Alec Longstreth's Blog

Video Games

Sat, 11 May 2013 20:25:30 PST

I was six years old when the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the USA. I (of course) wanted one, but my father had a strict "no video games" rule for our home. At the time this seemed tragically unfair.

A year or two later the ONLY thing on my Christmas list was an NES. If my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas I stubbornly responded "I only want a Nintendo." I did not get it, which barely registered in my consciousness when I was happily opening my other presents on Christmas morning, but years later my mother told me the the tragic true story of that Christmas Eve...

She had actually gone out and bought me a Nintendo! That Christmas eve, it was literally sitting in the trunk of my mother's car, in the garage just below where I was sleeping. I guess my parents got in an argument over it, and my dad won and the Nintendo never entered the house. I was completely oblivious about all of this, and my mom returned it to Toys R' Us a few days later.

In retrospect, I can respect my father's decision. I probably spent a lot more time running around in the woods, reading and drawing because we didn't have a NES, which is a good thing. I almost want to say it helped me become the creative person I am today, but I have so many creative friends who DID grow up with a Nintendo, I'm pretty sure I would have ended up where I am today either way. And besides, I just went over to Ryan Kirkby's house to play Nintendo anyway!

Ryan was way better at the NES than I was because he had unlimited access to the machine. At first this was kind of a drag because we'd try to play two-player games, but I was always holding him back. Eventually I became Ryan's video game "copilot" which worked much better. Ryan would play, and I'd watch while throwing in the occasional suggestion or tip.

At some point Ryan got Loom for his home computer. That changed everything for me. There was no dexterity involved, no timing or hand-eye coordination necessary. We just clicked our way through the story, and used our minds to solve puzzles. It was a total blast for me, and we spent many an hour in front of this game, trying to figure it out. All those hours really burned this art style of 256-colors into my brain. It still looks amazing to me, though much of that is probably nostalgia.

I caught bits and pieces of other adventure games while over at Ryan's house including Sam and Max, Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle. In high school, I got around my father's "no video game" rule by using the family computer and by buying the games with my own money. I remember playing all of The Dig and some of Dark Forces, which was more of a "real" video game. I was never very good at it, but I had fun walking around shooting Storm Troopers!

If you're asking yourself, "What's with all the LucasArts Games?" I'm not sure what to tell you... I was (WAS?) obsessed with Star Wars, so the "Lucas" name held a lot of sway with me. Plus, every game I played was awesome, so I didn't really feel the need to branch out.

In college, I met Frunch and GCB who had both grown up with video games. Quake was really in vogue, which they tried to get me into, but again, I could never keep up. I didn't stand a chance in the single-player games and in multiplayer games I was always goofing around, like running around, trying to kill players with an axe, so I could use the line, "Hey, can I AXE you a question?"

My sophomore year, we all moved into a quad together, along with our friend Sam. This was right when Quake 3 came out, so I installed it and tried to play, but again, I was no great shakes. There was also a Nintendo 64 in that quad, and an ungodly amount of The New Tetris was played. I was easily the worst player in the quad.

After college, I ended up living in a house with Frunch in Portland, Oregon. He played a lot of video games, and I was preparing to ease back into my role of video game "copilot" when Frunch stopped me cold in my tracks. Instead, he offered to TEACH me how to play video games! Frunch set up a course of study which took me from the humble beginnings of video games up to the (at the time) current state of the art. Here was what I had to do:

Atari: Get through level 5 of Frogger
Nintendo: Beat Super Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda
Super Nintendo: Beat Super Mario World
Nintendo 64: Beat Mario 64 and Zelda 64

All of this I did, helped immensely by the fact that I was unemployed at the time. It was a great course. As I moved through the games, I learned to use each new controller - from no buttons to two buttons, to four buttons to however many buttons there are on the N64. I also learned to navigate increasingly complex worlds - from overhead to side scrolling to full-on 3D. I wouldn't say I was GREAT at video games after Frunch's course, but I at least now had the confidence to participate along with others, or to tackle new games on my own.

That was in 2004. For the next eight years, I think the only video game I played was Jedi Knight II. In general, I am much too busy drawing comics and trying to scrape together a freelance living to play video games, but I could not resist the idea of running around with a lightsaber. I never even got close to beating it.

Then, in 2012, I spent six months as the Acting Director of CCS. This was one of the most stressful times of my life. I was so busy that I only had an hour to script comics in the morning and then the rest of my day was spent working for the school. At night, I was utterly exhausted and burned out.

