In the overwhelmingly male comic book industry, it has been a challenge for some editors and readers to see the ever growing number of talented women currently trying to make a name for themselves. With that in mind, ComicsAlliance offers Hire This Woman, a recurring feature designed for comics readers as well as editors and other professionals, where we shine the spotlight on a female comics pro on the ascendance. Some of these women will be at the very beginning of their careers, while others will be more experienced but not yet “household names.”
Illustrator Aubrey Aiese is the letterer of beloved new series Lumberjanes as well as some of the Adventure Time comics and graphic novels from Boom! Studios. She’s also an artist who has made her own mini-comics and co-writing a comic with Zachary Sterling.
Lettering by Aubrey Aiese
ComicsAlliance: What’s your preferred form of creative output?
Aubrey Aiese: This is really hard because I honestly love doing everything! Hand lettering is my specialty but I also love creating full illustrations and making comics. I really like getting my hands on every aspect of comic-making when I have the chance; penciling, inking, lettering, all of it But I guess that if I had to choose, inking is one of my favorite steps. There’s something about going from pencils to inks that’s so satisfying… It just feels like once I put down inks, it feels like the drawing is “real” now. Does that make sense? I’m all about the finishing touches.
CA: Do you work on paper or digitally?
AA: When it comes to lettering, I do everything digital. When I first started, I tried doing everything traditionally. I was using crow quills, pens, brushes, vellum, you name it! But for the sake of time and efficiency I made the switch. I’m currently using an out-of-date version of Photoshop and a Cintiq for all of my lettering work. When it comes to illustration I still like to do as much as I can traditionally, though. I tend to work faster when I’m in front of a real peace of paper because I find that I spend more time actually drawing and less time zoomed in, examining every single aspect of the illustration.
Aubrey Aiese
CA: What’s your background/training?
AA: I took a few fine art classes in high school here and there but for the most part I’m self-taught and still learning! I’ve got a nice little collection of super old books on hand lettering and all of the information still applies. I’m also constantly learning from the Internet. There are so many great art blogs and websites and it’s super easy to find new inspiration and techniques that other artists are using that I could learn from and try out for myself.
CA: How would you describe your creative style?
AA: This is a toughie… It’s hard for me to say, because I feel like my style is always in the process of evolving. Although it may be hard for me to describe my style, I do know what I like: lots of contour lines and curves, simple yet beautiful color palettes, the juxtaposition of pretty/cool things, and emotive, relatable storytelling. I don’t know if my style has all of that, but these are the things that I appreciate and aspire to have in my work.
Lettering by Aubrey Aiese
CA: What projects have you worked on in the past? What are you currently working on?
AA: All of my comics-related work so far has been lettering (with the exception of doing some inks on the second Adventure Time OGN, Pixel Princesses). My very first lettering gig was working on the Adventure Time: Flipside miniseries, then I went on to letter the third Adventure Time OGN Seeing Red. Currently, I’m lettering the fourth Adventure Time OGN and I’m the regular letterer for the Lumberjanes series which I’m super psyched about!
Illustration-wise, I’ve been working on some stuff for my own minicomic and I’m also currently writing a comic with Zachary Sterling which is turning out to be super fun. I can’t wait to get it out there!
CA: Approximately how long does it take you to letter a 20-page issue?
AA: Give or take, it takes me about 5-7 days to hand letter a 20-page comic. That is, if I’m not binge-watching trashy reality television.
CA: What is your dream project?
AA: My dream project would be creating my own original graphic novel with a good balance of art and emotion. Something really well rounded. I want to make stories that people can relate to. I want to build characters that you empathize with and care about. I’m always really into art with a lot of emotion but can also make me laugh as well. I’d also like to start getting into some design work of sorts. Basically, I love lettering but my dream project right now would consist of making more art for sure.
Aubrey Aiese
CA: Who are some comics creators that inspire you?
AA: First off, my number one lettering inspiration is Britt Wilson. I’ve always had an interest in lettering but seeing her work made me realize that lettering can actually be a real art form. Then there’s Ryan Andrews. Our Bloodstained Roof was the first comic I’ve ever read online and it blew my mind. I had a really set idea of what I thought comics were “supposed” to be and this completely changed that. I’d love for my work to have an impact on others like these creators have had on me.
CA: What are some comics that have inspired you either growing up or as an adult?
AA: Growing up, the only comics that I ever read were Betty and Veronica comics. I know this sounds weird but I didn’t even know they were comics until thinking about it later in life. I used to have this giant Rubbermaid bin full of them and my mom was constantly bringing me home more to add to the collection. I don’t know if it inspired me to make comics or anything, but I really liked that it had female protagonists and that it was pages of art. As an adult, I would have to say that Craig Thompson’s Blankets inspired me like crazy. It was the first graphic novel I ever read and it’s what made me want to attempt making my own. Scott Pilgrim, Anya’s Ghost and Emitown were also huge inspirations.
CA: What’s your ideal professional environment?
AA: At home I work in a studio that’s in its own room and I love it. I really need a separation of personal living space and work environment because I think that it just puts me in the right headspace. The only drawback of working in your own studio is that there are plenty of distractions within arm’s reach! (We have an eight-month-old puppy whose cuteness is hard to resist) Sometimes it can be a little tough to pull myself away from the comforts of home to sit at a drawing desk… That’s why I think it’d be cool to maybe have a studio away from home with other artists. I know it’d be a really productive space with lots of inspiring work being done all over the place. So I guess that might be my really ideal work environment.
Aubrey Aiese
CA: What do you most want our readers and industry professionals to know about your work?
AA:I guess I just want people to know that I put a lot of heart into my work whether it’s lettering or inking or full illustrations. The payoff for me is when the heart really comes through. If I can create work that makes the reader feel something, I think I’ve done my job.
CA: How can editors and readers keep up with your work and find your contact information?
AA: I regularly update my Twitter and Tumblr, so both are a good way to keep up and get a little insight into the kind of person that I am. I also have a professional portfolio site that’s a little leaner and business-y, too.
If there is a woman you’d like to recommend or if you’d like to be included in a future installment of this feature, drop us a line at comicsalliance-at-gmail-dot-com with “Hire This Woman” in the subject line.
What the hell am I doing in Bluehour? It doesn’t matter, I’m here, and sometimes you need to mix it up, right? I mean, I don’t mind that it’s in the Pearl, there are some great places in the Pearl, nor am I averse to table cloths or managers in ill-fitted suits. But some places just have a demographic and an atmosphere that is, well, a bit naff. I mean the music, the non-stop seemingly never-ending dance tune where only the instrument playing the jazz riff changes, from trumpet to accordion to piano to something else. And the people, the guy who keeps his sunglasses on even as he can’t find his way to the restroom; some other dude who thinks the middle of the restaurant is the best place to have a phone call; women who looked dressed up as though for some terrifyingly expensive nightclub.
But hold up. I get to the drinks, cocktails, and these are some truly great cocktails. The Peter Rabbit made with rum, lemon and agave plus muddled radish and oregano has so many levels of lush flavor it feels like alchemy at work in the mouth, and it’s suddenly the best cocktail I can remember having. The food is also up to scratch—gnocchi with English peas, spring onion, pecorino and herbs hit home and was suitably light and fresh for a hot summer’s day, while a lamb slider came with first-rate bread and the accompanying fries were perfectly crisp. Service was friendly and sharp. It’s not cheap, it’s not going to be in this part of town next to Wieden and Kennedy, but there’s a well-priced happy hour till 6:30 pm. So the moral of this story? There isn’t one. But I’ll definitely be going back for cocktails and a snack. Bluehour Restaurant, 250 NW 13th Avenue
Harvester Brewing, Portland’s premier gluten-free beer maker, needs your help. They have been told by a Californian Wine Company, Hope Family Wines, that the use of Harvester will create brand confusion and demanded that they change the name of the brewery (it's unclear why—perhaps Hope are bringing out a wine called Harvester).
So rather than spend money on lawyers (never a bad thing), Harvester have decided to change their name and want your ideas—they can’t use the name Harvester at all but, they, as they put it, “would like it if the new name worked well with our love of farming, farmers, and tractors so we can continue using our tractor logo but we will consider non-tractor related ideas too”. As well as producing great beer (gluten free or not, it’s still great beer), they also now have a gastropub at SE 7th & Lincoln St which has small batch tasting room only beers and a gluten-free menu that ranges from sandwiches to kale salad to guinea fowl.
There’s more info on Harvester’s Facebook page and ideas can be sent to: contact@harvesterbrewing.com
Most smartphones produced in 2014 will follow a certain design playbook: rectangular screen, a few buttons around the edges, and just enough thickness to house the internals and the requisite battery. One could argue that this is the idealized design for a touchscreen phone, arrived at after years of research and development and even more years of booming sales. BlackBerry would argue that all phones look like this because innovation is dead.
That's the line the company pushes in its latest blog post to promote the square-screened BlackBerry Passport, seen above. We're all "stuck in a rectangular world," it says, and while the rectangular smartphone is a "great ergonomic design that drives content, media consumption and quick communications," the shape is "perhaps limiting innovations."
The Passport's 4.5-inch, 1440×1440 display is "like the IMAX of productivity" and can display more information from spreadsheets or webpages or e-books without as much scrolling or flipping between portrait and landscape modes. Like the BlackBerry Q10, it uses a physical keyboard augmented by some onscreen keys.
Building a solar panel heater out of aluminum cans is not as far-fetched as you might think. A company in Canada, Cansolair, Inc., specializes in building these units and has won awards for their design.
Their heaters have been described as “green energy and recycling all rolled into one”, and have proven to be very cost effective and efficient as well.
How do they work
The units are typically installed on the outside walls of houses, and of course, in a location that gets a lot of sun. The idea is to draw air from near the floor of any room in a home, and pass it through the heating panel, which contains several columns of cans.
The air is then returned to the same room near the ceiling. The cans are stacked and have large holes cut in both ends to allow the air to pass inside them while the outside of the cans is getting hot from the sun.
What you’ll need
240 aluminum cans.
3 – 8 ft. 2x4s.
4 ft. x 8 ft. x 1/2 in. sheet of plywood.
High temperature silicon.
4 ft. x 8 ft. sheet of Plexiglas or Lexan.
A can of heat-resistant flat black spray paint.
Plastic tubing.
Drill Press with wide drill bits.
Screws.
Optional Air Blower (consider a solar-powered unit).
How to build the solar panel
Construct a wooden frame out the the 2x4s, approx. 4 ft. wide x 8 ft. high x 3 1/2 in. deep. Next cut a piece of plywood this size and nail it to the back of the frame.
Drill a hole in the top center of the frame – this is where you’ll connect your outlet hose.
Drill a hole in the bottom of the frame – this is where your inlet hose will be connected.
Drill large holes in the tops and bottoms from all the cans except for 16 which will be on the bottom row. For those, drill the holes in the tops and sides. Caution! Aluminum cans are sharp – use heavy work gloves or other means to hold them in place as you cut the hols out.
Start placing your cans into the frame. Create 16 columns of 15 cans each. Stack them one at at time, sealing them together as you go along. Make sure the ones with side holes are on the bottom row. Allow the silicone sealant to cure.
Spray the cans and frame with the heat-resistant flat black paint.
Cover the frame with the sheet of Plexiglas or Lexan.
Cut holes in the side of the building that line up with holes in the top and bottom of the solar panel. Air will be drawn from the building through the lower hole, which should be just above floor level, and be returned through the upper hole.
Mount the completed panel on the exterior wall of the home. Alternatively, you might mount the panel in a separate frame that will allow it to be tilted more toward the sun for better exposure.
Install the blower at either the inlet or outlet. This is not essential, but will increase the efficiency of your solar heater.
This unit allows air to flow all around the cans as it moves through the panel. A more efficient design will force all the air through the inside of the cans. This will also avoid exposure of the air to the black paint.
