APD 24: Coping Mechanism

Oh, man, this one opens up so many possibilities, but I'm about to take two weeks off. I don't think I will do a one-night wonder tomorrow, but you never know.

APD 23: Work-Nerds

Yes, It is still before Midnight, local time!

Anyway, I am really proud of this artwork. The past 24 hours I have been on my game. At least as far as vision, spacial perception, and dexterity have been concerned. Concentrating on my actual job is another story.

Speaking of jobs, there are always people who are fascinated by projects and organizational charts, corporate mechanics and deliverables. Where do these people come from? They certainly didn't exist as kids. The world may never know.

APD 22: What Options

OK, see if you can guess the panel that stalled me out and forced this into a second night.

Anyway, I plan on having another one by Friday night. Yes, I have no life.
Also, I have been doing some thinking as to the story I want to tell here, so, I have some direction for Gloria, at least. Honestly, I am doing this piecewise, but things are starting to fall more into place.

OK, I will probably be taking the weeks of Christmas and New Year off mainly because I will be away from my computer for two weeks. I plan do devote that time to updating my stories and planning for how I will print these things. I applies to LA zinefest, and hopefully I get in. It's mid-February, so I'd have to kick my butt into updating the site, and figuring out printing formats for things. Still, it would be a great way to celebrate three years as a Cartoonist.

Anyway. I am hungry.
Andrew

APD 21: Rumor Has It

Late for work.
Enjoy!

APD 20: The Superman in the Middle

Yeah, there is my comic.

If you are not familiar with Lois and Clark the New Adventures of superman, then go familiarize yourself. It's the kind of show I would binge-watch with my girlfriend, you know, if I ever bothered dating again.

So, from all of the visual references, you can guess that certain things bridge universes and are cannon in all of my works. Here is a brief list.

My musicians, be it a renaming of a band in a different language, a melody, a handful of lyrics, or a sticker given to me by my DJ friend, I will put my favorite musicians in the comics, because I would never dream of denying my characters the same joy that I receive, especially since I am rocking out to it while drawing them.

Fictional musicians, be it a renaming of a band from one of my favorite movies or a poster from an air-headed pianist from a wonderful book series, if I love the character enough, it is cannon.

Anything comic book related, this carries no further explanation.

Political and legal statuses, unfortunately my characters do not live in a fantasy world, and like ours, ferrets are not given a fair legal status in all places.

Humans, I like drawing humans. It feels more real. I can add fantasy characters, but not in the A Purposeful Derailment (APD).

Wiped Archive

OK, so I somehow managed to delete my entire comics archive. All I wanted to do was clear up some space on my phone. Anyway, if you want to see any of the old EOS they are all conveniently available at eos.mildlymiffed.com I am working to get all of the filler material back on the site.
What a fun way to spent my Saturday night?

APD 19: Escape Champion

OK, it looks like Jean must be standing on the table or something, because there is no way her head reaches the banner.

 Also, I cut myself off when I noticed that this strip was getting a little repetitious in theme. I have tons more thoughts on the matter, but I think Jean sums it up pretty well in two lines.

Yeah, I love having days off, because I can do this!
I am really proud of this artwork too.

I will probably deal a bit with the aftermath next week. Or the girls can just binge on granola bars for the next few strips. I haven't decided.

APD 18: Confession

I like the inking on this one a lot more than I do the last one.
Anyway, this is late because I decided to do Dr. Sketchy's tonight, and I forgot it ended at 10. Ug. Also, it is in the city, and I didn't get to this until after I decided to do a bunch of stuff. The moral of the story is, "Don't be a cartoonist." Full time, it doesn't pay enough. Part time, there is no time.

I hope you like what I am doing here. If this feels a bit repetitious, it's only because it is. I am tring to highlight how the same thing can be made imbalanced in opposite ways. I jsut feel this is something I need to address before I move the story forward, or maybe I am stalling because I don't know hwat I want to do with these character. I do know what I want to do with myself, sleep. Good night.

