Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 10: "A Rose for Emily."

Throughout this whole season, I've been trying hard to have cohesive, overarching stories and themes. The first arc saw the Kevin character got angry at a critic, went on to try to solve his frustations by talking to a friend, and ultimately, took up drinking and went on poor dates. It was flowing well, but then I followed it up with a random strip about a punchline starting a joke. From there on out, there was a bunch of random strips. I will say these past four strips were connected from real life experience for the month of October, and I'm hoping they read well when placed one after the next. (The last one was inspired and drawn during a terrible week, that even the quality alone exemplified where my mind was at.)

This week's Dissect My Brain is another one of those ones that was based mostly on a real life experience. Kasatka and I had went to see The Man With the Iron Fists (which is just "okay," probably the worst film I've seen all year, and not worth the trip to the theater), and the concessions lady was super nice to me. The rest played out as you see it. Pretty much here were two guys talkin' about "swag" and getting girls, but they were dateless and watching a film where scantily clad girls were rampant on the big screen.

Of course, Hooker Fighter: Reloaded is not a real movie, but a nice little nod to my bud, Calvin's comic of the same name.

I suppose the last thing to note is that it is strange that I drew my friend Kasatka, who is Vietnamese, on an issue of the Union Weekly that was centered about pho. It was purely coincidental!

NOTE: The version you see on the blog is a re-edit of the strip. Originally, it said "deck out" and not "punch out." I've heard people say "deck out" when talking about punching someone out, but apparently it's not correct according to a friend and the internet.

This week's shirt is of "The Alpha Snail." It's actually my own shirt for my old band,
Bootlegs of the Untitled Band. We had a song called "The Alpha Snail," where the most memorable lyric was: "I will not die by your salt."

I actually just gave away my very last one of these to fellow Union Weekly cartoonist, Irene.
(You can see her work at the official Union Weekly Comics Page and HUBY.)

While the art is really old and outdated, I still think it's a cool shirt.
I've been meaning to dye mines a nice, snail green.
My friend Pat always jokes that it's a knock-off of the Daniel Johnston shirt.

I leave you with this photo of Patrick, myself, and two girls
who I don't really speak much to these days.

But man: snailmania was running (err, "slithering?") wild those days!
And yes, I had short hair and an evil beard at one point.

Original Publication: November 12, 2012.

Union Weekly Vol. 71: Issue #12

Dissect My Brain in HUBY Zine #2: "The Other Guy."

Dissect My Brain rolls along with its second installment in HUBY. I really like this strip. Most people I've shown it around to before I finished it really like the way I drew the creeper. I tried to make him look like Michael Cera. Of course, I gave him that stereotypical villain moustache just to punctuate: this guy is up to no good. (Strangely enough, I think that moustache has become a fashion trend.)

While I really like this strip, I do think the whole jealousy angle is a familiar trope. I'm not really saying anything new with this one. . . I'm just saying it in the "Kevin Ng" kind of way. The whole joke of "reliable, admirable, lovable" is a re-worded joke from the show, Red Dwarf. I tried really hard to come up with something of my own, and no matter what: this was the joke that needed to be in this strip. It's not exactly the same as the joke from the show, but it's close enough.

The shirt in this strip is of "Fuzz Aldrin," which you can get at the Ex-Boyfriend shop.
I was flattered that the owner is a fan of the comic as well as my lo-budget short film,
"Who's Gotta Door, Bro."

Of course, I am a big fan of theirs, and would've never expected them to be a fan of mine.

Original Publication: November 10, 2012

HUBY Zine: Issue #2

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 9: "Long Winded Cowboy Speeches."

I'm not going to lie: producing a weekly comic is hard. Even after taking a week off from doing Dissect My Brain to focus on an essay, I didn't have the energy to do a full strip all the way through. I was also producing a HUBY strip simultaneously (which turned out better), and also got stuck at a party the night before. (I ended up doing this strip in one night from 12 AM to 5 AM.) And so, what you see before you was a struggle. I don't think it turned out too well. I have no clue why the first panel looks so blurry compared to the the rest of the comic. On the third panel, the other character (Plummer) looks like a blurry ghost.

As for the writing, I like this one. There's not much of a punchline, but I think the joke is sort of subtle. Prior to doing this one, I had gone through some shit, and decided to do a strip that reflects that. I've always liked it when characters give these long-winded, out of place speeches. They're such a cliche that I dare say it's a classic.

