crackwalker

Feb 14, 2005 I am recovering now - no longer stunned. I have started updating Crackwalker again. Isn't that great? I have been running a Blog for some time; it has been a part of my gradual return to my internet-life. I will now refer the Crackwalker News page to the Blog, which is aptly called "Crackwalking". crackwalking.blogspot.com I do here disclaim to all that may view my blog that it is my general soapbox that I use for anything I feel like ranting about. This often includes topics that are unrelated to comics, some of which you may disagree with. That's your business. Disagree if you must, but if you get mad, then go sit in a corner and count to ten before emailing me your opinions. There - having said that, I officially invite you all to check out my blog and partake of my 'thotz', of which there are many. Peace - rook -
May 19, 2003 I am not going to be snapping out of it - I think it's permanent. I guess we had all better get the hell used to it. So on that note I am going to be finishing this church bit ASAP and getting Crackwalker into some new scenery. It feels like it's been forever since Celeste first walked into that house o' god. I've been a bit too busy with my new job at POKO to keep up with this years' Webcomics Awareness and Shakespeare's Birthday events. At least I'm drawing it again. I think I'm just going to complete the next chapter and then focus on getting those PDF's together. So some of you may be freaked out by the flying thing - I assure you there's a non-fantastical explanation for Celeste's levitation. All will be revealed in good time. As for explaining the talking frog, well, that is a bit more involved, and will take several more chapters... ^_^
March 13, 2003 I am still stunned - I hope I snap out of it soon.
March 8, 2003 Got a new job as an animator on a show called POKO. I am stunned.
Jan 19, 2003 You can't wait around for life to line itself up perfectly so that you can do what you want; You have to carpe your own diem, or else someone else will, and you don't want all your diems to be carped by other people, 'cause then they are carpe'ing you.
November 25, 2002 Well, now I really am back. New stuff going up tonight, and more on the way. Good stuff.
October 7, 2002 Me want do PDF's for all you people. Someday maybe.
August 27, 2002 My buddy Dave got married, so I did a website for the new couple to share their wedding photos with the global community. Aint they cute? And yes, that's the Citadel, the same one that figures in to Crackwalker.
August 6, 2002 hey I added some code to my template pages that should allow readers to jump to the start of a section. I also have artwork done up to and including the 8th of August. I will press onwards this evening and see how much I can get done. Now that I'm getting my groove back I am all impatient to get the story told.
August 5, 2002 I am educating myself in the basic canonical texts of the comics world. I was into Dark Knight when I was a kid, but somehow I completely missed Watchmen. That situation has been rectified (Thanks Dave!) and now I'm reading 'Understandiing Comics' by Scott McCloud (Thanks Jesse!). I have my useless BA - now I'm getting an education that's infinately more useful.
July 23, 2002 Thanks to those of you that wrote me to say "Where the fuck is Crackwalker? Get off your butt and draw it you slacker!" Without your encouragement I would be lost in a sea of disillusionment and paranoid hallucinations.
June 30, 2002 I have given up on the idea of hand lettering the dialogue. It was an experiment, and I'm glad I tried it, but in the final analysis, I think that legibility and clarity is more important; for Crackwalker anyways. The idea was that a spoken voice has an organic quality that cannot be captured properly with mechanical or electronic set type. Maybe if I had a letterer to add in all the script then it could be worked out - but I am working on limited resources here, so the idea has to get stuffed into a mason jar for the time being. So from here on out it's VAG Rounded.
June 13, 2002 Life is crazy. Crazy as a 2-ton crazy thing. And yet still I find the energy and time to do Crackwalker. Wow. Y'know sometimes I amaze even myself. But news, hmm. Well I'm going to the Halifax Zine Fair this weekend. I have some prinouts of Chapter Zero that I did at Staples and got the nice nice nice people there to Cirlox for me. Cirlox is like a plasic spiral binding dealie. Anyways, they whole thing cost me 5 bucks to produce, so I have to sell it for ten to make it worth my while. I doubt anyone will buy one, I just want to go there and get some exposure and hand out Crackwalker stickers. People like stickers, don't they? I know I do. I will also endeavor to get people turned on to webcomics in general. Free stuff really goes over well at these sorts of indie events. Also, the G7 finance ministers are meeting in Halifax this weekend to discuss important stuff. Other people that don't think very highly of their policies will be expressing themselves and hopefully we can all get through the assorted exercises of free speech without too much skull cracking and/or pepper-spraying.
