matt hackmann - web developer - artist - nerd

Some moons ago, I had a little comic entitled Digital Double. It was terrible, but I found myself reading through it again one day not too long ago for whatever reason. One comic in particular intrigued me as I was attempting to take a stab at "anime style", an in joke to a couple of sudden character design changes I'd made. Here is the panel in question:

Now, one thing that intrigues me about this picture is that, at the time, I absolutely despised anime and all arts Japanese. That being said, I do not remember using much of anything as far as reference to even attempt to match the style. Just slap on some large, shiny eyes and a pleated skirt. DONE!

I thought it might be fun to revisit this frame and, given that I am actually attempting to draw in this style seriously, envision it as it should have been.

This is a re-imagining of a panel from a comic I drew back in the summer of '06. Proof that I have made some sort of artistic skills progress.

Little write-up with the original here

If you frequent digg you no doubt saw this a while back. For those who don't enjoy clicking links to find out pertinent information, it's a page that calculates how "famous" you are on the internet. I'll say this isn't entirely foolproof. All calculations are done via google search results, but it gives you somewhat of an idea about your... uniqueness.

Anyways, for fun I fed the information for a search of "dxprog" in and it turns out I've got 10/10 points for being a microcelebrity. Cool, I suppose. But like I said, it's more about uniqueness and the fact that I've stuck with one online moniker through my entire time on the internet helps. It also helps that I am the only person going by dxprog. The little calculation wouldn't work nearly as well if there were others who went by that handle.

This may sound egeotistical, but every once and again I google myself just to see what's been indexed about me. I've kept a fairly open internet life so it's not hard to turn up a bunch of relevent results. First thing that pops up is this site, followed by my Digg profile, Digital Double/my Smackjeeves profile and a couple of videos. Sadly, the first video is the one that I loathe with all the hatred I can muster. But, that aside, this is a pretty good synopsis of myself as it stands currently.

The origins of my online presence, however, are seemingly lost forever in the Sea of Digital Bits we call the internet. All that exists of my very first web page is gone and since YPN has been screwed, none of that exists either. Actually, that's not true. YPN's entire history is sitting on a CD-R on my desk. Every last iteration, from sasq2 to Tetra 2. I've even got the unfinished beta of partyfish. But, I digress.

There are a few old things that are harbored on the same disc as said YPN stuff that I've lovingly added to the archives (see the 2003 stuff on the right there). Nothing terribly interesting or deep, but it gives some insight as to what I was doing at the time (not a whole hell of a lot). But, then again, I was only sixteen and not much was really expected of me.

Well, this has been yet another fun trip down memory lane. Not sure why I post these things, but in twenty years it'll be interesting to go back and read everything. I'll probably think about myself now what I think of my former self: what a douchebag.

Dark Alley of the Heart

Clueless is as Clueless Does

This is probably the longest running story arc I've had yet. Hooray for character development.

Well, it seems the fine folks over at SmackJeeves have decided to review my comic. In a nutshell, they lauded the artwork and design (which I thought sucked) and criticised the writing (which I also thought sucked). Here's the full review: http://smacktalk.smackjeeves.com/04-digitaldouble. Now for my take on things.

One criticism they mention is A Comic for All Peoples where my counterpart says that the comic is "too deep for a person of average intelligence." This was actually something devusb mentioned when talking about the 2001-WTF?!. Of course, this leads to their other big complaint which is too many in-jokes. This is one of the reasons I switched formats, the other being I find it easier to write more story-like stuff as opposed to the gag-a-day I had been shooting for. Maybe I should employ the use of a writer.

As said above, I am the first to admit that my writing usually sucks pretty bad. For starters, any comic bearing the name F5 is going to suck. These comics suck. Most everything else is pretty "meh" with the exception of a few.

Their final comment in the cons section about "being doomed to obscurity" I've pretty much comed to terms with. There are many people doing this that are a thousand times better at it than I. I've just been using it as a creative and emotional outlet and that's probably all it will continue to be. If fame comes with it, cool, but I'm not getting my hopes up.