The line: "The best happened during the worst of the time, and the worst during the best" is this comic's moral. The idea that anything can can easily empower someone with optimism, as well as fill them with paranoia.

It's the Brodie shirt from Mallrats. I used to own one, but it ended up torn after years of love. Apparently it's the face of rejected actors who tried for the part of Brodie, and they were mashed up to make up this blurry face.

Original Publication: November 6, 2012.

Union Weekly Vol. 71: Issue #11

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 8: "Dissect My Brain with Zombies."

QUICK! If you haven't read the original Dissect My Brain with Zombies, read it here! It actually has absolutely nothing to do with this new one, but I just want to put over my bud Calvin since he is a phenomenal artist. He does his own comics with the most prominent series being Hooker Fighter: Reloaded. Off the premise alone, the comic is an acquired taste that is much akin to exploitation films, but I personally think he does great work. The comic has a hilarious gag each page, and is an absolute fun read.

Anywhoo, this isn't the "talk up Calvin" blog, but the Dissect My Brain blog! What can I say about this one? It's honestly one of my favorite one's of the third season thus far, if solely that I liked how much jokes I could cram into four panels. I felt I had a great amount of momentum in my work with each one hitting it out of the park, and then I put out the clips show one. However, I think it's safe to say I recovered as last week's comic was great, and this week's was just as good.

The title of the comic itself is self explanatory. They've done Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, so why not Dissect My Brain with Zombies? The comic hasn't changed one bit. It's still the fictionalized Kevin character being mopey about life, and there just happens to be a zombie in it.

I honestly don't get the zombie craze. . . at all. This isn't to say I don't like various zombie media. I like the George Romero films, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, The Walking Dead comic, etc. etc. I just don't understand why it's a thing, and why people are so in love with the idea of a zombie apocalypse. I guess we're just that bored with ourselves as a society, that a crisis just seems romantic. Who knows? If anyone can explain why there's just so much love for the concept, I would love to have lunch sometime.

So my mom (who is very religious) strangely got me this Ouija board shirt. I don't particularly believe in them, but then again, I've never tried. My mom apparently did, and swears that it spelled out the name of my dad when she asked it who she would marry. Of course, my assumption is that she had spent her whole life looking for an "Arthur." Either way, it's a weird story, these things are supposedly "demonic," and I've a shirt of one.

Original Publication: October 22, 2012.
Union Weekly Vol. 71: Issue #9

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 7: "Michael Cera is Just an Actor."

Another week, another Dissect My Brain. I feel that recently I've been putting out a lot of negative strips. This was a conscious decision to do something a bit more lighthearted. Lo and behold, I kind of felt this one was a bit challenging to do.

This was one of those strips that I did based of a real conversation with a friend and fellow local musician, Ann Louise. (You can check out her official facebook fan page for her music here.) We had celebrated a birthday the week before, which led to this conversation. In retrospect, she probably wasn't drunk, but it was fun to tease her. I thought I was going to be smooth by putting all these words into her mouth that didn't exist.

Anyone that's ever met her knows she's has a very expressive face. I hope I successfully captured that while drawing her.

Here's an awkwardly shot video by my awesome friend Michael Yip. It's Ann Louise and I performing one of my songs. If you really can't figure out who is who, then I guess I fail miserably as an artist. . . or it means you have poor eyesight, and you should really get your eyes checked:

Original Publication: October 15, 2012.
Union Weekly Vol. 71: Issue #8

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 6: "Lazy Brain Clips Show."

It was my birthday week going in. I was overwhelmed with everything and just threw this together. That's pretty much it. Shortest commentary ever?

I feel sorry for anyone who was seriously expecting tits and explosions the next week. Perhaps one day I'll do a comic that has just that. . . someday.

Oh, and did anyone catch the Shakabacca cameo? For those of you who don't know, Shakabacca was this lazy Union Weekly comic that starred a surfing Chewbacca. It was the same art every time, and the punchline was typically "FUUUUUUUUU~!" I never thought it was ever good, but it's a pretty well beloved strip amongst the other Union Weekly staffers.

Here's some links to some Shakabacca:
The "dubstep" one.
This entire issue of Union Weekly had nothing but Shakabacca strips.

I remember the one time I went to a Union Weekly meeting, I badmouthed Shakabacca and one of the guys at the offices got super defensive about it.

No shirt of the week this week.

