The Next Obvious Step

4 screens, Butcher Blue French cover stock, May '08

HOLYMOLYFIREBREATHINGTORTOISEWATCHOUTY'ALL!!!
The gradient looks much cooler and hand done (read uneven) and not so, like, CGI looking.

Why HELLO! It has been a while and we have missed you dearly, ever so dearly. DTWA&K apologizes for not posting more often. We have been busy up here in the northland.

Anyhow, May 17th, Killing Phantoms heads over to Williamsburg to pump up the jam. Check it out, y'all.

Also we were given the opportunity to work on the title and thank you for reading pages for Robyn Chapman's Hey, 4-Eyes! #3. If you don't know about Hey 4-Eyes! well, now's clearly the time to check it out - especially if you wear glasses, like glasses, know people who wear glasses or like people who know people who wear or like glasses. And let's be honest, who doesn't.

Check it:




pigma pens, April '08

And what have we been up to lately? Well, we are proud to say we have completed (COMPLETED, FINALLY) Wall City. More on that later - much, much more, dear reader. Also, we've been busy reading a couple of new blogs by a couple of our favorite cartoonists: Extraordinary Comic Professor and Amazing Cartoonist Jason Lutes and Fabulous Cartoonist and Former Great Roommate Rich Tommaso.

Anyhow, we've missed you so dearly, we will not be away for so long, not ever again.

That actually might be a lie, but then them just the breaks, we guess.

Your ever faithful and truthful correspondents from sunny White River Junction,
Drawing Time with Alex & Kim

Comrades!

Let it be known that we are tired of drawing a million televisions. A MILLION TELEVISIONS! Do you know what that's even like?!?! IT'S A MOTHER OF A PAIN, Y'ALL!

ahem

Also, good ol' Killing Phantoms is playing this Saturday. If you're one of the millions of people living in New York, go check 'em out.


3 screens, Steel Blue French Cover Stock, April '08

To bare our internet soul here for a second: something's bothering us about this poster. It's not the bad constructivist rip off hack job we got going here... it's... it's... that damned eye. Or eyes. Both of them. We can't help but wonder if the poster would look better had it been this:


Like, never happened, dude.

Well that's not so great either.

DTWA&K promises to live and learn. Or be harder on our own work. Whichever.

And if y'all are trivia buffs like we're trivia buffs you'll want to know that April 12th, 1961 is the day the Yuri Gagarin made it into space (into space, man. think about it. (thanks wikipedia!)). Or maybe you knew that already.

Yet Another Affair

4 Screens, Butcher Blue French cover stock, March '03

OH DEAR! it's time again for another Hearts and Crafts Affair!

What exactly is that, you ask? Well, like, it's only one of the most awesome craft fairs in brooklyn! Check it out people, cause it's, like, the jam.

More info here.

KAPOW!

Why HELLO there, dear internet,

We have very much missed posting new content on you. We hope you will accept us still, as we are, as we shall be.


4 screens, Steel Blue French cover stock, March '08

TONIGHT! If anyone is lucky enough to be in New York tonight and looking for a good show, we recommend Killing Phantoms, at The Bitter End.

The Eagle Lands!

Hello everybody, we do hope you are swell.

Recently, Kip from Rocksellout.com asked DTWA&K to work on a logo for them to be featured on their Cafepress store. We were most definitely very excited to be asked.

Check'em out y'all, one in color, one in the always engaging white on black background:





Rocksellout.com is a very cool website about music. We recommend it indeed. Also, if you should be interested in any merch: www.cafepress.com/rocksellout2. Wow, we feel like the merch guy at a concert.

Completely unrelated and on a more personal note: sigh...

OKAY OKAY

So, in the spirit of trying to keep this thing updated, we at DTWA&K offer you more Wall City Pages. We realize that it's a pain in the neck to read the pages out of sequence (as in this post is not directly after the previous Wall City post) and are very sorry for that. Well, we guess it's only a pain if you're actually interested, which we sincerely hope you are. Interested, that is. Hopefully Wall City will be completed by the summer... or by the fall.

Anyhow:











The color is something we're still experimenting with... fun stuff, though... playing around with color is quite the enjoyable activity.

{INK SQUIRT}

We're hoping everybody understands that the {} symbols used in the title mean that you're supposed to imagine the sound of an ink squirt.

In other news, huh, we're finding ourselves again a little tongue tied.

Yup... cat's definitely got our touch... yes sir, don't really know what to say for ourselves.

Yup yup yup YUP yup.


4 Screens, Factory Green French Cover Stock, Jan '08

Whelp, hope everybody out there is enjoying life. Live, dammit, LIVE!

