CT Sunday Preview: schoolgirls on parade!

Here's this week's Chastity Towers (NSFW) Sunday preview--this Wednesday's page in sketch form.  Doctor Cain introduces herself and Mademoiselle Millefeuille, then introduces the lineup of Chastity Towers students...

Jeff

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Mina Roxbottom

Mina is fiesty and temperamental, always willing to go out on a limb for a friend. She is insatiable in bed, and devilishly clever at concocting new perversions to unleash upon her closest girlfriend, Fleurette. ... more

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Just saying it could even make it happen

Kate Bush's Cloudbusting, based on A Book of Dreams by Peter Reich, about his father Wilhelm Reich. (According to Wikipedia, the video was conceived by Terry Gilliam.)

Chastity Towers: Building a page from the background up

When I draw Chastity Towers (adults-only, NSFW), I build the backgrounds for each scene in SketchUp, and then capture the right angle for each panel as a 2D image.  I then import the 2D image into Manga Studio to draw the figures.

This works most of the time, but in some cases the backgrounds have requirements that SketchUp can't fill, either because I don't have or haven't built models for certain things that need to exist, or because some elements are too organic to be worth modeling in 3D.

The scene I'm working on now is set in the girls' bedroom at Chastity Towers, where the beds have sheets, blankets and pillows that need to be flexible, soft and organic.  So what I've done is model the beds themselves, with a flat mattress, so I can then draw in the pillows and bedspreads, wrinkles and all, by hand.

Here's the original sketch of the scene.  Two girls open the bedroom door and peek in, to find two girls sitting on the bed making out.

Here's the scene, with the sketches removed, featuring only the original background image exported from SketchUp.

Now I've drawn in a simple pillow and bedspread on a new layer over the background image.

Fill it in with white.

Add a tone to the bedspread.

And here it is, combined with the sketched figures.

As I ink the figures I'll know exactly where they're sitting, so I'll be able to put in specific folds, wrinkles and impressions in the fabric, and to add some texture to the cloth to make it blend in more.  Then the figures will be grey-toned and the page will be finished!

This is my first big story using this background creation technique, so I'm still learning and developing it as I go.  It wouldn't be suitable for every comic, but it works well in cases where a strictly realistic background is desired.

Jeff

House of Twelve #4: Funny, offensive war stories from Neil Kleid, Dave McKenna

Chese and the House of Twelve gang run the best sketch jam in New York City and put out excellently vile little comics anthologies as well.

The latest issue, House of Twelve Goes To War, covers war stories:

Allow me to let you in on a little known secret;
a few years ago Team 12 was drafted by THE GOVERNMENT and forced into working towards it's war effort. When we returned we decided the truth must be told in the most effective way possible, autobio comics! These are our stories of our experiences during THE GREAT WAR. Some
sad, some action packed, some unfathomable,
but I promise you each and every one is 100% true.

There are a lot of funny folks in this comic:

Team 12 members have gone and become successful all of a sudden, Miss Lasko-Gross has a book (Escape from 'Special') from Fantagrpahics, Kevin Colden's Fishtown has been getting raves online, it even won a Xeric Grant, Mike Dawson's Freddie and Me is one of the most anticipated graphic novels of next year, K. Thor Jensen's Red Eye, Black Eye has burned up the indie charts and Bald Eagles was featured in the last Kramer's Ergot. Sheesh, you bitches been busy!

Check it out!

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Would an English girls' school have had radiators in the rooms in 1907?

Anyone know if that's a possibility or a likelihood?

Kieron Gillen is 32

Wish him a good one!

UPDATE: No he's not, not yet.

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Chastity Towers girls' bedroom sets

Here are some more detailed views of the Chastity Towers girls' bedroom.  It's almost done now, but for the roof and any other incidental details I decide to throw in at the last minute.

Jeff

Chastity Towers set design: Girls' Bedroom

This is an early stage of the girls' shared bedroom in Chastity Towers. I'm coming up on the pages set here now, so it's time to build the set!

This is being created in Google Sketchup 6, from which I export the scenes as a PNG and import into Manga Studio.

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Best Figure Drawing Books Ever

Alberto Ruiz has put up a great blog post on the Best Figure Drawing Books Ever, including links to RAR downloads of some excellent Andrew Loomis books.

My dad got me Loomis' "Figure Drawing For All It's Worth" when I was a kid, and we had no idea it was so well-regarded, it just happened to pop off the shelf at Half-Price Books. I've loved it ever since, and learned most of my figure construction, perspective, and anatomy from that book. Great stuff.

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New erotic stories on Adultwebcomics begin today!

While you're checking out Chastity Towers: The Appearance of Respectability, page 3, don't forget to take a look at two new erotic serials from other Adultwebcomics artists.

J.L. Roberson and Charles Alverson begin The Story of OH!, drawn by J.L. in an ink-and-color style much different from his previous shaded pencil work.  It looks great so far!

And Bedlam Boy starts a new Hentai Action Comics story with two new pages of Letitia Cromwell, Community College Witch.

Enjoy!

Jeff

Chastity Towers: Meet Emily Branthleyshaw!

Emily Branthleyshaw has been brought up under the care of her doting mother and stern father, who have raised her to understand how a proper girl should behave. 

Now she is being given a tour of Chastity Towers, the naughtiest girls' school in England, where she's bound to get a crash course everything improper!

Chastity Towers: The Appearance of Respectability page 3 (adults-only, NSFW) goes live today.

Jeff

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Heroes premiere (spoilers for very stupid plot developments)

My off-the-cuff reaction to the first episode: This show sucks balls. I think I’m gonna quit watching it this season. The writing is just abysmal, so bad I can hardly believe it.

Off the top of my head, how about Matt Parkman’s little police “exam”? Where the job is apparently to storm into the building and shoot everybody he sees. And how, when there are two (apparently) unarmed people and it’s not clear who the bad guy is, there is a “correct” answer about which one to shoot?

These things are very “comic-booky”, in the most derogatory sense of that term. Excellent comics artist Eddie Campbell famously remarked about X-Men artist Jim Lee, “the artist is drawing people in suits but he doesn’t appear to have ever actually seen a suit.” These people are writing this stuff based on the most ridiculous, cartoony, make-believe versions of them. With Heroes being on NBC, you’d think they could skip over to the Law & Order writers’ room and get some feedback on whether this police stuff bears ANY relation to the real world.

And the “teenage” stuff is the same way. That little “robots & aliens” thing was definitely meant to be charming in an offbeat way, but it just sounded dull.

Also–if Mr. Bennett’s boss does NOT immediately fire him, call the cops and have him arrested, then this show might as well call itself “La La Make Believe Fantasy Land In Which People Behave Nothing Like Any People You Have Ever Met”.

And, for the dramatic conclusion to this week’s Very Special Heroes–AMNESIA!

The most reviled, ridiculous, cliched plot development in the history of serialized drama. 24 didn’t even really get away with doing the amnesia bit, but that was the first season so it’s somewhat forgiveable.

Maybe next we’ll get Claire in the woods menaced by a cougar!

Good lord this show is dumb :)

CT Sunday Preview--meet naive young Emily!

Here's this week's preview of Wednesday's Chastity Towers page, posted at the Chastity Towers Flickr set:

Emily Branthleyshaw has been living with her stern father and doting mother her entire life.  She's naive and innocent of the ways of the world, which means she is in for quite an awakening as she meets the naughtiest schoolgirls in England!

Chastity Towers: The Appearance of Respectability page 3 goes live Wednesday, September 26.

Cross-posted at The Chastity Towers forum.

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Funny, erotic gaming comic Hentai Action Theater begins new story Sept 26

One of the funniest comics on Adultwebcomics.com is Hentai Action Theater, a cute, erotic, Sergio Aragones-inspired gaming comic.  It's beginning a new 40-page story, "Letitia Cromwell: Community College Witch", starting on September 26.

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CT character update: Devoted to the Headmistress...

 Abigail Shaftsbury

Abigail is the Head Girl at Chastity Towers, the senior and most trusted member of the student body... according to the Headmistress. ... more

 Mademoiselle Millefeuille

Mademoiselle Millefeuille handles French instruction at Chastity Towers. Her foreign tongue also comes in handy in other ways... ... more

Cross-posted at The Chastity Towers forum.

Jeff

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Ray Frenden embraces the moleskine!

Ray Frenden's an excellent digital illustrator, having worked almost exclusively in Painter and Manga Studio.  Here he learns to stop worrying and love the moleskine.

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Kieron Gillen's got the #1 gaming controversy!

Games journalist, Phonogram writer, and creator of "Hit" (on which I supplied some art) Kieron Gillen's manifesto ranks #1 on Gamedaily's list of gaming controversies.

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Hamlet in stick figures: Act IV scene II concludes

Dan Carroll's very funny Stick Figure Hamlet updates, finishing up a short act.

Here's how Dan puts it:

"Honestly, three pages? Little Billy, what the hell is that shit? You couldn't shave a few pages off Act 2, Scene 2, and put 'em in here?"

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What the fuss

I mean, really?

(This is a test.)

Two new songs in one day!

Reed came in with a new tune called "Professor Popinjay", and I brought one of my older ones to the table.

Jeff

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Gig report: WRS live at Trophy's!

"We rocked so hard we cleared the room."

ROCK AND ROLL. Reed posts a little writeup on Tuesday night's open mic.

Jeff

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Desktop Christina Aguilera

Desktop Christina Aguilera
Originally uploaded by Jeff Coleman

My current desktop.

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Plastic Farm collected by Ambrosia Publishing

This is a little late news, but it's worth repeating:

Rafer Roberts' excellent self-published comic Plastic Farm is to be collected into a graphic novel by Ambrosia Publishing following online serialization at their site.

Rafer is a great guy and Plastic Farm's a unique and funky comic, so this is a great deal.

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Now playing: Paul & Linda Mccartney - Ram On
via FoxyTunes

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Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg

From Canal Plus, an amusing tribute to the master of sexy French pop.

Jeff

J.L Roberson debuts new material in "This Sickness"

John L. Roberson writes and draws the excellent This Sickness (adults-only) on AWC, and on September 26 he'll be debuting a new story with a guest writer, Charles Alverson.

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Jeff

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Now playing: The Go-Go's - How Much More
via FoxyTunes

WRS at Trophy's tonight

We're going to be playing at Trophy's on S Congress tonight, probably around 10:30 or so.

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Now playing: The Ramones - Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio?
via FoxyTunes

A little disco

This is the most awesome song in my world right now.

Jeff

New song: "Needful things", New-Wave-meets-Stone-Roses

In addition to playing live tonight, we wrote a new song!

I came up with the music for this tune after listening to International Tweexcore Underground, I just had to whip up a New Wave-y little tune.

Reed took it and wrote up some words that should belong to a lost Stone Roses song, and, voila, "Needful things"!

Jeff

World Racketeering Squad, live at Conan's Pizza!

World Racketeering Squad had its second gig tonight, an open mic at Conan's Pizza, of all places. It was a very genial place with a crowd of enthusiastic regulars.

The stage setup was odd, as it was all on an enclosed riser meant to hold a couple of seats, with elaborate wooden banisters and columns that blocked the view from all but a few angles. Plus the columns were draped with leafy plants.

On the plus side, that cramped little riser was stocked! It had a drum kit, a keyboard, a bongo, a guitar and plenty of mics. This is an open mic that even provides instruments!

We played with "Negra", my black Epi Les Paul, and my little Kustom amp, which always seems to find admirers at shows. It's a cute little amp, I guess!

The show was pretty rough, as we were playing some songs we haven't really done before--"Feel so lost" and "5017". When we get those tightened up, they're gonna rock a lot more!

But overall it was super fun and I can't wait to do it again.

Oh, and we're playing the open mic at Trophy's tomorrow night.

Jeff

Casting Chastity Towers

In my case we have to stretch the imagination a bit, and imagine that the actresses I pick would be willing to give X-rated performances.

I hadn't actually thought about this before, but here goes..

Mina, the hot-tempered mischievous spitfire could be played by Lindsay Lohan. In my imaginary world she can not only stay out of rehab long enough but also can do the perfect English accent required. As well as doing hardcore porn.

Fleurette, the naive French student, would be Vanessa Hudgens. She's clearly hot enough, evidenced by the photos of her leaked recently, and she has a perpetual sweet little grin that would be excellent. Oh, and assume she can do a French accent.

Abigail the spoiled teacher's pet could be Ashley Tisdale. She does a similar character on High School Musical, and she's decently attractive.

Lizzie could be played by Hayden Panettiere.

Michelle Pfeiffer would make a good Headmistress Doctor Cain, and I wouldn't mind getting French pop star (and Mrs Johnny Depp) Vanessa Paradis to play Mademoiselle Millefeuille, the sweet and adorable French teacher.

I think it'd make a great movie! What do you think?

Jeff

Chastity Towers Sunday preview

Here's a preview of this Wednesday's page, posted at the Chastity Towers Flickr set:



Enjoy!