APD 17: Expecting the Worst

This happened to me once. I was called into the conference room by the HR person. I thought it was going to be about my terrible attitude and total lack of progress. Instead it was a birthday party. I was so flustered I went straight back to my desk. I'm not certain why I was convinced they were ready to fire me. I think it was because I disliked them so much, I just assumed they disliked me. I eventually quit, but what shocked me the most is that they didn't see it coming. I guess I put up a good front after all, or they just really didn't care enough to notice things. Lack of caring may have been my biggest beef with the place.

What does this have to do with anything? I dunno. It's past 3 AM, and although this comic really didn't take that long. I did spend some time tweaking it, and I think it was worth it. These drawings are hella tight.

Also, make sure to give some money to a good cause and maybe spend the day with the every talented Lindsey Stirling. If you win, I have to be your plus one.

Edit: Buzzfeed feels the same way.

APD 16: Tree Zone

Well, here you go. I will post another one on Friday, I think.
I like to think that Jean is doing her best Dr Cox impression in panel 3.
Anyway, food...

APD 15: How Urgent?

I will try to get another comic out this week, but I am taking a trip to Louisiana on Thursday. Gonna Watch some football, southern style...

APD 14: The Day After

OK, I was not really planning on having a good night.
Instead of being depressed, I invited friends over for pie.

Other awesomeness, might involve finally finding time to make an awesome dinner, and rocking out to the new Taylor Swift album. I should be in bed, but some things are just too important, like finishing comics and my third play through of 1989. Yes, it lives up to the hype, and each subsequent play through is somehow better. I'm not saying it's my favorite work by her, mainly because I am not that big on the heavy Max Martin influence, but she is just maturing in all of the right ways. I can't wait for the next one, but I had better get used to it. She only does this once every two years.


Oh, I am going to be living off coffee tomorrow, worth it.

APD: I Shall Sleep Here

You can tell the state I was in when I conceived this idea, and I wasn't that bad when I drew it, but now...

I'll have something else up tomorrow...

Um... bed.

APD 12: Justification

Yeah, this is a comic about how we justify stuff we do to each other. Plus, I wanted to reiterate that stealing is wrong and my characters believe that. I might do something tomorrow.

APD 11: The Infamous Granola Bar Lady.

Well, here is another one and not unreasonably late, at least my time, that being said, I am still dead.
I will go to bed shortly. I must say that I love granola bars. I mean I have contemplated marrying them, but they will never in my lifetime count as Halloween Candy, not even the ones with chocolate chips. Just, no, don't be that person.

This is based on the time when four very healthy engineers at my work showed up to the diversity day ice cream social and they were instructed to walk a lap around the campus in order to get ice cream. I will go further into corporate attempts to influence behavior later this week.

Coincidentally, this comic makes me think of this... There are some similarities, and that is my excuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okTokQgOo6I&feature=youtu.be
I'm not even sorry.

APD 10: Holo-Goggles

Well, this was going to go up yesterday. Instead I binge-watched the equivalent of a whole season of "Avatar." I have to agree, it is a darn good show.

Anyway, I have been thinking a bit about how to use technology in my comics. The thing about being a creator, is that you have to make every decision at every level. Usually, we go for something pre-established because it is easiest. Therefore, most comics have people interacting with technology that is identical to the kind with which the creator interacts. If the technology deviates from this, it is usually to emphasize futuristic advances that make it more of historical time periods that make it less capable.

My question is less, "how capable do we want our technology," but "how would we want to interact with it?" The thing is that I work at computers all day. I have a fixed location to look, a fixed location to sit, a fixed location where my keyboard is, and limited view space to place my work. Of course I can rearrange my workspace to me more ergonomic, but I am still limited by the physical devices. I guess my goal is technology that doesn't fix you to a flat screen. The thing about holograms is that they are actual 3D images, and therefore would be much easier on the eyes than staring at a screen. You could build an entire 3d workspace that tracks your motions and responds accordingly. Your keyboard and gestures are wherever happens to be comfortable at the time. The position of information would be entirely up to you, because you are essentially building a virtual office space. Also, depending on power requirements and connectivity, you could totally go mobile with them. It's a thought I might illustrate later.

