School...

So, what exactly do you do after college? Like, everything is planned out from birth nowandays. You go from kindergarten to elementary school to junior high to high school, and GOD HELP YOU if you don't go into the dream college that your parents couldn't go to. And the way that people make it sound, what with higher rates of payment when you have a college degree, it sounds like the college itself just hands you a job along with the diploma. But is it taken for granted, being able to score a job right out of college? Is there a lame duck season between graduation and initiation into the rat race?

Honestly, I never realized how much I thought that college automatically grants you a high-paying, high-responsibility job. Adults make it sound like a.) without college, you will literally get kicked out onto the street and start selling drugs, and b.) with college, you'll immediately start making 10k a month.

Am I aware that without college, making money at a secure job is hard? Absolutely. Am I aware that with college, people will perceive you and your qualifications differently? For the most part, I agree with that. I'd say that's 99% true. I also understand that colleges make their money off of students, so a culture that depends on collegiate education can't hurt their pocketbooks.

Here's the thing, I want to go to a university. Right now, the funds aren't there, and I also have an apprenticeship going right now that is incredibly valuable to me. But that apprenticeship is going to be ending in a few years, give or take a few months, and at the end of this there is a guarantee of a job. I'm learning things I would never learn in college. I'm learning how to be a business artist, a content developer that people will respect. In the industry I am entering, what college I go to will be secondary to the studio I apprenticed in. And that's where my power will come from.

But I want university anyway. The plan is to get my AA at the junior college I'm at now, work for money at the studio until I have enough saved to go to a university (maybe in New York!), then head off to school while supporting myself. The risk I see in the plan is if I start making enough money to support myself, I'll just stay making money, and not go to college. But I want a degree. Not just to please my parents, not to please my grandparents, because I want one.

Why? Why do I want something that I may or may not even need? Every adult reading this is gonna tell me that I will definitely need it, and that's true, a good 97% of the time. But I might find myself in an actual 3% situation.

Eh, I enjoy school. That's all it is. And since school is expensive, I'd like something to show how much school I've taken, since I enjoy it so much. Ergo, a degree! That's a simple enough explanation. I'll get it because I want it. Not because of the pressure of my family and academic culture telling me life is impossible without it. I can break walls with my head. I'm a Rhoades.

'Til next time!

The Downside to Asian Pride

So, I read the funnies. I'm a comic-o-phile. I love comics. Most of my beginning blog posts are probably going to be short sentences like that, to describe me. I figure I'll just be upfront about it.

Anyhoo, I love comics, and I kinda like the funnies. Honestly, once you've read original Sunday pages of "Little Nemo" at 18"x 24", it's hard to care about Garfield at a 2"x 6" strip of talking heads. I know there's art in it somewhere, but the way the newspaper comic business is failing (heck, the newspaper business PERIOD) is taking a toll on the quality of comic storytellers. It's all gags and small spaces and stuff. There's art in economy, but c'mon, there's a limit to what you can do with a panel the size of your thumb.

But "Zits" totally changed my mind. I mean, it's still small and dinky, but Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman are incredibly talented. I used to only apply this kind of art-talk to Bill Watterson's "Calvin and Hobbes," but seriously, I read one panel that was just beautiful in how it communicated. If I can find it.

Okay, didn't find the one I was looking for, but this one is good too, if only because I connect to it. The art style is that scratchy, textured kinda thing I like a lot. That's a personal preference. But there's definitely a personality to every line, and certainly a reason. The mix between exaggeration (both in the people and their dialogue balloons) and "real life" is almost perfect. There's the cliche kind of interaction between parents and their children, but the freshness comes from the fact that Jerry Scott never forgot what it's like to be 15. Heck, it was only three years ago, and I want to forget. It wasn't that bad, but there's no nostalgia, lemme tell you. And here's the reason why.




I could rant about how high school has invented the term and practice of "academic abuse," but that's another entry. Today, we have to admire Jerry Scott never letting go of all those beautiful, funny, and equally terrible things about compulsory, "lowest-bidder" education.

And look at that linework!

Welcome, friend!

I like writing. I like self-indulgent, let's express my thoughts and my thoughts alone writing. Okay, that sounds egotistical, but if you think about it, that's all journaling is. Only, I don't begin with "Dear Diary..." and, well, you're reading this. And that's a pretty major difference between a blog and a journal.

Also, it would seem that quirky artist/writer types just have blogs. All my Internet heroes have 'em, and even update them. It's a thing, as the kids say.

The first, history-making thought I'd like to express:

I love Mike Mignola. Well, okay, his art. I don't love him, but only because I haven't had to chance to meet the guy. But his art is something else

. According to a Wikipedia entry, his art is a combo of German expressionism and Kirby-esque blocky figures, with masterful application of a bunch of art terms you just sip wine and nod at.

I like it because he draws monsters, and there's something to be said about how he distorts everyone, even the humans. The regular folks in h

is artwork are blocky, odd shaped, have freaky legs and hands. The chicks are still chicks, the dudes are still dudes, but they're freaky lookin'. There's something philosophical about a book of monsters where the humans look just as weird.

By the way, Mike Mignola draws Hellboy. That's the guy up there.

So, yeah, that's my virgin blog post. I know, life changing. But hey, I like Mike Mignola. Sue me.