Whoomp! There it is!

Turns out we, at Vicious Ambitious, started a bi-weekly podcast. Apparently you can listen to it or subscribe thru iTunes right here after a fashion. Fancy that!

Another Rainy Night 4

Dear Charlie,

I'm seeing an end to these letters. I hear your time is almost up and I hear you'll be returning to Toronto. Can't wait to see what happens then!

So, I had this crazy dream last night. I was taking Perry for a walk and we came across this, like, army of cats who started sniffing me and Perry. The cats all of a sudden started multiplying and multiplying until this whole field was filled with them. It started to become very scary at that point. I mean, I don't hate cats, but if you had to walk through them like they were the ball pit at FunZone you'd be a little freaked out too. Anyways I woke up right after that and Perry was just looking at me. What a wierd dream. And could you imagine the smell of all those cats? I don't even want to think about it.

So how's life for you, Charlie? I've been goingon in these letters so selfishly and now even considering how things are for you. Maybe that's why you never write me back. Now, now I'm on to you.

Gord Cummings

Another Rainy Night 3

Do you remember yelling at me for turning on the propane on the camper? I recall it pretty clearly and I think it influenced the way I saw you for years to come. I wondered for a while how anyone could be so mean so quickly. I learned though to accept your temper and even adopt it at times. I have to wonder though how that shit is learned. Did I just answer my own question? Anyways see you after work. I look forward to meeting you finally.

By the way I rented "Air Time" which is a documentary of Michael Jordan. Maybe we can watch it?

Summer of Sundays. Part 2 of 10.

Are you sitting comfortably? Good. 'Cause this is gonna be a loooooong post. Here we go!

This past weekend was a busy one for VA; 2 outdoor art sales in 2 days.

So. First up: The U. of C. Park Sale on Saturday. Almost all of the VA guys were in attendance, except for Chris who had to stay home 'cause he's hard at work right now working on an ultra-cool, ultra-secret project...I'm not too sure what I can say about it just yet, but yes, it will be super-cool and it will be super-blow-your-mind.
But even without Chris' pale radiance brightening our booth, the day still managed to be a beautiful one. Behold -

Here's the mandatory Nick-and-Gord-setting-our-booth-up shot:

Nick had a few wardrobe malfunctions early on...but nothin' a little duct tape couldn't solve:

And here's the mandatory group shot. As you can see, there's a gaping Chris-sized hole to the left of us....that is, assuming Chris was shaped like a large...blob of some sort.

And here's Steve drawing people as zombies, while under an umbrella. And if you think THAT'S strange, well....you'd be correct:

Here's DJ Anthony (Gord's son) throwin' down some hardcore traxx at the public Learn-To-Deejay booth:

And here's our good friend Richard "Madgrifter" Barkman popping in for a quick group photo. Hi Maddy!:

And THIS was cool. The organizers had provided some spraypaint cans and set up some boards in the courtyard for people to just walk up to and start spraypainting during the day. Seriously, it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Here's what the boards looked like near the beginning of the day:
And here they were at the end of the day (...you can't really see, but I duct-taped some branches and leaves on to the board on the far left, hee hee. It was awesome! AND artsy!):

Some of us even tried spraypainting the boards ourselves (on the backs of the boards, so as not to embarrass ourselves, heh heh). Here's Steve and Nick showing off their mad graffitti..."skillz":
And here's that same board a few hours later:

Seriously, the whole day was beautiful. Here's a pic of Gord, Nick and Vince chillin' and admirin' the beautiful scenery. It's so beautiful it almost looks like I fiddled with the levels in Photoshop...

And here we are waving goodbye to a wonderful day. See ya next year Park Sale!

...
...
...
...AND IT DOESN'T STOP THERE!
Like the title says, this is the Summer of Sundays, so, yes, a few of us also went to hock our wares the very next day, Sunday, at Olympic Plaza.
Here's Nick, Gord and Anthony settin' our booth up once again:
And here's a pic from later in the day. The day was pretty quiet. And...I didn't realize this until just now, but if you look closely, it looks like Anthony aged about 20 years that day. sigh...they grow up so fast:
And here's a pic of Nick and Yours Truly, holdin' down the fort. Gord had to take off and the other guys couldn't make it, so it was up to the 2 of us to represent VA, and, I must say, we did it gorgeously:

Uhhh...okay, so maybe we're not gorgeous, heh heh. But seriously, check this out. Nick was doodling pics all day and I asked him if I could ink one - so he pencilled up this cool Iron Man. So I inked it - and then he told me I had to colour it too, haha, so here's the result of our collaboration:
If you want to see another coloured version of the pic, check Nick's blog. I couldn't decide which version was nicer, so his blog gets one and this blog gets one, heh heh. To be honest, I was very happy with how this pic turned out. Nick's wicked, dynamic shapes and my squiggly, little textures seemed to work pretty well together, so, if you haven't already read it on Nick's blog, Nick and I have agreed to work on a story together (him pencilling, me inking) for the upcoming VA book; a sci-fi themed anthology. Truly, it shall beeth the awesome.

And, lastly, here's somethin' from Sunday that I doodled without pencils of any kind, heh heh:
Whew. See ya next Sunday!

-CogNoman

Another Rainy Night 2

Okay okay okay, I can remember that song now. You know, the one you were singing to me? I'm sure I completed this picture that same morning before heading back to the grind of the Subway for another 8 hours of occupancy and 2 hours of effort. One day I'm going to quit that job. I know I've been talking about it for a while, but really I think I'm working my way up to it. Don't worry, I'm working my way towards ending my complaints to you. But yeah, thanks again for the wonderful song. I'll see you soon.

Yours always,

Gord Cummings

Another Rainy Night

Don't look through that bag, man! It's your happy day. Here is a picture of you if you really need something to help tide you over until next we meet. Again, I miss you, but know that what you are seeing is all I have on short notice.

With love always,

Gord Cummings

Summer of Sundays. Part 1 of 10.

What starts with "Vicious" and rhymes with "Nishusambishusizbakkonthestreetswuntsagain"?

Thaaat's right! Vicious Ambitious is back on the streets once again --- and this time, literally.

Yes sirs, yes ma'ams, Your Most-Favouritest Group of Capgun-Shooting, Face-Pieing Cartoonists has just signed up to take part in this year's "Sunday Summer Arts Bazaar".
....What in golly is a "Sunday Summer Arts Bazaar", you ask? Well...basically, it's a cool, little art market that will be happening every Sunday this summer, all summer long, at the Calgary Olympic Plaza (228 8th Avenue S.E). All sorts of artists will be there every week, selling all sorts of products of all types of quality, and The Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts (the fine people who are hosting the event) has been gracious enough to grant Yours Truly, Vicious Ambitious, some space there to hock our own fine wares alongside 'em all.

So yep, you heard me right. Vicious Ambitious will be at the Olympic Plaza EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY this summer, from June 22nd to August 31st, Noon 'til 6:00pm, desperately trying to convince random passersby that our books are worth buying.
Seriously - it's almost like we have our own comic store now, just with totally slack business hours.

So if you're sitting at home next Sunday and you're bored outta your skull, or you've just gotten out of Church and you're completely depressed, hop on down to Olympic Plaza and we'll help brighten your day by taking some of your money.
See ya next Sunday!

AND NOW - for your eyes only - here are some pics from Day #1 of this Crazy Epic Summer-Long Olympic Plaza Artstravaganza. (Yeah...I know...I probably shoulda mentioned all of this to you guys before Day 1 actually started, heh heh, but don't worry - we've still got 9 more Sundays to go this summer, so that means you've still got 9 more chances to mix it up with Calgary's Finest. So no worries if ya missed the first day, friend. No worries.) Here we go!

1. Here's a pic of Nick, Gord and Anthony (Gord's son) getting our table ready. The Art Market was held indoors today, but apparently all the rest of the days will be held outside, in the actual Plaza.

2. And here's one of Nick fondling the air and Gord looking like he's enjoying it. I tried to only take pictures when Nick wasn't fondling things, but that's harder to do than you think.


3. Hey - who's that bearded redhead in the bottom-left corner? Because gosh, he's glorious.


4. And here's Anthony, Gord and Nick again. In alphabetical order.


And here's a doodle I did today at our table. Nick and Gord also drew some pictures, but I don't have 'em on me right now, so I can't post 'em. If you want to see Nick's pics, he'll probably post 'em on his blog some time ( http://nicksoup.blogspot.com ), and if you want to see Gord's pics, drop by Gord's house and ask to see 'em. Because Gord is a blogless Hutterite.


Arrivederci,

-CogNoman