Jeff
cross-posted to The Chastity Towers Forum

CT on verge of top 100 at thewebcomiclist!

http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/p/10996/Chastity-Towers

Chastity Towers has been rising steadily in the rankings at The Webcomics List, and it's currently at #103, just on the verge of breaking the top 100!

A lot of our traffic comes from The Webcomics List, so this is a good sign.

I'm not sure how their ranking is generated, but I believe it counts the number of folks going to the comic from their listing, so if you've got a second, it'd help us out to go over there and click through!

UPDATE: CT has cracked the Top 100 and currently stand at #76!

UPDATE 2: We're at #60 now!

Jeff
cross-posted at The Chastity Towers Forum

Green Muse Cafe open mic set list

Green Muse Cafe open mic set list
Originally uploaded by Jeff Coleman

World Racketeering Squad, live at the Green Muse Cafe!

Last night the World Racketeering Squad made its open mic debut at Austin's Green Muse Cafe!

Expecting a short slot, we decided on a couple of songs to perform, to show up and find out the Green Muse gives each artist 20 minutes to play! We revised our set list to include our original party set of three, plus two newer tunes.

The venue itself is a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, with a simple unassuming stage setup. The host, Jules, was very cool, and he played a set with a small band about midway through the night. We went on later, to a small but enthusiastic audience.

Our set list:

Sylvia
Potential
Can't Keep Track (of Anything These Days)
Panic
Heartbreaker

After "Panic", we were ready to step down but John, one of the hosts, insisted we play another, so we pulled out "Heartbreaker" and rocked out!

The show was what you'd expect from a first open-mic show--lots of warts, but a whole lot of fun. I played electric guitar, which is new for me on stage, and Reed busted out the tambourine for select numbers!

The venue only had two mics, and we have two vocalists plus my acoustic guitar (no pickups), so we signed up, went home and got my Epiphone Les Paul and my little Kustom amp. I've been practicing mostly with acoustic for a long time, and was REALLY green on the electric!

Most of our songs right now are strummed, folk style, and I kept flipping the pickup selector switch with my strums! Also pulled the cord out from the amp during our last number! But we plugged it in and kept going :) It was a huge learning experience--I learned that I need to practice on electric a LOT more!

It was definitely a great experience--the audience made us feel very welcome, everybody we met was very cool, and we're excited to do more. We're playing at Conan's in South Austin at their open mic on Monday night, and at Trophy's on Tuesday, so we'd love to see some friendly faces in the crowd!

Jeff

Chastity Towers, now with forum-y goodness!

I've got a forum for Chastity Towers, now, so I'll be posting short pieces there about the development of the comic and hoping it takes off.

I'd love to get some feedback from users, since doing comics is such a solitary experience--especially porn comics, natch :)

Anyway, feel free to check it out and post if you've got any thoughts you'd like to share!

Jeff

"Potential", live bossa-nova rock song in video

Jeff

"Heartbreaker" live video!

Special thanks for the video to Mocha Latte

Jeff

Progressions X, now with annoying 'vote for me' buttons!

As part of the ongoing promotion of Progressions X, I've signed up for a few "Toplist" type webcomics sites, where readers vote on your comic by clicking a button, and the highest ranked get higher placement on the chart.

If you'd like to help out by voting, you can find the buttons on the bottom of each page of Prog X, below the calendar.

Thanks!

In other odd news, I was checking my Google Analytics and noticed that in July, we got a bump of referrals from Diesel Sweeties, which I didn't realize. On the day it happened, the guest artist on DS was Jess Fink, who draws some funny and sexy comics on Adultwebcomics.com.

I also noticed we get a few referrals each day from sexe.fluctuat.net, but I can't seem to locate why. There's no mention of Progressions on the site, and I don't have any ads there. It seems to be a French sex portal, so it's understandable there'd be some connection, but I dunno what it is exactly.

Jeff

New song: "Screwed you"

We wrote and recorded a new song last night! It's called "Screwed you", and it's a funky disco/soul song.

Reed showed up with the chorus in his head, and we built it up into a bizarre little tune. You can check it out here at our Virb page:

http://www.virb.com/worldracketeeringsquad

Jeff

Chastity Towers launches tomorrow!

My new adults-only comic launches tomorrow!

Chastity Towers is the story of an all-girls finishing school in Edwardian England, where the girls learn far more each night than they ever do in their daily classes.

