chr0nometer

Mom Day / Dad Day

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:48:00 +0000

So they may be incredibly belated, but I didn't have a chance to give my parents their Mother's and Father's day gifts until just a few days ago. Being the poor sap that I am (literally and figuratively!) I drew a couple of cartoons!

The first is my Mom conducting a symphony orchestra (the next step up from school musicals!) and the second is my Dad celebrating an obscure golf shot (which I'm sure he'll accomplish sooner or later!).

The two of them visited at our apartment a bit, where we entertained ourselves with an exciting combination of foosball tournaments and a Wii bit of gaming! Good times!

Epic parental foosball showdown!

KotOR Guy

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:56:00 +0000

In the spirit of the excitement surrounding The Old Republic, I thought I'd post up this dude that I drew back in the day, an idea for a KotOR era character. I call him KotOR Guy!

Torso Friends

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 01:45:00 +0000

These are the Torso Friends. Random sketches I did while we were watching Milk. It's likely I was just too lazy to draw arms and legs! Hurrah!

Retirement!

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:54:00 +0000

Back in 2006, my Mom commissioned me to do up some cartoons. They were for a retirement thingy for two of her co-workers at the ol' tech wing of the school board. She gave me the ideas and the photo references, and I drew 'em! Here they are, Jim and Dennis as never seen before!

Dennis using a mouse as a yo-yo!

Jim tries to scan his own groceries!

Jim scans his face! Dennis is amused!

Dennis and Jim toss a CD-RW around like a frisbee!

Jim and Dennis fish using USB cables as lines!

Jim and Dennis relax and use their laptops as food trays!

Gadget Mom

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:13:00 +0000

My mom is a master of tech. Working for the school board, she would get all kinds of neat stuff to play with, test out, and concoct tutorials for. For her birthday in 2006, I drew this cartoon of her and her many gadgets!

I'm posting this today, because she's on my mind due to a series of belated occasions that simply MUST be celebrated! Curse this busy lifestyle that plagues us all!

Frapp Hal

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:45:00 +0000

Was perusing through some old files again, and found my good buddy Frapp Hal. In the spirit of Amanda being at work (ie. Starbucks), I figured I'd get this guy on here.

Designed for a Frappuccino sales tracking poster (his arm could be rotated), Frapp Hal brought a little smile to our faces every day of the grind! Oh, and the fact that his name is a play on the term "frapp hell" (our label for the extreme business of summer) and management never really caught on? Classic!

Ballpoint Buffoonery

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Sometimes the pencils are either too far away, or I simply cannot ascertain their whereabouts within the minimal time window I allot for searching. Here's some good ol' blue ballpoint pen randomness. All it's missing is the lined paper background.

Flail Wildly!

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:20:00 +0000

Testing out some flail-type thingies for a comic project I'm working on. Someone may or may not use a flail at some point...perhaps! Hence, flails.

teh_chr0nometer

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Fri, 29 May 2009 13:05:00 +0000

teh_chr0nometer is a superhero! He fights crime with his HANDS...hands...of JUSTICE. I've been playing around with the idea of a superhero mockery comic about a clock-themed adventurer.

He embodies many superhero stereotypes, such as a form-fitting outfit, a cape and over-underdrawers, a logo on his chest, and a fancy crime-solving hat!

I think I like the masked adventurer look more than the creepy old guy look. I'm not sure where THAT idea came from, but I included it as part of the design process! Hooray for design!

Her Book, My Book

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Sun, 03 May 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Her book is about a little girl who was conceived mostly to provide her sick sister with blood, marrow and organ transplants.

My book is about a Jedi operation to halt Separatist production of deadly bio-droids, starring Obi-Wan Kenobi.

In her book, the little girl hires a lawyer to gain the right to make her own decisions.

In my book, there's a lot of cool battles between droids, clones and Jedi.

Her book is emotional and thought-provoking.

My book is awesome.

What are our books?