Original Publication: October 8, 2012.
Union Weekly Vol. 71: Issue #7

Dissect My Brain in HUBY Zine #1: "Lo-Fidelity."

Dissect My Brain in a new home? Crazy talk! Nobody wants to publish this shit.

On the real, a big thanks to Patches and Kento for putting this in their DIY zine, HUBY. (I could tell you their real names, but I'm not sure if they'd want me to.) I know this sounds weird coming from a guy who pretty much puts all of his strips on the internet, but I am still a firm supporter of the printed word. I like this ethic: "You don't want to read a physical magazine. Well, it's your loss." There's just so much love and dedication that goes to such a project, and I feel it appeals to the hardcore of the hardcore. It's really hard for me not to applaud it.

But anywhoo, on to the strip. The title is a reference to lo-fidelity music, but directly to High Fidelity. It's a great Nick Hornsby novel, but I think it's better known as that John Cusack/Jack Black movie about girls and music compatibility. A scene similar to this sorta happens in the movie.

This features one of my best friends: Chris "Kasatka" Nguyen. He is an easy character to write, and it seems that any time I do, people receive it very well. (SEE "I Heard You're Doing a Comic" and "The Ballad of Christopher John Nguyen.") He has a very distinct personality in real life, and I feel I'm able to bring this to life in this comic. I'll admit that it's a bit more controlled in the realm of fiction, but this is more or less how he acts in real life.

I wasn't sure what to put in this coffee house, so I decided to just whip together two odd paintings. One is of a cat with freaky eyes, with words floating over it saying "Always watching." The other is a knock off of the Dos Equis guy. I made the tip jar to be lovingly adorn with a smiley face, and filled with a lot of cash.

As for the girl in this strip? She's an amalgamation of various singer-songwriters I've met in my life. A lot of my friends commented on her ridiculous tiny hat, to which I'm pretty sure I saw Zooey Deschanel wore once in some movie. I've met so many songwriters (not just females, mind you) where I was super jazzed to meet them after hearing a set, and they just thought I was some weird freaky dude trying to rob them or something. I guess sometimes the connection just isn't there. I've also seen many of guys fall head over heels for "folk girls" because of lyrics or what-have-you, only to find out that she's either taken or has some other dude in mind. Nobody likes a fanboy, I guess?

. . . Folk girls are still hot though.

Shirt of the Week:

It's the "Empty Hearts" shirt from the game, Catherine. I'm a big fan of Atlus games!
If you were a nerd like me and bought the deluxe edition of the game, you got this shirt.

Sadly, it doesn't go for cheap anymore.

Original Publication: October 3, 2012
HUBY Zine: Issue #1

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 5: "Birthday Pizza."

For those of you that don't know, I actually launched Dissect My Brain two years ago on my 23rd birthday. As such, I felt it was only fitting that the two year anniversary strip have to do with birthdays.

I don't remember exactly which year it was, but one time, my best friend Pat came over to my house to celebrate his birthday. I live near CSUDH (Cal State University of Dominguez Hills), and he wanted to shoot a music video for his band at the time. While waiting, my dad comes by. Once he found out that it was Pat's birthday, he was insistant that I buy him pizza . . . but was pretty specific that it be Little Caesar's. I don't know if it was his intent or not, but ever since, we always joke that "birthday pizza" means buying someone the shittiest and most cheap pizza for someone.

I actually don't think Little Caesar's is that bad considering it's $5 (you get what you pay for!), but definitely it's better when it's fresh. You can tell when one's been sitting around too long.

Last point, I want to make is that facebook really has made people super lazy when it comes to things, and birthdays is one of those notable things. I'll never forget remembering my friend being so upset one year that nobody remembered his birthday. I tell him that it's because he didn't have a facebook. The next year, he makes one and he was upset that so many people remembered his birthday. It just came off as fake to him.

I was always intrigued by this, and decided it was worth making a strip out of. . . except this time, I'd be the guy bummed about it.

Shirt of the week: It's Death as drawn by Chris Bachalo from Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. Just look at the Season One shirts feature to get back up to speed. It's sadly out of print, so it's pretty hard to come by. I wasn't quite satisfied how I drew it in this strip, as I've drawn it better in a previous strip. It's a just a bit wonky looking here.

Original Publication: October 1, 2012.
Union Weekly Vol. 71: Issue #6

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 4: "Punchline Starts the Joke."