You can name your own price for games in the BioShock and XCOM series and more through the Humble 2K Bundle, which is live now through July 22 at 2:00 p.m. ET.
The games are available through Steam for Windows, and "select titles" are also available for Mac and Linux, as is a DRM-free version of BioShock.
As with each Humble Bundle, buyers can choose to split their spending between the game's creators and charities, here the American Red Cross and Action Against Hunger.
The Ashen website promises “open world”, “passive multiplayer”, “non-linear progression” and “high risk combat”, which are all things that sound exciting and Up My Street and My Bag so on. That’s not why I’m posting about it though, because those things don’t exist yet and I haven’t and can’t play the game. I’m posting about it because its concept art is gorgeous and because of a five-second animation clip of the scene pictured above.
Your browser does not support HTML5 video. Maybe. Try this.
I suggest making that full screen so you can properly appreciate the windy sense of adventure. Ashen is being made by Aurora44, a small team formed from people who previously worked in the film industry: lead artist Leighton Milne and animator Yannick Gillain previously worked together on The Hobbit films, and designer and coder Derek Bradley worked on Prometheus and The Avengers. Plus John Robert Matz, who contributed to the Gunpoint score, is doing sound design.
So if it’ll likely look and sound good, what do you actually do?
Ashen is an action RPG about a wanderer in search of a place to call home. There is no sun and the natural light that exists comes from eruptions that cover the land in ash. This is a world where nothing lasts, no matter how tightly you cling to it.
At its core, Ashen is about forging relationships.
Players can choose to guide those they trust to their camp, encouraging them to rest at the fire and perhaps remain. People you meet out in the world will have unique skills and crafting abilities to bolster your chances of survival.
Together, you might just stand a chance.
Which, yep, sounds Up My Bag, etc. But mainly:
(Click for full size)
There’s a bunch more art and detail over at the Ashen website, and more still in the presskit.
PS. When I Googled to double-check that RPS hadn’t already written about this game, the description for the top result said this story was written “By John… Throbometer”. It’s easy to see what happened there, but let’s agree, secretly and never to be mentioned again, that this is now John’s name.
David OReilly's meditative game Mountain is on its way to Steam, and the developers would like to bring it to Android as well, said OReilly on his Tumblr blog yesterday.
"We're working on Steam stuff. Please bear with us," said OReilly. He added that while the developers want to release Mountain on Android, they can't afford the Android plugin for Unity at the moment. Mountain is currently available on iOS in the App Store, and Linux, Mac and Windows PC in the Humble Store, for $0.99; it has no in-app purchases.
The developers are also aware of bugs such as the object rotation and save issue, and will fix them in the next update, which will add "a whole load more stuff" as well. It will "take a week or two" for that patch to be released.
"It was originally designed as a desktop thing but we are now optimizing the iOS version in a lot of ways," OReilly explained.
Back by popular demand, starting this Monday (June 30), Medievalpoc will be showcasing works of Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction and much, much more. Book reviews, thematic essays, discussions about representation in these genres, and resources for writers will all be included.
Submit your favorite works of fiction here!Your original works of fiction are welcome, as well as links to stories hosted online, book reviews, thematic essays, or your favorite book covers featuring characters of color.
"I spent like 10 years of my life pretending to fly around on a broomstick and you’re asking me if preparing for a love scene was ‘tricky’ because the other person also had a penis?"
"I’m just trying to live through this problem man created. Nature didn’t create the problem. Man created the problem. And I’m going to be honest, I’m going to say it, it was the European man who created this problem. European man invented the gun. Then he made a bigger gun, and he said: ‘I’m gonna keep this big gun for myself, and I’m gonna sell this small gun to you." And ever since then, he’s been keeping the big guns, and selling the small guns. So everybody’s got guns but none as big as him. And I’m through with it. I’m blind in one eye from Vietnam. If you want to die for this garbage game, that’s your fault. I’m through."
