Dissect My Brain TEST STRIP #5: "We're Not Cool At All."

This comic features two of my friends: Terence and Chris. Writing a conversation between Terence and I was pretty easy, as our conversations tend to be long winded and extremely geeky. Including our friend Chris, the three of us are a big fans of Star Wars, and so this strip couldn't end without talking about the original trilogy in some way. The beginning mostly had to do with music. To this day, I think I do have a grasp of what true emo is and what is the mainstreams idea of "emo," but I still have no clue what a hipster is.

The first half was re-edited for Dissect My Brain's Union Weekly run. [You can check it out here!] Both Terence and I are a big fans of Kevin Smith, and I'd like to think this strip was done in a similar vein. I was particularly fond of the first three panels. I feel they could stand alone as a "three panel" piece. It's my first time using the "sensitive, crying Kevin face" gag, which has re-emerged in another strip.

Dissect My Brain TEST STRIP #4: "Play Boarman!"

I feel this one is the most inside joke-y. I think you really need the context of my friendship with DJ Watts, who hails himself as a "troll" and likes to pronounce my last name incorrectly as "Nug." This one took place when a good group of my friends and I would hang out in Long Beach at a coffee house called Cup of Jo. I would perform these sets, and DJ Watts really wanted me to play a non-existant song called "Boarman." The namesake of the song refers to a comic that I was working on at the time.

So, in other words, if you didn't get this one, don't feel bad. On the third panel is a bunch of characters that have populated the comic: (from top to bottom) Kasatka, DJ, Plummer, Parmesan, Blaine, Solar, Kevin Lin, Gretchen, and Jenny.

Dissect My Brain TEST STRIP #3: "Barely Living."

While I would say panel composition wise, I might have messed this strip around the third or fourth panel, this was one of the comics I had the most fun doing. I'm not sure if it's accessible at all. I'd like to think everyone that has been to college has experienced having to deal with a horde of nerd zombies. By no means am I saying that I'm above being nerdy. I just wanted to capture the social awkwardness in an over-exaggerated manner.

The original line on panel two, on the farmost right was meant to read: "Wolverine could never lose The Hulk." While I feel that Wolverine is overrated for fan of the 90's X-Men Animated series, I think the contemporary line of "I love Spider-Man one more day" felt more relevant at the time. I'm not sure as I think both lines equally bother me. Again, nothing wrong with being nerdy; I'm just not a fan of rude people. Usually nerdy guys turn up the jackassery if there is a cute girl around.

A somewhat interesting tidbit to note is that "HORNY!" was one line I said in a home movie in which I played a zombie. Lastly, I think "How did we survive that sea of black shirts?" is one of my personal favorite lines. Let's face it: most heavy metal fans are not as tough as they would like to make themselves out to be.

Dissect My Brain TEST STRIP #2: "You Are What You Smell."

I know for sure I've talked this one to death. This is the very first official Dissect My Brain strip. It has Blaine as the subject matter. This particular gag of smelling someone was actually a joke I started with someone else. I remember doing this one day with Blaine, and I joked after about how this would make for a good comic. Hopefully I did the idea justice.

Originally, Blaine's first line was supposed to read: "Blaine Jarnagin's always with hot bitches." This was edited at his request. I didn't mind as it was sort of a "throw-away" line anyways. Blaine doesn't really talk like that, and when he does, it's usually when he's impersonating someone else. I don't like it when character don't sound accurate, which is something I will definitely be talking about in a later commentary.

Dissect My Brain TEST STRIP #1: "So, I Heard You're Doing a Comic."

While chronologically, this is the second Dissect My Brain strip ever produced, it deserves to be put first as it sets the tone perfectly for the comic. At this stage, the art still resembles Clockwork. Usually when you draw a character for the very first time, it comes off very awkward. The Christopher "Kasatka" Nguyen faces in this comic do not necessarily all match from panel to panel. I distinctly remember enjoying drawing him, and it's fun to note that his face is very similar Knives' from Scott Pilgrim; they typically always got a goofy grin.

It may seem like I'm picking on Kasatka, but truthfully, this particular strip could have easily been about anyone. I actually revisit this same idea in a later comic.

Pre-historic Brain Cells

I've been asked before if "Clockwork" is part of the Dissect My Brain canon. I'm not sure how to answer that. I mean, yes, it was an autobiographical comic done by me, but it predates any sense of Dissect My Brain's conception. Like a lot of artists before me, it is embarrassing to look at old work. I'm pretty sure a year from now, Dissect My Brain will be too ugly to look at.

However, I think it's important to look retrospectively and see where you've come from sometimes. I remember buying a trade paperback of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire in my early teenhood. In the back of the book were sketches done in crayon, and on lined paper. They were done by the actual artist of the comic. In that regard, I want you to consider the following as my "crayon and lined paper" sketches; pre-historic brain cells, if you will. [I wish I did have some old drawings on lined paper to show, but those were probably all lost in the fire that happened a few months back at my house.]