The most prominent students are Mina Roxbottom, the lusty and spirited firebrand who causes most of the trouble. Mina has an insatiable appetite for trouble, both in the bedroom and out. She's constantly testing the limits of the rules at Chastity Towers, and frequently finds herself in trouble as a result. She is best friends and lovers with Fleurette, and a ringleader to the whole group, with the exception of Head Girl Abigail Shaftsbury, who craves the Headmistress's approval more than anything, and will go to any length to get it.

Fleurette de la Paniere, the naive and innocent French student, often finds herself being punished for aiding Mina in her transgressions--she's a willful partner, though, and she would do anything for her dear love Mina. Fleurette is innocent in the ways of the world, but experienced and inventive when it comes to the bedroom.

Headmistress Doctor Cain runs Chastity Towers with an iron fist, delivering stinging punishments for the slightest infraction in her well-stocked "Disciplinarium" underneath the school. Most of the students do their best to avoid Doctor Cain's attentions, but it must be said there are some students who relish the time alone with the Headmistress. Doctor Cain carries on an illicit affair with French instructor Mademoiselle Millefeuille, which is a well-known secret amongst the schoolgirls.

The first Chastity Towers story, "The Appearance of Respectability", begins when a potential new student, Emily Branthleyshaw, is introduced to the girls and given a tour of the school. Doctor Cain does her best to impress on Emily's mother the importance of discipline at Chastity Towers, while Mina, Fleurette and the girls take Emily on an extended trip through the heart of depravity and lust.

"The Appearance of Respectability" begins on Adultwebcomics.com tomorrow, Wednesday, September 12, and continues in weekly installments every following Wednesday. Chastity Towers features explicit sex and adult content.

Jeff

Chastity Towers: 2 pages done!

I've been drawing some comics this week!

I've got several pinups scheduled in Progressions X, starting this Monday. That'll keep going for as long as I keep doing them.

And I've drawn and uploaded the first two pages of the first Chastity Towers story, "The Appearance of Respectability". They'll be appearing weekly starting this Wednesday.

I'd been putting off doing Chastity Towers for the same reasons I usually do--I didn't think I was ready, I wanted it to be perfect, some characters still need designing, some backgrounds still need constructing. I decided to screw all that and go ahead and just start doing it. A page a week is a pretty light schedule, considering the pages are all already laid out, penciled and lettered. It's really just inking and tightening things up.

I've also made a bunch of new ads for Progressions X that are appearing all over the place on Project Wonderful. I need to make some for Chastity Towers, but I'll get to that soon.

I'm pretty rusty at drawing with Manga Studio, so I can't wait to get back up to speed on Chastity Towers!

Chastity Towers logo

Chastity Towers logo
Originally uploaded by Jeff Coleman

I've been doing some drawing this week, and decided to whip up a Chastity Towers logo for the day when it eventually debuts on Adultwebcomics.com.

New song: "Feel so lost"

We wrote a new song last night, "Feel so lost", a sad-as-hell country song which, paradoxically, sounds pretty upbeat.

I just went to the Kerrville Folk Festival for the first time this last weekend, and I had an excellent time being exposed to so much great music and learning a lot. At the same time, I tend to get overwhelmed in crowds of people I don't know, so that was a recipe for some pretty big mood swings overall.

I'd had the chorus of this song in mind for a while and got inspired over the weekend to build it into something more, coming up with a basic chord progression and a verse to give it some structure.

Reed took the ball from there and wrote the rest of the lyrics, verses and bridge, somehow managing to communicate pretty much just what I was feeling. We wrestled for a long time with the bridge, trying out random chords, key changes, and so on, until finally we stumbled across a sound that matched the traditional nature of the song more perfectly than I could've hoped for!

On our Virb profile we've made an album for our demo recordings, called "Demonstrations", where we upload our new songs as soon as we've got an early working recording. They usually get changed and refined, but this is what they sounded like when we wrote 'em!

Demonstrations on Virb.

Jeff

Virb: MySpace for real people!

Decided to try out Virb, a relatively new social networking site, and I really dig it.

It's like the designers realized it would be used by actual people, so they made it easy to use, attractive to look at, and just smooth all around!

You can automatically link up your Flickr photos or your external blog to your Virb site, and for musicians it's got a much friendlier 30-song capacity, compared to MySpace's four songs.

The MySpace pages will still be there, of course, because what's a social site without the social part? But I'm definitely hoping that Virb catches on.

Isaac Priestley
World Racketeering Squad

Jeff