Sideburns #3: "Meet Cute"

Lo-fi webcomics by Justin Zyduck. Every Monday.

Sideburns #2: "The Greatest Gift"

Lo-fi webcomics by Justin Zyduck. Every Monday.

Putting a Dent in your Halloween

Because a couple people I know have been waiting to see these, I figured the children of Internetland might like to have a look as well.

I decided to go as Two-Face for Halloween this year. I know, I know, it seems a bit gauche considering the Dark Knight just came out, but I decided to go as the green-faced comic book version, based on the way he looked in the first Batman comic I ever owned, rather than the modern red-faced version or the burned skullface of the film.



The suit is just an ordinary suit I got from Goodwill. I taped off half of it and dumped and dabbed acryllic paint on it. Simple enough.

Now, if you are the type of geek I am, you have noticed the problem with this costume... the "face" is on the wrong side. I used a "burn victim" facial prosthetic I got from the Halloween shop as a base and painted over it. When I got home I realized it was for the right side instead of the proper left (sinister) side. But the prosthetic was so rad, I decided to go with it anyway.

So there are two ways to resolve this "continuity error":

1.) This is not a Two-Face costume, it's an Anti-Face costume, who I guess is like a Reverse- or Bizarro-Two-Face. DC Comics: contact me and we'll talk about this lucrative idea.

2.) The magic of photo editing:



All better! (Except doors don't work like that.)

And for a closer look at the face, and you can kind of see the prosthetic:

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I never have cause to dress like a Batman villain on Christmas.

1,800 > 340.29

I was recently watching Batman: Gotham Knight, a collection of intertwined animated Batman shorts. During one of the segments, "Field Test", Fox invents a gyroscopic emp device to repel bullets. Skipping the actual story and just simply focusing on the science of it the device is explained as being triggered by noises over a certain decibel level. So if the device hears a gunshot it instantly repels metal such as bullets. Now I'm no scientist, but it seems to me that bullets travel relatively faster than the speed of sound. If you look it up on Wikipedia most guns have a muzzle velocity of up to 1,800 meters per second. Sound only travels at 340.29 meters per second. That means that by the time the device detects the sound of the gunshot poor batman would already have a gaping chest wound. Now like I said, I'm no scientist... so I could be wrong. But that seems to be about right to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzle_velocity

Sideburns #1: "Taking Issue with William S. Burroughs"

Lo-fi webcomics by Justin Zyduck. Every Monday.

Beginning Monday, Oct. 27...

The Process

Posting updates from a writing standpoint is more difficult than posting updates related to art.

I mean, when Josh finishes a page, he can scan it in and post it here, and you get an immediate look at how our project is progressing. But writing is a much less… tangible process, usually. Comics are a visual medium, and posting bits of script isn’t very exciting or informative.

But then I thought I might be able to make a writerly update more interesting by describing the process of writing a Wyatt Earp adventure, using scanned documents from my personal files to illustrate each step.

STEP ONE: CHOOSING A SUBJECT

I’m feeling very Halloweeny with my favorite of holidays just around the corner, so I decided my new script would involve a classic monster in some capacity. But which one?

I find listing the possibilities makes it easier to assess each one’s merits.

There is a clear winner.

STEP TWO: BRAINSTORMING



It’s just a list of facts, but it gets the old creative juices flowing, because I look at the second item and think:



STEP THREE: RESEARCH

An idea is beginning to blossom, so I investigate its feasibility.



It turns out the AJfWS is not a real publication — and no wonder, with a horrible acronym like that. But by this point, I’m too excited about the idea not to begin writing.

STEP FOUR: WRITING THE SCRIPT

This is the stage most people have questions about, on a technical level. Hollywood screenplays have to stick pretty closely to a standardized format, but there isn’t any universal format for writing comic scripts that I’m aware of.

And so, I use the method preferred by the master:

The work begins well, but around page 43 of my script for a four-page comic, doubt begins to creep in. Are my images coherent? Does my dialogue ring true? Am I asking too much of my artistic collaborator when I request a 64-panel page detailing a carefully coreographed fight between our heroes and a pack of space werewolves in Gundam suits that also transform into wolves? Oh God, what am I doing?

STEP FIVE: WHISKEY

Spaeking of wereweolves dogg I heard that Kid rock songg where they sample "werewolves of london and it sucks so hard it almost made me crash my car (i was hella listening to the radio in the car) into a gazeebo. (I have invented a New Kind of Salad Dressing also.)

STEP SIX: SOLUTION AND CORRESPONDENCE

And that's how it's done!

6-Steps

Some might think that cutting your hair is no big deal. But let me tell you something... uhm... it can be? Say you've had long hair for a few years and all the people around you only know you to have long hair. You cut your hair and shave then no one recognizes you. Not your coworkers, not your friends, not even your family. Here are the 6 simple steps I found useful when trimming my luscious locks. Some people might even be creeped out by the new you. They just need some time to adjust to the change. I promise if you follow these steps everyone will be happy.