May 6, 2002 I linked the banner below to Webcomics Awareness 2002. I'll also add a special button to the May 5 archive page. Should be hard to miss. I've been super stupid busy trying to get some illustrations done for a freelance job I'm working on, but I still found the time to do some work on Crackwalker. I'm writing the script for issue #3, which is called "waiting to be discovered". This would be the story that introduces all the main characters in full.
April 28, 2002 I do believe my rennovations are almost complete. I have added a ton of stuff to the info section, so that it no longer just has my weird interview, but also a weird rant, a weird tutorial, some weird notes and a selection of weird banners for people to use to link to the site. I've also started a proper links page, which will grow over time. The next thing I want to add is a sort of random featured links thing. The idea of links to other sites sort of fits into the Crackwalker motif. Keep an eye on the site for it. I also did the WCA 2002 special edition strip. It was a lot more work than I originally intended. Once I started, it sort of took on a life of its own. The art is in a different style from Crackwalker. I hope you like it.
April 24, 2002 So there's a new thingy I'm going to be doing called Web Comics Awareness 2002. Starting May 5 there will be a button that links to a WCA 2002 'special edition' or something like that. That will have my contribution to the whole thing, plus a link to the hub site. The banner below will be linking to the 2002 site, when it goes up. I'm not a big one for cluttering up my page with buttons and stuff, but in this case I'll make an exception. Web comics are new medium, and artists need to help each other out. I suppose I should start a links page sometime soon as well. I'm getting hooked on a few other comics and it would be cool to turn some people on to them. Keep an eye out for a new design for the site. P.S. Ok I just finished the new design. It's simple, but effective, I think. I have also started the links page. I will be adding in links over the next while. I don't think it's cool to just toss up a bunch of links without any explanation, so I'm doing write ups on each link. I will probably resort to a simpler approach once the reality of all the work I have to do seeps into my mental bubble of insanity.
April 20, 2002 Shakespeare has the same birthday as my mom. There's a fun little dealie goin' on to celebrate the birth o' th' bard, but not my mom I guess. On April 23 a bunch of online cartoonists are putting Shakespeare references into their comics. I've always had a bit from King Lear in the script, and it usually comes in later - toward the end of chapter two or three; but there's nothing wrong with foreshadowing it, so I put it into the madness-dementia scene that appears on the 23rd. It's appropriate since Woden is a crazy old man - among other things - but let's not get ahead of ourselves, hmm? So I went back into the artwork for the scene (I have them all done about a month in advance - hope I can keep up the pace!) and added in the text and then got all inspired and added a lot of other goo. Now it's a whole lot cooler and more trippy - it captures the fragmented schizophrenic tone I wanted much better. It's kinda neat that an event like this can push me a bit further and draw out more creative juice. What the heck am I talking about - it's late. I need sleep now. So anyways check out the link and see what other online toonists have come up with.
March 7, 2002 Ok ok. So news, news. Hmm. This is Crackwalker's new home. Homefully it has a it more visibility than the old tripod site. I have put up all the material from Chapter Zero - "Nothing and Nobody", and I am almost finished drawing the first issue of Chapter One. The story is called "I remember the theft of the expedition". The feedback I have been getting from people is positive, so like, yay! Once I get more of the story up on the site and all of the major characters are introduced I will feel better about things. I have enough of it done to last until early April so hopefully I can keep ahead of the curve.
March 2, 2002 I would have more time to do an update for the news, but I am running a tabletop miniatures wargame tournament today. Gotta go!
info + links + main rootwood@yahoo.com crackwalker is hosted on Keenspace, a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics.