Nate's Ramblings

We are outta here!

Yes, the lease on this site is about to expire, and with careful consideration from me and my staff (myself), we’ve decided to pack up and go.  I don’t want a, well – I DO want a portfolio site – but I just don’t have the urge to do one at this time.  Soon though.

Blogs to me are like comic strips (well, for most people) – disposable.  So, if you want to read past blogs, read them now.  The blogs are leaving.  I don’t even save them on my hard drive.

I do want to keep writing though!  I’m going to totally get off the ComicPress template like I’ve been using, and just go with a FREE Wordpress blog template instead.

I hope you follow me over here.  I’ve got a lot on the way with a new webcomic, current work and everything else.  I know I’m a bad blogger in terms of consistency, but I’ll try and try to keep a regular post up.

The thing that bothers me the most about getting rid of here, is everyone’s great comments that have been posted along with the blogs!  I hope nobody thinks that I think of those as disposable – because they’re not – but I just don’t see paying money for a website I don’t use for anything that would pay for itself.

SO – COME HERE!  http://natefakes.wordpress.com/

There’s not much there now, but it’ll change.

See you soon!

Okay, so I’m not much of a dedicated blogger.  I update these post about as frequently as Fox News reports the truth.  I’m truly sorry about not getting on here as much.  I have a few reasons why this has been the case.

For one, I’m not too sure on the future of natefakes.com.  I might grab all of these blogs, pack them up and head over to a FREE blogging site.  My lease for this domain is up in a month or so, and I don’t know if it’s worth paying for if this is just going to be a blog.

There is a new website of mine coming next month.  For sure.  I was waiting on the final word from MAD if my comic series was going to debut in the next issue (coming in Feburary), and it’s a “go”.  And with the launch of this new series, I’m starting a daily comic with the same theme.  I consider it my “rejected” MAD comics, but yet they will run as a series of a different name and explore many different areas beyond what are featured in the magazine.

I want to keep all this in a smooth transaction if I do-away with THIS site.

If I do (get rid of this site), I promise I will have a free blog site up and running the same day.  How often will I blog?  Well, if I had more time, it would be daily.  Trust me – I love to write.  Just other work is totally killing any “extra” computer moments.  I’ve been having a hard time making rounds to my favorite websites as well.

Regardless though, we’ll be entering a new era of what I am consistent with – COMICS!  It’ll be nice to have the newest endeavour up-and-running 5 days a week.  Never late, and always on time.  Shouldn’t be too tough since I’ve already got well over a hundred completed already.  I guess that makes me about 5 months ahead of schedule.  If only I could do that with blogging….

So, the new strip shall debut mid-Feburary.  After the magazine is released, so will the new strips.

You’ll have to grab a MAD to read the ones that made the magazine.  I WON’T be putting the published MAD strips online at all.  Nope. Sorry.   Subscribe to MAD.

I’ve got my gig as an illustrator with Tommy Blaze going on right now as well over at Knocking On Heavens Door.  The strip is doing quite well, and we’re into our 2nd edition of our book.  We’re working on marketing and promoting it more than anything at the moment (you know – the important stuff).

And promoting and marketing is an area I’ll soon be covering with the strips of my own.  Very soon.

Hope you all stop in here every so-and-so to hear the latest news of where this site is going, when the new comic is launched and what kind of spaghetti I had for dinner.

If any of you are awake – or interested – Tommy Blaze, the writer for our comic strip Knocking On Heavens Door will be on the nationally syndicated radio show Bob and Tom this Thursday morning.  He’ll be talking about our book (that we just put back up for sale) and mentioning myself as well (if all goes well).

Should be a good show!  It’ll be interesting for sure.  Bob and Tom reaches around 7 million daily listeners, so this is pretty big for us.  We’re not sure how much they will actually want to talk about the book, but regardless – we hope it can bring some attention to KOHD.

Tommy has been on the show before, but hasn’t ever mentioned the comic strip until now.

Bob and Tom is pretty much aired in every state.  It is also broadcast online.  Click here to see if they’re broadcast in your city.

So, let me know if you listen in!  He’ll be on approx. 8 AM EST this Thursday morning.  Like I mentioned, not too sure how much Bob and Tom will want to talk about the book, comic strip and website, but hopefully he can talk awhile about it all.

The regular customer here at natefakes.com that ISN’T a cartoonist might find this post quite boring.  But, for a fellow cartoonist/artist or even a calligrapher – you might get something out of this.  Just a fair warning before your precious time gets gobbled up by the Blog Monster.