Rats & Lizards

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:08:00 +0000

Now, usually, crap like this gets buried in some box at the bottom of some closet. Years later it might become unearthed by a friend, or family member, or even the artist him or herself, much to the artist's embarassment and disbelief that they ever drew such things, and drew them so badly.

Not me, buddy! Get a load of these crazy rat and lizard dudes!

Not really sure where I was going with these. Circa 2005.

I almost didn't upload these, for the reasons my introductory paragraph describes. Then I thought, "Ah, what the hell! I wanna put up more updates, and it's update material! Who cares if it sucks and is many years old? Not me! Man, I'm hungry. How come we don't have any food in this place? Hmm...I wonder how much nutritional value lined paper has..."

My thoughts tend to stray rather quickly.

Sinclair

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:09:00 +0000

This is really funny, at least to me. I have a simplistic sense of humour. Amanda will likely give me a smack for this, but for the longest time, she thought that St. Clair West subway station here in Toronto was called "Sinclair" West. I guess it kinda sounds like that when played over the loudspeaker. Never mind the name emblazoned on the wall everywhere!

Anyways, I was sketching out some character designs for a new project I'm working on, and popped this one out. He's a subway driver, and I named him Sinclair, because I like to make the fun at my girlfriend.

Good ol' Sinclair!

I've since discarded the part of the project that would've involved Sinclair, but I still feel he's worth a mention and a blog post. He actually kinda looks like my dad too, which is odd.

Enjoy pr0n!

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:17:00 +0000

So my buddy Kurt AKA Thunderheart and I have been in kahoots for a while now. He and a team of highly trained professionals are working on this online gaming thingy that's gonna rock your socks. Rock 'em right off!

To promote his creation, he drafted me to hammer out some cartoonish cartoons, and after much laziness and slacking off, I decided to actually get to it!

The so-called comic strip pr0n (not actual pr0n, settle down) is now officially online!

The comic centers around a group of gamers (exciting!) who have never actually met in their real lives, but play online games together and speak to one another over headset mics. They jump right into their characters, regardless of gender, and make with the funny.

As far as creation goes, it's a triple threat. The strips are the brainchild of Kurt and this other guy Todd. The actual writing is done by those two and myself. Drawing duties are of course my domain.

The ultimate plan is to feature two new strips every week, but the project's current beta status will wreak havoc with that schedule for the time being (as well as the navigation system, which always starts you at #1). That'll all get squared away soon.

Anyways, enjoy pr0n! I know I do!

Top Hat Gentlemen

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 03:47:00 +0000

Leafing through some old sketchbooks again, and came across a duo that I've come to call the Top Hat Gentlemen.

Everyone knows that wearing a top hat makes you classy indeed. These two exquisitely depicted personages are no exception!

Old Comics Part II: Archfall

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:10:00 +0000

Hey, it's the second part! Another old comic of mine for you to marvel at before pitying my short attention span. It ran a bit longer than Sleuthed, actually progressing beyond the conceptual stage and lasting a whole six strips before I shut 'er down!

Archfall was based in the realm of fantasy. The premise was that this guy accidently transports himself into a land of medieval-type stuff through a mysterious tree. This, of course, would be followed by hyjinks.

The main character, a guy by the name of Parker, was the protagonist of Archfall, the hero who crosses into the medieval land to stir up some crazy times. He started out fairly mild-mannered, yet silly. Eventually he progressed into a more dramatic and obnoxious individual.

I designed a few side characters as well, but never really went beyond sketches. The glasses-wearin' guy was to be named Felix, or "Fix" for short. Something about the short forms of "Park" and "Fix" for two main characters names appealed to me. Park 'n Fix sounds like an auto garage or something. Dunno where I was going with that :P

The name Archfall popped into my head randomly as a nice short and simple name that wouldn't overshadow the actual comic. Coincidentally, it was going to be the name of the village that Parker was taken to in the medieval world. I had planned to incorporate an ongoing joke where the King constantly renames the village after minor events, in this first case, an archway falling over. Not only is that silly in itself, but apparently the small village has it's own king. Brilliant!

