Archive for ‘Ryan’s Blog’

5 results.
by Ryan on November 17, 2010 at 9:36 pm

Any regular visitor to LiS may have noticed a few changes to the sidebar, mainly the addition of b/w banners that fit the site better than the way the info was displayed before. This is because Jon was so clever as to make the Dust Bunny Army one so we could link to the new DBA website, and then the others were born out of a self-taught banner-tutorial I put myself through on Photoshop. My goal was to finally figure out how to make one. And it wasn’t that hard. And now I’m hooked and just want to make banners all day. Well, not really. But kind of.

And don’t forget: stay tuned this Monday, November 22nd for a new LiS page.

Number 14 already.

Wow, time flies.

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by Ryan on October 19, 2010 at 12:42 pm

Do dust bunnies really exist? (no, not really). Do dust bunnies laugh and play and plot devious ways to end humanity’s reign of terror on their dust bunny lives? (uh, definitely not). If you answered “yes” to the above questions, like any sane person would, then Dust Bunny Army might just be for you.

Yes, that’s right, Jon and I are launching a new comic strip about dust bunnies and all their crazy adventures living in humanity’s shadow.

Find them here:

Oh yeah: if you’re a Twitterer, I recommend following @DustBunnyArmy.

Just don’t expect a follow back…those dust bunnies are a-holes.

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by Ryan on September 26, 2010 at 2:45 pm

Well, after many late nights spent hunched over a computer keyboard, slurping espresso and shaking my fists at the computer programming Gods, I’m happy to say that the LiS website now has Facebook and Twitter icons in the sidebar that (prepare to be amazed) link directly to the Life in Storage page on those social media websites.

That’s right, a direct link! You are only two mouse clicks away from Web 2.Oh goodness!

Tell me you’re not completely in awe of the level of savvy tech we’re using on this website. I dare ya.

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by Ryan on July 8, 2010 at 12:07 pm

I mentioned in my last blog entry that I was in the process of rediscovering the world of comics, of the graphic novel. Indeed. And just to continue that thread, let me say that the love affair continues. As a writer, the scope of them fascinates me. The concepts. The core ideas. The sheer, brilliant audacity of the storylines and characters. Basically, the crazy s**t you can get away with, where no other medium would offer such daring escape.

Hands down, I’d say my favourite title is Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (though Watchmen was damn good too, when I finally read it earlier this year). I can still remember lining up to buy the DK collected edition way back in 1989 with my allowance money folded neatly in my palm. That was in the midst of Batman-mania – Tim Burton’s Batman, that is – which I admit I was very much a part of. But where that movie is of its time, and, for me, really only watchable with glasses deeply-tinted in Nostalgia, Frank Miller’s version is timeless. I find it to be as relevant now as it was then. Maybe even more so.

I’ve been catching up on a lot of titles lately. This is thanks partly to the shelves of the Vancouver Public Library, but mostly to the advice and mentorship of a good friend of mine, Lawrence, whose vast collection and knowledge have provided me with a crash course in the world of comics and its writers and artists.

Now, I’d say some favourite titles that jump to mind are, in no particular order:

The Nightly News
Scalped
Y: The Last Man
Transmetropolitan
Freak Angels
Sin City
Young Liars
The Boys

And more.

There is always more.

And there are also more words written by me out there in the world, if you’re interested in reading them. Comic writing may be knew to me, but prose and poetry are not. Online, I have a few things posted on my personal website, RDanielLester.com, and on Fictionaut, a cool site for writers and readers both (check out Pets, a short story, and see if anything is familiar…)

As well, last year, I started my own very small publishing imprint and have 3 titles available to date. To learn more about them (or to simply further procrastinate from doing whatever it is you should be doing now that you’re not doing because you’re reading this) click your way to the homepage of Dirt Starling Press.

As for Life in Storage, look for some creator bios coming soon and, most importantly, a new page on Friday. The dust bunny battle continues…

And how cool are these pages looking, right? Kudos to Jon for bringing my words to life.

Bye for now.

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by Ryan on May 27, 2010 at 11:41 am

Well, here we are. Page 3 of Life in Storage is up and Page 4 launches tomorrow.

The dust bunny horde is gathering strength. War is on the horizon.

And how killer do those dust bunnies look? Kudos to Mr. Duguay for taking a description on a page and bringing it to life. Love it.

Folks, I feel giddy like a kid in a sandbox. Launching a new creative project is always a rush.

Plus, after years of writing, this is my first go at the comic format and I’m realizing the power it can hold, for both creator and reader. I’ve been a fan of comics for years, starting with a mid-80s romance when I was in my early teens. Comics treated me well, but we decided to part when a Tony Hawk skateboard caught my attention. I was flirty back then, what can I say? Young and not ready to be tied down. All in all, it was an amicable break-up. I needed to see other hobbies. Comics needed new ideas. We both needed to grow up.

Then we didn’t see each other for awhile. About 23 years.

Not to say that we totally lost touch. I read some titles here-and-there and watched as the graphic novel became literature. To tell it simply, it suddenly dawned on me that writing a comic could be a new way to tell a story, another road to explore that I’d so far only traveled with prose, poem and screenplay. And it was about that time that not only did I begin to catch up on my reading list, but also when I responded to a Craigslist ad from Jon saying, like a gunslinger roaming the wild west in search of a fight, that he was looking for a writer to team up with. Synchronicity.

That was in February.

And I’d had this idea about characters in a Gastown storage facility rattling around in my brain for a few years. So I put fingers to keys. And Jon put pencil to paper.

And now it’s the end of May.

And we’re up and running.

There’ll be a new page tomorrow, to conclude launch week, and then we’ll settle into our regular biweekly schedule. 

Hope you enjoy it!

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