It's not a new idea. I'm just trying to separate technology advancements into increases in capability, like teleporters, and improvements in usability, like voice commands to your computer. Actually, both of those ideas were on Star Trek. Which one do we use daily, and which one is a pipe dream?

Anyway, I am going to make dinner, and watch more Avatar.

APD 9: Holo-Kitty!

Here you go. This drove me slightly mad. It's not that is is any more technically challenging than what I have done in the past. I was just fried before I even started.

I can only hope Holo-Kitty becomes as popular as Shark-Blimp, but we all know there is no surpassing Shark-Blimp.

The proper soundtrack for this comic is "Ribs" by Lorde. I had the pleasure of being pretty darn close to the stage this past weekend, and I can give you my personal recommendation, that her concerts are quite worth it.

Edit: the perspective was driving me nuts in the first panel. I had to change it.
I usually don't do this. It's not perfect now, but I am really freaking tired, and I can live with this.

APD 8: Haunted Past

I have quite a bit to say about this little series, but I have to be in Berkeley this afternoon, and the State of California decided that my license plates are a very low priority. Long, story short, I have to take Bay Area public transit. It' feels like I am taking a pilgrimage to the concert. A pilgrimage to see the Lorde. Hmmm.

APD7: Always Good taste

Considering that earlier this summer, this many figures and faces would have intimidated the hell out of me, and now I do it in less than a day,  I fell good about myself.

By the way proper soundtrack to this comic is Taylor Swift "Shake it off," and Regina Spektor "Dance Anthem of the 80s."

APD6: Dance it Off

Here, you go. I have to admit having Fridays off is pretty sweet, even if I do pay for it by being strung out the other four days. Anyway, I'm going to go run some errands and start on the next strip.

ADP5: Hobby-Horse-Trampled

I never thought I would try to make a point with Batman bowing to the Arc of the Covenant or pre-school teachers assaulting each other with hobby-horses, but that is just how my brain works, I guess.

APD4: Just Trying to Go Home

No news, just comic, then sleep.

APD3: Madness to the Ride

Here is my latest contribution.
It sums up my thoughts on some of the more offensive behavior cyclists appear to exhibit.

Also, I'm not sure if she is wearing a helmet or a loaf of bread.
From now on, I draw on my nights were I don't work out and go shopping.

[edit] I make it a policy to not edit comics after they are posted, but I felt very strongly about a particular detail of the language, that I had to change it. I also took the opportunity to tweak her leg ever so slightly. the former is very important to the theme of the comic. The later just bugged me a bit.

APD2: Cyclists Anonymous

Well, here is the start of the first sub-arc of the comic. I'm not sure if it is all that funny, but I want to set the tone. This is a bit of me ranting, but that is the purpose of the comic, I guess.

Introducing: A Purposeful Derailment

Here is my new comic. It will contain bad puns, bizarre viewpoints, and geographic ambiguity. I must warn you it will also contain discussions on religion, addiction, mental health, and cultural norms.

This comic is my attempt at breaking certain molds while still being something worth reading. The only way I now how to do that is to be myself. Let's see how this goes. This might last 100 strips or so.

Sneak Peak: Purposeful Derailment

So, here is the character art I have worked up for my upcoming comic.

I will not be continuing with EOS for the near future. The reason is that, EOS evolved into a very specific story with some very specific points. EOS was always going to be a slightly snarky metaphor on life. Also, it has a very long story to resolve it, and I am not ready to tackle it at the moment.

What I will be doing with my next comic will be less of a metaphor and more of an assult on life. I will be tackling issues I never would have dreamed of discussing in EOS, mainly faith and my place int he world. I'm not going to pull any punches in this one because I decided that I can't let myself hold back if I want to be successful. This is not to say, I will not write silly fun story lines, but this one just has to feel real. I am not sure where this will end up, but I have enough now to hit the ground and go. It's the only thing I know. Strangly, my goal is to be more cartoony in my images, but less fanciful overall.

