not dead, just busy working away.

as i mentioned in my last post i’ve been away from the drafting table on a personal level for the past couple months for a variety of reasons. the main one of which is that i was buying a house. i decided to take that big first step into being an official adult (it’s a facade really) and become a homeowner, especially after all my renting woes of the past few years. it took an inordinate amount of time, and a lot of hunting, but i found what for me is the perfect place. after writing the biggest cheque of my life i made the move on july first weekend and have been slowly unpacking and settling in over the past few weeks. the place feels great – like i’ve lived there for years – despite still having much of my stuff still in boxes. though i hope to rectify this in the weeks to come.

so what about kukuburi?

i’ll be honest there’s been a little more focus on unpacking, catching my breath, and building up my coffers over the past month, but in my spare time i’ve been writing the end of kukuburi chapter one. once i feel happy with what i have i shall begin my doodling endeavour – of which i’m not too far from starting. however – rather than begin updating as soon as i have drawn a couple of pages i am going to wait till i have the majority of the remainder drawn. i’m hoping half. the initial arc of the story is ending and i want to make sure it goes up uninterrupted, so i won’t begin updates till i feel i have a comfortable buffer.

hope y’all can respect that.

that said, when will updates begin? gimme the remainder of the summer to get unpacked, settle in, and do some doodling, and i promise you it’ll be worth the wait…

i’m aiming for the end of august/beginning of september…. i’ll post a more exact return date as the time get closer.

best,

ramon.

ps/ since a few folks requested, below is a wallpaper based on the image of nadia from the last blog post! click on it to make it big and make it your own… desktop that is.

something amazing and awesome has just happened!

but i can’t share quite yet…

it is something that has been eating up far too much time in my life over the past couple years in spurts, and a little more so recently. but things look good and positive.

unfortunately there are some immediate side effects that are going to eat up most of my time over the next few weeks, but after that it should be smooth sailing and life can FINALLY return to normal. well normal for me anyway.

to survive this onslaught on my time, i’ll only be able to update one page a week till the end of the month, but afterwards we’ll be back to twice weekly. i’ll share the full details of things next week if i can!

thank you all for your patience over the past few months.

r.

this week was a frenetic blur – i really don’t know where the time went.

i am currently working on page 166 and will post it as soon as i can – i hope in the next day. i will also, for the sake of my sanity be moving the kukuburi update days for now to thursday and fridays.

a little update;

my scanner is still, essentially, broken so if any artist’s could recommend a good large format scanner that tackles both colour and b&w well it would be appreciated. to survive i am scanning pages in pieces and assembling in photoshop. joy!

new home search still continues! yesterday i spent a fun three hours looking at different places – and that was, comparatively, a short day! i can’t wait to find a place and be able to devote that time to working on kuku and bns again. hell, this week alone i think i spent a good tallied 24hrs looking at potential places…

alright studio is overheating,  time to escape for a late late lunch and then look at more home potentials!!

ps/ for those who might be interested, some photos from TCAF 2010!

…and as promised.

i saw a few people comment to their surprise about the scanner price. once you move up into large format professional scanners – they ain’t cheap, they’re dealing to a small market, so the prices are high. my original one cost me $1500… but it gave me many good years. well worth the price :)

so, yeah, looks like no rest for poor nadia… but i think she’s getting closer to resolving a few things…

[ UPDATE / MAY 25TH]

howdy all! working away on kukuburi – but have to rush out for some apartment viewings…. will wrap things up and post once i return!

hey everybody!

thank you all for your patience – it’s great to be back. everytime i have to pause kuku i feel a little pang inside. april and may seemed to be months of never ending chaos. some good, some meh.

the good; two outstanding shows that i had a great time at. thank you all that swung by and said hello at either chicago’s C2E2 or toronto’s very own TCAF. as well, for those interested, next week the dazzler special that i was asked to work on is hitting the shelves at your local comic book retailer!

the meh; getting sick twice within one month! going crazy searching endlessly for hours on end for a new home… but hopefully it all comes together.

oh, and then my scanner went kaput after 8 years of quality service. so now i either figure out if i can fix it (i need a new bulb i think) or i come up with an extra $2000 and buy a new one!

whew.

but yes, good to be back despite the hecklers in the crowd.

things seem to be a little quiet for nadia post flaming head and mr.bones going boom… or so it seems :)

tomorrow’s page will go up later due to the domino effect, but next week things’ll be back on track.

a day late and a dollar short.

this week only sees one new page of kukuburi going up, there was a bit of a flu going around the studio, and that combined with my workload, made time a commodity this week. however i will try and make up the difference next week.

speaking of workload, an interesting little opportunity dropped into my lap. i am doing 10 pages as part of a dazzler special for marvel comics over the next month! i rarely get the opportunity to work with the great folks at marvel, so when this fell into my lap i jumped on it! it may affect kukuburi updates a little over the coming weeks, but i’ll try my best to keep things rolling.

at top of everything april also sees me attending the chicago comics & entertainment expo (c2e2) from the 16th to the 18th at mccormick place. i will be sharing table space in artist’s alley with fellow tx’ers cameron stewart and scott hepburn. we will be located in row H tables 11 & 12. there will be sketching and a variety of swag – swing on by if you can!

cheers.

thank you for all the great comments over the last few pages! i’m really happy everybody is enjoying the story with it’s twists and turns thus far! i will try and go through all the comments individually when i get a free moment and answer any pertinent queries…

now, yesterday i mentioned that i would be attending the toronto wizard world show this weekend. that is still  the case, but i most likely will be showing up late friday due to work and quite possibly cutting sunday short. i’ll be playing it by ear as my workload is quite heavy. i will be posting my attendance on my twitter if you want up-to-the-minute updates!

UPDATE: i will not be attending the toronto wizard world on sunday march the 28th.

pop goes the weasel!

(this weekend sees me at the new wizard world toronto – swing on by if you’re in the neighbourhood!)

so ends this weeks fun!

this scene was an interesting one for me, s it had been in the back of my mind for a while, but i had often pictured it further along in the story . sometimes though i find the characters will take me on a different path than i had envisioned. it’s like they’re telling me their story.

this week also sees a couple additions to the FAN ART GALLERY by Stephen Wallace and Nicholas Myers. if you have a moment and the inkling feel free to share your vision of the kukuburi universe!

till next week my friends…

UPDATE / March 23rd: this week’s kukuburi pages are inked and ready to be coloured, unfortunately i have to go teach. tomorrow morning starts off with a couple of meetings but i should have this week’s update up by tomorrow evening. till then!