Steven: An update...

So the first issue of Out On Campus is available online. If you are a loyal fan of my work (either of you) and are only interested in seeing Stephen the Gay Stormtrooper in a publication, don't bother; he isn't in there.

I feel like such an idiot. I was told he would be, I told others he would be; now I fid that he isn't by reading the thing myself and so now what? I'm now a liar...

Sorry. This late night pity party was sponsored by boredom I think. I am sure there is a perfectly logical reason that they didn't include the strip. I am not assuming they have done it to spite me, I am just annoyed that each strip probably clocks about eight hours work, and they couldn't find five minutes to drop me an email explaining their change of plans. Here I was thinking I was part of the picture, the team. I was assuming too much.

I have previously read warnings from other artists regarding working for free/charity/the promise of future rewards. The usual idea is that the people are offering 'exposure' and 'a good cause' and artists are advised to beware those fatal signs of no more a 'good cause' than a 'lost cause'. But this time I thought "No! It's students working together with a common goal!" and "They are begging for content, they must really need contributions!" and of course, couple that with my own insecurities about my art; such as the fact that it takes me eight hours to produce one strip and it takes others four hours to produce a full page. I said to myself "The only way I am going to produce work for someone else, for free, was if I was part of a team. An equal member of a team, a partner."

They didn't tell me it wasn't going to be in the first issue. At this point I do not know if it will be in the second issue or any other issues. I have sent an email to ask, but this blog post is me venting my anger.

Steven #3

Here it is, number three of Steven the Gay Stormtrooper. My idea's list is getting low for Steven so I might make a dent in my regular comic idea's page. This will be nice, although Steven is only one strip, roughly the size of a quarter of an A4 piece of paper (in portrait) it is still a lot of work.

I prefer working at A4, I feel I have more space to tell a story. Also my jokes tend to need a bit of set-up for their full impact, so I feel a little cheap coming up with these one line jokes and obvious punchlines and puns (I don't, I love them, I'm just saying that to sound superior.)

I'm set until next year for the magazine, I might get some full pagers done in the meantime until I think of some new gay jokes.

BUBS: The Handstand

I have not happily transitioned into my new house and, bar a few teething problems, am back on track to Build Upper Body Strength.

This week cheer has focussed mainly on going over what we learned at FCC last month (more on that here and coming soon) so keeping tight in the upper body and core has been essential for hitting motions precisely and with speed. We have also been pumping our gymnastics, I've been taking it easy since doing my back in at pride a week or so ago and so have been mainly working on leg flexibility simple lower body stretches. I conceed to have been focussing on the handstand perhaps a little too much for my back to get better, but I am determined to hit a hand stand for over a minute.

Guys, don't underestimate what a handstand can do for you. There are tons of examples I can give of the value to your shoulders, arms and core given by a simple hand stand. It's quick, easy to learn but hard to master. One thing I have kept up with at practices is a few handstands here and there.

As far as I'm concerned there are two things to think about when performing a handstand: strength, and balance. You'll find people perform the handstand in different ways but it is usually a combination of the two working harmoniously to get the most pleasing handstand. Notice I used the phrase most pleasing and not the word best. This is because you may be performing a handstand for a different reason from the next guy, it really has a lot of utility.

For example, like I said before, the handstand is a great tool for building upper body strength, particularly those muscles we use in cheerleading when we are lifting the flyers to shoulder height and above. Our core, our biceps, our deltoids, they all engage to keep us rooted and balanced when we are standing on our hands. 

Sometimes you might see a guy perform a handstand with his arms much wider than his shoulders, his back arched, his legs open and leaning forward. I call this kind of handstand a Muscle-handstand, because you are basically engaging all of your core and arm muscles to sublimate your lack of equilibrium. This is not a 'bad handstand' and nor is any handstand where you are actively engaging your muscles. In fact this is usually the type of handstand someone might do if they were using the handstand to build muscle in the first place i.e. handstand push-ups. Your basically using brute force to push your lower body off the ground and hold it there.

Other times you will see someone put their hands on the floor, shoulder width apart and quickly kick their legs up one at a time until they are vertical, they will then stay there. Lucky gits. These are more Balance-handstands, where the performer quickly finds their equilibrium and only engages their arms and core muscles to steady themselves, relying mainly on posture and balance to keep them up. They are still engaging their muscles, but it is taking them less effort to keep up because they are also thinking about balance and coordination. this is a more energy efficient handstand which is more suited to gymnastics and is the base of a few tumbles you might use in a cheer routine; handstand to forward roll, walk-overs, lumbers, handsprings can all be improved through proper handstand technique.

