd considered for him suffered from being just a little too bland.

Then, I saw something online... an old German silent film called The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It's delightfully twisted and surreal, plus, it's one of the great classics of German Expressionism.

Anyways, I have thus decided that Dr. Metzgar's look is going to be based on the menacing image of Dr. Caligari himself. That should be fun.

Fritz Lang was a great filmmaker, despite the low level of motion picture technology in his day. I would like to think his works are as enjoyable now as they ever were.

There will probably be references to this film and to its (literally) twisted set design in various parts of the CSG Septilogy.

So, uh... here's the Wikipedia article for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and here's the IMDB listing.

I did a quick sketch, but due to the unreliability of my scanner and the fact that it's really late at night, I won't scan it until tomorrow.

The "related" link points to a Caligari website; apparently, for some kind of goofy remake with talking and a slightly less menacing doctor. It's weird enough, I guess.

Goodnight, everybody!


~~~ dave ~~~
Burn me out; leave me on the other side.

So, uh... one common recurring theme in CowSuitGirl is dreams. The stuff that comes into people's heads when they sleep is both fascinating and mysterious. In practically every culture, there is some kind of special significance attached to dreams. What do they mean? Why did I imagine myself running through Wal-Mart in my underwear, threatening dinosaurs with a chainsaw? Is my subconscious trying to tell me something? Is it some sort of message?

None of that is actually relevant, but it gives us something to think about as we contemplate the next image.

The story of CowSuitGirl is kind of like a dream you see.

One of the things I had wanted to do at first was to present each chapter in Vaca's life as a dream-like experience, beginning and ending with sleep. This would have made it important to show the character in bed and in some kind of sleepwear.

Of course, now I might not even do any of that. It's a shame because I'd come up with a rather nice nightgown for Vaca to wear, seen here:



On the left? That's Vaca's eccentric best friend, Ming-Li Anderson. They're roommates, sharing an apartment while they both go to college. That will be important later.

Anyways, if you'd like to see more of these characters in their adorable nightwear, here's a slightly even bigger image.

Thank you and goodnight! Sleep well, everyone.


~~~ dave ~~~
Asleep with one eye open, gripping my pillow tight.