Least I Could Do

Comic: 2009-07-04

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Comic: 2009-07-03

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

News: Lar's All Request Art Special Podcast

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:47:20 -0400

As I'm sure all of you have already Sohmer's post about our summer convention season (see below if for some reason circumstance has kept you from it!) AND unless you've been living under a rock for the past several months you will also be aware that I have been hosting a weekly show nearly every Friday evening over at Ustream.tv. (Here's the link.)

Well with the coming convention season, as well as other summer adventure plans, tomorrow night (Friday July 3rd) will necessarily be the last regularly scheduled show until September rolls around. This is not to say I won't try to Ustream as I can, but it's going to be, out of necessity, more spontaneous until I stop gallivanting all across the countryside. That being said, I wanted to really make tomorrow night's Ustream special so I'm throwing it open as an ALL REQUEST ART SPECIAL. If there's something you've long wanted me to draw, here is your chance to ask me to do it AND to watch me draw it live, as I do my best to take questions from the chat room and answer them live.

Here's the catch, I'm not going to take your requests from the chatroom. Things are fast and furious enough there so if you have a request, I'm asking you zap it my way via Twitter (my twitter handle is @lartist). No guarantees that I will draw your request, and I highly doubt I'll get to everyone's but I will do my best to conglomerate the most popular and most interesting (to me) ideas. All artwork will be posted after the show in Teh Art Forum for folks to enjoy. I will also try to answer and demonstrate any twittered questions on how I work, photoshop techniques etc, while creating the sketches.

So there you have it. I will take your twittered questions from now till tomorrow evening at 6pm ET. The show will begin broadcasting at 8pm and continue on towards midnight.

I hope to see you there!

Comic: 2009-07-02

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

News: Summer Time

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:02:02 -0400

As it is already July 1st somehow, it seems that my ability to stop time has failed to manifest itself. Despite my disappointment at my lack of superhero abilities, the looming convention season is…looming…looming even larger. Seems like as good a time as any to run through our summer schedule, don't you think?

As it stands today, both Lar and I will be attending the following shows:

San Diego Comic-Con, July 22-26 (San Diego, CA)
Connecticon, July 31-August 2 (Hartford, CT)
LICD Summer Meet, August 6-10 (Montreal QC)
GenCon, August 13-16 (Indianapolis, IN)
FaneXpo Canada, August 28-30 (Toronto, ON)
DragonCon, Sep 4-7 (Atlanta, GA)
Vcon, October 2-4 (Vancouver, BC)
Baltimore Comic-Con, October 10-11 (Baltimore, MD)

Quite the full schedule, but for some masochistic reason, we're still looking for a few more shows to make it even fuller. If you have any other recommendations of cons we should be hitting, please comment to this post.

Our hope is to get the opportunity to see as many of you this summer as possible, so if you're able, please do come out and say hi.

While I have your rapt attention (it best be rapt), I also wanted to thank the industry professionals who put Least I Could Do on their ballot for this years Harvey Awards. I'm pleased to share that LICD received 3 nominations and we're honored and extremely grateful.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to see how my RedBull Popsicle experiment worked out.

- Because I can.

Quote of the Day

"I was nineteen years old when the musical Cats came to our town. I couldn't wait to see it. After the show I was asked if I wanted to go meet some of the performers backstage. Man, I was thrilled. But when I got back there, they were drunk and out of control. Rumpus Cat and Macavity kept feeling up my leg. I tried to leave, but, Rumpleteazer held me down, and... I was raped by Mr. Mistoffelees."
-Chris, from Team America: World Police (2004)

Comic: 2009-07-01

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Comic: 2009-06-30

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

News: Five Dollars

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:05:57 -0400

A few weeks ago, the wife and I were at Ikea, because it had obviously been too long since I'd used the devils device (the Allen Key) to put together sub par furniture.

After making our purchases, I headed to the parking lot to retrieve the car. Once I had successfully and skillfully backed the car into a spot that was probably too tight to begin with, I noticed a couple of middle-aged women struggling to put a giant box into their tiny, almost clown like automobile.

My first instinct was to remain where I was and chuckle at the spectacle that was playing out before me. Fighting that urge down was difficult, yet that small section of my brain that contains chivalry won out.

I exited my vehicle, and offered assistance to these two lovely ladies. They quickly accepted and I was thus forced to do manual labor. I won't bore you with the details of how I got the box into the car, but I can assure you that it involved magic. Following my yearly good deed, I wished them both a good evening.

One of the women (we'll call her Shirley, because that's what she looked like to me) handed me a 5 dollar bill. I wasn't sure why she felt the need to tip me, but I insisted that it was my pleasure. Shirley wasn't having any of it, and kept thrusting that money at me, with me politely yet sternly giving it back.

