RyanEstrada.com: The LJ

Guessing game

Tue, 20 May 2008 18:04:19 GMT

Hey, everybody!
Guess who just dropped their computer!

Also, guess whose hard drive is now making hideous whirring, clicking noises?

And guess who had everything they had ever done on that computer?

And who had never backed up anything in their entire life????

IT'S ME! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TWO THINGS

Mon, 19 May 2008 17:41:59 GMT

Oh, hello internet.
Two things:

#1! At the end of June, it's Life's a Bluff's 2 year anniversary! We are looking for guest strips to help celebrate! If anyone would wish to submit one, it would be most appreciated!
It can either be about poker, or about the characters! Or heck, all John's guest comics are about slots, so if you have an idea that you think will fit, go for it. If you don't know anything about poker, never fear! I don't know anything about poker either! You can be like me and just go on a tangent about mountain climbing or dog fighting or something and maybe have some people mention poker in an abstract manner.
We'd need them around June 22nd, and since I'll be up Kilimanjaro, it'd be helpful to e-mail them to both ryan (at the) ryanestrada (dot coms) and lifesabluff (at the) gmail (dot coms)

#2! Ok, internet. You win. I finally watched Arrested Development, and yes it was good.

There's them dogs!

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:58:17 GMT

In case you were wondering, this is why I was asking about the dogs of webcomics:
(It's part of a storyline over at Life's a Bluff where the dog character starts a Fight Club, and the main character gets falsely accused of running a dogfighting ring. Newspaper comic dogs and TV cartoon dogs made earlier appearances.)

Webcomic Dogs

Tue, 06 May 2008 14:09:43 GMT

Okay, remember a while back when I drew The Robots of Webcomics?

Well, now I need webcomic dogs. List 'em up in the comments!

Aguacate needs a home!

Sun, 04 May 2008 15:48:21 GMT

So both John and I are leaving Mexico in a few weeks, and both our backup plans for what to do with our cat have fallen through.

I'm leaving through California, and John's leaving through Texas. Does anyone in Mexico, Texas, or California want a cat?

Korean English School

Fri, 02 May 2008 19:27:05 GMT

A friend of mine just opened her own English school in Korea. She sent me some photos, and there's something awfully familiar about those pictures on the front of the school.....

She didn't take my suggestion of calling the school "Michingu U"

Anyone in LA....?

Fri, 02 May 2008 03:05:57 GMT

So if I have to spend 3 or 4 days in Los Angeles at the end of the month while waiting for a visa, is there anyone who will totally take me on some adventures?

ALSO: Houston. (that's where I'm flying out of, and if I go to LA, I have to decide whether to spend the weekend in LA or Houston)

Guess what day it is!

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:12:04 GMT

Happy First of May

Private Eye

Thu, 01 May 2008 01:47:05 GMT

Another custom comic from the Cartoon Commune. This time, a gift for a boyfriend who's in the middle of writing a script for a private eye sitcom.

Ryan at 16

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:18:05 GMT

There's this fancy meme going around where folks are drawing themselves as a teenager. here's mine!

The Dirty, Filthy Lie Game: Part 6

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:27:30 GMT

I have enough weird facts for like 8 more of these, but these days I have trouble coming up with good lies. Below are 19 facts and one lie. Guess the lie!

(1) In high school, I shot and edited a 30 minute trash talk show set in ancient Greece called "Tiresias", and convinced the school district to pay for it.

(2) I was pictured in my high school yearbook more than anyone else in the school, and reading it, it was brought to my attention that I held office in clubs that I didn't even remember I was a member of.

(3) When I was at Karni Mata (the rat temple) I accidentally kick a rat about a foot in the air while talking to one of the rat-worshipping priests.

(4) After visiting the rat temple, I visited a snake temple too, but it was too boring to include in an episode of my show.

