Beware of Zombies!

An idea I had for a character a few months ago. I finally got around to drawing it the other day. She's a zombie hunter, sort of like Buffy, only after the zombies over run the world.

Best,

Brett

Random Doggage: Not So Still Life with Bowl

The pups had some fun today with a stolen plastic bowl.

Nazgul has the bowl first.

Pretty soon she lost it to her sister, Nura.

Linnaeus tried to sneak in some bowl time but the girls rather pointedly ignored him.

Go away, stinky boy! No bowls for you!

Eventually Nura became bored with the bowl...

...and decided to play with Nazgul.

And Linnaeus finally got to play with the bowl.

Captain America Movie

I'm not a Captain America fan, he's far to blah for me, to good, to perfect. Sort of like Superman Lite. Anyways they are just about to cast the lead in the new movie. If Marvel does it right and makes some interesting changes it might be good. SO who would you want to see as Cap? I had thought about Sam Worthington of Avatar fame but someone on Scifi Wire mentioned Captain Awesome from Chuck. I think that would be a great choice, and might be able to capture a bit of the magic that Iron Man did. At least we know Cap. Awesome can do comedy;)

Anyways I did a quick sketch with a slightly modified costume yesterday. Enjoy!

Brett

Epigenetics

There is a fascinating article in Time magazine about epigenetics:

Meet the Epigenome
The answer lies beyond both nature and nurture. Bygren's data — along with those of many other scientists working separately over the past 20 years — have given birth to a new science called epigenetics. At its most basic, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity that do not involve alterations to the genetic code but still get passed down to at least one successive generation. These patterns of gene expression are governed by the cellular material — the epigenome — that sits on top of the genome, just outside it (hence the prefix epi-, which means above). It is these epigenetic "marks" that tell your genes to switch on or off, to speak loudly or whisper. It is through epigenetic marks that environmental factors like diet, stress and prenatal nutrition can make an imprint on genes that is passed from one generation to the next.

An excellent read, and sure to be a real downer for those people who insist that you can just 'breed out' genetic disease in dogs so that all dogs will be perfectly healthy and live forever.

More Creative Dog Breeder Math

What exactly is a commercial breeder? How do we define one? Our regular readers know I'm not into the numbers game, simply because I have a lot of dogs, and I have friends with a lot of dogs, and we are definitely NOT in it for the money. I made a grand total of $775 selling pups last year. Actually, I made less than that because Minimog was over four months old and had to have a rabies vaccine, which my vet charges out the wazoo for. So with the health certificate, the rabies vax, the fecal test, crate and office visit, I actually lost money on her. My 'profits', such as they were, wouldn't even pay for a month's worth of food for my dogs.

I am kind of a lousy business-woman, no?

To me, being commercial means you make a good portion, or even all, of your income from your endeavors. I think that's a reasonable definition. Brett and I are commercial artists. We whore out our skills for cash to buy food for our dogs. Making money is the whole point. To be sure we actually make money, we have to work within certain guidelines. Brett does not, for example, get paid enough to make spending a week on a page viable. He's got to crank those things out. That means he takes shortcuts, makes compromises, to make the work go faster. He still tries to do quality work, but it has to be tempered with the knowledge that this is a money-making endeavor, and there has to be a balance between the time and the money. Or you simply don't make enough money.

I do not expect to make a living off of puppies. If I did, I would be breeding a lot more, and I'd have to do a much better job of balancing my expenses with my income. I'd probably stop feeding a home made diet, and I'd have to spend less time with each litter, since I'd be having a lot more of them. I don't think there's anything wrong with making money by breeding dogs, and I think it's just plain stupid to expect every single breeder to pursue such an expensive hobby with no thought of, at the very least, breaking even. I'd love for my dogs to pay for themselves, but that's just too many litters for me. I'd have to cut corners in ways that I wouldn't be comfortable with, especially regarding the placement of pups, and food. I'm pretty obsessive about the dog's food. Those are not corners I'm willing to cut, personally, just to have my breeding program pay for itself.

All this blah blah blah about money is really me complaining about an initiative in Missouri, called, interestingly enough, the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act. Now, there's a load of things wrong with this initiative, not the least of which is that most of it's provisions are covered by other laws, but the kicker for me is the definition of 'hobby breeder': breeders who have custody of no more than ten covered female dogs. (Covered means the dog is over the age of six months and has intact sexual organs.) I have more than ten intact bitches. Not only does this initiative define me as a large-scale commercial breeder, but it also calls me a puppy mill. Gee, how flattering.

So now we get to that new dog breeder math: more than ten intact bitches equals large-scale commercial breeder. Doesn't matter how many, or how few litters you produce. Doesn't matter whether you operate in the red, just cover your expenses, or make your entire living from your dogs. To these math-challenged idiots, intact bitch means bred bitch.

Sigh.

Our Afghan Sheepsie is intact. She will never be bred. Sheepsie has food allergies and I don't want to perpetuate that. Houdini is a year old. She's intact. Will she ever be bred? Maybe. I can't tell you that at this time. Certainly not for two or three years, at least.

Here's my breeding equation: more than ten intact bitches, plus two litters in 2009 plus last litter before that in 2006, plus a definite litter planned for 2011, plus a possible litter planned for 2010, equals someone with a hell of an expensive hobby! The IRS would laugh in my face if I tried to declare my dog breeding a business. They expect a business to make money. Whoever thinks that just the number of dogs you have should define whether you are a large-scale commercial breeder must be using math from an alternate universe.

Let's grow up and stop pretending these types of things are actually about protecting dogs, especially since, under this initiative, you have can as many dogs as your community will allow, as long as you chop out their sexual organs. Anybody with half a brain can see that just having an intact animal does not mean it's going to be bred. This initiative first and foremost changes the definition of hobby breeder from one who doesn't make a living from breeding, to one that has less than eleven intact bitches regardless of how many litters or how much money they make off their dogs (with ten bitches, by the way, I could have between ten and twenty litters in a year, if the bitches cycle on the right schedule.) This initiative is expressly designed to expand the definition of commercial breeder (and apply the pejorative 'puppy mill' to anyone who is not a hobby breeder), and to make it considerably more difficult to have a number of intact animals, whether you breed them or not.

Cuz we all know, intact equals bred. I suck pretty badly at math, but even I know that doesn't add up.

Glad I don't live in Missouri.

My Favorite Euro Pop Band EVER!!!

Enjoy!!!

Brett

In Honor of Legion...

I had hopes that Legion might be good, but alas, after the reviews I read... It looks like a dud ( I've read some really bad reviews of it.) I actually like religious/mythology themed movies so I was hoping this one would be the next Prophecy (NOT the mercury bear movie!) So I drew up a sketch of an older character of mine for the fun of it. He looks off a bit, I think it's because I tucked in his shirt.... Well, he's a fallen angel named Lahaitiel or something, I can never remember the spelling...

Best,

Brett

Happy Draw a Dinosaur Day!

Here's my submission: Bistahieversor, a new Tyrannosaurus from New Mexico!

If anyone decides to do one, post a link in the comments!


Best,

Brett

Draw a Dinosaur day!

Tomorrow is the official Draw a Dinosaur Day. I challenge all of you to pick up a pencil and give it a try! I will also do it, just for the fun of it! I just have to decide which dino to draw... hmmmm.

Here's the info:

Draw a Dinosaur Day

Best,

Brett

Batman, now in color and 3D!!!

Just kidding, we can't afford 3D yet.

Colors by Andrew Dalhouse.