I can tell you the basic premise is being honest with yourself, and following what you love.



So, may I introduce Jean and Gloria. The bio information is a bit blury, but you can deal with it. I need to get to bed. I have a real job these days. Coming up "The Purposeful Derailment."

Love?

These are some quick comics I did while eating some delicious food.

It may seem odd that a person who is self-proclaimed to be incapable of love would write comics about it. The truth is that I am quite capable of loving other people, and I do it quite fiercely. Love is integral to my life, and it defines every interaction that even remotely matters to me. Love is everything, and I could write about it all day. It is all-encompassing, engrossing, and far more complicated than simply romance. I am, however, incapable of loving someone romantically. I don't know why. There are just some things I can't do. I can't play sports and be expected to contribute in a serious game, I can't spend all day writing computer code without wanting to throw the machine out the window, and I can't maintain a romantic relationship if I am being honest with myself. It doesn't mean I can't love in general, and it doesn't mean I don't appreciate romantic love in particular. It doesn't even mean romantic love isn't appealing to me. It just means that I accept that romantic love is not the answer to my fulfillment as a person, and, therefore, I don't need to feel bad about myself not being able to honestly pursue it.

New job

I started my new job today. It is better than my previous job in just about every respect. Although,  it still isn't cartooning. If you want me to be a professional cartoonist, you need to tell all of your friends to read my site.
I sketched a couple of ideas during new employee orientation. These aren't the original sketches, but they are still rough. I just am not used to the permanence of drawing with ink.

EOS 100: What have we learned?

Well, here we go EOS 100!
Looking back, I hope my art writing and expressions have improved over the past two and a half years.  I don't know what the future holds. On the one hand I really like these characters and I like a more detailed art style. On the other hand, I may have to modify my style to make this sustainable in the days ahead. Also, I really want to do an extended graphic novel type event with these characters. So, I might create new ones for joke strips.

Is this really number 100? No, remember I did 19 pages at lona.mildlymiffed.com. I am tempted to complete that and edit out some of the more metaphisycal aspects. We'll see. Also, I have a number of strips that aren't labeled as EOS. The official list is archived at EOS.mildlymiffed.com. You can also just search the comics tags on the main www.mildlymiffed.com if you want all of my comics (except Lona)

As for the future, what does it hold? How about road trip! Yes, I will be spending the month on the road starting this weekend. I'm bringing my sketchbook and art supplies and I will be giving updates as I go. How is that for fun? Hopefully, after a month of this I will have a bit more clarity in life.

Anyway, thank you for reading this for however long you have been following me.
I feel like I am becoming a different person with all of these changes, and it's kind of a nice change. Don't worry. I'll still be me.

Andrew

EOS 99: Stuck with You

OK. This was supposed to be up over two hours ago, but no, the more tired I get the harder it gets to do. I will put up EOS 100 this week, and then ROAD TRIP! I'll be keeping a sketchbook of my journey, and I might just update you along the way. The current plan is 14 states over three weeks. I'll talk more when I am not dead tired.

EOS 98: Devolution into Farce

I'm actually surprised how long this series is going. I will have two more up by the end of next week. That will put us at EOS 100!
What do I do after that. Well. I want to keep on drawing. I like drawing, and I like what I draw.

Anyway, here ist he big announcement I was talking about that will affect my update schedule.