So I can't really take full credit on this. This is definitely meta-humor as my brother was the one who came up with the concept. I drew this one as a birthday gift for him as he is the other character in this strip. He's born back in August, but I held off on sending it to the Union Weekly being as the strips prior to this one all seemed to flow from one to another. My brother and I both got haircuts after I had finished this one, and so we actually do not have the hairstyles seen here.

This wasn't a conscious decision, but this is sorta a video game-y reference strip. The phrase "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties" is actually the title of what is considered to be one of the worst video games of all time. There really isn't a joke leading to this punchline. I just thought the phrase was so weird that I thought it'd make for something that would pique people's interest, and at the same time would be unsolvable to its meaning. (For more on "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties," I highly recommend watching the Angry Video Game Nerd's review on it. It's so ridiculous, that it must be seen.)

In panel two, I gave the characters these really exaggerated laughing poses that I just took out of fighting games. Nobody laughs like that in real life. . . I think.

Shirts of the week: (There are two!)

These two are shirts from woot.com, which are respectively titled:
"Listening to Who" and "Slow and Steady."

My brother is a big fan of the site and always buys their stuff.

Original Publication: September 24, 2012.

Union Weekly Vol. 71: Issue #5

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 3: "Nobody Does It Quite Like You."

I understand that this is super late, and I also understand that this strip is actually super old!

Yes, friends, the strip you see before you as the third episode of Dissect My Brain's climactic third season was originally slated as the finale of Season Two. It didn't get printed because of some miscommunications between myself and the Union Weekly comics editor. It all worked out though because this strip fits well with the previous two episodes of the season.

Now, what can I possibly say about this? Well, for starters, I was afraid that people were going to read into this comic and think I'm misogynistic. By no means is this the point of this strip. I've actually taken dialogue from people who've shown romantic interest in me, and just compiled it into one strip. This is not an attack on gender, but rather case studies. I want to make one thing perfectly clear: there are plenty of outstanding women in my life that I am extremely grateful for. . . some of which I've made strips of!

I will say this: the look of these girls are purely fictitious. Girl #1's dialogue is actually the one that offends me the most. The real life girl it was based on had a thing for Asian guys, and so I gave her a neckless with the kanji "愛" ("ai," which means "love"). Girl #2 is the classic case of "if you constantly say you're one thing, chances are you are not." People have asked me if it was based off of Oak Street Blues bandmate, Desiree, to which I can confirm here that it is not.

Girl #3 has such a cool design that I think she deserves her own series. It just may happen. As for for her dialogue? I kind of feel bad about this one. I mean, there are plenty of people (most of whom are musicians) that claim "music is my life," but for some reason it just seems like such a clichéd phrase at times. It's almost as clichéd as people who say: "I like all kinds of music, except country."

Last note: my lovely editor Kaetlyn tells me the beer bottles look too much like ketchup bottles. That is all.

Shirt of the week:

It's a Modest Mouse shirt from Glacial Pace. They're my absolute favorite band!
You can get this shirt at the official Glacial Pace website,
which is Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock's record label.

Original Publication: September 18, 2012.
Union Weekly Vol. 71. Issue #4.

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 2: "Maybe Partying Will Help."

So after the last comic strip, I thought it would've been great to follow it up with another strip where the Kevin character assaults something that's bothering him about modern society. However, I felt as a part of the current Union Weekly line-up with a new editor-in-chief and comics editor, I didn't want this strip to come off as a one-trick pony. As such, I nixed the idea and went on to the next logical story, which I'm hoping transitions from the last strip in a natural fashion. I'd hate for people to think of this comic as being self-indulgent, and Kevin is an almighty, "Mary Sue" character. As I've done in the past, I decided to do a strip in which the character seems vulnerable, weak, and hypocritical because I feel that it's honestly a part of what makes people seem human and real.

Not much to say about this one as it really speaks for itself. We can be the great kind of people that everyone wishes to be, but I feel that society is more complacent with just being lazy. Being loving, sincere, and living each day like it's the last is a lot more work that it sounds. The only complaint I have with this strip is the very last panel. While it looks cool as I finally got around to messing around with digital screentones, I'm not sure if it's very clear that the character is drinking alone and by himself. Hell, the bottle of Southern Comfort doesn't even look open! I really could've drawn that panel better, but what's done is done.

I've been using the "I'm a writer, not an illustrator" excuse for years, haven't I?

Shirt of the week:

It's a shirt of the Orange County punk band, Tough Stuff.
If you like great music and/or want to get this shirt, you can get in touch with them on facebook here.