I needed some form of stress relief, and one night I thought "Maybe I should play a video game." I went on Steam and found that they had an old LucasArts Adventure Game pack for $10. I bought it and that night I started replaying Loom. It was pure nostalgia and I loved every minute of it. The art, the music, the story. I even had fun trying to figure out the puzzles again, many of which I had forgotten in the 22-year interval. I only played for an hour or two a week, late at night, but it definitely helped me get through that stressful time in my life.

Once Claire and I made it out to the West coast, I downloaded SCUMM VM and tracked down some of the old LucasArts adventure games, including Sam and Max Hit the Road. I've always loved Sam and Max (the comics, the TV show) and I had played bits and pieces of this game when I was a kid, but MAN! This game was so fun, I could barely stand it. The great characters combined with the totally off-the-wall puzzles made for a hilarious adventure. It's like a great animated cartoon, except you can PLAY it and make the decisions and figure out all the important plot moments for yourself.

So imagine my delight, when, RIGHT as I was getting back into Adventure Games, Double Fine started their Kickstarter campaign to create a NEW Adventure Game! I signed up in an instant, and was thrilled when the project blew past its $300K goal and raised over three million dollars.

I can honestly say it's the best $15 I've ever spent. Not only is Double Fine making this game from scratch, but Two Player Productions is making a documentary of their process. Each month I get a private link to an hour-long documentary about whatever's been going on with the game's production, including writing, concept designs, art, programming, music, sound effects, budgeting. It's been a fascinating process, and Double Fine head honcho Tim Schaefer is one hilarious dude. It's also great to see my pal Scott C. turn up every once in a while!

If you would like check this project out, and help with its creation, you can still chip in! $30 gets you access to all of the documentary content as well as the game when it is done. I promise you, it is worth every penny!

Speaking of the game, it is called "Broken Age" and it is coming along nicely! Visit the site to check out some art from the game and the teaser trailer. I'm super duper excited to play this when it is ready! Even more exciting than this one game though, is the thought that Double Fine has been working hard to create the game ENGINE from scratch. I really hope this means that they will be able to make more Adventure Games after this one is done. A second dawn of fun, "easy" games with great stories, characters, art and puzzles? Count me in!

I was having so much fun following Double Fine's progress on Broken Age, I decided to attempt to play their flagship title, Psychonauts. I've been chipping away at it, a few hours a weekend for the last few months, and today I finally beat it. It was pretty hard for me, I definitely couldn't have done it without Frunch's video game course, but it was worth the effort. It's definitely one of the most unique stories I've ever experienced. Clever and rad on so many different levels. I really hope they will make a sequel someday.

If ANY of this Double Fine stuff sounds good to you, there is an incredible deal up right now on Humble Bundle. For the next ten days, you can pay whatever you want and get a bunch of their games. $35 gets you Psychonauts, Stacking, Costume Quest, Brütal Legend AND access to all the Broken Age stuff. You're not going to find a better deal than that, and it's available on Mac/PC/Linux!

It feels kind of weird that I've been so obsessed with this stuff lately, because I don't think of myself as a "video game guy." But maybe it makes sense... Disney closed down LucasArts last month after the LucasFilm merger, so it's kind of like passing the torch. Schaefer worked on a lot of the adventure games at LucasArts, and now I'm playing his stuff from Double Fine. It feels similar to my experiences as a kid. I'm having fun playing the games, and I don't have a ton of time for this stuff anyways, so I haven't yet felt the need to branch out and explore more of the current video game landscape, which seems vast and somewhat terrifying.

Phew! Okay, sorry this post is so long and crazy. I have been thinking about this stuff a lot but haven't had the time to write it all out until today. Now that I've cleared out my backlog of thoughts on video games, I can write (MUCH) shorter posts in the future as I play more of these games. For now I better get back to the drawing board!

Adobe Creative Cloud

Tue, 7 May 2013 13:55:28 PST

Yesterday Adobe announced that its "Creative Suite" applications (which includes Photoshop) will now be transferred permanently into their Creative Cloud scheme. This means that you will no longer be able to buy Photoshop as a stand-alone product which you buy once, install and use. From now on you will have to subscribe to Photoshop "CC" which will then auto-update to the latest version of Photoshop.

For $50 a month you get access to every program that Adobe makes: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, AfterEffects, Flash, Premiere, Acrobat, etc. etc. etc. For a single program, it costs $20 a month. There are no other options.

Now from Adobe's perspective, they probably think they are cutting us a deal. This will probably actually save money for their biggest customers (universities, large creative companies) . Let's say that each of those programs I listed above costs about $600 for one copy. So that's $5,000 of software - it's probably more than that because there are another dozen applications included, but I've never used or heard of half of them, so these are the big ones. And if you are a university and you have to replace $5,000 of software every couple of years, than suddenly $600 a year sounds pretty great.

But to pay almost half of that just to get one program is ridiculous. And it doesn't make sense to me that there aren't options for smaller bundles. The list above covers a wide range of disciplines from film to animation to art to design to computer science. I don't know anyone who uses all of those products. Most of us just need a few. For instance I primarily use Photoshop and InDesign. How about $5/month for one program, $20/month for three and $50 for everything?

When I started out as a cartoonist, I pirated copies of Photoshop and InDesign, as did all of my cartoonist friends and colleagues. I'm not proud of the fact, and I began buying legal versions of the software as soon as I could afford it, but in my mind there is a relationship between these products and the comics/illustration industry. By using this software on all of our projects - from illustrations for magazines, to color files for graphic novels, to our own printed minicomics - we help keep Adobe products as the "industry standard." Even when I couldn't afford the software, by using it, I helped reinforce their dominance in these industries. And sadly, it is that dominance that now gives them the confidence to pull a move like this and expect us all to tow the line.

But make no mistake. As cartoonists and illustrators we are hacking Photoshop. It is not designed for us. It is a massively huge, complex program, which is specifically designed for photo retouching. Does anyone else remember in Photoshop 6 (I think it was?) when they removed the Paint Bucket tool? They were like, "Well, this is an outdated tool that no one uses anymore. Besides you can make a selection, and then hit 'Fill' and accomplish the same thing." To me, this was a very telling moment. They had no idea that for a lot of us, the paint bucket tool is the main tool which we use in Photoshop! There was a massive outcry, and the tool was reincorporated, but for me the writing was now on the wall: we are not the intended users of this product.

I taught Photoshop with Jon Chad as part of the year-long Center for Cartoon Studies Publication Workshop class, and let me tell you: we cover everything you need to know to work as a professional cartoonist (scanning, retouching, adding tones/color, preparing files for print, for web) and we probably scratch less than 10% of what Photoshop can do. Every time Adobe lists the new features of the latest version of Photoshop, I read through the list and think "None of this stuff applies to me. Why should I pay for this new version?" I haven't seen an update since the original CS release that actually changes how I do anything in Photoshop.

So, what am I going to do? Well, ironically, part of me thinks I should shell out a bunch of money to buy hard copies of Photoshop/InDesign CS 6 (the last CS releases), with the hope that I can use those for the next four years (about how often I update these programs) and by that time, the dust will have settled and Adobe will have come up with a better pricing plan for their Creative Cloud subscription service.

Another idea is to just drop Photoshop all together. There are alternatives, such as GIMP (Graphics Image Manipulation Program, which is FREE) or programs such as MangaStudio which are actually designed with cartoonists in mind. Some of my students have made this jump, and they all speak very highly of Manga Studio. For only $80 it's tempting to give it a chance. I could have years of productive output, as opposed to four months of Photoshop use.

What do people think of all this? What are you all going to do next month when "Photoshop CC" hits the streets? Does anyone know of any more affordable alternatives to InDesign? Please let me know in the comments!

(Damaged) French Basewood copies available

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:08:44 PST

I received some copies of the French translation of Basewood in the mail the other day. As you can see here, the box they arrived in got worked over pretty badly during its 5,540 mile trek from Brussels to Oakland. Unfortunately, the books did not fair very well; all the corners got dented or smashed in. :(

The insides are still fine though, and the bindings are strong. So if anyone out there would like to practice their French, or wants a slightly damaged copy of the book, I'm going to offer them for $10, which includes media mail shipping (in the USA ONLY - if you are in Canada you can order Basewood from Amazon.ca and in Europe you can order it from Amazon.fr). I hope that seems reasonable for a book that usually costs 23 Euros (about $30).

If anyone is interested please shoot me an email (my first name -at- the URL of this website) and we can work out the PayPal details.

Claire and I have been getting ready for the Stumptown Comics Fest which is this weekend (April 27th & 28th) in Portland, Oregon. We will be at table A-03 along with our friends Greg Means of Tugboat Press and Nicole Georges.

I'll have copies of all my new stuff: B-Sides, Phase 7 #017 and Drop Target #5 as well as some older stuff. Claire will have an all new zine based on her Terrible Movie Nights blog, as well as tons of Fluff Engine patterns and plush.

I'm excited to catch up with some of my Portland friends, as well as comics friends who are coming from all over the country. It should be fun!

B-Sides: Phase 7 #012-#016 is now available!

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 23:06:33 PST

I'm pleased to announce that issues #012-#016 of Phase 7 have been collected into a single volume, called B-Sides, which clocks in at 266 pages. Copies are available from Lulu.com and it will soon be available in a variety of other venues. I will also have copies available at the Stumptown Comics Fest April 27th and 28th in Portland, Oregon along with copies of Phase 7 #017 and the brand new Drop Target #5.

This collection feels long overdue. Somehow it has been seven years since I last released a new collection of Phase Seven Comics (!?!). And some of these issues have been out of print for four or five years. It feels good to have them available again, and all under one spine. I recently stacked up issues #001-#016 which was about 750 pages!

I'm going bonkers with tons of freelance work at the moment so I haven't had much time for blogging. I do have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head though, so hopefully once the dust settles I'll have lots of stuff to share with everyone. Until then, I hope that you all are having a good Spring so far!

Yes, Let's v2.0

Tue, 2 Apr 2013 18:07:43 PST

As some of you may already know, my sister Galen wrote a picture book called Yes Let's, which was illustrated by my good friend Maris Wicks and published by Tugboat Press in 2010. The original version was kind of like a deluxe minicomic picture book. It was 6"x6" and printed in full color.

Obviously, I am totally biased, because I love everyone that was involved with this project, but believe me when I say that this is a great book. It depicts a big family as they head off into the woods for a day of fun out in nature. It is basically a retelling of any number of trips that we took as a family growing up in the Pacific Northwest.

Next week, on April 9th, Tanglewood Press is releasing a new and improved version of Yes Let's. It is larger, hardback with a dust jacket and it even has a few additional pages of illustrations by the inimitable Ms. Wicks. Needless to say, I am very excited about this! It's great that this book will have a chance to reach a wider readership.

You can track down the book from Powell's (where Galen used to work in the Children's section!) and Amazon, or better yet, ask for it at your local bookstore. I promise, you won't regret it! If you don't believe me, check out the starred review from Publisher's Weekly it got.

Galen is also hitting the road this summer to do a few signings, which are listed below. You can also keep an eye on the Yes Let's Facebook Page to check out other events as they are added.

May 18th - Island Books on Mercer Island, WA
July 13th - Hicklebee's Bookstore in San Jose, CA

Should we all buy a copy of the book for ourselves, or a friend, or a kid in our lives? Yes, Let's! :)

Back from Bahrain

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:55:33 PST

On Friday I finally returned from my two week trip out of town. My time in Vermont was very busy. I gave a lecture or taught a CCS class every day that I was in White River Junction. In my spare time I was also working with Jon Chad, frantically trying to get Drop Target #5 done before I left for the Middle East.

We got a lot done, and nailed down the final page count (64!). Jon even managed to print the center spreads and covers, but I just didn't have enough time to finish up my last few pages. I worked on them during the rest of my trip and now that I'm home, I'm wrapping up the final pages. The issue should still be ready by the end of March, with plenty of time before the Stumptown Comics Fest at the end of April, where the new issue will debut.

The second leg of my journey was quite an adventure! James Sturm and I flew from Boston to London, and then from London to Manama, the capital of Bahrain. Our contact at the US Embassy was super cool and he set up a lot of really interesting activities for our visit.

We met the US ambassador to Bahrain, taught a two-day comics workshop at the University of Bahrain (shown above!), visited the studio of Bahrain's most renowned political cartoonist Abdulla Al-Muharraqi (who is also a very accomplished painter), had dinner with the Ulafa'a artists collective, taught two comics workshops for students from an international elementary school, met Mahmood Al Mulla and saw an exhibit of his beautiful calligraphy work at the Bahrain Arts Center, gave a lecture about careers in the arts to some local artists, and visited the Bahrain National Museum.

I have been slammed with massive jetlag after my 33 hour trip back to Oakland, so it has been an uphill battle trying to get caught up with everything. Once things get a bit more back to normal, I will to try upload some photos from my trip. James may also post some stuff on the CCS blog, so you may want to keep an eye over there.

Thanks to everyone who made it such an enjoyable trip!

Phase 7 #017 is now available for ordering!

Mon, 4 Mar 2013 05:37:04 PST

I leave for my trip in about eight hours, but I wanted to quickly say that Phase 7 #017 is finally available for ordering! Please make sure you select the correct shipping region (USA, Canada or International).

All subscriber copies were mailed out on Saturday, so they should be arriving soon. Claire will be filling all orders while I am on the road. I hope that people enjoy the new issue!

10,000 Miles of Teaching

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 18:55:17 PST

I had a blast at the L.A. Zine Fest. So many people showed up that at one point the fire marshal had to shut it down, because the space had reached its maximum occupancy. A huge line formed, and if one person left, he'd let one person in. Pretty crazy! I sold as many zines in one day as I usually sell at a two day show, and I got to see a lot of old friends, so it was a successful trip all around.

I have been slightly under the weather since my return to Oakland, so I have been laying low and trying to take it easy. I have another two, big, back-to-back trips approaching quickly, so I'll need to be running at 100%!

On March 4th I leave for Vermont, to do a week of teaching at The Center for Cartoon Studies. I'll do a few of my lectures for the first years (who I have yet to meet) and then on Thursday I get to be the Visiting Artist. I'm really looking forward to talking with the students about my current and future projects. I'll also be helping out with Portfolio Day at CCS on March 9th.

That night, James Sturm and I will head to the airport to travel all the way to the country of Bahrain in the Middle East, to teach some comics workshops. We'll be there for a little less than a week and then I'll fly the 10,000 miles back to Oakland. Phew!

I should get Phase 7 #017 back from the printer this week, so with Claire's help, I'm going to try and get the issue sent out to all of the subscribers before I leave on this trip. I'm also frantically trying to finish up all of my contributions for Drop Target #5 which Jon Chad and I are going to try and slam together while I am in Vermont.

This is all to say that things will probably be pretty quiet around here in the coming weeks... I have already stopped posting on my illustration blog and the Stern Blog because I need to focus on the tasks at hand, and my time is limited! Hopefully once I return, things will settle back down into a normal routine.

Phase 7 at the L.A. Zine Fest!

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 23:19:44 PST

Today I inked the last page of Phase 7 #017! This week I will be frantically scanning all the pages, correcting and proofreading them and then trying to print out a small batch to bring with me to the L.A. Zine Fest which is on Sunday February 17th! If you are in the Los Angeles area please come check it out! I will be at table 29. I'll also have all four issues of Drop Target Zine and a big stack of The Dvorak Zine.

As soon as I get back from that trip I will be printing up Phase 7 #017 for real and sending it out to all the Phase 7 subscribers. If you are a subscriber and you moved in 2012, please send me your current mailing address! After all the subscribers have their copies I will put the issue up for sale in the comics section. All of this will happen before February is through!

Sadly, Claire will not be able to join me on this trip. She is doing better and better each day, but she has another checkup on Friday so she has to hang out here. Honestly, it's probably best that she continues to lay low and take it easy.

It's been five years since my last visit to L.A. so I am looking forward to seeing my L.A. friends again. Each trip to Los Angeles helps me create new, happy memories which replace all of my sad, lonely memories from living there in 2002. The bright spot in the middle of those dark times was self-publishing the first issue of Phase 7, so it'll feel good to return to the city with an additional sixteen issues under my belt!

Home

Sun, 3 Feb 2013 21:16:19 PST

Well, after four days and three nights in the hospital, Claire is finally back home where she belongs. The surgery was a success and Claire's physical recovery was pretty quick. We just had to hang out for a few days to make sure all her levels were back to normal. It was kind of a drag hanging out in the hospital so long, but we were glad that the doctors were playing it safe. The last thing we wanted to do was go home and then have to come back to the hospital. The staff at the hospital made sure that her stay was very comfortable and pain-free, and day by day she is getting back to her good ol' self.

We are glad to have this part of the process behind us, and we are both very much looking forward to having some quiet time at home. Claire's mom Ellie has been here the whole time, which has been a huge help. Claire has lots of support and told me to send out a big thank you to everyone who has been pulling for her over the last few weeks. I too am grateful to have such a caring and supportive network of family and friends!