(5) I was hanging out at Dreamworks Animation once, talking to all the animators about how crappy their movies are. Then one of them pointed to this ugly, giant-headed maquette and said "yeah, but we got this movie coming out in a couple years called Shrek, and it's gonna be huge!" I snickered to myself and moved on.

(6) I was hanging out at Spumco, and rather than show me any animation stuff, the animators were mostly interested in showing off Bjork's underwear.

(7) I pencil tested part of a Disney Channel original series.

(8) A man once committed suicide immediately after my friends and I yelled at him.

(9) I had dinner with Ray Harryhausen once.

(10) The first time I tried to ice skate, I kicked myself in the hand and bled all over the ice. Twice.

(11) I have murals up in 3 different countries. It would be 4, but one mural was painted over less than a month after I painted it.

(12) I have seen a man voted off an island in real life.

(13) A car once flew across 3 lanes of traffic to slam perpendicularly into the side of my car, pushing me out of the street, over a curb, and directly into a Dairy Queen parking space. With my entire driver's side dented in, the driver sped off. My first thought was "Man, when I find a way to get out of this car, I have to try not to look excited, because that was AWESOME!"

(14) After talking about how every time our family went on a vacation a natural disaster struck, my mother said that we should be safe going to the small Colorado town she used to live in. They had a flood the day she left town, but in the decades since then, there had been a drought. The day we arrived, it flooded again, and the town was evacuated.

(15) I have been to two different World Cup games on two different continents, even though I couldn't care less about soccer.

(16) I was once a featured artist in an exhibition called "Out Of The Kitchen", focusing on art by Korean housewives.

(17) I used to do puppet shows at the Special Olympics.

(18) My mother once had to sit me down and explain that despite what I may see in Bugs Bunny cartoons, it is not good to put the kitty in the oven.

(19) If you know where to look, and have a pause button handy, I can be seen in an episode of A&E's Biography.

(20) I used to regularly lie about my age to get into a mental hospital.

Deep Sea

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:57:38 GMT

Here's another custom comic book from the Cartoon Commune. This one was an anniversary gift, from a wife who wanted to show her husband what a superhero she thinks he is. I was tired of drawing the same ol' Superhero comics, so I set it in Maui, where the couple went on their honeymoon.

Dodgin' and Weavin'!

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:39:22 GMT

While on the trip, I did lots of drawings of folks attending, but since I passed them out to the caricaturees, I can't post 'em.... but here's one that I have a scan of, featuring voice artist Courtney Kowitz, who taught us all the fine art of dodging past little old ladies and weaving through crowds of gamblers while rushing through a crowded casino.

What Happened After Vegas: The Mugger

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:33:41 GMT

One of the most fun parts of the trip to Vegas happened while I was walking through Juarez on the way back. That's when a dude tried to mug me.

I was wandering off on some quiet street (I walked from the El Paso airport to the Juarez bus terminal because I'm a cheap bastard) when a guy came up and asked (in Spanish) for some pesos. I politely said "no hablos espanol", and kept walking. He walked up alongside me again, and demanded "MONEY! GIVE ME MONEY! NOW!" "No, sorry." I said, as I kept walking. "NO?! NO?!" he shouted, a little bit of spittle hitting me in the face. "No," I politely replied. He marched in front of me, put his hands on my shoulders, and said something that I'm sure would have been threatening if I understood a word of Spanish. He then, using simple English words, and hand motions, explained that if I did not give him my money, he would karate chop me in the neck. He then put on his most exxageratedly intimidating face, pointed to it and huffed "muy serio." to proclaim how deadly serious he was about the upcoming Karate attack.

"So you're a karate master, eh?" I said as I continued walking, well aware he could not understand a word I was saying. "I'm into Kung Fu, myself. Tae Kwon Do, Muy Thai... I did Gumdo for a while, but they took away my belt because I accidentally killed a man."

