Thursday, March 3, 2011

TOP SECRET TIPS V

What time is it? TIPS time, maybe? Since you asked, I've delivered. Oh, there's more where these came from. Trust me.

I was a little bored with TIPS concepts at this point so I looked around in the bookstore near where I worked for some cool graphic design I could glean inspiration off of. I found a book on tiki culture and saw this postcard like text. This is a postcard from TIPS which is apparently an island paradise. I actually took a picture of this with my phone at the same time I customer was standing there. She thought I was taking a picture of her butt until she noticed my tip jar sign, haha.

I tried so hard on this one. I wanted color. I wanted symmetry. I almost achieved it freehand but little things are off. Still, the Queen of Hearts TIPS was fun to draw. Didn't make too much money though. Didn't expect it to either.

Tip Me Over is the VERY first TIPS card I ever did, hence the lack of the word, TIPS. I went for ultra-cute instead of anything really artistic. Not only did this card increase my tip flow, but it also invigorated me with a creative mission to do a different card every time I worked.

My. All-time. Favorite. TIPS. I made so much money off this single premise that the only thing this man needs to save his life is more tips in my tip cup. I love the random nurse/doctor. I love the angry driver that hits the dude. I love everything about this one. Hands down my favorite. What's yours so far? 

Ahh, the scrabble TIPS. I really wanted to put pimp on something so I started there and connected the dots accordingly. I wish I could play with these scrabblers. A cat, an angler fish, and an owl scholar--- hells yeah.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

TOP SECRET TIPS IV

This is a lesson in spying, my friends. A lesson in conceit. A lesson in lessons. Sit down. Kick back. Get entertained.

We've seen this character before, ladies and gentlemen. Remember her name? No? Yes? I'm getting mixed answers here. Anyways, that's Niki Fury, sexy spy supreme. What's she doing on my TIPS card? Doing something really fucking cool. I originally drew this as a girl without an eye patch doing the cover-your-eye-thing but it came out looking a lot like Niki Fury so I drew the eye patch on. An hour later I realized if Niki were to cover her left eye, she'd be blind. That's when I added "see without sight," kind of a play on the Thundercats mantra "sight beyond sight." I made a LOT of money with this much to my surprise.

 Oh man, this one. I really wanted to make a comic that had to have a tip at the end. This is that idea. An idea of a ninja vs a samurai. Absolutely love the ending. I wish the S in TIPS was sharper, but letters drawn on a slant, freehand, are difficult as fuck.

 People didn't know what the hell I was talking about here. I misspelled TIPS one time as TOPS and came up with this. It could be a fancy jingle for a commercial or a morality lesson at the end of Magic School Bus. Who knows? All I know is getting tips means winning.

San Diegans love pandas. Asians love pandas. Girls love pandas. Customers LOVE pandas. Make sure to read the disclaimer. I doubt any customers read it. Also, love my taunt where I out myself as a bamboozler. HAH! Such a knee slapper. 

Here's where the magic happens. Two pen-is jokes on one card. A high concept dealing with creative familiars Pen-guin and Eraser-at. Had soooooo much fun drawing this I got carried away with the familiars.

TOP SECRET TIPS III

You didn't ask for more tips but I know you wanted more. Here's a couple during my "theme" period. Guess which witch is which.

I rushed this one. I didn't have markers for any color so that negated the need to color even one letter. I really  wanted to draw this concept though, but had time constraints, so it came out like poop post-Mexican hot chocolate: fast and a little sloppy. Don't visualize that. Please, for your own good.

I LOVE THIS ONE. My line work was on point. I was hitting strides with my magic theme but there was one big problem: the letter I. I tilted it because it would be easier for the bunny to make it to the top with the I like that. The real problem about it is that it made the tip card a little hard to access. It looked at first glance like THPS, but once you look at it you can see it's TIPS. But you can't unsee what you've seen, ya know, one of those things.

High concept. Totally clutch. I dreamt this up. Literally. Spent...maybe 25 minutes on this? One of my favorites for certain. Worked real well with the customers.

Damn, this one is great. I worked at a place in a tourist trap near the port. All prime placement for overly priced shit but a great "quaint" place to hang [I guess]. I thought about mermaids during work sometimes so I decided to create the mermaid mascot for Seaport Village [the tourist trap]. Ran with this and loved every second of it.

