Adventures in Space!

Comet skiing is all the rage in space. If you're wondering how Ulf and Sam get around, their backpacks double as an air tank and a jet pack. And if you're wondering how the alien is breathing, well, that's technology I don't quite understand. Remember, to him you're the alien.

Alternative story:
Ulf: "We're in space!"
Sam: "Yay!"
Ulf: "And it only cost a bazillion dollars!"
Sam: "Boo!"
Ulf: "What should be do?"
Sam: "I dunno."
Narrator: And that was the end of their space adventures!

This will not be the last of their space adventures, however, so tune in next time for "Ulf and Sam's Adventures in Space!"

Learning is Hard!

Anything worth doing is worth doing well, as my Tiger Mom says, and you can't truly appreciate something until you are really good at it. This isn't entirely true. I'm enjoying futzing around on these comic strips, although my Tiger Mom would be ashamed if she knew that I spend time working on cartoons.

I have this dysfunction. I decide I like something, try it for myself, get frustrated that I'm not very good at it, then give up. Around and around it goes. Practice makes perfect, but until perfection practice is tedious. This is where I fall off the band wagon. Playing a few simple songs on guitar is fun at first, but then I despair because I'm not at the level I wish I was at. I know in my head with enough practice I could be good, but run into trouble trying to get motivated enough to make it happen. This is probably why teachers make their students play in recitals, to set a clear and concise goal to work toward. 

Mr. Bear shares my shortcoming. He's tried a lot of things but gave up before he was any good at them. Don't even get him started on sports. One thing he has become in expert in is how to use the remote control.

Sam Goes To Canada

I have a bad habit of letting my wander. Sometimes this causes me to forget things, like taking the right exit off of the highway, or putting a check mark on that document at work. I occasionally wonder if I should ask a doctor to prescribe Adderall (the ADD drug that's supposed to help you focus) for me except: 1. He probably wouldn't and 2. It's not worth the side effects. Maybe I should try those supplements that are supposed to...what was I saying again? Sorry, lost my train of thought.

Oh Canada, nothing personifies you like maple syrup, moose, beavers, hockey, and snow...lots of snow. For a further in depth analysis on Canada click here. 

If you're wondering how Ulf and Sam are communicating, they're each wearing a teeny tiny headset underneath all that fur. Their phone service? Furizon.

Sam might be a little chilly in all that snow. Mr. Beaver, would you mind letting him borrow your hat? I don't think sloths were meant for that cold of an environment.

In other news, I made this comic with a free demo of Manga Studio. Nedroid said he uses it, so I'm giving it a try. I found a tutorial on youtube, so I kind of know how it works now, although trying to watch a video and use the program at the same time was a bit of a challege. I think it came out better than the MS Paint strip. Maybe not great, but better. Plus, it's easier to use. I told myself that if I actually keep doing this I'll look into buying it so I can do things like use the "Save As" command. Also, a tablet would be nice.

Ulf and Sam's Fun Cartoon Adventures!!!

My first actual comic strip! Based on true events. I have this bad habit of being indecisive. Whenever my wife asks me something like, "So where do you want to eat tonight?" the answer is usually "I dunno...where do you want to eat?" And around it goes.

I found out several years ago there's a personality type called "phlegmatic", meaning I'm more of a go-with-the-flow kind of guy. They didn't discuss treatment options with me, however.

Also, if you're wondering why the grass in frame three is different from the rest, it's because that picture of Sam was taken later in the day. Ulf's eye patch tends to wander around when it gets bored and his mouth sometimes gets darker when he frowns. It's important to know these things.

Playing with formats...so limited

I am at a serious disadvantage with this whole "I don't know how to do anything" crap. I made the original picture in Microsoft Paint, opened it up in Microsoft Word, copied it three times, added borders and sized it, made a screen shot and copied it back into MS Paint, cropped the image from the rest of the screen shot, then added text boxes. This seems like a lot of unnecessary work. Oh, in MS Paint, after you write something in a text box you can't go back into it later. It either has to be undone or erased.

It was still kind of fun, though. I'll have to make due with this kind of format until I get better at something else. I've got a demo of Manga I've been playing around with a little, and I downloaded a free program called Inkscape. I've also considered scanning images from a sketchbook. 

Hopefully I'll keep getting better at this.

Introduction

An original comic strip with not so original ideas 

Hello!

I'm an average joe schmo with a fondness for comic strips, so I've decided to make one! Or attempt it anyway. Unfortunately, my artistic skills are, amateur, to put it nicely. MS Paint is about the only art related program I know how to use. While I'd love to learn, the price of classes and software is more than I can afford. But I decided, why let that stop me? After all, Charles Schulz was once told he was a terrible artist (I don't have a source, I think I read it in an inspirational quote book somewhere).

I hope to use this as an outlet to grow, learn, and have fun. Although my dream job is to work at Pixar, I don't think this will develop into anything more than a hobby. With any luck I'll learn to draw and someday figure out how to use awesome graphics software and put out high quality, hilarious, thought provoking lovable comics. For now, MS Paint is my friend.

The plan is to post some comics which I hope, at the very least, will make you smile inwardly. We shall see what develops.

-Ulf (which is also the name of my unoriginal wolf up there)