I'm a big fan of logos. I probably start working on them way too early in my various projects (for example, when I haven't even done anything else yet), but that's just me. I went through quite a bit of logo design for the title, and since I was just out of 3D school at the time, a few of them were in 3D! So fancy.

Now, when I started actually creating comics, I went through five of them before I decided to revamp the entire thing. At the time, I was watching a lot of Invader Zim, a cartoon show by Jhonen Vasquez. I was inspired by Vasquez's blocky and angular style, featuring characters with rail-thin bodies and big heads. Being the impressionable youth that I am, I made the effort to revamp Archfall to something more EXTREME.

So what I present now is all six Archfall comics, all versions of each comic united at last! Behold and be amazed.

Archfall #1 (original draft)

Archfall #1

Archfall #2

Archfall #3

Archfall #4

Archfall #5

Archfall #6

I had plans to continue Archfall after this point, but I got bored by the fantasy genre. I started thinking about how I could make a comic that featured all the genres that I'm a fan of, without being incredibly stupid.

Some new ideas for Parker's appearance would pave the way to Part III...

Back to: Old Comics Part I: Sleuthed

Man of Many Discs

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:33:00 +0000

I opened my birthday presents already. The day of the great arrival isn't until February 2nd, but circumstances resulted in early toys. Circumstances such as limited schedules and Amanda's incredible excitement for giving gifts.

We went down to Niagara Falls this past weekend for some shenanigans. I didn't even realize I was going to be getting gifts, however, as it was recently my Dad's birthday and I thought the gathering was for him. So it was extra surprising when we had presents and cake, all for me! FOR ME! AHAHAA! Anyways...

My gifts all came in disc form this year, with the exception of the gifts I got from Sabrina. She got me the Ninja Handbook, a wonderous source of information on flipping out and being ninja-like, and a Chewbacca bobble-head thing that has joined Han, Leia, Lando and the foot-tall Gamorrean on my so called "nerd shelf".

The parents got me the Clone Wars movie, which I hadn't seen since going to the show with Stuart when it came out. Watched it already, and may watch it again soon! They also got me the first season of South Park to start up another TV series collection, which rules. Amanda and I have already watched the entire thing, and it brought back precious memories of vulgarity from my childhood.

Also, Rod surprised me with a temporary gift. The guy loaned me his six-string base guitar and a bunch of Metallica base tabs to play around with while he's off on his cross-country thingy he's doing. That's awesome. I'm gonna thump this place to the ground. The only trouble is that I had to leave it behind because it wouldn't fit in the car on the way back to Toronto. Amanda's brother Glen picked us up as he was in town, but with two extra passengers and a trunk already full, the guitar didn't make the cut. My parents are coming up here in February though, so I'll get it then :)

Amanda got me a HUGE pile of great stuff, which is just amazing. I received the first season of the Simpsons (yet another collection begins!) and the first TWO seasons of Robot Chicken (woo!). The icing on the cake was LEGO Star Wars for the Wii, which is a great big heap of fun.

Upon loading that sucker up, I realized it was two-player simultaneous (something I didn't really clue in to previously), and we started it off by bombing around a Trade Federation ship, her as Obi-Wan and myself as Qui-Gon. We've now played through all of the prequels and it's a blast.

I think we had the most fun with the Revenge of the Sith levels, especially Amanda. The game fits the bill for her perfectly, being a platformer where you collect little shiny things and the bad guys are easy to kill. Add in devices that give your character various hats, and you've got a girl in hysterics as she runs around as Chewbacca in a top hat, pulling the arms out of droids with a "thwock" noise and punching Yoda (myself) with a "dshh" noise!

Twas a great haul of stuff, and I'd just like to thank everyone again for knowing exactly what I like and making my birthday very happy, even though it hasn't even officially happened yet!

I'm gonna be twenty-five in four days. Solid!

Solo and the Wookiee

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:45:00 +0000

Found some more cool stuff, this time on some random bleedproof sheets in my portfolio bag. I remember hastily sketching these for fun one day, a haste that is definitely evident in the Wookiee, who looks very silly. Also included is a ray gun of sorts, because that's always good. Who doesn't like ray guns? Answer me that!