Here again we see a comic using my mermaid mascot. I had this convoluted bad rhyme poem like song made for this because I felt it needed a sing-song quality to it. It feels so contrived to me, but hell if it didn't make me money. One of my coworkers asked me to sing the song, so I poured a glass of water and gargled out the words because realistically that's what singing underwater would fucking sound like to us.

Monday, February 28, 2011

TOP SECRET TIPS II

More TIPS here. More TIPS tomorrow. This batch has some of my favorites.

What better way to shill your tip jar than by telling customers, straight up, to contribute? You have NO IDEA how easy this worked at increasing the rate and amount at which people would toss me tips. Also, think about where the 4th wall is in this comic.

I couldn't think of any ideas this time but wanted to draw robots. Then, I thought about drawing myself thinking about drawing said robots. Boom! Done. My shirt says "Gotta Catch 'Em All." 

I would meander the idea of a French TIPS episode to use the popular manicure to tell a joke. Worked better than I thought. I like how it asks to deposit here. 

One of my favorites during my big stride of TIPS comics. How do you kill a wolf? Here's a tip: read this comic. You have no clue how much I love that name tag of mine covering up the violence. 

Senor Tips vs. El Rojo Gato! Senor Tips is at the tippy-top of the luchador food chain. El Rojo Gato is a scrub working his way up the luchador ladder. They fight for honor, money, and pride, but mainly money.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

TOP SECRET TIPS I

A word from the Head: 
There was a time, long ago, when I worked at an establishment that provided extracurricular income through the nifty invention, the Tip Cup. I would place placards with the word, "TIPS," emblazoned on them to signify this is my cup and you should put money in there because I'm awesome. I got creative. I pushed myself to create a different index card size placard every work day, 10-30 minutes before work. This is that project. Read how I bamboozled innocence and made burning wallet paper. As always gentlemen and ladies, enjoy. There's many more to come.

 It was so hot outside that day and I was reading about the zoo. Not my most favorite piece but the rhino is choice.

 One of the earlier works. This one got a lot of laughs and made a shit ton of tips. Bees pound just like that. I invite you to try it.

I might've been eating cereal at the time this one came to me. No-- wait, I was overhearing a conversation with these two gentlemen about a third gentleman they knew who had a secret habit of eating coins. No joke. That's a serious habit. This one was smaller than the regular size index card. I used an ancient technique to shorten up the space I had to draw on. The technique is called: Folding the Flap over.

I had my copics on my one day and did this doodle-do. Also, might've babysat the night before this one. Either way the Count looks high as those 25 cent bouncy balls we all lost as a child. Kids would ask their parents to put money into this one. Each time they did I counted out the change.

I admit, I was in a rush to push this one out. I wanted to work exclusively with my 1.0mm liner while simultaneously making sure people knew this was a fucking tip cup sign.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Spy Way or The High Way

In the world of espionage there are only three truths: trust is irrelevant, facts change, and expecting the unexpected never prepares you for the unexpected. Here lies the Spy Code, a series of legends pertaining to the different espionage truths. Most of you have never heard these tales. Some of you may have heard through the grapevine or in passing. Shockingly, few out there have experienced these myths firsthand. Welcome to the espionage world. Here is your lesson in truth. 

The Alpha-Omega Rolodex: undoubtedly the most popular of these myths pertains to the nearly omnipotent deus ex machina known as the Alpha-Omega Rolodex. It is the beginning and end to all rolodexes ever in existence. It only lists anyone participating in the intelligence game. Constantly updating files, the rolodex runs self-aware thanks to a beyond-advanced A.I. mindframe. No one knows who or why or how built this listing. No one knows where it is or how to access it. There's only one report of the rolodex ever being accessed. The man in question wiped the A.I.'s mindframe of his existence. He no longer exists on paper or digitally or ever anywhere. Like the rolodex, this man is said to be a myth. He could be a she, he could be on the rolodex, he could be you or I. But that knowledge is, without exception, the most classified piece of intelligence in the entire history of being.

[Picture by Shinkiro]

The Historical Significance of Underwear: history books teach you that undergarments such as stockings, panties, and garter-belts originated as a fashion statement for the impoverished unwashed back in the early days. Propaganda taglines included "If you're not wearing undergarments, then you're a witch" and the ever popular "Don't be a fool, cover your tool." The truth of the matter is inherently irrelevant. We don't need to know where they came from but damn are we glad they're here for us. But did you know intelligence agents created undergarments as a way to conceal information in the most private of spaces? Several secret labs were used to design a piece of clothing that has the functional requirements of a hidden pocket or pants-under-pants. So, enjoy your underpants, for the secrets they hold can be many.

[Picture by I-don't-know]

The Luna Sceptre: in a lab hidden in plain sight, researchers the world over created the ultimate technological achievement. That achievement was the Luna Sceptre, a tool of such advanced technology if the researchers hadn't constructed it themselves, they'd believe it was real magic. It could summon, teleport, levitate, and blast. They couldn't find enough paper to write down the practical applications. One of the researchers, a mistress of exotic physics knew such a power at such a time would be absolutely abused. She did the one thing no Geneva convention, no G20 Summit, no UN council would ever vote to do: get rid of it. She stole the Sceptre and escaped to another reality, a reality where she was a blond Japanese schoolgirl who could use a Moon Scepter to transform into a magical Amazon. And so Mahou Shoujo was born.

[Picture by Bruce Timm]

Operation Greenbird: Greenbird was a go when Hitler seized control of Germany. It was said to be an alpha protocol that consisted of grouping together the world's greatest agents and exterminating the omega threat. The Star-Spangled Shield, the Son of Odin, and many others were gathered and told that the man with the toothbrush mustache would one day kill millions. They were ordered to stage a false flag so the world would have proper reason to assassinate the Fuhrer. On the way to the staging grounds in Poland, the Greenbird ops, without order, voted on the moral consequences of their actions. Would the pros of starting a war to give validation to a political murder plot outweigh the cons of possibly killing millions by starting another Great War? The vote was unanimous-- they don't do it. Here's where the facts change: the ops managers knew free will would be an x-factor and installed mind-manipulator chips in their brains to override free will. As soon as they voted to not do their job, they turned into mindless murder machines and marched on. Hitler was never assassinated and millions died.

[Picture by Chris Samnee]

Golden Patience: a warrior spy during the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era who's name was lost to the ages was the first man to time-travel to the future. During the Battle of Mt. Ding Jun, this warrior, carrying important intelligence about upcoming enemy formations, found himself lost. He took a look at the info he transported. What he found when he read that scroll was a war-ending strategy that only one man could fulfill.  Taking it upon himself, he carved a secret cavern into the rocky mountain and shut himself inside, meditating. Using astral projection, he entered the minds of Wu, Shu, and Wei officers, slowly seeding the end of Three Kingdoms era. After years, it was a success. China was one again unified but the warrior, stuck in the astral plane couldn't return to his body. His consciousness waited 2,000 years until he found a man performing astral projection as well. The warrior stole his body and lived as an old man in a young body. His real body is said to still be in Mt. Ding Jun.

[Picture by Hiro Mashima, Fairy Tail]

Monday, January 24, 2011

a history of heists

This secret spy site has been stolen. Send all regards to Mr. 6. I bring you six tales of thievery so clever, so cunning, and so bold that even I wish theft is as easy as they make it seem. Enjoy your study of stealing; it make come in handy one day.

The Coelacanth, largest luxury-class cruise ship in the solar system, was secretly transporting two things. The first item wasn't the most valuable but was what our thief, Double Enzo, was after originally. It's the Last Element. Able to power a sun, shift matter state, and multiply at a controlled rate, the Last Element really is the end to all elements. Selling it wasn't an option when using it meant the ability to do everything. Double Enzo, in his interplanetary Asteroid9 speeder, stuck like a remora to the Coelacanth. He slipped on deck through the vacuum ventilation and made his way to the Last Element. Getting his hands on the element wasn't the tricky part; it was escaping. Security vanguards found his speeder and were closing in on him. Nowhere to go, Double Enzo found his way into a secret demonstration starring the most valuable thing on the ship: a Parallel Universe Jumper aka the Pudge. He absconded into a parallel universe with the Last Element and told his tale. That parallel universe is our universe and the Last Element resides within our sun.

In the 1960s, India birthed a goddess. With eight arms, blue skin, and the power to form matter from color, she was thought by many villages to be Durga, incarnation of Devi. But in reality, she is just a woman born from belief and center to the greatest and worst heist of all history. Being Durga-like, she was paraded around as a goddess. They worshipped her sweet benevolence, but she didn't want it. Her advisor, Sukhwinder, could see her sadness and her compromise. Spending all his time with her, he wished her nothing but happiness, and in doing so fell for her. She felt the same but cared more of her people's state as they believed a goddess loves all, not one. They devised a plan to solve all their problems and provide the Indian people with a better understanding of the world. They faked their death during a spirit sending ceremony and lived happily far away from worshipping eyes. Sukhwinder secretly stole a goddess' heart in return for his.

[Art by Corey Lewis]

The largest cash robbery in the world was as simple as a comic book. Going under pen names, Cali, Ursula, Nell, and Tamara, these four women made a comic detailing their exact heist of the World Bank, Vatican Bank, and 19 other country currency holds BEFORE they even performed them. The comic published by  C.U.N.T. was a megacontroversy that left the world in suspended animation for six months until the date of the heists. The comic sold off the racks with double digit reprintings. It became the hottest selling words-on-paper since the bible. Everyone had it and everyone was trying to solve the case or live out their heist fantasy by proxy. The date came and the banks were ready for their plan. Obviously they knew the four women who wrote this would hire a multitude of people for the heist, but no heist information aside from the comic existed. No snitches, no trace backs from the publishing companies, nothing. The banks were never directly stolen from that day, but the girls put out a second comic the following month. It consisted of four pages: two of graphs highlighting their first issue's profits [which clocked in at $2.8 billion worldwide, USD] and two pages of a thank you note for everyone who ever bought their comic. A thank you for their money.

[Art by Adam Hughes]

Have you ever seen The One starring Jet Li? Where the guy's alternate reality self is absorbing all his alternate selves to become more powerful? Well, this is the man they based the movie off of. He not only created a device to travel to parallel dimensions but also a device to absorb factors from his alternate selves selectively. This was so he could be as perfect as he could be in one dimension, rather than multiple dimensions of imperfect selves. He didn't have a brawl with his other selves [to his own knowledge]. He didn't have a plan to take over all realities. He just wanted to own up to his full potential. After an equivalent of 88 years and infinite dimensions, he still hasn't reached his full potential. He'll spend the rest of his life laying waste to his other selves and dying old, never having achieved his goal. 

[Art by Frank Quitely]

This is the painting that stole itself: the Escape. Painted by a mystery artist and set to premiere at a New Year's Eve gallery showing in downtown Manhattan, this painting was the talk of the town. No one had ever seen it, no details of its composition, not even the artist could describe it [not that artists THAT artsy can coherently describe any of their art]. Midnight that eve, the ball dropped. So did the protective zipper curtain the painting was transported in. Art enthusiasts enthused, painters were inspired to paint, photographers couldn't take photos fast enough, and the artist was soaking in its glory. Then, with a throng of onlookers and security cameras blazing its memory into their databanks, the painting disappeared. It vanished. On the security feed it was there and the next second it wasn't. The painting's composition has continuity errors from each eyewitness report and even from each security feed. Someone said the painting was black with a red rose in it. Cam footage shows it to be a giant woman sitting on a tiny mountain. This image probably isn't even the real thing. All we know is that the Escape escaped.

[Art by James Jean]

Deep under the Caribbean Sea, in a sunnier part of the Bermuda Triangle where the light is strong enough to penetrate to the very floor, there exists the most beautiful ecosystem in the world. Beauty surrounded by the horrific Triangle, the ecosystem acted as the shifting core-- never staying in the same position as this center of gravity rotated. Many airplanes, pirate ships, and other oceanfarers entering the Triangle never left, and in this instance, it was light enough to see something ancient never did. Discovered by the team of adventurers known as the Fantabulous Foursome, the seaship dubbed the White Majesty is the only fully functioning submarine to be made entirely of coral. Scientists teamed with the Fantab-Four state that the coral samples suggest the ship's age to be no less than seven digits and no more than nine digits. One of the most important and delicate finds in all history which would later be stolen. Two trusted scientists under the names of Dr. Heinrich von Ruden and Dr. Edith El-Baz journeyed with the Four on another sampling mission. Once aboard the vessel, the doctors knocked out the Four and stole the White Majesty. For what purpose? No one knows. Speculation rests that the thieves wished to discover its mysteries and thereby win multiple Nobel prizes and possibly reverse-engineer a new age of materials. Other whispering postulates that the thieves wanted the secrets of the White Majesty to stay secret. The latter rumor, if true, is not entirely unfounded.