One area in the comic industry that is rarely (or in my experience, NEVER) talked about are ink basins.  What ones do the pro’s use?  What one is the best?  What the (bleep) is an ‘ink basin’?

Ink basins strike me as kind of a weird commodity for cartoonist.  They aren’t even manufactured.  You can’t buy them.  They’re like the silent necessity for ink users that is never discussed.  Kind of like a dark family secret about who Uncle Ralph slept with after leaving Aunt Jermiah.

I find it frustrating.  Here’s why:

Ink basins get very dirty, gritty and need cleaned and replaced.  Over time, they become like a little-minature swamp.  Full of eraser shavings, dabs of paper and clumps of who-knows-what.   I wouldn’t be surprised to see minature reptiles swimming in my ink basin at some point.

You can’t really clean them – UNLESS there’s like an  Uber ink basin that can do that.  That would be great.  Just like those self-cleaning cat liter boxes.  I’m already coining this invention The Inker-Nater, so don’t try stealing this one.

I might be looking in all the wrong spots, but try Googling ‘ink basins’.  There’s nothing but weird things that have nothing to do with ink basins.  If you can’t find one from Google, where else can you look to buy them?  Aldi’s?

Therefore, I have to figure it out my own.  Which sucks.

Why does it suck so bad?  Because THE BEST ink basin that I’ve used now for over a decade are the containers that Higgins ink comes in.  The problem?  I HATE Higgins ink. So, I have to buy ink that I don’t use.  I don’t even know why I keep it (the ink).  It just sits there as (I guess) emergency back-up ink?  I have a millennium supply of it.

Like I mentioned, the basins get dirty, and need replaced.  So I have to keep buying Higgins ink that I don’t use.  I use this stuff.  It’s fantastic!

As you can see though, Speedball has an ackward, big basin – which is NOT good for dipping the pen.  As you know (if you’re an inker) is you can only have about a quarter of an inch or so of ink to dip.  Too much is bad – too little is bad.  It has to be that perfect amount.

Plus, the Speedball container is not produced well to actually hold the pen when not in use.  It (the pen) pretty much falls out of it.  Not good.

Speedball ink though is great.  Higgins is horrible.  So – I’m stuck with my system.

What do you use (once again, if you’re an inker)?  What do the pros use?  I am too embarrassed to even ask.  I mean, this is one of the first essential materials a cartoonist needs.  I should have this part of my industry figured out by now – but I don’t.

Maybe I’ll start an ink basin company sometime.  With all the cartoonist these days switching completely to digital, I’m sure I’d be out of business in a month or two.  However, I could at least keep all my products for myself.  Might last me awhile, and I won’t have oceans of Higgin’s contaminating my studio.

It’s not always cartoon drama around here.  Nope.  I enjoy a lot of things.  I enjoy art, music, The Pillsbury Dough Boy and – most importantly – hot wings.

Yes, I’ve always enjoyed a good, HOT, spicy wing.  They’re hard to find.   I could easily have a pretty established career as a wing critic.  I know what a good wing is.

One of my hidden passions in life is to try and create that perfect, hot, lip-smacking good chicken wing.  I would love to create my own kind of sauce that would make the wings – well – tasty!

Since I’m no chef, and have no clue what I’m doing in the kitchen (except when it comes to microwaving things), possibly the next best thing was discovered.

Nate Dog’s wing sauce!

I’m writing this while they’re cooking in the crock pot.  I have no clue what they’ll end up tasting like.  I’ll know that later.

However, it’s got my name on it, so it had better be good.  I’ve written in other post about how my name has been shattered by lame television characters, interior designers and plain-old nitwits.  Please, PLEASE don’t let my name get a bad rap with wing sauce…

I’ll working on making my own stuff, but it would be decades until I’d actually launch a line of any wing sauce with my name (I’d have to sell a few more comics for that to happen).

So, I’ll put an update on here soon – after I have these for dinner.  They still have a good four hours or so to get ready.

Tonight, I’m dining on the smokin’ flavor.  I enjoy hot – but not hot to the point where you can’t taste anything else.  Barbelo sauce is typically my favorite.  It’s a mix of bbq and hot.

I decided not to add any of my own spices or bbq to this little test run.  I want to know what it taste like without any contamination.  We’ll see.  We’ll see….

Something else I usually enjoy the most out of a good wing is to be grilled AND fried.  That with the combination of good sauce, and wet – well – can call for a good wing.  I’m doing the whole crock pot thing tonight so they can really absorb the sauce.

And of course, must have the Ranch to go with them.

Enough wing talk.  I’m getting hungry!  Results soon….