He was getting more and more frustrated that I was attempting hold a casual conversation, and showing no sense of awareness that he was attempting to mug me. "MONEY! MONEY!" "I hear that," I responded, "those karate lessons can't be cheap. You know, I've got to admit, this is pretty exciting. I've never been mugged before- well, I suppose I still haven't. I guess in order to even call it an attempted mugging there would have to be some perceived threat, and to be honest, you had to get up on your tippy-toes just to show me the Karate chop, so I'm not feeling it."

As I continued casually rambling in English that he couldn't understand, he continued threatening me in Spanish I couldn't understand. We went about 5 blocks before we passed a market, and I finally said "Well man, it's been great chatting with you and all, but I'm gonna go buy me a mother-freakin' Torta." I turned, went inside, and never saw him again.

Comics en route

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:04:03 GMT

Some folks are starting to get their "Comics for Kilimanjaro" packages in the mail.... the gifts in there are pretty random..... I lost my debit card the day I was supposed to leave for Vegas, so I couldn't buy all the stuff I wanted to toss in the envelopes. But I tried to make sure that everybody got a good selection of random Mexican stuff. If I slipped up in my rush to pack (I spent 90% of the day on the phone canceling my card, and ordering a new one, and trying to shuffle money around so I wouldn't die on the road), and you didn't get as much cool stuff as you'd have liked, I sincerely apologize.

Anyway, I hope you all get your packages safe and sound, and that you like your goodies!

What Happened in Vegas: The Suite

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:25:48 GMT

On Wednesday, after taking a 2 day bus journey so I could fly out of El Paso and save the event coordinators about 400 bucks on airfare, I ended up walking around Texas for 24 1/2 hours because the thought of spending 18 darned dollars on a hotel room while waiting for my flight seemed way too fancy for me. But on Thursday, the event coordinator had arranged some accomodations for me.....

I would have hung around longer to snap pictures of the hot tub, the multiple cd/dvd players, and the many other items that were worth more than I make in a year, but all that fanciness was kinda freaking me out.

What happened in Vegas: The Auction

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:49:28 GMT

For a while, I've been alluding to this infamous trip to Vegas I was going on. Well, I just got back, and I'm ready to spill all the sordid details. First of all, you may be wondering.... I don't gamble, i don't drink, and I'm not particularly interested in seeing showgirls or Elvis impersonators... so what the heck brought me to Sin City?

Well, as most of you know, I work with a guy named Frank Frisina and illustrate a couple of poker comics... Life's a Bluff, and Livin' on Poker Road. Now, within the webcomics community, these may just be considered a couple of minor works by an artist who's just under the bar of notability (in the words of Wikipedia). But in the professional poker community, that's enough to make Frank and I VIPs, right alongside Olympic gold medal winning athletes, NFL players, actors, and poker pros.

We got invited out to the Jennifer Harman Charity Poker tournament. Not just invited, but flown out and put up in private suites. Unbeknownst to me, they even put up the money for me to play in the tournament, to which I had to explain that I have no idea how to play poker, and politely ducked out. I was supposed to walk the red carpet, but opted to instead hang out at the end of the red carpet and gather celebrity signatures on the drawing I was auctioning off to raise money for the charity (The Nevada SPCA, a no-kill animal shelter)

What drawing is that? Well, Life's a Bluff typically donates original drawings to events like this to be auctioned off for the charity in question. Typically, a picture of a few of the big-name pros who will be attending. But I decided to take it one step further and draw EVERYONE attending.

As we got closer to the event, more people RSVPed, so I drew a second companion piece to include all of them.

My goal for the event was simple..... I had heard many, many times that the piece Brandon J Carr had done the year prior had been the second highest bid-upon item in the auction, second only to Doyle Brunson's hat, right off his head. This year, I was going to beat Doyle Brunson's hat.

The hat was auctioned off around the middle of the tournament, and went for $1000.

When it came time to auction off my drawing, I was a little terrified. It was several hours into the tournament, and 90% of the players had already been knocked out of the game and gone home. It was down to about 3 or 4 tables, and the pressure was on for the players to pay close attention to the game, because they were very close to the final table. So even those few people were not paying much attention to the auction going on at the same time as they were playing. Not to mention, that just about everyone who was featured in my second piece hadn't shown up, so we decided just to throw it in as a freebie to whoever won the first one.

