So, as you may have noticed, I haven't posted here in a while. It's because I've been really busy with work, new baby son, and with a new iPad. I finally have spent some time figuring out how to draw on this darn thing and was able to produce the picture above using Sketchbook Pro for the iPad. What do you think? Should Bosh be pink?

I also worked a bit on Conrad the robot:

Whatayathink?

Here's me working on Bill in Sketchbook Pro for iPad:

I sketched this guy in my Moleskine this morning. I'm not sure what he is, what his name is, or what his story is, but if you can answer any of these questions well, I'll dedicate him to you / name him after you.

UPDATE: @sweetums aka Eliot Phillips sent me a DM on Twitter saying: "...that guy's name is Amos and he hates change." I like it. Any more details?

He's not going to be a major character, but he will be a recurring character. It's going to be the Greek god Pan, who Bosh and Bill will occasionally run into in public parks, where he spends most of his time on a park bench feeding pigeons and criticizing contemporary television, film, and theater.

To everyone else, he will appear as a homeless man that answers to the name of Patrick in honor of @ghostdirector, who initially came up with the idea of tweets about Bosh & Bill = being mentioned in the comic / becoming a character.

Also, it's a good name since today is St. Patrick's Day.

Let me know what you think of him on Twitter and if you have any additional ideas for this character.

This character is loosely based on my British friend Conrad Quilty-Harper, aka Coneee, who was one of the many people who retweeted the Bosh & Bill launch announcement post and thereby locked a mention or character to be based upon him in the comic. I'll get to all the rest of you eventually (and if any new visitors want to join in, I'll keep adding characters / mentions). Sorry I did Conrad first, but I've known him for a while, was roomies with him in Santa Monica for a while, and just thought a British reluctant-to-work robot who complains about things is a perfect fit for him. ;-)

To see a much larger version of the sketch included with this post (drawn in my Moleskine notebook with my Faber-Castell TK-FINE VARIO L 0.7 Mechanical Pencil) click on through to the permalink.

Right now, he's just a very rough doodle. Let's breathe some life into him. Feel free to critique the drawing and ask for parts of him to be changed.

UPDATE: @mwsmedia aka Matthew Selznick notes:

"@cksample re: Rough Character: Bearcat How about some kitty fangs and some claws on those feet so he doesn't look like he's wearing boots?"

Good suggestions, but what about the character himself?

What's the story of a bearcat?

Tweet me your thoughts and we'll see where it takes us.

"It seems penciler/writer/creator Nick Simmons (you might know his dad, Gene, from the Dr. Pepper commercials...) has paid a little bit to much homage to various Manga series. Covered extensively on Livejournal's 'Bleachness', and reported on by iCv2, the New York Times, as well as Geeks of Doom and numerous others around the web, Simmons' Incarnate has been under the microscope for a little under a week now. The series (only a 3 issue mini-series) shows uncanny similarities between it and the Manga series Bleach, as well as (to a lesser extent) Hellsing."

Talk about taking plagiarism to all new levels. The side-by-side comparisons on Livejournal's 'Bleachness' post are particularly damning. I say we refer to this as "Pulling a Simmons" from now on.

Eventually, I'll have a review of the full issue up. Right now, my initial impression is that it's quite a substantial publication. 88 pages assembled from what appear to be 22 large format pages printed front and back in black and white and folded in half with a full color front and back cover. Here's a shot inside the first page:

However, I always found that my ideas for stop motion were always too big for the physical space in which I live. Stop motion requires a set space that will not be moved for your set for a long time. Sure, The Lair of the Dreaded Atrox isn't dependent upon 12 frames per second and that careful placement of the camera and clay, but it's still something that takes up more space than my computer and drawer full of drawing supplies.

After I spend 5 years teaching myself to produce a comic here, maybe eventually I'll have the space to create a studio and launch into Bosh and Bill: The Stop Motion Epic adventure.

I just wanted to share, because I really like the lines in these panels. Very clean.

1. The first post where I layout the plan for Bosh and Bill.
2. The about page.
3. The first comic placeholder post (as an example of how comics will function on this site once I actually have any completed).
4. All the rest of the posts.

Click around and let me know what you think via Twitter. If you really like it, want to join me in learning comics, and *really* think I should have comments too, let me know and I'll turn them on (though I'd rather just chat via Twitter and I'm considering setting up a persistant chat room for this site). Also, make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed. I should probably set up a Bosh & Bill Twitter account too, eh?

UPDATE: Patrick had a great idea:

Follow the Bosh and Bill Twitter account, retweet the announcement of this post, and reply to Bosh and Bill on Twitter, and I'll mention you or even base a future character on you in the future of the comic!