Lsyncd watches a local directory trees event monitor interface (inotify or fsevents). It aggregates and combines events for a few seconds and then spawns one (or more) process(es) to synchronize the changes. By default this is rsync. Lsyncd is thus a light-weight live mirror solution that is comparatively easy to install not requiring new filesystems or block devices and does not hamper local filesystem performance.
W. M. Flinders Petrie, drawings of Hieroglyphes from the tomb of Rahotep, Medum, 2.800 BC. Egypt. From Meyer’s grosses Konversations-Lexikon, Leipzig, 1897. Via NYPL
Kevin Rose, who apparently needed a laugh after pissing off half of Portland by being a dick
What makes a potato salad? Is it a dollop of mayonnaise, a dash of white sugar, and perhaps some minced celery? Not in the future. In the future, single bowls of potato salad are made by thousands of people. People from everywhere: citizen venture capitalists, ready to advance the interests of the species through one man in one kitchen with one vague desire to eat. The entire course of human history -- kings murdering for crowns; millions dying in the machinery of revolution; every prayer; every orgasm -- has led to this potato salad.
This absurd quest for the affluent has already raised more than $36,000 and shows no signs of stopping. Here are some of the exotic people who are making it happen.
For months, authors have complained about being caught in the middle of a very public spat between Amazon, the world's largest bookseller, and publisher Hachette. Amazon has aggressively worked to secure better contract terms with the publisher, and in the process has turned to controversial "negotiation tactics" like halting pre-orders for upcoming Hachette books, cutting down on physical inventory, and hitting customers with abnormally long shipping delays. But now the company is offering to reverse those decisions, which authors have roundly criticized as unfair and a glaring example of Amazon abusing its dominant market position.
Now, Amazon says it's willing to give authors something more: a bigger cut of ebook sales. The online retailers says it will give Hachette authors 100 percent of ebook revenues while negotiations between the two sides continue. Both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are reporting that Amazon has circulated the offer via a letter sent to authors and their agents.
Amazon says it's willing to pull back its stiff negotiating tactics
Should Hachette agree, Amazon says it will restore "normal levels of on-hand print inventory, return to normal pricing in all formats, and for books that haven't gone on sale yet, reinstate pre-orders." From Amazon's perspective, this would basically remove authors from the drawn out fight and remove them from the awkward position they're currently stuck in. It's also clearly a move designed to bring the authors — many of whom have backed Hachette in the dispute — closer to Amazon's side.
But some recipients, including the Authors Guild, aren't buying it. "If Amazon wants to have a constructive conversation about this, we’re ready to have one at any time,” Roxana Robinson, the group's president, said in a statement to the Times. “But this seems like a short-term solution that encourages authors to take sides against their publishers. It doesn’t get authors out of the middle of this — we’re still in the middle. Our books are at the center of this struggle.”
Amazon insists it's actively trying to resolve the situation, but says recent talks have been one-sided. "After our last proposal to them on June 5th, they waited a week to respond at all, promising a counteroffer the following week. We are still waiting a month later," the company said in its letter. Amazon has so far defended its tactics, claiming the ongoing rift is similar to those publishers and other media suppliers regularly experience with retailers. HarperCollins, another huge publisher, just launched a new consumer sales website as its own renegotiation period with Amazon reportedly looms.
'Research Now, Save Later While it can be tempting to “save now and pay later,” it is worth your time, now, to do your homework, test drive software, and calculate the full cost of “free” and paid software solutions. Free often comes at a higher cost in the long run.
About the Author: Gretchen is Director of Marketing for NonProfitEasy, an all-in-one software solution provider whose mission it is to change the status quo for the greater good. Gretchen’s passion is to ensure that every nonprofit has the technology to deliver services to their communities as affordably and efficiently as possible.'
lol, wow, such conflict, very interest
For non-profit organizations, open-source/free software might not actually be the best solution according to a director at a non-profit software solution provider...
Uber is well known for using a dynamic model is calls surge pricing that adjusts the cost of a fare based on supply and demand. The company's CEO, Travis Kalanick, has defended this practice despite public outcry from customers, media, and politicians. But the company drew particular heat when surge pricing kicked in during extreme weather in New York City, specifically during last year's New Year's Eve snowstorm and Hurricane Sandy. At the time the NY attorney general Eric Schneiderman released a statement implying that Uber's surge pricing during these periods could constitute price gouging.