Shortly before ours, there was an auction for dinner for 2 with the Olympic snowboarding team, which not a single person bid on, and I imagine it must have been a painful experience for those snowboarders to watch the emcee spend 15 minutes begging the crowd for just one single bid.

But even though the pressure was on, my piece started to gain interest, as crowds looked closely to see who they could recognize, and to see if they were in it themselves. Some even found Waldo, hidden in the crowd. (The drawing was printed on all the programs, but seeing it close up, people were finally able to skim through the crowd.)

In the end, the drawing went for $1750, to that excited gentleman pictured below.

I'll post more about the actual event as I get more pictures, but also stay tuned for stories from the suite, and the tale of the dude who tried to mug me in Juarez.

**Oh, and as a follow up to my previous post, neither Carrot Top, Shannon Elizabeth or Jennifer Tilly showed up.

Away message

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:44:40 GMT

Hey y'all!
I'm off to Vegas! I'll be partying it up with Jennifer Tilly and Shannon Elizabeth and Carrot Top, while simultaneously repeatedly having to explain myself to professional poker player about why I don't know how to play poker.

I'm a guest of honor at a charity poker tournament, and apparently my artwork will be on a billboard outside the event. It will be a little crazy. I'll explain everything when I get back on Monday. Until then, i will be on buses.

(They offered to fly me out there, but for some unknown reason I volunteered to spend 5 days on buses to save them money. I'm strange like that.)

Ambiguity

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:34:07 GMT

Wow. I just realized that it's been half a year since I've posted a comic that I drew for myself. Well, here is a new 12 hour comic, based on a title suggestion I got a looooong time ago from John Langdon, the guy that Robert Langdon from The DaVinci Code was named after. I may have strayed from the title a bit, but check out that sweet ambigram title!

MAN, it's been a long time since I've drawn those dang aliens!

Full disclosure: this took 13 hours to do (due to the 2 hours I spent doing all that name-math), and the grey was added after the clock ran out. But man, was this exactly what I needed. This got my creative juices going enough that I got another 12 hour comic done on Sunday! (a commission I needed to finish)

Ambiguity

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:28:28 GMT

My 12 hour comic, Ambiguity, is done. I'll officially post it here on LJ on Monday, when people are on the dang internet, but until then, here's a link.

12 HOUR COMICS! WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:46:02 GMT

WOOOOO!
I'm 12 hour comicin'! Anyone else?

I'm basing mine on a title that John Langdon (the guy the dude in The DaVinci Code was named after) gave me a long dang time ago that I never did anything with.

Aki will return!

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:00:33 GMT

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:57:16 GMT

Don't forget, tomorrow is 12 hour comic day!

You can learn a lot about yourself by doing challenge comics. Some people travel to find themselves. I travel to learn about other places. If I want to learn about myself, I do challenge comics.

For the last month or so, I've been feeling the effects of burnout. Sitting down and making comics went from being a joy, to being a chore. It gave me headaches, wore me out.

But as I started planning 12 hour comic day, as a way to get my mojo back, I realized something. This whole year in Mexico has been one big challenge comic. I set out to spend a year turning myself into a full-time artist. A lot of finding out where to get money, how much to charge, what the right balance of personal and professional projects was, but mostly, just a lot of being chained at a desk drawing.

It's been like one, long 24 hour comic. And for the last month, I've been at the "Why the hell did I start this stupid thing? I need to go to bed" stage. That's a groggy stage that comes immediately before the "holy crap, I'm gonna do this!" stage. Which comes immediately before the "Holy crap, i actually did this!" stage, which, at that moment, is the best feeling in the world.