The Notions of Matt

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:44:00 +0000

Back in 2007 I started up a silly website called The Notions of Matt, which was a photo-comic of sorts. I was basically ripping off both Eric Conveys an Emotion and A Softer World, but I like to justify it by saying I was inspired by them!

I ended up putting four entries into this particular endeavour before abandoning it due to the fact that it was pretty dumb. But dumb or not, better they be here than rotting away on my computer! So again, the strips in all their unshaven and ill-fated glory! Click for embiggenment!

Preeeeeeeetty lame. Except for that last one. Unexpected staplers are not to be trifled with.

Old Comics Part I: Sleuthed

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:31:00 +0000

This is part one of a four part series, budday. Introducing.....more old crap! Entitled "Sleuthed", it was planned to be a sprawling detective story, because they're damn fun. Never really took off beyond the concept art and rough draft stage. I had a few character designs and two scripts done, which I now present to you.

I wrote some minimal backstory for these characters. The first guy there was called Barnes, known only by his last name, and was an assistant-type junior detective person. I named him after the assistant guy to Kittridge in the first Mission Impossible movie.

Second is Madison, the token female character, a secretary in the detective office. I drew her looking kind of irritated, which I think is a common stereotype across a number of webcomics. I try harder to avoid such stereotypes these days!

Third in line is the main character, Spencer Bucket, an overly dramatic sleuth with a tendency to narrate his every activity. He was originally named Spencer Bannon, but I thought Bucket was funnier. No relation to Charlie Bucket from that chocolate factory stuff. Here's some more rough concept sketches of Spencer:

What follows now are two scripts I'd written up for two comics, one an introductory strip, and one for a strip that was going to be used much later on at some point (sometimes my writing is all over the place).

SLEUTHED #1
PANEL 1

Spencer:
It was dark, as usual. Maybe it's because I had the lights off and the blinds shut. Or maybe it was because this city is perpetually gloomy...with crime!

PANEL 2

Spencer:
Evil walks these streets. I know, because I've seen evil. I laughed at it too, and hurt it's feelings. I felt bad for a second, but then I got ahold of myself.

PANEL 3

Spencer:
My name is Spencer Bucket. I'm a detective.

*Barnes pokes his head into the panel*

PANEL 4

Barnes:
*pulls the blinds open* Spence, why is always so dark in here? It's 10 in the morning!

Spencer:
*shields his eyes* NOOO! The ambience!

Gripping, eh? Just pulls you right in! Sometimes it's weird to look back on all this stuff I've still got saved on my hard drive from four or five years ago. Here's the other script, the one that would've taken place much later, in which Barnes' first name is "finally" revealed while he and Spencer are being held prisoner by the Current Villain, a recurring villain that I never developed beyond calling him the Current Villain.

Sleuthed - #???
PANEL 1

Spencer:
Wait a minute...your first name is Hanover??

Barnes:
...of course it is! You didn't even know my first name?

PANEL 2

Spencer:
Well, I just always called you Barnes, I guess. Usually followed by a few exclamation points...

Current Villain:
SILENCE! In my house, I will do the talking, and no one else!

PANEL 3

Spencer:
Wow. Hanover. That's a cool name.

Current Villain:
I SAID BE SILENT!

PANEL 4

Spencer:
Hey! I can call you HAN! That is so COOL!

Current Villain:
ARRGGGHHH!!

Wow. Just, wow. Sometimes I amaze even myself. Which isn't too hard. So what happened to Sleuthed? Got bored of it I guess. Started working on other things. You know how it is.

On to: Old Comics Part II: Archfall

Sleepy Bird

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Amanda left this, word for word, on my voicemail a while back. Just thought that I'd share :)

"Hello, I'm calling to tell you there is a little birdie in front of me and I think it's a-sleeping. It's all poofed out and it's eyes are all droopy and it keeps closing them and it's so cute and it's right in front of me. I could, like, touch it, it's so cute, it's all fluffy and sleepy. Hmmm!"