Hey, Get Offa Me!

For once in our lives, DTWA&K doesn't know what to say for ourselves.


3 screens, French Steel Gray cover stock, Jan '08

THE END OF THE YEAR IS AN OCTOPUS

Alternate Title 1: BO'07 part 17 - BO'07 IS NOW JUST ABOUT DEAD
Alternate Title 2: GOOD BUY DEAR FRIEND, 2007
Alternate Title 3: BEFORE WE FORGET, HAPPY HOLIDAYS

(It occurs to us that it's a little early to be reflecting on the passing of one year and the approach of a whole new one, but we can't help it)

Whelp, we here at DTWA&K always feel strange this time of year. The year comes to an end, a whole new year lays before us, christmas presents must still be wrapped and sorted, much food awaits to be eaten.... just a grab bag of feelings.

This will most likely be the last post for a while, though maybe it won't... but incase it is, we decided to pull out a drawing from the archives. Here's a drawing from back in the beginning of 2006.



Drawn in early 2006, colored, like, just now.

Several New Year's resolutions: Take out garbage more, not obsess about work so much, stop being so neurotic, stop being pathologically sentimental, stop being a pathological dreamer, value drawing time more AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, bring back the octopus.

Anyhow, we hope everyone's doing well and that everyone enjoys their holidays. We here at DTWA&K are going on break soon and am looking forward to it immensely.

Your always jolly correspondents from White River Junction, Vermont, wishing everyone the best!
-DTWA&K

BLOG OFF '07 IS NOT DEAD, BLOG OFF'07 IS LIFE!

Hey Y'all,

Lordy, Lordy, have we got something to tell you... Seriously, have we got something to TELL YOU. The week here has at DTWA&K HQ has been grim... oh excuse us, we misspoke... the week here has been unbelievably-overwhelmingly-supercalafragalistically-depressing grim. The reasons you ask? Well the reasons are several but not least of which being that people seem to be under the impression that Blog Off '07 is over. OVER??!! It's barely begun! we responded to all who said so, BARELY BEGUN. Or we guess it's almost over, seeing as '07 is almost done with, but, we mean... BO '07 is still going on.

And to prove it, we have the following to show:




















WHAT THE HECK IS ALL OF THAT?

Well, it's our very own personal thesis, we answer! Yup, we've colored some more thesis pages... the ones here are pages 1-9. The color's we aren't very certain of... more playing around for the moment than anything else. Except for the pink. DTWA&K is very serious about the pink.

We also had a crit a week ago and that + looking at the pages after a bit of time, we've determined that a bunch of the panels need to be redrawn. All in due time, we suppose.

Anyhow, hope y'all are doing well. We had a blizzard here... the first snow is always sorta nice but then after that, it's all like, we don't know, depressing and annoying we guess.

Maybe not. Maybe we're wrong about that. Maybe we've lived our lives based on lies and denial. Yup, that's probably it.

OK, well, guess your ever faithful cartooning correspondents from Gleeful White River Junction, VT are signing off!

P.S. GO BLOG OFF '07, GO FORTH AND BLOG!

Oh, and P.P.S. if you'd like to see some more thesis stuff, or bigger stuff I guess, check out our flickr and this.

BANG BANG, You're D.E.A.D.

Morbid, yes we know.

Anyhow, here's a 2-pager written by the extraordinary Jeff Lok and drawn by DTWA&K for the Dead Man's Hand Anthology that debuted at this past SPX. We colored it rather quickly (lazily) for fun (procrastination purposes) but it was printed in black and white in Dead Man's Hand.





Thanks Jeff, you did it again!

In other news, it is snowing in the pit of depression aka WRJ, VT. We're going inside now and not coming out till Spring.

P.S. BANG, CLICK, BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! SHUFFLE SHUFFLE, RUN RUN, DUCK, DODGE, CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK, BAAAAAAANNNGGGG (<--- old western gun fight (sorry)).

Thesis Doth Continueth

Greetings, we here at DTWA&K offer you the following... we eagerly await your acknowledgment.







Last week, the thesis students here at CCS were asked to present our projects (in a 5 minute oral presentation and a set of posters). Above are the 3 posters submitted by DTWA&K.

Your ever faithful correspondents full of self loathing from sunny White River Junction, VT, signing off!

___ + ___ sitting in a tree... K - I - L - L - I - N - G - P - H - A - N - T - O - M - S

Sing it with us, everybody, SING! It'll make your day better, we promise.


