A while ago I did a full-page comic for Afoot Magazine, a Vancouver-based lifestyle magazine started by my classmate Dmitri and Sebastiaan. I also designed their website. You can check out the comic right here (Or click on the picture).

Second of all — my senior project I decided to build a graphic adventure game for CUEK in Flash. For those not familiar with the term, a graphic adventure is one of those point-and-click games that make you solve puzzles and shit to advance the story. If you want to check out what I have so far, just click (You can’t really do anything except walk around the room and look/talk/inspect with certain things, so, yeah, just sayin’ since the last demo I put up I forgot to mention when it ended and people were staring at it for ages wondering what to do next).

I’ve also put the online store on hold until after graduation when I’ll really be needing to convince you guys to throw money at me somehow, so we’ll see.

Thank you so so much, I can’t stress enough, for the continued support!

I originally had a long-winded explanation as to why I tend to disappear without warning but I scrapped it because it all boils down to one thing — I only draw when I’m inspired, and I’m only inspired when I’m unhappy about something. I’m not about to start cranking out half-assed shit just to meet a deadline. When I create something, it has to be the best I can possibly make it to my ability. I’m not about to let CUEK become one of those shit strips you see in the newspaper.

That being said — I struck gold a few weeks ago and have been working ever since trying to get this… “new thing” I’m trying into motion. Coupled with a redesign, it’s going to be… well, a story comic. Whether it’s one entire page  a week or several panels every few days, I’m taking a break from the norm and telling you a story that you may or may not be already familiar with.

In the  meantime, have a fantastical new year — eat, drink, and be fat and drunk.

Art never comes from happiness. — Chuck Palahniuk

I am really, really sorry for the lack of updates the past couple of weeks. This week was finals week and despite all the sleep I lost I still managed to fail one class. But it doesn’t matter, because for the next two weeks I have COMPLETE FREEDOM. Which means, we’re back to our regular updates!
Also, my 21st is this weekend, so I implore you to go out and party with me in spirit. : )

The forums are down right now, I’ve been trying to fix them for the last couple of hours but to no avail. I think I’m gonna sleep on it and see what I can do tomorrow.

For everyone who has stuck around, I thank you from the very bottom of my heart for putting up with my constant bullshit. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again — I write a comic about failed relationships. How together do you think my life is?

Much love.

Some old stuff, some new stuff, just felt like putting ‘em up since most of them haven’t seen the light of day before. School is killer, and it’s destroying my sleep schedule, my appetite, and — this I fear the most — my sense of humor.

But I’m trying my best. Promise.

I mean, I write a comic about failed relationships — how ‘together’ do you think my life is, really?

So much love for the continued, undying support. You guys are awesome.

That formula might not work for me anymore, unfortunately. As we enter our fourth quarter in this intensive design program, the workload has increased accordingly. One of the reasons I maintained a Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday schedule is that I am an incredibly slow worker. I may understand a concept or have a great idea in mind for a comic, but as of late it’s been taking me up to six to eight hours to finish a comic strip. “Six to eight hours?!” you gasp, raising an eyebrow. “But the comic art is so simple. Why does it take so long?” Well, I tend to be a little OCD when it comes to my line art, and the actual majority of that time is spent drawing, erasing, and redrawing.

tl;dr I’m slow to begin with, and being busy makes me slower.

As it stands I may tone down the updates temporarily for the next few weeks, from three updates to two (most likely on Sunday and Thursday).

(To appease a disgruntled reader, the header image will be edited to reflect this change as soon as I get home.)

I really wish I didn’t have to do this, but school is killer and I haven’t been sleeping lately. Well, that’s a lie, I did sleep yesterday — I got home on Tuesday night, passed out, and woke up on Thursday morning. It’s pretty bad. My dad calls me “Sleeping Beauty” now.

The good news is that, while I am working at school right now as I’m writing this, I do have a strip in the works that will be up between tonight and tomorrow morning. And as a little extra for those who haven’t seen it and are willing to wait for me to get my shit together, I’ve put my old webcomic back up. You’ve probably been wondering who the hell those kids at the top of this post are — it’s the cast from the defunct No Spring Chicken webcomic. If you have some time to kill, feel free to browse through about 200 mediocre strips!

It’s nothing amazing and frankly at some points it’s a little embarassing, but I started making those strips when I was fourteen. It was just kind of interesting looking through all my failed projects and seeing how small elements from all of those endeavors seem to have found their way back to CUEK.

And finally, thank you all so much for your infinite patience and continued support, you guys rock

Hint: I made THIS for my final project for Flash class (nothing amazing, but I’m still thinking baby steps). And don’t forget THIS.

So as it stands, the school semester just ended and I find myself a bit behind on the comic, so ideally I’m going to try to get caught up with over our two-week break (yes, that short) from school.

Goals up until end of July:

• Get shit together and establish a comic buffer. No more  waiting until the night before to draw the strip. Have a couple done ahead of time, say, a week or three’s worth.
• Get out of the house every now and then.
• Refrain from threatening to ” ___(violent verb)___ a  __(_[group of]_ cute fuzzy baby animal[s]_)__”.
• MERCHANDISE. Or, at the very least, T-shirts.
• Put up a Cast Page so people won’t wonder anymore who is Frank and who is Zeke.
• Explain in said cast page that the characters weren’t originally supposed to have names/distinct personalities, hence initial confusion when reading from the beginning (if you read closely & follow the text colors, you’ll notice that both Frank AND Zeke apparently went out with Red, which makes no sense).
• Revise the Frequently Asked Questions page to include questions that have actually been asked.
• Have the script ready for the CUEK Flash game.
• No more fat jokes for a while. Compensate with dick jokes.

