Ask me somethin'....

[rickvs]

In the spirit of recent memes, I have a twofold question:

Anything you'd like to know about me?

Any technical things you'd like to know about my field of expertise? (I'm a graphic artist / illustrator / computer operator).

I am easily foolish enough to take a swing at almost any question in a public forum; please fire away.

Comments

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

Where were you born and who were your parents?

[rickvs.livejournal.com]

I was born in Washington, D.C., and adopted shortly thereafter by my mom and dad, Marvin and Marilyn. (They had to wait a few weeks for me to recover from surgery to correct pyloric stenosis). As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've never had any burning desire to look up my biological parents; I'm rather pleased with the ones I have. For a while, as a child, I believed I had been born in West Virginia -- due, I think, to my first home being in Virginia, plus the fact that I liked a certain John Denver song :>

I spent much of my youth on the east coast -- we lived not only in Virginia but Maryland (twice), and visited Washington D.C. pretty often. Never lived in Ohio, myself, but we visited my grandparents a couple times each year, as I recall. Spent more time with my mother's side of the family than my father's ...this seems due, I've recently discovered, to my parents protecting us from some political crap going on in my dad's side of the family. (A good call on their part, I think).

[la-luna.livejournal.com]

Have any phobias?

[rickvs.livejournal.com]

The only one I can think of is a fear of heights. I've never bungee jumped, nor parachuted ...and I doubt I ever will. I don't mind airplanes or roller coasters, however -- I guess it helps to have the one level of safety represented by a seat belt or a window.

While I don't come completely unglued if I'm near a cliff's edge, my legs get rubbery and my scalp prickles. (As Hobbes the tiger would put it, my tail gets all bushy). I can function with it -- or I wouldn't have done any mountain hiking with my Scout troop. But heights are the only sure-fire way I know to turn my insides to water.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... considered doing a comic for the Redneck?

(Merely curious)

[rickvs.livejournal.com]

The idea of doing a comic strip (or book) has crossed my mind several times over the years, actually. The roadblocks so far have been:

1) I don't think I can write enough material to crank out a quality daily strip. (While unrealistic, I'd basically be striving for the next "Calvin & Hobbes" -- which is a high bar indeed).

2) My paying jobs take precedence, and doing a comic -- while appealing -- is far enough down my priority list that it's unlikely to happen without outside assistance.

3) I've not gotten much recreational artwork of *any* type done in the last ten years. I suppose the sort of comic I'm most likely to produce at this point would be a web comic on no set schedule -- or a series of those humorous animations I see floating around. I know I could produce better quality work than some of *those* things :>

On the positive side, I was approached last year by someone wanting me to do a monthly comic for his school's newsletter. The project is still a go; we agreed on financial terms and I'm just waiting on instructions ... as I have been for six months. It'll be an interesting gig -- on the plus side, I don't have to write it, only illustrate it. On the potential downside, it's for a religious school. I'll see what happens if they ask me to illustrate something I have serious moral objections to.