I also hope that for the people reading this for the first time that aren't familiar with Dissect My Brain come to realize that this is hardly indicative of what my art looks like now, and that some of these were noticeably without shades of gray or color.

"(Unititled Webcomic featuring Nova Zero)"

I believe this is the earliest on this gallery. This was around 2005, in which I wrote and drew a webcomic that I am too embarrassed to name here. I was more of a moderator. The interesting concept behind the webcomic was that I had a message board of people tell me what they wanted to see in the comic. The result was arduous, draining, and kind of static as everybody wanted their idea to be prominently displayed.

"For Rent by the Hour."

Actually, I retract my last statement. This is probably the earliest entry on the list and probably dates to 2003. The fact that it co-stars a friend that I had a falling out with should say something about it. I don't know why the characters are so thin. Even if it was the scanner's fault, I easily could have stretched the damn thing on photoshop. Again, this is really hard to look at.

"FAT."

This was definitely done early in my college years. I would guess circa late-2005. If you know how my friend James looks like, he looks nothing like that. I also never had my hair that poofy. However, it was a comic in which we were supposed to be making fun of Fat Joe, and that is supposed to be a local pizza joint named Deli News. I have no clue why I didn't want to use real names.

"The Boarman."

This can be easily identified as a Boarman comic from late 2007. I wish I still had my "Golden Age Boarman" stuff lying around, because those are a lot of fun to look at. The Boarman storyline I was going for was going to be reminiscent of Apocalypse Now and Metal Gear Solid 3. It was going to involve mental regression into savagery after years of combat. As you can see, it would have deceptively looked nothing like a superhero-book, and if you just saw this page, it certainly doesn't evoke any sort of images you would associate with "Boarman."

"Clockwork."

Clockwork was done in the middle of 2008. There's not much to say about this that hasn't been said before. I don't feel like the art holds up, but that's just me. This is the closest thing to Dissect My Brain on this list. If you really want to know more about it, I wrote extensively on it on my other blog.

"CHINA SMOKE."

Last piece on this was a comic I was planning to do for the band, CHINA SMOKE. This was done in 2009.I had plenty of ideas for it, but I wasn't sure what they thought would be good, so I sorta just got lazy and never completed it. I wanted to do it where they were battling some stuck-up artsy-fartsy dudes, but again, I was never too sure where I was going with it. The band eventually broke up, and this comic was ultimately shelved.

And So This Officially Opens!

Yes, folks, chances are if you are reading this page, you one of the few that are somewhat familiar with the comic, Dissect My Brain. If you are not, then let me give you a crash course.

My name is Kevin Ng. As of today, I am 23 years old. My favorite writers are Neil Gaiman, Raymond Carver, and David Foster Wallace. I am a local musician in Southern California, with my most notable and somewhat successful project being the alternative rock group, Bootlegs of the Untitled Band. Like anything else in life, contradictions are amuck; I've been told by many people that I am a lot "cooler" than I let on, while also being a lot "dorkier" than I let on.

Perception is one of the freedoms all humans have in life, and as such, you are free to believe whatever you want.

By this point, you're probably wondering: "So, where does the comic come in?" The truth is that I like to fancy myself as a "Renaissance man" of sorts. This means that I aspire to be a "jack of all trades" On top of music, I've dabbled in writing, directing, painting, sculpting, acting, and everything else under the sun. While I'd imagine some people would think this is pretty "cool," it really is not as this just means I have too much free time on my hands.

As such, Dissect My Brain combines two aspects of my life: [1] my love for comic books, and [2] my desire to write non-fiction, despite being absolutely terrible at writing it in a narritive form. If you haven't figured it out, Dissect My Brain is a psuedo-autobiographical comic. Some liberties were taken, but overall, what you see is what happened. It may not always make for the most "perfect" story, but the beauty of life is that it's not perfect. Life is organic and devoid of cliches; our protagonist is not always the most perfect person, and it's sometimes his or her own damn fault that there isn't a happy ending.

It's mentioned in one of my strips that I started this comic as a joke. This is true. I'm trying to get better with time, but I'll be the first to admit that my art skills are not the best. With people constantly telling me that I should draw them, I decided to draw the one guy who I knew for sure wouldn't be disappointed with the end result: myself. And so this comic was born.

So yes, I hope you enjoy! I understand autobiographical comics can be self-indulgent and boring. And y'know what? Even after reading a couple of strips, you'll probably still think autobiographical comics are self-indulgent and boring. But for those of you who will stick around for the ride and willing to give this humble comic a chance, I want to say "thank you." For those of you that don't, I do sincerely hope you have a wonderful day.

Sunshine, Flowers, & Good Feelings,
Kevin Ng

Here's some other things to consider, if you have too much free time on your hands:
Moon Jelly Stings. (The "regular" blog.)
Secret Bootlegs. (Youtube Channel.)