I highly recommend "Beware" EP, which you can get at their official bandcamp.

Original Publication: September 10, 2012

Union Weekly Vol. 71. Issue #3.

Dissect My Brain - SEASON THREE CONTEST WINNER!

This year's winner is none other than Kelly:

It was a favorite of my editor and the fans on the facebook page. I personally liked this one as well. It works in a "meta" kind of way, in which the characters are breaking the fourth wall; they're aware that they're characters in a comic being drawn by me. The other way I interpreted this is that Kevin's fist has gotten bigger and stronger from drawing.

Either way, it's hilarious and it won. I do think there were too many good ones to choose from. If you missed the other entries, be just read the post before this one.

Dissect My Brain - CONTEST UPDATE!

So here it is: what appears to be THE very last Dissect My Brain contest ever! (At least in the Union Weekly.) Before I talk about this final contest, let's recap.

Last year's winner was D.J. Watts with a caption contest:

His caption turned out to be way different compared to what the strip ended up being about. He won this lovely prize package: the entire Dissect My Brain Season Two, and a personal comic strip:

I've made sure to make it small enough so that no one can read it. And now on to the Season Three contests!

CONTEST ONE:

The first contest was figuring out which two roles I played in the Oak Street Blues video:

"The Masked Pumpkin Saves The Day!":

No one was able to figure it out, but for being the one person who actually attempted it, Joe Mallari is winning a prize for this contest! He was able to determine I was "Biff, the Groping Henchmen." The other character I played was The Spaceman in the last third of the movie, which I realize is kind of a tough one. The only hint that I was the spaceman was when I actually speak.

CONTEST TWO:

The second contest is figuring out what the Masduh CZ-2 was physically based after. The strip itself was parodying the Mazda CX-5 and how there was an advertisement for The Lorax movie (an adaptation of a very environmental book, mind you) promoting a sports utility vehicle.

However, the Masduh CZ-2 looks nothing like the Mazda CX-5.

I eventually realized that this was also a hard one, and I had to give the hint that it was from "a popular TV show." When that wasn't enough, I just flat out told people: "it's from The Simpsons."

Armando Garcia would get the answer right. It was the Canyonero, from The Simpsons episode, "The Last Temptation of Krust."

FINAL CONTEST:

And so it is upon us: the final contest for Dissect My Brain. The winner of this one will win a big prize. The winner will be announced on Monday, September 10, 2012!

Here is the prompt:

And here are the finalists! 

Some of these people submitted more than one, but I ended up just choosing the ones I felt were the best.

Blaine:

Calvin:

Chris Hall:

Plummer:

Irene:

Kelly:

There was one more entry that I really liked from my friend Isaac, that went:

Kevin: so, you wanted to talk?

Kelly: yeah..I'm pregnant..

Kevin: not if my FIST has anything to do with it.. *ka-pow*

But sadly, the caption begins with Kelly speaking. That one could've honestly been THE winner!

Instead, I feel I have some evenly matched ones. Which one will win?

Perhaps I'll let facebook help me decide.

Till next time friends, remember:

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 3, Episode 1: "Jumping the Shark."

CENSORED:

UNCENSORED:

NOTE: If you're not familiar with the "Jumping the Shark" concept, you may read about it here. It's an idiom referring to when a TV show continues to go on far beyond its golden years.

For all the faithful blog followers, here it is: the season 3 premiere of Dissect My Brain. Why is this significant? This is absolutely the very last Dissect My Brain run in the Union Weekly. From here on out, I am going to look for some other homes to be printed in. (I've already got a deal for a zine, and potentially a music magazine.) Enjoy the ride, and I hope for this to be the biggest and best season for the comic to date.

This strip addresses the immediate criticism I got since making this comic back in 2010: the art's terrible, it's an ego project, and the writing is lazy. This criticism mostly came from a small, minor group of people. While the majority of Dissect My Brain readers do not seem to have a problem with this, whatsoever, I felt that it was time to address these criticisms in a humorous manner. And thus: this strip was born.

Is the art terrible? You can argue that the manga style is too "simplistic," but "terrible" is purely on taste. There is a lot of the potential in doing a strip in this style. The ease of conveying emotion in the face is very immediate and to-the-point. Also, everyone looks pretty average in these comics. I think this comic would look terrible if I went for a Rob Liefield, 90's styled bulging muscles and boobs approach. I feel I've grown as an artist, and it's to the point where Season 1 strips and Season 2 strips look ugly to me as the days go by. Also, anyone with the complaint that "all characters look the same," should really consider that all artists tend to draw all their characters the same way.

