...learning along the way...

I don’t write comics––I haven’t written comics before. This is all new. I’m learning along the way. But the positive reinforcement I’ve received from so many of you, the glowing criticism... it’s all been such a grand help. Splendid. A friend of mine said this about a little something I wrote earlier this week.

9:56:48 PM | Oct 30, 2007 Miya: seems vibrant and motivates ones imagination

And what more can any artist hope for? What else can we, ultimately and when everything and everyone else is stripped away or dead, hope to achieve in our art? When fame and fortune become the squalor of debt and old age (and it will). When you’ve proven yourself to those who tell you that you can’t, won’t, or “good luck” you sarcastically. When all of these are gone and expired, you’ve still motivated someone’s imagination.

Think of the things you read, heard, and listened to as a child. The things that made you dream. When you first came to aspire. Even if you don’t appreciate them anymore, they did something for you. They motivated your imagination, didn’t they?

I thank and owe so much to everyone who visits this website. I thank with the noblest gratitude that I evoke from all the distant characters that reside in my mind. From the ones that reside in the abstract tunnels that (and Hamza knows this is true) everyone who practices any art (good or bad) bends, molds, pulls, kicks, moves with desperate breath. Because creativity is this tooth and nail fight to get everything through. Through the tunnels and onto the paper, the record, the film. Medium doesn't matter, and it's all the same struggle. The same wonderful struggle.

You, people, are the moments before the lactic acid is just too much for me to push any further. You, friends, are the beauty in me.

Playlist-
I - The Fall of House Atlantic
II - Radio Bye Bye
III - The End Complete
IV - The Road and the Damned
V - On the Brink by Coheed and Cambria

May all good things be yours,
Ryan

Happy Halloween!

The crappy pumpkin, glasses, and lower speech box are my doing. Don't put that on Hamza! :P

Progress Update: 02: Making way...

We've decided to go in a different direction, as far as the way we're going to distribute Institution goes. More info on this as the plan get more solid.

We've got some fantastic preliminary sketches of Shinsuke, thanks to the god-awfully-talented Hamza. I'm almost taken to weeping as a way to cope with how disgustingly rudely amazing they've turned out. You saw a low-quality iSight snap of the first one he did.

Here's another:
You can visit this work on his deviantart page 'here'. I'm sure he'd appreciate some comments and whatever criticism you can offer on the design/technique.

And (!), I'm hearing there might be some interesting technique used in the next one––we'll see.

In script news––three more pages added today. We've decided to push further than 6 pages. There's just so much story to tell, and the both of us are loving it enough to put other projects aside to focus on making this the absolute best we can. We've even decided to do something special around the page 4-5 area (though, we're having a minor divide in taste on the exact content in this area).

As always, comments and criticism are appreciated both here and on our deviantart pages. Thanks for your time.

May all good things be yours,
Ryan

Institution?

Via...

Playlist-
A Social Network for Two by Ze Frank

Shinsuke of Institution

The nigga Shinsuke.

Got Word on the Cover!

Well, word is back. The talented dcjosh has agreed to do the cover of Institution.

Everything is right in the world. I'm very happy.

I was going to post some recent work by him, but I suggest you just navigate to his deviantArt page and look at them for yourself. Just don't leave your jaw on the floor.

Progress Update: 01

The first draft is complete.

And we're asking *ahem* another artist about doing the cover. Fingers are crossed. If we get the right words back, I'll make another post. You have got to see this guy's work. Don't think I should say much else... : )

My mind is utterly full of Shinsuke and his world (and the Daydream Nation re-release). I'm doing thumbnail layouts for the text/lettering and revising a printed version of the script during my favorite class––nay, all of my classes.

And the whole process has just got me grinning from ear to ear, all the day long.

May all good things be yours,
Ryan

Playlist-
Last Days of Disco by Yo La Tengo
Son of a Gun by The Vaselines
The Con by Tegan and Sara
Carmine St. by Kaki King
Holidays in the Sun by Sex Pistols
I'm Still Your Fag by Broken Social Scene

Reading-
Voices of Resistance from Occupied London -I highly recommend downloading the pdf and reading!

Watching-
I Am Curious (Yellow)
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm
Ikuru

Hamza Here

I am "the artist" of this little endeavor. I have a few separate accounts, check out http://jessandhamza.blogspot.com, and http://comixink.deviantart.com for my work. Will be posting sketches of Shinsuke and the world he exists in.

...and the song said 'let's be happy', it made me happy...

This is the Institution blog. Thank you much for arriving, and welcome.

We'll be sharing our thoughts––throughout the development, as well as preliminary sketches and drafts. Maybe even some bonus material will appear here (and nowhere else...)?

So please subscribe, we'd love to get some comments along the journey that is Institution.

May all good things be yours,
Ryan