3 Screens, French Steel Gray Cover Stock, Nov '07

Exciting, isn't it? Killing Phantoms putting out their first CD together as a band.

Anyhow, hope everyone is doing well out there. We here at DTWA&K are enjoying the first blizzard of the season. It snowed like a foot (OK OK, we're not sure if that counts as a blizzard)! We're also enjoying putting on our thermal underwear for the first time this season. We'll probably won't be taking them off until April '08.

Also, I Know Joe Kimpel is holding an amazingly cool ebay auction. Check out the IKJK blog post here... and check out the ebay auction here. Seriously, check it out right now.

Annnnddd... this is Blog Off entry #6, in case you, dear dear reader, are keeping track.

The ULTIMATE! (BO '07 part 5 + we've got a million dollar idea + we got the ideal holiday gift for all your cartoonist friends + HAPPY THANKSGIVING)

Readers, dear, dear readers,

The excitement here at DTWA&K HQ is almost too much for us. We're crawling out of our skin with excitement - literally crawling.

Let us explain.

Earlier this week we paid a visit to the basement of DTWA&K HQ, the home of our R&D department. Now, the boys in R&D are quite a bunch. They work all the time and come up with millions of ideas. Most of their are misses (like when they thought a small device used to carry around music they called the iped would be popular - oh, those R&D boys) but this week, this week they came up with a home run if we ever saw one. See the concept sketch below.

Though, not so fast.

Maybe we shouldn't be showing this at all, what with the level of corporate espionage going on these days... ahh, what the heck:



A larger size here.

Anyhow, well, we sure hope everyone's doing well out there. Next week is an off week for BO '07 what with the holiday and all. We think it's off at least (right Sven and Chas?). Speaking of holidays, we here at DTWA&K hope everyone's is full of health and happiness. Bring the happy.

Your thankful correspondents from VT, Fitness Gurus Alex & Kim signing off.

Two For One Poster and The Get Ready For the Season Poster (Blog Off part 4 + boy do we feel better)

Greetings Dear Reader! We hope you're feeling healthy and happy out there in the non-cartoon-school-in-Vermont world (we also hope everyone in the cartoon-school-in-Vermont world is feeling great). The nasty germ infestation here at DTWA&K HQ is pretty much gone and we're feeling much better.

Check it! A couple of new posters for your enjoyment:


2 screens, Steel Gray French Cover Stock, Nov '07


4 screens, Steel Blue French Cover Stock, Nov '07

The first poster we did for that always fresh and perky nyc band, Killing Phantoms. They're keeping the rock real and playing two nights in a row! Now that's commitment. We hope y'all will be able to make one of those shows.

The second poster is for the good ol' Hearts and Crafts Affair at Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint. The Hearts and Craft Affair is a craft fair put together by the one and only Miss Kira Birney... we had a table at the last fair this past September and had a great time. A lot of great artists and craftsters participate and I can't think of a better place to pick up some gifts.

You'll also notice these posters are my entry for the on-going-ever-exciting-no-prisoner-taking BO' 07. Check out my fellow participants Sean and Chuck if you can bare all the beauty!

Anyhow, again, we hope y'all are holding in there and being healthy.

FYI: Lysol kills cucarachas (thanks for that bit of info L (and hi!)).

P.S. Lynda Barry was here last week and her workshop was absolutely AMAZING! Seriously, it was great and we can't say enough good stuff about her. I Know Joe Kimpel has a good post about her visit.

Cough - Cough - There's a Nasty Bug Going Around (Blog Off '07 part 3 + we've caught a wicked cold)

Hello Everybody,

We hope you're doing well. As for us, well, DTWA&K HQ has been infected with a nasty throat bug / cold... we feel like being unconscious for about 18 hours straight... which maybe we'll implement as soon as we're done here.

ANYHOW, we've gone ahead and put a hold on what we were planning for BO '07 since we thought it might need a little more preparation and submitting (5) pages from our own personal thesis, colored. Check it below:











So what you see above is basically part 13 of our Thesis. We should note that we're not all the way done with parts 1-13, we started with part 13 since it was something we were relatively happy with. We did get some good critique recently on these pages, so there will be changes made soon. Well, maybe soon.

OK OK OK, we're off to be horizontal somewhere. Hope everyone is well.

Your ever faithful correspondents from WRJ, signing off...

Doing Lines (+ BO '07 part 2 + What the Frick is Going On?)

Pitt Pen, Photoshop CS3, October '07

What in the frick is going on you ask? Well, we would ask you what you mean, cause there are a couple of things going on. Firstly there's BLOG OFF '07 going on - that's right, we're in the midst of the great post off of 2007 our two colleagues Chuck and Sean who are both incredible artists and story-tellers. Or stor-ellers for short. It's just starting and already getting pretty juicy.