An ego project? Probably as much an ego project as autobiographies go. Everyone has an ego. To say I don't have one would be an absolute lie. If anyone's wondering why I draw myself in these comics, it's simple: I'm not a hard person to draw, I don't complain about how I end up looking in a comic, and when I started this series, it was grounded in real-life situations that happened to me. At this point, it's more like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld; we know Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld are real people, but they're not really the neurotic messes they make themselves out to be on their shows.

Lazy writing? Again, I think that's more of an "opinion." I think a lot of people can write about real life situations, but only few can make it work. I have plenty of friends who try to tell you what happened during their day, but only a few people can make it entertaining. Am I entertaining? I'm not so sure myself, but there's plenty of readers out there who like to think so.

Other parts of interest in this strip is the design of the nerd. He sort of looks like Comic Book Guy, right? I gave him a "fail" shirt, which (thanks to the Internet) is one of my least favorite words. The internet is just such a cesspool of negativity at times, that it felt good to poke fun at such a guy. My two favorite lines of the comic are "I'd show you my comic, but I don't draw. Only hipsters draw!" and "You're ruining comics and my life." The hipster one in particular bothers me. I've never been a fan of pretentious people, but I hate that all artists are now looped in with being "hipsters." It's almost to a point where we shame people for doing art.

Lastly, "punchline" or "punchline motherfucker." Take your pick! I think I like "punchline" better. It's interesting to note that the version that got published is the uncensored version.

I'm going to start doing this every week since I get asked about them. Here is the shirt of the week:

It's a shirt of Jeff Smith's Phoney Bone character from the comic, Bone.

Original Publication: September 3, 2012

Union Weekly Vol. 71. Issue #2.

Dissect My Brain SPECIAL #1: "The Insult that Made a Killer Out of Kev."

I originally wasn't going to put this one up on the blog being as I drew this specifically with the intentions as a gift for a friend, but I was requested politely by people to talk about it. I figured it would be good filler to hold over in the summer as I patiently wait to launch Dissect My Brain Season Three in a few months.

So here it is: "The Insult That Made a Killer Out of Kev."

I drew this one for a friend named Joe, who ended up being the Joe Flextime character in this comic. He's an aspiring comics writer (he's even had his work solicited, which is more than I can say for myself,) and when we were discussing works that we loved, he was nice enough to loan me a copy of Grant Morrison's Flex Mentallo. I'm not too familiar with Grant Morrison's work other than his Batman stuff, which I liked, but I didn't quite love. However, I will admit that reading Flex Mentallo has converted me to be a fan of his work. I don't quite feel that Flex Mentallo is a work for everyone, but I think if you're into comics and you want to read something that will seriously make you think, this book can do no wrong.

So where does this come in? Flex Mentallo's titular character is verbatim a parody of the character from the iconic piece of Americana: Charlie Atlas' "The Insult that Made a Man Out of Mac." I suppose it's easier if I just show you this:

This is a classic advertisement that had spawn many parodies. In fact, I wasn't aware of the original Charlie Atlas advertisement until I had researched that Flex Mentallo's main character is supposed to be the "Mac" from this comic. However, despite this, I was in some way familiar in with this comic. Marvel's comedy book "What The-?" had spoofed this with "The Insult That Made a Mac a Bloodsucking Freak." I read that comic as a kid in the 90's, and knew that it was some sort of parody of a golden age advertisement. I mean, this is the sort of simplistic, anti-bullying ad campaign is the kind of stuff that serves as a period piece. There's no way you would see an advertisement like this today.

I pretty much re-did this comic, but replaced Charlie Atlas with my friend. I gave him the last name of "Flextime," as a nod a similar advertisement, bodybuilding mogul from a short film I did called "Who's Gotta Door, Bro?" As for the comic itself, I gave the basic story the Kevin Ng spin. It's always been interesting to me that "The Insult that Made a Man Out of Mac" was a true story for Charlie Atlas, being as I can say that "The Insult that Made a Killer Out of Kev" is somewhat of a true story for me. There have been times in my life where I had been pushed too far, and I resulted to violence. However, what happened to me in the end is much like what happens in this comic. I do not become the "hero of the beach," but rather people look at me as the "psycho of the beach."