Well, just realizing this was enough to get me feeling good about comics again. I'm gonna crank out this 12 hour comic, make something of my own for the first time in a long time, then I'm gonna finish my slate of projects. I'm gonna reward myself with a trip to Vegas, a walking-road trip around Mexico, a trip to Kenya, a trek up kilimanjaro, and a journey to Korea. And then, the next challenge begins.

Anyone in the DC area?

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:51:15 GMT

Ok, this is just a shot in the dark, but just in case....

Do I have any readers in the Washington DC area that would do me a huge favor?

Here's the thing.... after I use my passport to get to Vegas in about a week, I have about a month-long window in which to mail my passport to the Kenyan embassy in Washington DC, get it back in Mexico, mail it to the Tanzanian embassy in DC, and once again, back to Mexico.

If anyone would be willing to let me mail all the documents to them, and then run to the 2 embassies for me, I will owe you big time. You name what I must do for/give you to make up for it.

The UFO Hunt

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:37:53 GMT

This week, an interesting man came into our lives. His name is Daksha.

I was sitting, working on comics when he followed Pete (a guy who's visiting the commune this week) home. The conversation had started about the band Daksha had been in, back when he was known as Oscar Zapata. But with Daksha, the conversation does not go where you want it to go, it goes where he needs it to go. And he needs to tell everyone that he is one of the 27 chosen people, who will help lead the true believers after humanity comes to an end on December 22nd, 2012.

Being with him gets more and more surreal, as he ignores every word you say and thrusts handfuls of notebook paper at you, covered in manic scrawlings right out of a cliche Hollywood conspiracy theory movie, shows you how everything can be mathematically related to the number 27, or shows you his infected green toe that proves he was once a dragon.

Daksha had dreamed that he would meet us. He made us all disciples (I believe I was #85), and tried to commission me to translate his backpack full of scrawlings into a custom comic to act as the new Bible after the world ends.

And then, he offered to take us out the next day to show us UFOs. That was one offer that I was sure as hell not going to turn down.

We met him at around 5, and he had two other disciples, around 16 years old, with him. In order to show us the UFOs, we would have to go to a hill in Guadalupe. But it didn't even take us that long. We saw our first two UFOs on the way, right above the Office Depot.

Daksha assured us that while they looked like airplanes, they were UFOS that had transmutated into airplanes. He busted out a specially carved stick, ran into the middle of traffic, and started waving the stick while chanting in the 7 languages that he learned through astral projection.

As we watched the UFOs, he kept shouting back at us "this is the first time you have ever seen a UFO guys! You must take advantage!" We watched until the two UFOs disappeared over the horizon, but obviously we didn't have the right reaction.

Daksha seemed a little upset with us as we continued to walk to the hill. But everything changed when a phone call came. The phone didn't ring, but Daksha suddenly put it to his ear, and spoke in a loud, clear voice "WHAT? ONLY 3? REALLY? THEY'RE NOT READY?"

He put the phone back in his pocket, and turned to us. "Sorry guys, I just got a call from my friend in Sweden. The UFOs sent her a message in her dream. You two are not ready to see the UFOs."

Apparently, the UFOs were testing us with their early appearance, and we didn't have the right reaction. We were officially uninvited to the meeting of UFOs atop the hill. We were shot down by the aliens. And Sweden, who despite being neutral, had decided to take the alien's side.

Daksha turned to Pete. "You have my number, right? And my e--mail?" he then turned to me. "Have a good life" and disappeared into the sunset.

Pete and I had already blocked out our entire night for UFO hunting, so we decided to take a road trip for a bit. And while we were gone, John (who had stayed home), had a special visitor back at the apartment.

Apparently, the phone call from Sweden had given Daksha one more piece of information. That John would be alone at the apartment, and that he was the real chosen one. He hung around for a few hours, telling John more about the end of the world. He also talked about what bad vibes I had given off, being so materialistic and all. Oh, and that our cat was from Mars. He then covered my desktop in pictures of UFOs from his iPod.

He also forgot his USB cable on my desk. Which means Daksha will be back.