Now, I'm still learning a decent handstand, but the technique is what is important. There are things you can do to speed up the process of hitting a good handstand a length of time you can support yourself with. If you are totally new at handstands and want to utilise this fantastic method of strength and coordination building, here are a few tips.

- Start small if your scared

I hear a lot of people when they want to do handstands say '...but I'm afraid I will fall'. There is something about being the other way up with inhibits us and I think it has something to do with our head. Any time our head goes through a motion which is completely out of the ordinary, it tends to freak people out. With the handstand, you might be thinking 'My head is very close to the floor here and there is only the strength of my arms stopping it from being crushed under my own weight.' Well start small! I know we are all generally taught that our head is glass and we aren't allowed to touch it ever, the skull is actually quite a solid thing; But this is besides the point. If your concerned you can't hold yourself up without hitting the floor, don't go vertical just yet. try holding more and more of your body weight on your forearms, something like this:

This position is fantastic for giving you the right feeling of muscle and balance. Start small at first, maybe just tuck your knees to your chest and lean onto your forearms, see how long you can hold yourself up. As you gain confidence, be a little more daring; keep your knees tucked by bring them over your hips so that your torso is vertical and your knees are crouched. You can do this using just your muscle for now, do it against a wall if your still unsteady or unsure how far you want to go. That reminds me...

- Walls are your friend

You don't want to hit anything when you try your handstands? That's fine! Remember in school when some kids would do a handstand on a wall for fun? That's exactly what you need. Place your hands maybe 10cm to 15cm away from the wall and kick up. The trick is to try and guess how much power you will need on the kick-up so that your legs stop short or on the wall without going into it. You should have your fingers spread apart, your hands under your shoulders and your upper body should be engaged at the time you kick up. When your legs reach close to where you want them to stop, engage your abdomen and your arse and keep everything tight. Think planking from the chest down. Then you use your upper body strength to gain your balance and hold you up.

- Kick-ups work!

If you can't get your balance, don't be discouraged. You'd be some kind of mutant gymnast god if you could do it perfectly on your first go. The goal is to keep kicking up until you find just the right amount of force which gives you 0 momentum when you reach the vertical. Don't rest too much, if you kick-up and don't make it, use the rebound to kick up again. Just don't spend too long bent over because you might get a little light headed, and make sure to take a break when your frustrated because you might channel your anger into your legs and kick the wall with the force of a thousand suns (can you tell I might be talking from experience?)

In the end, it all depends what you are handstanding for. It works wonders for building strength, and getting you mental for other more difficult tumbles further down the line, but each handstand can have a different approach, hell, many different approaches for the best results. Here are a few decent video tutorials, notice the different ways people do their handstands, and the results are positive in any case. These videos are by the guys behind the Strength Project, they have a great collection of videos so make sure you subscribe to their channel...

(All about the muscle baby)

(Hand-balancing)

In the end, someone who can do a really good handstand will probably tell you that their way is the best way to do it, and the only way if you want to get it right/build strength/look good. You need to cherry pick the tips they give you and create your own style, whatever works for you is the right way to do a handstand. Just remember that you have a goal in your head, if your working on your handstand technique to improve your gymnastics, or upper body strength, or using them for break dancing to look good. If you have that goal in your head, you will stay motivated.

The results will be worth it, don't give up!

Czech Republic and FCC Camp 2011 Part 1

Last year the girls decided it would be a good idea to get away and practice cheerleading in a foreign country. A weeks intensive cheer training in Czech Republic at a sports hotel. I was invited, but unfortunately I could not afford to go. At this point I was still dead set on learning to drive during the summer and foolishly withheld most of the years finances for that. As you might know, in the end I bought this sweet ass PC which on the whole has served me well, although I do not know how it compares to a driving liscence, at least this thing doesn't have recurring bills.

However, I saw on their return that they had this fantastic bond, and clearly they enjoyed themselves while they were away as the pictures and the stories attest. I decided this year that I would join my team mates, bite the bullet and head off to Czech.

