It’s my birthday (40 minus 2) and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate – so here’s today’s comic!

…and, earlier this week (August 25th, to be precise), UNcubed turned 3 years old. So now you have two reasons to celebrate.

Hey, I’ll be a guest at Intervention on September 10th – 12th in Rockville, MD. There will be a lot of webcomic folks at the show, so if you dig the medium, or just want to support independent comics in general, you should make it out there.

If you’re in the DC / area, why not stop by and say hi?

-Krishna

India’s own superman. A fascinating video.

-Krishna

A very interesting and enlightening speech on the genesis of ideas, interruptions, the flow of thought, and much more as explained by comic actor John Cleese.

-Krishna

I’ve decided to put UNcubed on hiatus until late October. I hate to be lame, but I really am enjoying the down time. 4 strips a week (3 PC Weenies toons, and one UNcubed) was taking a lot of time out of my already slammed schedule. I have an animated project I’m working on right now, that I really want to complete. Plus some convention (and wedding) related travel in the weeks ahead.

It’s selfish, I know, but I have a ton on my plate and I think the time I have to decompress a little will help recharge my batteries. Check in between now and then – there may be a few surprises in case I get the itch to draw something for old times sake.

-Krishna

So I’m using the downtime to rethink the character designs for my strip. My first goal is to refine the heads of my main characters. My goal is to make the character’s look very consistent. You can see my character design exploration up above. The items circled in red are ones that I like and plan to refine further.

-Krishna

Sonia loves to play with my glasses – by yanking them off when I least expect it. This pair survived almost 8 months before its untimely death. This is my third pair of glasses in 2 years. One impromptu trip to LensCrafters and a two hundred dollars and change later, I have a new pair. (I also purchased the $25 insurance this time around – if the new pair breaks within the next 15 months, I get a new pair no questions asked.)

In going with the new pair (some Oakleys), I traded up for a more durable (and better looking) frame but lost out on having built-in transition lenses (they were too expensive). I’m hoping I can find someone to repair the old pair so I can have a back-up just in case something happens to the new ones…

-Krishna

* Actually, I’m taking a few weeks off from UNcubed because I need some time to finish some back-burner projects. The time away from the strip should recharge my creative batteries, too.

I hope you don’t mind the abrupt trip back home. I had more to say about India, but I think I will save that for the first UNcubed book. In the meantime, so much has changed in the last 6 months since I started my adventure to India. I hope you don’t mind!

-Krishna

P.S. Inks and colors to happen by mid-Wednesday my time now up. I was a little late. Thanks for your patience!

Gene Luen Yang: Keynote – Breaking into Graphic Novels & Comic Books Conference from hclib on Vimeo.

Cartoonist Gene Yang is one of my heroes. I thought I’d share his recent keynote with you, not only because it was really entertaining, but because of the fact I could really relate to what he was talking about. I learned that Gene majored in Computer Science in college (I majored in Electrical Engineering). These days he teaches, too – just like me. Through the video I also learned that Gene had an uphill struggle convincing his parents about making the transition towards self-publishing (my experience was similar). It’s my hope to one day meet Gene, if nothing else, to say how much I’ve enjoyed his work (and his presentation).

In the video, Gene talks about his background, his early self-publishing efforts, and how his parents dealt with his burgeoning interest in making comics. In the Q-n-A section, after his presentation, he dives into his comic-making process. I think you’ll find Gene’s keynote to be entertaining, inspirational and informative.

Enjoy!

-Krishna

Aarti and I have always dreamed about going on a family bike ride with Sonia, and now we can! Here are a few pics of the bike with our “new” seat. The last photo was taken by Aarti on our first test ride.

Sonia loves the bike seat, and I can’t wait to take her with me on my next bike ride. (We’re looking for a good helmet for her first.)

-Krishna

True story. (Alas, I couldn’t make this up even if I tried…)

-Krishna