I am moving to California. I took a job with a bay-area employer. I am not exactly sure where I will be living, but it will be somewhere on the peninsula between San Fransisco and San Jose.
So, how does this affect the comic? Well, I am planning an month off to drive across the country. It appears to be the time for cartoonists to do just that. ( www.girlswithslingshots.com ) This means I will not have regular updates, but I did buy a sketchbook, and I plan to do a comic a day. Leaving on the 18th, I plan to visit (Cleveland?)) Ann Arbor, Chicago, Rockford, Philedelphia (yes, I have to fly back for something), Madison, Peoria, Kansas City, Tulsa, (Dallas?) Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Denver, Flagstaff, Los Angeles, and of course San Fransisco. This is tentative, and I might take a northern route, but I have a month to do it. Who knows what the comics are going to be about. Probably, national parks and my brother's snoring, but it will be an adventure.

Actually the most adventurous thing I did was when I quit on Monday. I am a very timid person. I don't even let myself fall in love with girls I know I should be crazy about, because of the what-if, factor. Anyway. I was granted a tentative job offer provided I passed some routine background tests. I know there is no way I am going to fail, but heaven forbid I actually bank on that. No, I needed a guarantee in hand before I quit my job. Well, the guarantee wasn't coming that day, but I was contractually obligated to give a two-weeks notice. So what do I do, delay my trip by at least a weekend, or bank on something I knew I was going to pass? In the end I finally did something that made sense, and I handed in my resignation on Monday. It's not really that crazy, but it is not 100% guaranteed, and that feels pretty wild for me.

Anyway. I will not go into details about the job. It is a space technology research position with one of the largest aerospace companies in the world. It is basically what I have been working towards since I was 16/17? for reference I am 30. Anyway, it is really exciting. That being said, I keep on wondering if I should maybe be more crazy and jsut quit all of this to be a cartoonist. This is always has been a passion. We'll see. If you tell all of your friends and they tell their friends and they all love it, then I will totally do this as a full-time job. I have tracking statistics, so I know if you are going crazy about me or not.

Anyway, have fun.
Andrew

EOS 97: Stop Playing so Harshly

OK, hopefully tonight, I will be able to make my announcement. Does it have something to do with my 100th strip and why I want it out by next week? Yes. also starting these things when I am not dead tired is a huge boon for productivity.

EOS 96: Busines Cards, The Game

Here you go. I think this would be a fun game. Honestly, this is a good was to get through a boring meeting. Imagine it's really two wizards fighting, and your office is the imaginary realm where it all takes place. Office politics, heck yeah!

Anyway, I plan to wrap up this little story arc int eh next four strips. Preferably before the 18th.
Why the 18th? Well I might have some big news on Monday that will cause an extended interruption in my cartooning.

EOS 95: Out of Nowhere

Yeah, this was supposed to go up on Friday, but, you know, life...
Hey does anyone have an objection to me taking the strip in another direction when I am done with this little series?
Actually, what I want to do with these characters is put them in a much longer story. That that probably means is that any further adventures will be done with a new set of characters.

Andrew

Contemplation

I attended a Lindsey Stirling concert last night. It was quite an experience. She is creative, and energetic, and passionate, and amazing, and it all comes out in the performance. She is a person following a passion that everyone said would never work, and every night she thanks her audience for making a dream a reality.

What does that mean for me? Well that is part of what this is contemplating. I have passion and dreams and I am pursuing one, but another refuses to go away. What do I do?  I don't know, but either way, changes are in my future. Last night was an important night for that on so many levels.
Last night, I felt uncontrollably happy for the first time in over a year. Last night I decided that I need let my heart get broken again, and in fact, I should pursue that end. Also, last night I dropped my keys, and I haven't found them yet. Finally, last night I made a pretty important life decision, that I will talk more about in the days ahead.

Also, I can't say enough about how awesome Lindesy's shows are, but the thing I want to emphasize is that she honestly cares about her audience, and she made that apparent time and time again. I felt that. That is the thing I learned about shows last night. Shows aren't about entertainment, and they aren't about an act performing. They are a strange sort of relationship. We give Lindsey love and she gives it back. It's not extremely personal, but it is there. It used to be I saw shows as a check-mark of people I need to see. Last night, I didn't see it as a check-mark, I saw it as the beginning of something that I will keep doing my entire life. Her life, however distant, is a part of mine in a way. I will keep going to her shows and listening to her music as she makes it. That is the cool thing about following an artist. I do it with both comic artist and musicians. another example is Ed Sheeran, who released an album that day, but it was already sold out when I went to buy it. (Very cool and I have tickets to his concert in September.)