The arrangement this year was somewhat different. The plan was to travel out on the eighth (a Monday) and spend the evening in Prague. Our arrival time would have been rather late, so we had little choice but to stick around in Prague city until transport became avilable to take us to Kitlice, where we were to spend a few days before camp started. The plan was to stunt early morning in Prague, when it was light enough to take some decent pictures, but quiet enough as we would not be disturbed. From there, the morning after, we jump on the train to Kitlice where we spend a few days at the cottage where our gracious guide, good friend and squad captain's mother takes her holiday. After a few days in that beautiful remote village we would catch the train again and land at Machovo Jezero (on the Thursday) where the camp is located. Check in to the hotel, then the camp started in the afternoon on the Thursday and ran right till the afternoon on the Sunday, where we say our goodbyes and leave the hotel. We will have a little time to go swimming at this point and there is a lake nearby, so hopefully we could do that before leaving for Prague by bus later that afternoon, to catch out flight later that evening and arrive back in Manchester in the wee early hours of Monday the fifteenth.

So we flew out on the eighth. I'd never flown before so this was a fantastic experience for me. We had no trouble at the airport and borded the plain in a pleasant and timely fashion. Taking off is awesome! They lull you into a false sense of anti-climax by taking their sweet-ass time maneuvering the plane into place, and then BAM the engines kick in and the plane shoots from naught to eithy eight in the blink of an eye. Taking off is a rollercoaster, landing is torture. I like the whole turning and descending thing, but my ears are so painful when it comes to dropping so quickly. Going up doesn't hurt, it's just a weird sensation. Going down is very painful indeed. Luckily in a single plane journey you only have to do it once.

Touch down in Prague, we caught the bus to town centre and wandered aimlessly before finding a big pretty church which we decided to stunt infront of...



From here we wandered aimlessly again in search of the famed Charles Bridge which we found, and promptly turned into a slum...

The plan to stunt in the wee hours fell through. Unfortunately with us avoiding to pay for a hostel for the night in the hopes of saving a bit of money and under the assumption that we wouldn't need it we inadvertantly tired ourselves to the point where most of us believed that stunting would be dangerous. We went to the train station and tried to kip on the floor for a bit until two warm-friendly looking security guards came to move us on. No matter, at this point it was soon to be time to jump on the train.

Now, this is where the holiday takes a dramatic turn for me. It's a slightly long story but I'll shorten it for you. When I took my money to the post office to exchange it for Czech Corona it was my first time doing so and I admit to the person serving me that I didn't really understand the whole exchange rate thing. I gave her £150, she gave me 1200¢ and I went to Prague safe in the knowledge that I had enough money. Turns out that she'd only given me about £50 worth of Czech money, and considering I still had to pay the equivilant of £60 to the FCC people for the camp, it was at this point in the station that I found out I had come to a different country without so much as my camp fees in cash. Luckily my dad is a genius and gave me £60 to bring with me 'just in case', well, that should read 'just in case, and if not, get me some fags' but I'm still glad the man is on the ball. I changed that at 30% commission at the train station (I know right!) and jumped on the train to Kitlice feeling thoroughly depressed.

Luckily my squaddies saw this and were able to make me laugh, and not feel sorry for myself (though I think unfortunately until we arrived at the village I was adamant on that.) Funny thing the effect the countryside has on a person. I mean I genuinely love travelling on trains anyway, but Czech is so similar to england in it's countryside it was a pleasant journey. That is apart from the fact that at this point most of us had gone a full day without sleeping. I can't sleep on trains, so while a few of the others could catch up, I remained unfortunately vigilant (not through lack of trying.)

Our arrival in Kitlice was a welcome relief from an evening and a mornings worth of travel. Many of us were ready to wash, change, or simply to lie down for five or ten minutes. The cottage was still under construction, though you could see even without carpets or a door for the toilet it was a labour of love, and would be stunning when completed. Our hosts were very gracious to let eight of us stay in one room, even more gracious on the second night after finding how loud we can be in the evening. We waste no time that day, and later in the evening after resting and washing, which was an event in itself; the shower directly faced a large window, and had no door to the shower room (I'd luckily showered in the train station that morning and managed to avoid it) we went to a local pub for a meal. The food was fantastic! Easily something a fine diner would serve here and yet a three course meal with drinks cost no more than the equivilant of £8. I think eight of us had three courses and drinks and the total came to just over £25 or so.

The choice of cuisine was not particularly varied for vegitarian/herbivore types such as myself. I usually had to choose from fried mushrooms, fried cheese, fried coliflour... you get the point. Still, fried cheese is something of a high end delicacy here, something you might find as a starter in an expensive resturaunte; having it as a meal with rice or chips in is a welcome turn of events, even afer the third time eating it in a week.



