Hullo.

[ran]

Hey all, my name is Ran Brown. I work on a daily comic that you won't really appreciate unless you play this obscure game (hooray for niche markets!) as well as an experimental comic, Hollow, which is about robots. I'm also preparing to launch my main project a year from now, and you can see art from it all over my deviantART.

I also have a personal blog called brainspill where I give previews of stuff I'm working on, as well as sometimes write articles about writing and making webcomics.

I'm former Smack Jeeves administration, and as such, I've spoken on their behalf at a couple of conventions alongside cool people like Lar DeSouza.

I'm a big fan of traditional media, but I've been using photoshop for much of my work for 11 years. I'm a full time web designer for a comic book store, I live in Canada and I've been married to a pretty cool guy who also does a lot of writing for my projects for a few years now.

Nice to meet you all, looking forward to sharing articles and networking with you!

[Rob]

Wooot! Female member. Now it's a party!

And she has loads of experience and expertise. Man this just keeps getting better. Thanks for joining Ran.

That really is about as niche as it gets isn't it?

Lar is just the best isn't he? I have something interesting coming up with him that isn't finalized but I'm hoping works out. It should be very cool. If it happens.

And he is the lord and master of Ustreaming. He puts on a heck of a show.

Thanks for joining up. I'm really glad to have you here. ;)

[ran]

Is it weird that most of the webcomic artists I've met are female? Maybe that's a byproduct of working at smackjeeves for so long--everyone there is a 14-year-old-girl who has suddenly decided to write a yaoi comic (if you don't know what that is, you don't want to know, don't google it).

It's niche all right, and it has a major pro and a major con--the pro being that I have a lot of constant traffic and an audience who is absolutely in love with it and supports me no matter what I do and doesn't seem to ever get bored of it, the con being that it's technically a fan-comic for someone else's fantastic intellectual property, so I couldn't monetize it if I wanted to (which I don't really).

Lar was a pretty fantastic guy. I was on a 'webcomics for beginners' panel with him a couple of years ago, and a conversation we had made me reevaluate why and how I do comics. He's a smart guy and his ustreams are absolutely fun! I do ustreams myself, but usually for traditional media, which is interesting to set up (hint, it involves scotch taping my webcam to a precarious stack of stuff and twisting it in a weird direction).

I'm excited to see where this website goes, so good luck guys!

[CorvusErebus]

A fellow Dwarfer! Hail!

You sound interesting. I look forward to seeing what you have to contribute in the future. And don't think I'm not checking out that comic. ;D

[Rob]

Wow. Less than 30 members and you found one. And one of our admins at that. This may not be as niche as I first thought.  :)

[CorvusErebus]

Okay Ran. I just finished Hallow. This is really REALLY good stuff so far. If this is what you consider a Side project, I can't wait to see your main.

Also: Killer Carp. Enough said  :P

[ran]

I'm always kind of surprised when people have heard of it or played it before. The only reason I heard of it at all is because my husband is in love with it and taught me how to play it back when there were no Z-levels. But yeah, killer carp. =)

Hollow is an experimental side project for a lot of reasons--I'm usually super picky about properly inking things, and I'm probably a bit controlling--I don't trust anyone else to do my job because I can't expect it to turn out the way I wanted. I certainly draw Hollow, but it's sketchy and not at all what I'm used to. My best friend does all of the colouring for it, which is also a change.

My main project will be roughly the same quality and style of my signature banner (if it shows up), so it's going to be a lot more work, but hopefully really rewarding!

[KidGalactus]

Hey Ran,

Very cool drawings. Now post some comics!

[ran]

Very cool drawings. Now post some comics!

I'm mostly confused by this request.  ???

[Nuke]

Wow, amazing work all around! I've been meaning to play Dwarf Fortress for a while now, ever since Ian McConville linked it. If Hollow's that good, I can't wait to see what your 'main' project's going to be.

It's pretty amazing how much talent this site's getting already!

[Rob]

I think Kid might have been suggesting that you start that main project you were alluding to. Although... it is a little cryptic.  ;)

Although if that is the case I agree. Your art is amazing.

[ran]

If you're easily confused by rogue-likes (or don't know what they are), I recommend getting a version of Dwarf Fortress with a tileset pre-installed--instead of wonky symbols, your screen will be covered in adorable pixel kobolds and super cute bronze colossi and horrible, evil unicorns, etc. Otherwise you're like 'Hey, what's this random letter U approaching my trade depot----oh jesus, they're killing everyone! :'( '

Thanks, though =)

@Rob -- Oh, I've started it. I'm just getting a few things ironed out and leaving myself a year to amass a buffer...not gonna lie, we're planning for children right now, so I want to be ready for anything and have enough of a buffer to cover me. Also, I mostly interpreted his comment as a subtle dig at one-panel comics ;_; I'm not offended, though, because that's probably not what he meant at all...my imagination constantly gets the better of me.