Finally, I tried to make a break for it, but Shirley was relentless. She somehow managed to ninja-throw that 5 dollar bill into the pocket of my hoodie before scurrying away in her car. That's about the time Sue came out of the store, wondering why I was holding five dollars and more intently wondering what I had done exactly to earn it.

So there I was, feeling ridiculously guilty about taking this woman's money. That's where I decided I would give the money to someone in need, therefore ensuring my clear conscience.

For 3 weeks I drove around, looking for someone to give this money to.

Apparently, like sales people in a retail store, homeless people are only around when you're not looking for them.

Yesterday however, on the way home, was a young woman covered in metal and tattoos, walking aimlessly on the side of the road looking for help. I quickly reached into my glove box to retrieve the 5 dollar bill and gave it to her.

The smile she gave me in return was more valuable than the minute it took me to put an Ikea box in a car.

My Karma was clear, and someone got the five dollars who needed it far more than me.

I hope she doesn't use it to buy meth.

- Because I can.

Quote of the Day

"Let it slide,
Let your troubles fall behind you
Let it shine
Until you feel it all around you
And I don't mind
If it's me you need to turn to
We'll get by,
It's the heart that really matters in the end"
-Little Wonders, by Rob Thomas

Comic: 2009-06-29

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Comic: 2009-06-28

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Comic: 2009-06-27

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

News: Stage Fright?

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:55:23 -0400

Hey friends,

So it's another Friday night and once again I'm going to be leaping online in a couple of hours to while away my evening on Ustream.TV. This has been a pretty regular occurence for me and I gotta say it remains an enjoyable one. I hope you'll grab a friend and bring them along to be (hopefully) entertained with my art on my weekly broadcast starting at 8pm, Lartist At Work. (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lartist-at-work)

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV

Some folks have asked me how it feels to have so many people watching me work, and the truth is it is flattering as hell. I'm also really grateful for the opportunity to interact with our readers outside of a convention setting (only because cons tend to be all lumped up during the summer and then few and far between the rest of the year). What I do isn't a secret and if I can answer a few questions or even inspire someone else to overcome their own fear of exposure to get drawing, then that is just a huge bonus. Art is a 'do or do not' kind of thing. And the 'do' is WAY more fun than the 'do not'.

See you around 8!

Comic: 2009-06-26

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Comic: 2009-06-25

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

News: Decency

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:17:11 -0400

It's no secret that web anonymity breeds a high level of douche-baggery. Why bother with outdated concepts such as respect, open mindedness and base decency when no one knows who you are?

Why, indeed, when it so easy to set up a new forum account or a blog and write things which you would never say aloud? Why?

Because of the illusion that your actions, your words are completely consequence free. I say illusion because it is just that, an illusion, it's false. There are always consequences to our actions, though it may not be ourselves who suffer them.

More than a punch to the head, words do hurt. What you write laughing in your bedroom at 4am about another human being can deeply wound that person.

When a time comes that I find myself writing about another person, I always ask myself a simple question: Would I say that to his/her face? If the answer is yes, I hit publish. If the answer is no, I delete.

I wish I could institute this policy to the web as a whole, but I simply don't have that reach. My hope is that some of you at least will take these words to heart, and like our mother's taught us to think before we talk, please think before you type.

The reason I bring this up is because I've been following the recent dust up between Perez Hilton (who I consider to be complete trash) and Will.I.Am. If you haven't heard about it yet, do yourself a favor and try and ignore it, it will make you feel just a little bit worse about humanity.

Still, it did make me think.

Violence is not an answer to any question, it is not a solution to any problem. I would also say the same about what Hilton does for a 'living'. Dozens of times per day, he goes on record to millions of loyal readers and bashes, makes fun of and judges people in the media's eye. It's a deplorable thing he does, and thus far, he's never faced any consequences for his actions. Until now, until he was punched in the head.

Hilton isn't a victim, he was held accountable.

Should he have been punched? No. But he wasn't blameless.

How would you have reacted if someone said to your face what Hilton says about others on a daily basis, either about you, a family member or a friend?

Hilton shouldn't have been attacked, that is wrong. People should stop supporting what he does, that is also wrong.

While the media will no doubt be talking about this for the next few weeks, I honestly hope that people will realize this incident can be applied to the vast majority of the internet using community. And that maybe, we can learn from it.

It's easy to do the right thing when everyone is looking, but how about doing the right thing when you're alone at your computer?

- Because I can.

Quote of the Day

"You could have bowed out gracefully
But you didn't
You knew enough to know to leave well enough alone
But you wouldn't "
-Everyday, by Rascal Flatts

Comic: 2009-06-24

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Comic: 2009-06-23

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Comic: 2009-06-22

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Comic: 2009-06-21

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Comic: 2009-06-20

sohmer@leasticoulddo.com — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400