I'M SO JUICED as Chuck and Sean would say (in unison (yes, it is a little weird but ok we guess)) if they were here.

As for what else is going on in the drawing above, well we're playing around with colored line art (hence the title of the post, sorry to disappoint you cocaine lovers out there) and we're thinking (not sure mind you) of maybe doing a whole new comic for BO '07 (though I'll have to check out what the BO '07 User's Manual and Mandates have to say about this. We know 2 existing colored comics pages are in, but not sure about new comics pages - we're assuming 1 page is good if it's new and made for BO '07). So stay tuned, dear readers (or dear reader), find out what happens to our heroes... and to us, all of us.

And for more BO '07 fun and to see some good artwork check out what the other participants are up to:

Sean's Website
His 1st entry
His 2nd entry

Chuck's Website
His 1st entry
His 2nd entry... coming soon... (I'm looking at the original art on his desk, like, right now)

and my first entry

Almighty alrighty, we hope everyone (or you, one person who keeps faithfully reading) is staying happy and healthy.

Regarding you in the fondest way possible without it being at all creepy,
DTWA&K -> your loyal correspondents from the northeast

P.S. Chas and Sven wanted to add something. Go ahead guys...

Chas and Sven: I'M SO JUICED!!!!!!!

IN THE SHADOW OF KILLING PHANTOMS (We want elephant boots)

Killing Phantoms is/was at is again y'all, this time at Sidewalk Cafe in NYC.


2 Screens, French Steel Blue cover stock, October '07

We have fond and now (in our old age) fleeting memories of our undergrad years in a particularly grueling academic program going to Sidewalk Cafe at the tail of an all-nighter and sitting there, exhausted and dazed ,watching MTV's 'The Gring' (with the sound turned off) - a very surreal experience indeed.

Whatever happened to 'The Grind' anyways? There was nothing like being totally spaced out and watching people dance.

ADVICE + LINES + MOVIE QUOTES + INSIDE JOKES ---> FOR A YOUNG CARTOONIST WHO MOST DEFINITELY APPRECIATES IT ALL AND THANKS THOSE WHO MAKE HIM LAUGH

Whew, that's a long title.


Pitt Pen, Photoshop CS3, October 2007

Last week the ineffable Joe Lambert asked us to help with a comic for a certain fundraiser The Center for Cartoon Studies held. The above comic was folded and placed inside a very very nifty piece by Mr. Lambert. We should thank him for asking us to participate in such a project.

We are touched J Lam, touched indeed.

KILLING PHANTOMS the ALBUM (drawings of people ducking / cringing / holding themselves)

Dear Everybody,

Hope you are well. We here at DTWA&K are, once again, somewhat excited... AND, surprisingly, we're feeling good about ourselves. We always heard that was nice... turns out it's TRUE! Feeling good about yourself is, well, pretty good. All we ask is that this feeling will last longer than 45 minutes.

Actually, we don't know where we were going with that. Let's move on to bid-ness. Over the summer we had the distinct pleasure of designing the artwork for the distinguished band Killing Phantoms. Great fun, doing the album art we mean. And it was even more fun when the cd's came in the mail today! We wish we had pictures to show, you could see the joyous look on our faces.

Anyhow, here's a look at the artwork below. You'll have to excuse the different size things. We wish we could post everything in their relative size and keep them easy to view, but alas, we cannot at the moment. Which makes us want to mention that hopefully we will be getting a better more professional more improved more a lot of things website soon.

The album is a typical jewel case 6 panel gate fold format.


The 'outside' of the CD booklet thing, the third of the image is the cover.


The 'inside' of the CD booklet thing, lyrics - all the lyrics.


That's Phuong Nguyen, the front man himself. This image is below the clear CD tray, photo by Lauren Bess Berley.


The back of the CD case, the two Killing Phantoms on the side are folded up and appear on the sides of the jewel case.


The CD itself - we've been enjoying wordless CD's lately - just a nice clean image, please... though we suppose it should be noted that it's not that we don't like CD's w/ words on them... it's just that we like them w/o words also.

We've heard Killing Phantoms will be having a CD release party on Dec. 7th at Crash Mansion in NYC. The date is tentative, but them rocking out is not. Check it out.

Anyway, the days are getting darker here, in VT. We mean that literally, today has been one of the darkest days yet. We're diligently preparing ourselves for the coming winter, hope you are too.

Fondest Regards,
Your faithful friends at DTWA&K