It's true what they say: "violence doesn't solve everything." It's not like the movies at all. Take Back to the Future for example. Nerdy George McFly decks out the bully Biff Tannen, and gets recommended that he run for class president of the high school. In real life, that George would probably be doing some hard time in prison.

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 2, Episode 5: "Ugly Casanova."

I wrote this one as sort of a "thank you" to the other two characters featured in this one: Patrick DeLaney and Matt Limbago. I wanted to do a comic with them involved as they were the two guys who really helped me out last semester while I was doing student teaching. It's pretty straightforward, and there's really nothing for me to say about it. I do like how it turned out considering how rushed the process was for this particular strip.

I did plan for two alternate takes in mind for this comic, but I ultimately went with the one that you see before you. It mostly had to do with what I had in mind for the third panel. The third panel was either going  to consist of a real-life photo of myself (probably rendered in photoshop to look sketchy), or to use the yelling Kevin face from Blaine's Dissect My Brain comic. The final take was used as I thought either would be a "cop out" from doing my own art.


Original Publication: April 22, 2012
Union Weekly Vol. 70. Issue #13.

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 2, Episode 4: "The Boarman Cometh."

So, the idea for a "comic within a comic" strip was always in the back of my mind since I started doing Dissect My Brain. While the original concept for Season 2 was to do less nonfiction and head towards a fictional direction, The Boarman originally came out of something from real life. I am friends with the Jarnagin brothers, who are comic creators in their own right and had done their own comic called The Boarman. While it was obviously a knockoff of The Batman, the idea of a pig-themed superhero had its own charm to it. Anyone who knows a thing or two about boars in the wild will know that they really are a little more vicious than one would think.

Years ago, I was supposed to complete a Boarman story of my own. The comic remains unfinished, mostly due to my own limitations. I felt I wouldn't be able to artistically live up to my own expectations for the story that I wanted to tell. If I were to ever complete it, it would match the style seen in the first two panels of this comic. I've been able to draw at that level for some of my older webcomic work, but I've always felt that the ethos behind Dissect My Brain was to keep it simple. The emotions and the writing is always what's at the forefront.

Lastly, the fun thing to mention is the censorship in this strip. The dialogue on the very last panel was changed for the Union Weekly printing. I think the Union Weekly has had enough controversy to its publication, and the jokes more or less remain the same.

Here are the changes:
-The first change is "Ninja." I'm sure you can figure out what was the original intention.
-Lastly, the last guy (Blaine) is supposed to say: "And your fatass is gonna play him in the movie adaptation!" I changed this as the tease about the comic ending wouldn't be as effective.

Original Publication: April 9, 2012.
Union Weekly Vol. 70 Issue #11.

I leave you now with this picture of an awesome boar hat that I own.

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 2, Episode 3: "In Loving Memory of Dr. Seuss."

So, this one's a bit hard to talk about. I did this one during the week of when I had to re-take a teacher's examination, a bunch of Oak Street Blues shows that I had to play bass at, the first day at my new job, and WonderCon. Needless to say, I had a busy week and so I can honestly say this one is far from perfect. It's a damn shame too because I thought the premise was brilliant even if it had already done by other people. If you haven't figured it out, this piece was a satire on the film adaptation of The Lorax. The original work's theme of environmentalism seemed to have been lost in the film adaptation, which had plenty of commercial tie-ins including IHOP, AMC theaters, and the strangest of them all: the Mazda CX-5 automobile.

The writing was there, but it definitely needed refinement. It just comes off as a bit awkward to read. I think if you don't get that the Grunion is supposed to be speaking in sing-song-y rhymes, the Dr. Seuss connection may be lost. The parodies made in this comic are the IHOW and the Mazduh, which I pretty much ripped off the design of the Canyonero from The Simpsons.

The last thing I want to point out is that this comic features Dissect My Brain contest winner, D.J. Watts. He won the contest on facebook in which a picture was given for contestants to provide their own dialogue. Hopefully I will use him more on strips, but as it stands, this is his debut on the Union Weekly run.

Original Publication: March 19, 2012.
Union Weekly Vol. 70 Issue #9.

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 2, Episode 2: "Weight Class."

I believe I mentioned this before, but the original, final plan for Dissect My Brain was to do a one-shot issue. The subject material was going to cover rock and roll memories, particularly performing at CSULB's The Nugget circa 2005. I may still get around to doing it, but as it stands, I'm currently focusing my energies on doing the weekly newspaper strip. Being as my friend and bandmate Patrick DeLaney was written to be a focal character in that one-shot issue, I felt that I had to transfer him somewhere and so this strip was born.