And that’s it from me until later today. Sorry to bump Jade’s article off the front, so go read it now or I’ll start punching puppies.

Wait, fuck

Quick update on Thursday’s ‘strip’: It’s going to be late, and I apologize, because I wanted it to be fully animated but last night during the time I usually get my shit done, I got caught up in a personal emergency. It will most likely be up tonight, or tomorrow morning at the latest. Sorry . In the meantime I hope to distract you with some eye candy as well as something I’d like to discuss.

I have a question about the phrase “CHEER UP, EMO KID”. Why is this so offensive? So far I have had the privilege of meeting three distinct people who have taken offense to the phrase. Two of them were on WoW back in the day when my named my guild “Cheer Up, Emo Kid”. I was bitched at for being “insensitive”, “a bully”, and “a jerk”, among other things. The third instance is a girl commenting on the Facebook Artwork Album (you may have to trackback a bit if you want to read through it).

Apparently, “Emo kids” don’t need cheering up. Or something like that.

How can anyone take offense to this phrase? Yes, it is implying and reinforcing the stereotype that “Emos” are unhappy or depressed — but the word “Emo” itself stems from “emotional”. So by in fact defining yourself as an “Emo kid” you are admitting to that you are emotional, am I correct?

Stereotypes are stereotypes because they’re true. I’m not going to lie about that. I’m Asian and in all cases I am a terrible driver. I’m a Filipino and I switch my F’s & P’s and my B’s & V’s sometimes. The big (and only) white guys in my high school were jocks. I have a close Jewish friend and he’s pretty fucking stingy with his money. I have a Japanese friend and he is, by all accounts, insane. The same goes with “Emos” — they’re naturally associated with depression, cutting, suicide, whiny music, distinct hairdos, and black clothing (among other things) because IT’S FUCKING TRUE, RIGHT?

Please, stop me if I’m wrong.

I always thought that this webcomic would be a guide of sorts, in order to either prevent people from making the same mistakes I have, or humor those with similar experiences. As far as I see it, “Emo” isn’t a fashion trend or a type of music. Emo is a MINDSET. Anyone who defines themselves as “Emo” solely by the clothes they wear, the music they listen to, and the cuts on their arms, are attention whores. I say this because I used to be EXACTLY like this. I used to be “Emo”. I dressed up the hair, wore the clothes, cut the arms, blasted the music, cried the tears. Sure, MAYBE you’re genuinely depressed, MAYBE you genuinely have a problem, but when I look back at my own personal experience I realize it was all a bid for attention.

If you’re depressed, or sad, don’t dress it up. Get help. Talk to a friend, talk to your parents, talk to SOMEBODY. And don’t tell me “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND” because I’ve been there, believe me. Please don’t be an attention whore.

So, again, my question: Why are “Emo kids” so offended when they’re told to “cheer up”?

Okay, so this is another animation that is going to be the “finale” to the TRAPdoor story arc. I AM COMPLETELY AWARE I SPELLED TATTOOS WRONG.

Jade explodes Frank’s biplane. This has nothing to do with the story whatsoever!

I noticed while going through the demographics of all the visitors to CUEK that 52% of all the visitors from the US were female. This was quite intriguing to me!

Mainly because I’ve always felt that, in the majority of the strips — especially the ones before the introduction of Jade (yes, that’s Purple’s real name) in #46 — the females were either the butt of the intended joke, the object of ridicule, or depicted as a bitch or a liar or a slut or something along those lines. Not that I hate women or feel a need for them to be constantly ridiculed (in truth, it’s just one or two specific women, but that’s not the point). I just, you know, thought that I was always relating to a more male audience since that’s my personal perspective.

I mean, I’m not unwelcoming to the female audience as well, it just came as a bit of a surprise!

I suppose I’m that closed-minded that I’ve never taken the time to look at relationships from a female point of view. But since I was 15 I have been in four serious “relationships” (quoted, because only two of them were “official”) and all of them ended terribly. Which doesn’t leave me much of a perspective to go on aside from the stereotypical “THAT BITCH WAS A HO” standpoint.

What’s the plural of “ho”, anyway? Hos? Ho’s? Hoes? This is going to bug me all day.

So if you’re a female, and you’ve wasted the few minutes it took to read this, tell me: Why do you read CUEK?

A “sketch” I spent way too long on that turned into what you’re looking at right now.

Okay, so I totally meant to post this at the BEGINNING of the weekend (because, of course, that would make more sense, considering there is no comic). Well, straight to it — a couple of things, I’m sure you’re all already aware of the new design and the new-ish forum, where I got bored and decided to start an MS Paint Adventure.

You are ZEKE.

If you’ve never heard of Andrew Hussie or MS Paint Adventures, you should educate yourself — granted, if you consider yourself dorky enough to enjoy/participate in such madness. Because it is quite dorky, but that’s what I love about it. It’s a game, and the player is you. The premise of an MSPA is an artist tells a story and the readers contribute commands to advance the plot, whereupon the artist continues the story however way s/he sees fit, but using the readers’ suggestions. Andrew Hussie popularized this (if not being the first person to come up with the concept) with the epic story of Problem Sleuth, which started as a simple detective story and, thanks to the readers, became an incredible, nonsensical journey.

So if you’re bored, you should definitely come join our own homegrown paint adventure, which is in part a tribute to Mr. Hussie.

Another forum user picture request.

Last thing I want to mention was to stay tuned for an animated comic strip coming soon to… the top part of the website, if Enzo doesn’t completely fail at Flash. Have a great week, people.

The site’s been due for a redesign and if all goes well it’ll be up by the end of the week.

In other news, I just drank a liter of Red Bull over the last 40 minutes and my hands are twitching. Is this bad?