Today the company announced that it reached an agreement with the NY attorney general's office to cap surge pricing during emergencies, a move Schneiderman called, "a thoughtful application of NY law to new #tech."
Update: Almost four hours after this article went live, a Tumblr spokeswoman e-mailed Ars to say the site has been patched against the Rosetta Flash attack. Later, a cofounder of Olark said that service had been patched, too.
A serious attack involving a widely used Web communication format is exposing millions of end users' authentication credentials on sites including eBay, Tumblr, and Instagram, a well-respected security researcher said Tuesday.
The exploit—which stems from the ease of embedding malicious commands into Adobe Flash files before they're executed—has been largely mitigated by a Flash security update Adobe released Tuesday morning to coincide with a technical analysis of the threat, including proof-of-concept exploit code. It will take days or weeks for a meaningful percentage of end users to install the fix, so the researcher who wrote the advisory is warning engineers at large websites to make server-side changes that will minimize the damage attackers can inflict on visitors. eBay, Tumblr, Instagram, and Olark are known to be vulnerable to attacks that can intercept authentication cookies or other data they send end users. Until recently, both Twitter and a wide range of Google services were also susceptible to the exploit. The common identifier assigned to the exploit is CVE-2014-4671.
itwbennett writes: Python has surpassed Java as the top language used to introduce U.S. students to programming and computer science, according to a recent survey posted by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Eight of the top 10 computer science departments now use Python to teach coding, as well as 27 of the top 39 schools, indicating that it is the most popular language for teaching introductory computer science courses, according to Philip Guo, a computer science researcher who compiled the survey for ACM."
A squadron of flying bartender droids on their way to deliver your daiquiri.
Electrolux
Don’t you wish that at the end of the day, a drone would meet you at your front door with a fresh margarita? That’s the idea behind Yura the flying bartender—one of 35 conceptual contenders in the 2014 Electrolux Design competition. Won last year by a concept for a swarm of bee-like cleaning drones called Mab, the Design Lab competition has drawn a number of autonomous system concepts this year that roll, fly, swim…or just sit there and maintain a vacuum.
Mab, the winning concept in the 2013 Electrolux Design Lab competition.
Designed by Herman Haydin, a design student at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture, Yura can carry up to a liter of juice, cocktails, tea, or coffee while keeping it heated or cooled and then dispense it into foldable cups or another vessel at the preference of the person being served. The intent of the design is to have Yura respond to voice or mobile app control.
Whether Yura is practical as a product remains to be seen. The same is true of some of the other autonomous semi-finalists in the Design Lab competition, which include:
San Francisco bar Trick Dog is launching their new menu tonight (this afternoon, actually. They open at 3PM) and they've allowed me to post it here on Alcademics.
The menu is an 11x15 tri-fold San Francisco map with recipes corresponding to tourist attractions, illustrated by Jack W Schneider.
Most drinks include one or more surprising ingredients that pop out, like melon soda, shortbread, dandelion, fenugreek, and horseradish.
There are also a lot of reshing ingredients on there that should be right in time for San Francisco's summer beginning in the next month or two.
City Lights Cocktail. Photo by Allison Webber Photography
In addition to the map menu, Trick Dog has printed up 13 postcards – one for each of the drinks / landmarks – and drinkers will be able to send a postcard per visit to friends or family, and Trick Dog will pick up the postage.
They'll have a postbox on-site to collect the postcards and will send them to the post office. Now all you have to do is remember someone's mailing address, which should be even more difficult after a few cocktails.
most dwarves don't have epicanthic folds, and so giving one dwarf asian eyes just smacks of..Well, giving a random character non-Caucasian looks for no apparent reason
Lettering by Aubrey Aiese
Aubrey Aiese
Lettering by Aubrey Aiese
Aubrey Aiese
Aubrey Aiese
Lettering by Aubrey Aiese
(Click for full size)