I take no credit for the joke presented here. Much like the Kasatka strips, this one is written purely by real life words and events. Nothing much to say here other than it is the comic debut of the most well-known incarnation of Bootlegs of the Untitled Band. It's interesting to me know being as when I first started messing around doing comics, I was going to a graphic novel on Pat's earlier band, CHINA SMOKE. The one page I did of that is still lying around somewhere, but I never quite finished it due to laziness and I wasn't sure if the band was going to like what I had in mind.

Original Publication: March 12, 2012
Union Weekly Vol. 70. Issue #8.

Dissect My Brain (Union Weekly Serial) Season 2, Episode 1: "In Bad Taste."

I'm not going to lie: there was absolutely no plans to continue to Dissect My Brain. There were plans such as the summer special and what I originally had in mind for season two of Dissect My Brain, but both never came to fruition. I had just taken on assignment as a student teacher, and simply did not have the time to commit to working on the strip. By the time winter came around and I had finally gotten free, I had felt that the series was long forgotten and had ran its course.

Then, just by some happenstance, I was visiting the Union Weekly office. I ran into an old friend by the name of Leo, and the strip came into conversation. Next thing I know, I found myself spending 12 hours working on this new edition. I can really credit the resurrection of the series to two people: the aforementioned Leo, and Hooker Fighter: Reloaded author, Calvin. The latter can be credited as I had seen how diligently he had been working on his strip, and he would lightly push me into working on new material.

What can be said about the Season Two premiere of Dissect My Brain? It's basically an introductory strip to those who were unfamiliar with the series as the last time anyone had seen one of these was last year in May. Prior to Dissect My Brain's return, the Union Weekly had been overrun by squirrel-themed comics, and while I have absolutely no beef what-so-ever with squirrels or the Union Weekly series, Nutty Comics, I wanted to establish right away that this strip is not like other Union Weekly strips. Tack on some new techniques for art, and you've got yourself a fresh, repackaged Dissect My Brain!

For the record, this is purely fiction. I've eaten some terrible, horrid stuff in my life, but I can safely say that squirrel is not one of them.

Original Publication: March 5, 2012
Union Weekly Vol. 70. Issue #7.

Dissect My Brain SPECIAL FEATURE: All of the Shirts from Season One! (Well, Almost All of Them)

Hey there, kids! Ever wanted to dress like your favorite character from Dissect My Brain? Probably not. However, if you have as much free time as I do, chances are you will find this interesting. (Maybe.) Either way, the mystery behind the question "what are these idiots wearing?" is finally answered!

Here it is: All of the Shirts from Season One! (Well Almost All of Them.)

Most of these you might be able to hunt down. (Except for this first one.)

Death from the Neil Gaiman comics. This is an out-of-print shirt featuring art by Chris Bachalo.

T-shirt of my favorite band: Modest Mouse.

Brodie's t-shirt from the cult classic Kevin Smith film, Mallrats.

This is a shirt of Totoro from the Hayao Miyazaki film, My Neighbor Totoro.

Broken Social Scene t-shirt. This was barely seen in the series, so if you figured what it was, super kudos to you!

Pro-wrestlers Paul London and Bryan Danielson (as of writing, he's WWE's World Heavyweight Champion) were set to form a tag-team at a California federation called Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. This is a shirt of their short-lived tag team, The Hybrid Dolphins. It's supposed to be a bee and dolphin hybrid. Looking back, I sure was lazy in drawing that dolphin.

"Fuzz Aldrin" by Ex-Boyfriend clothing.

"Alien vs. Predator" by Skate Mental. The art is by one of my favorites: Donny Miller. I highly recommend checking out his art book, Beautiful People with Beautiful Feelings. Yes, that is Michael Jackson holding hands with the alien from E.T.. (This picture is actually from what is slated to be the season two premiere of Dissect My Brain.)

Kasatka's shirt featuring the logo of the 80's movie, Top Gun.

Gerald's Prinny shirt from the Nippon Ichi Software videogame, Disgaea.

Terence's Star Wars t-shirt.

New strips are coming soon! I can't confirm yet, but a "season two" on the Union Weekly is somewhat in the works. Also coming soon is what I'm planning to be the finale of Dissect My Brain.