EOS 93: Why else would you do it?

Yes, I am still updating on a Friday!
I decided to take some extra time because I was having fun with this.
Anyway, I am kind of going through some personal stuff. So there might be a break as I figure this all out, and by break, I mean cryptic self-examining comics.

Andrew

EOS 93: Both ends of the pool

I have never done this, but I have a friend who has. He was going on and on about this great girl but kind of lost interest when he read her twitter feed.

Anyway, I apologize for the delay, I was rewriting a story earlier. I should have another comic up by Friday.

EOS 92: All we do is copy.

OK, I am going to bed.
Tomorrow, I will be checking out the Drink and Draw at Locus Moon Comics in Philly. Let's see how this goes.

http://locustmoon.com/events/

EOS 91: What I See

Here is the start of a new storyline. Actually, it ties into the last one, but without the fairies.
I sort of got the idea for the visual whist listening to Lindsey Stirling today (I am so stoked for the concert in two weeks!) Strangely, I am not the only person to have that visual inspired by her music today. http://instagram.com/p/pB9wx8Lk6p/#

This was supposed to go up tomorrow, but it turned out easier than anticipated.

EOS 90: Don't Disregarde the Warnings

Well, here we go: number 90 and a wrap-up of this little series. I might have one more next week, to explain why I started putting fairies in the strip. OK, I did it for fun, but they do serve to explain something that may become important if I ever turn this into a graphic novel.

Also, it is the 70th anniversary of D-Day.
Go and hug a veteran, but not to hard. Don't break them. Those guys are old now.

EOS89: Meanwhile

Here you go: I was going to have this last night but the number of panels kept growing. I'm trying to work on comedic timing and showing it instead of saying it. Well, I hope you enjoy. I may have something out later this week. Technically, this is still a Wednesday update Score! I'm going to go do something constructive.

EOS 88: Crazy Assumptions

Yeah, I generally don't really give people the benefit of the doubt all of that much.
I think I need to learn how to be nice to people. It's hard.
Anyway, I have more stuff to say next week.

EOS 87: Leave us Alone

Two important facts:

Yes fairies are cannon in EOS, pretty much everything is, actually.

Also, people persons do really make life pretty harsh, on normal people. That is all.

EOS 86: Not All are Common

Here is a new comic. This would ahve gone up earlier if I hadn't decided that I needed to make bread int he middle of the night, but there you go.

I should do something fun this weekend, but what?

EOS 85: Worse in Our Own Minds.

What, a comic up before midnight? Impossible...
Anyway, I should have another one up by Friday.
 I will be getting back to a more regular schedule now that I am not traveling all of the time.

EOS 84: Expected Returns

OK, here is my return. I love doing this stuff. I'm trying to use less dialogue to get across the same idea.

EOS 83: Wondering

I'm going to be starting a new little arc here. It should last a few weeks.

EOS 82: The Creative Process

OK, so I am back from my little break, and I took some time to make something a little more in-depth than my one-day affairs. Needless to say, right as I was finishing it up, I saw several awesome ways to make it better, but at somethings are best explained with the work itself.

No, I don't know where James is at the moment. Elroy is Writing this one alone.

Anyway, I will be at Zinefest in NYC this Saturday and my friend, Mindy, is doing a signing, so you should come to that as well. Check out her website www.mindyindy.com

Zinefest:
Sat/Sun Brooklyn Historical Society, 
128 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights
Brooklyn, NY 11201
http://brooklynzinefest.com/


(Edit!, this has been postponed)

The Signing:

5-8 PM Saturday,
 Carmine Street Comics
 34 Carmine St.
New York, NY 10014
https://www.facebook.com/events/466424306826401/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming

Nerd Confessionals 14