On the second day we went horse riding. I'd never been horse riding before, something which I romantically held as the unattainable in my head. I live in Wigan, even if there were more than one or two schools which offered such a service, the price would take the shine off of the experience. We spent a few hours taking turns on the horses while we walked through the amazing Czech forrest and countryside. It was a lot like Wales (Angelsey, to be particular) with thick forrests of large Redwoods and sprawling green valleys, and rain; Only a touch of rain mind. The rain in Czech Republic is not like the rain here. It is predictable rain; you know when it starts, no matter how heavy it is, that it will last no more than an hour or two. This was the case on a few days over the week but the weather didn't effect the holiday at any point, apart from when it was beautifully sunny, which was wonderful! On our way back to the cottage at this point we walked by a small lake which we decided to explore with our feet. Posing for pictures became a given on this holiday and all of us (even the ones who usually object) obliged and indulged. The water was freezing.


Later that evening we went back to the same eatery as in the afternoon and had a wonderful evening meal which was fllowed not too soon after by one of the most funny nights I have ever shared on holiday. Everyone in the room together might not have been the most comfortable of evenings (I spent the entire holiday sleeping either on the floor or on an air-bed on the floor) it was made perfect by the company. I don't think I've laughed so much or had so much fun with my squaddies in my whole time as a cheerleader as I did when I was with them in that room. My holiday to Czech was an amazing experience, but it wouldn't have been half as good without the people I shared it with.


On our final day in Czech we went for a long hike up a rather large hill. It took us through some rural roadways (at which point we found a camp called U Skaly which caused hours of amusement) and on through a dense, sprawling forrest, over a couple of railway tracks and up a steep gradient which led to a charming little eatery at the top. There was also a high, round tower which we payed to ascend giving us a wonderful panoramic of the vista which seemed to go on to eternity. I am romantic when it comes to places of natural beauty and awe-inspiring views, perticularly if you work to see it such as a hike up a hill. The journey was as wonderful as the destination; we even found an old WWII bunker (Czech was occupied by Nazi Germany during the war) which we poked around before heading back to the cottage.


That evening we tried a different resturaunt, well... it seemed like there was a choice of two pub's in town, so we chose the other one in which to dine on our last night in Kitlice. We enjoyed our food, our host was very warm towards us and we even stayed a little later to enjoy some drinking games. Of course jocularity continued to a lesser scale that evening as we were all feeling the strain of getting such little sleep the past few days. The next morning we awoke bright and early to catch our train to Machovo Jezero and to begin the FCC training camp. Our time spent in Kitlice was a wonderful break but now we all knew, there was hard work ahead.


Stay tuned for part two...



Steven #2

The second one in the series 'Steven the Gay Storm Trooper.  A few notes I think I should make at this point...

• It's a little joke within the joke that you can't tell the Troopers apart when they are in uniform. I know they are supposed to be clones, and so they really should be the same size and everything, but I am using the Troopers from the original trilogy as a base model, and at this point the world didn't know the origins of the Troopers (artistic licensing meets my private sense of humour)
• I'm still learning the ins and outs of specific panel, word bubble and colour conventions for printing, normally I publish on the web where I can be as creative with the above as  I like, but for print there are certain rules I'm finding important. For example, I can't have too much text per panel, I can't go overboard on the art work (as I seem to have in the last panel, derp) and the text/important stuff needs to contrast highly with what isn't important so that the eye goes where I want it to.
• I'm avoiding textures, I don't want the reader to be distracted.
• I'm using colour because I can, I know most printed comics are either heavily desaturated or black and white. Both can be effective, but if I can have lots of lovely colour, I will do. However the colour might be a little too distracting in the last panel, your thoughts are welcome.

I can report on the situation regarding having Steven published however: They loved it!  The magazine (Out On Campus) are offering me a regular spot on the features page for Steven. However, there was a mix up with how often they will publish. See, to regular Joe's like me (and probably you) bi-monthly means 'twice a month' but to publishers, it pretty consistently means 'every two months.' You've guessed it already I can tell, that means the magazine only needs six strips for the entire year, two being published digitally.

Still, published is published. I will be popping them on the website and hopefully I'll have time this year to do more than what they will be needing. I have idea's for about four or five now besides the two I have already done. I've no doubt I can produce at least one a month, so whatever extra I do I shall just publish online.

Stay tuned gang, more to come!

(As usual, comments and critiques welcome)