Weird Bread

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 18:27:00 +0000

First of all, Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to all! I've neglected the old websitey goodness over the holidays due to general craziness, but I'm getting back into posting about boring topics.

Today I'd just like to briefly mention weird bread. Amanda somehow managed to crush it into a weird shape while bringing it home from the shops. I made myself a bunch of mutated sandwiches from the unholy slices and they were tasty, if sacrilegious.

Yeah, I brought back to the photo-comic gimmick that I once dabbled in. I like too many concepts :)

Mario Kart Top Ten

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:14:00 +0000

The ten most common things Amanda and Dini say while playing Mario Kart Wii:

1. Dammit!
2. Noooooooo!
3. Fuck you, Donkey Kong!
4. That bastard!
5. Auuugh!
6. Is that you?
7. I fell again!
8. Where am I?
9. Oops!
10. Hahahaa!

The profanities fly when these two get behind the wheel!

The Tangle

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:56:00 +0000

Behold the tangle. A lot of it was scavenged from work. Who throws out perfectly good decades-old systems and games? Fools, that's who!

So awesome.

Dweller By The Oak

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:14:00 +0000

So I've decided to start a wee adventure to explore the origins of my surname, Atack, and perhaps do some kind of genealogy tomfoolery.

I think I was a little inspired by the latest Star Wars book I read, in which Han Solo finally decides to seriously look into the history of the Millennium Falcon. The guy has the ship for 45 years before he bothers to see who owned it before Lando? I guess he HAS been a little busy with all those galaxy-altering shenanigans that seem to crop up, but really. Let's get with the program.

Anyways, I figured that since I've lived for almost 25 years without really bothering to look into it, I'm going the same way as our fictional princess-marrying hero. I don't have all the details. When asked, I generally say something along the lines of "It's actually English, just a little obscure".

Actually, I do know one thing, which I've recently bothered to confirm. Many years ago, we went to Medieval Times. No, I don't have a Delorean. It's a show here in Toronto where these dudes ride horses and pretend to kill each other in the ways of olde.

We splurged on a printout detailing the history of our deliciously odd and often mispronounced surname, and it indicated to us that it was originally meant to label some English guy as living near an oak tree. That would make it a toponymic surname, one derived from features of the landscape in the area. Neat.

Today on a wild and crazy impulse (and also as an excuse to test out my new winter coat against temperatures like today's whatever-below-celsius) I ventured to the reference library and sought out some books on English surnames. The first five or so yielded no results, but the sixth! Oh, the sixth had a listing for Atack. It said only this: "variation of Attack".

Rolling my eyes, I went down the page to the entry for Attack, and found what I was looking for, along with several varations. Attack, Attoc, Attock, and Atack, all variations of a name meaning "dweller by the oak". It even listed the first known record of the name, one Geoffrey atte Ock, which is some serious Old or Middle English style awesomeness.

There was a date there too, for good old Geoffrey that is. The year of 1296. That's 713 years ago. Seven hundred and thirteen if you were to spell it out in letters forming words. Talk about keepin' on keepin' on.

Tracing my lineage all the way back that far will likely be very difficult, bordering on insanely impossible, but it's something to do at least. It would be pretty badass to even locate where this supposed oak tree was exactly. Then of course I'd have to trace the oak tree's lineage, which is a whole other ball of worms. Or something.

I'll keep ya posted.

The Tombstone Gang

noreply@blogger.com (chr0nometer) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:12:00 +0000

You know what? This is a load of bullhonkey. Seriously. Only 10 grand? And not even apiece, but TOGETHER? An insult!

Just watch the hell out, lawmen!

Oh well. I guess we'll just have to hold up a few more stagecoaches, rob a few more trains, and commit a few more...acts?...against the U.S. to drive that up to a respectable number. Watch out, world.

(P.S. This website's probably under surveillance by the U.S. government now, for that last bit. Don't blame me, guys! Blame Canada's Wonderland and their olde timey photo booths!)