A new orginal character by Sam Caster, based on Sam Caster. Pencils, Ink and Colors all by Sam Caster.

I call him “Captain Perfect.” You might be wondering “why is he called Captain Perfect?”

The answer: Because he’s perfect.

And now for the first installment of a segment that I used to do on conclave and hope to carry on with in my Shambot posts.

Sam’s Top 5 songs of the Week

Rock N’ Roll All Night- Kiss
Jaques Cousteau- Plastic Bertrand
Just Once More- Dressy Bessy
Emily Kane-Art Brut
Leave the Biker-Fountains of Wayne

I have decided that it is not fair that Patrick is the only one who gets to make cool posts about Japan that make people (ahemcoughemmacough) jealous that they are not actually in Japan. So here is my contribution.

i guess i’m really less cool for making these, since I’ve never even been to Japan. Thanks a lot, illustration 3. I’m actually writing this post because I am waiting for a CD of a lot of the work I did this year to burn, because .. guess what? My server is full, YET AGAIN. Gosh. And Compy in all his glory is getting old, tired, full of crap too. So I guess that means it’s time for spring cleaning, yey. Poor Compy. I really need to throw him a birthday.

After I’m done with this Joel and I are TOTALLY going to go back to his place and we are going to make leftover curry and he is going to steam us some rice! I don’t know who else will come, but hopefully it will be tasty. Then we will go to Spyhouse and I think I will purchase either (a) a Mata Hari or (b) a plain old mocha. But I haven’t yet decided.

Woo, first place! And look at that score!! You’d think that with a name like mine, and a score like that I would get a “wana cybr?” or a “lets fukk” or even an “asl” from my fellow players. But no, I guess the internet just ain’t what is used to be.

I’m in a computer lab at school (230 for those who know it) and I’m listening to music whilst my project renders. It’s taking for ever. But I just have to say that GAD DAMN Mark Mallman is so fun to listen to.

I’m so bored.

Is it winter break yet?

NASSCAR Champ Hurt in Golf Cart Accident.
Are you kidding me?  He can drive a car at 180mph, but falls out of a GOLF CART? WTF

Whose excited?  I’m excited!  I can’t even hide it!  ‘Cause you know, you know, you know, you know I want to! I want to!

But what is it that I want to do?  Ahhhh, let me count the things! (more…)

I’m trying to catch up with the big guns on Shambot (23 posts! Jeeze, Patrick. That “jeeze” also goes to anyone over 20) Anyway here is a piece from my Illustrated Portrait class. Guess who it is!

I tried to do something different with this, first of all using charcoal instead of paint or markers, and focusing on drawing legs because I don’t do that often. I still kept a few bits of my usual imagery (the hands, speech bubbles, and text); they look so much different in charcoal! I think one might call this style “bad on purpose”, maybe not “bad”, but nothing is really in proportion. I think a good example of an artist who is “bad on purpose” is Mark Todd. It’s definitely the worst way to explain it, because Mark Todd is incredible and his artwork is amazing and pretty much the epitome of what I want to be able to do (him and the Clayton Brothers which I will write a post about later). He just has so many layers in his work! Number 3 and 12 are my favorites on the page which I gave you a link to. Check him out! And also, don’t ever relate the phrase “bad on purpose” to anyone.

ALSO: I call dibs on writing posts dedicated to contemporary illustrators, where I will both inform and explain the artist’s work, and give you my thoughts. I’ll also link to some cool artwork. NEATO.

WOWZ! I only have 18 days left in Japan. That is seriously blowing my mind right now. I have so much shit to do before then. But instead of doing it, I am going to write a shambot update.

My back has been hurting me for the past 2 weeks but now it is totally fine! HOORAY!!!! I am no longer an old man.

I am going to to into two cultural ideas that I have right now. The first is I am writing a paper on Hoop Dreams and I realized that the whole movie is really about the American dream, which was so weird because then I started thinking about the Japanese dream, and whether or not such a concept even existed. We started to postulate what the Japanese dream would be, but it was really unsatisfactory in the end. Secondly, our chapter on the textbook was on marriage roles, and I have to say it was pretty sexist. The first woman said that she was really forgetful so she wanted a man to put her on a leash (literal translation). Also he had to play sports and be a manly man (also literal translation). Finally she said that she would quit her job for her husband as soon as they got married and have lots of babies. I have to say that if I met a Japanese person like this, I don’t know that I would immediately berate them because jobs in Japan are really stressful, and it’s her choice. But at the same time it seems a little wrong to create a character that follows gender roles so strictly even if there are many people in Japan who think this way (woman included). I was so sick of it when asked what type of woman i wanted to marry i responded she has to be sexy, but she also need to know how to clean. The teacher didn’t even realize it was a joke. She was just like, heehee, good ideas, don’t you think she needs to cook too? OH JAPAN…and your fucked up gender roles.

My mom is coming to tokyo this friday, it is kindof silly because i will see her 5 days in the states after she leaves, but I think it will be tons of fun and give me a chance to do all the touristy things in tokyo that I haven’t done yet.

I have been working really hard on a scrapbook to take back to America, but after seeing Bill’s amazing scrapbook-esque picture on Shambot I have decided never ever to try again. WAH!

However in much better news I am super pumped about Petbusters. To a ridiculous degree. I was thinking about it, and I think it is quite possibly the most unique idea that we have ever come up with because it does a really good job of subverting the genre of dystopias. Plus it is promise of being funny as well. I dunno kindof silly to be talking about our movies like this but I have never heard of a film that is set in a dystopia following the armed force of the facist regime that has absolutely no moral qualms with it. Even though the cops never question what they do. Of course it is so ridiculous that we avoid a lot of problems, but still I think it is a very interesting premise. I think for it to work we need to have as little backstory (on the dystopia) as possible, and not bother making up a reason why pets are illegal. I just hope it doesn’t go to a place that is too dark. I was talking to someone about it here and he said that he thought it was amazing and he wished he could have come up with it. Therefore I think we can and should, no MUST, finish this for CRIFF. I think it has so much more potential than Waldo and the audience recieved that warmly. Anyways….

I’m out!