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.