Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
Here it is. Here’s The Wizard’s Lesson in its entirety.
I got it done in less than a year, but I wish I’d gotten it done faster. As time goes by my productivity increases, so my next projects should go faster.
You’ll see them soon enough. This post is about this comic right here.
As always, click to EMBIGGEN:
WANT MORE? CLICK RIGHT HERE:
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
Sometimes I worry that I’ve been listening to too much Goon Show [autoplay warning] and general British radio comedy. Then I remember what the Tick had to say about moderation:
“Always remember: less is less, more is more. More is better, and twice as much is good too. Not enough is bad, and too much is never enough except when it’s just about right.”
After I finish this folk tale comic, expect more one-shots and proper blog posts, some of which may not even have art! GASP! I’ve got a new camera–an Olympus XZ-2 that Nadja found for about 60% off–so I’ll be doing photos again as well.
Anyroad, here’s a nice splash page to click on and make huge and be all WHOA YOU FUCKED UP TZU CH’UN and next week? The whole thing rolls up and finishes, and then…the lesson?
Well. Glad he sorted THAT out for us.
Love,
benjamin
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
A chill page this week, but perhaps a bit ominous. I think it will take about three more postings to finish this bad boy off.
On the last day, I’ll give you a huge post with everything to date.
For now, please to enjoy wedded bliss:
Love,
benjamin
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
It doesn’t matter much, though, since my ability to draw pretty ladies extends about as far as I can flick a boulder. I make do with “visual cues.” *koff*
Need a RECAP?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Take Him To The Pit!
Eight Hells
Reincarnation
As always, click the pic to embiggen.
I’ve also included my latest Artisan Pony, which is one of my more unfortunate ones. I intentionally started drawing from the back of the neck, which led to some, whatchamacallits…birth defects. Submissions always welcome, click the pony for details.
The Wizard’s Lesson has rounded the last curve and is entering the final straightaway, to use pony terminology. I figure that by the end of the next two weeks, it will be finished. I’ll make a post with the entirety of the work as the last entry for it.
Anybody have suggestions/requests on what to draw next, beyond my “Grammar Nazis” comic and “the benchilada tarot?”
Love,
benjamin
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
I have nothing of even vague importance to say today, let alone about this page.
It’s just another step into the mad world of Tzu Ch’un and Asshole the Wizard.
Love,
benjamin
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
S’up, kids?
I’m tired of waiting until the last minute to do the actual writy-bit of my entries, so I’m actually writing this the night before.
I haven’t been sticking to my Ten Minutes A Day rule with my art, justifying the many hours I spend on them anyway as being justified. This is bullshit, amirite*?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m having fun with the Artisan Pony Project and the fabulous guest artists that I’ve gotten so far, but I feel like I’ve been dropping-out of the one-page-funny comics, focusing perhaps too much on being Srs with my art. Starting again tonight, ten minutes every day.
I should also get back to a story or two that I was briefly working on. And the dishes. Nadja‘s sleeping, though, so I shouldn’t do the latter right now. Our bedroom and kitchen are only separated by a curtain.
We have been having preposterous amounts of fun lately, including the great success that was the Kung Fu and Kasseroles Party. Great friends, and casseroles and covered dishes were consumed in large quantities.
Here are trailers for the movies that ran all night:
Living Room TV:
The Magnificent Butcher (Sammo Hung at his best), The Tai Chi Master (A 90s Wire-Fu classic), 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Because Gordon Liu).
Laptop in Library:
Duel of the Tough twice (good fights, a film by Godfrey Ho) and The Holy Flame of the Martial World (a truly WUT film in so many ways).
Netbook Opposite the Toilet:
The Fearless Hyena on repeat (a personal favorite, my first Chan kung fu film).
Anyroad, welcome to the SECOND most bizarre part of The Wizard’s Lesson:
Need a RECAP?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
As always, click to embiggen:
See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?
Love,
benjamin “greater-than-zero chance of current intoxication” sTone
* Apparently this word bugs some people. They can go screw.
** This comic leaves copyright on December 2, 2024
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
If last week’s part of The Wizard’s Lesson by P’u Sung Ling didn’t have enough violence or blood for you, then please accept this next helping:
Next week we begin our visit of hell, kids!
I like drawing.
Love,
benjamin
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
We’re mad crazy busy at Stone Robot Enterprises with Halloween costuming and various other things–you should look at our lastest SRE post, involving our response to the Steven Salaita issue–but I’m going to keep these pages coming, possibly at a slightly faster rate.
I’m really enjoying doing these, and I think I might…well, I might be improving. But don’t count on it yet. Wait until I start my project of doing every single card in a Tar–oh, details about that can come later.
After you’ve caught up with The Wizard’s Lesson so far, please to enjoy the latest page.
It’s gonna get a bit gruesome soon, kids.
I can’t wait.
Love,
benjamin
PS – This comic leaves copyright October 16th, 2024.
PPS – 
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
I really love The Wizard’s Lesson, and we’re really getting into the truly insane bits. Today is a full recap of everything so far. It will give people who read this only in bits to go through the whole thing up until now, as well as refresh the memories of others.
I think I’m getting even better with my stick figures, particularly when scaling them against actual objects. There are still a few things I have to learn, of course. For example, drawing clothing on a stick figure without it looking completely ridiculous is still hard. Also, drawing a tiger skin over and over with my skill level is fucking ridiculous and I can’t believe I kept that detail.
The clothing in this story is, for the most part, accurate to the Sui Dynasty, and the same with the furnace. I get a nerd boner when I’m researching things, so of course I did it for this piece.
For reference purposes, The Wizard’s Lesson was written–or written down–by Li Fu-yen, aka P’u Sung Ling. The translations that I am using as inspiration for my own version are from Chinese Fairy Tales & Fantasies by Moss Roberts—a book which I recommend in its entirety—and Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and Variations by James Hightower, from which I only read “The Wizard’s Lesson.”
Incidentally, this is my first attempt at a long-form art project. I did fine on my five page Every Time You Flush The Toilet You Dance With Death piece, so I figured I go for something lengthier.
Related: A few pages of The Wizard’s Lesson may be appearing in an upcoming low-edition print thing for sale at Made Fest 2014.
As always, click the pics to enbiggen them, and hit the jump for everything after the first page.
Here, in it’s So-Far-Entirety, is The Wizard’s Lesson: Book One.
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
NEXT TIME, shit gets even more realer. Seriously, it’s where The Wizard’s Lesson takes a hard right into WTF.
<3,
benjamin
PS – I promises a Toy in the Bookstacks this week
PPS: This comic leaves copyright on August 25th, 2024.
The post is over. Get back to work.
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
Sometimes insomnia is a total bastard, refusing to let you focus long enough to do anything other than watch bad infomercials and half-assedly flip through comic books.
Last night I drew the entire next page of The Wizard’s Lesson for you. That makes two art posts in two days. I’m getting marginally better at this.
As always, click the pic to make it bigger. I think.
THE WIZARD’S LESSON, previous chapters
Part One
Parts Two and Three
Parts Four and Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Ta ra,
benjamin
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
Sometimes insomnia is a total bastard, refusing to let you focus long enough to do anything other than watch bad infomercials and half-assedly flip through comic books.
Last night I drew the entire next page of The Wizard’s Lesson for you. That makes two art posts in two days. I’m getting marginally better at this.
As always, click the pic to make it bigger. I think.
THE WIZARD’S LESSON, previous chapters
Part One
Parts Two and Three
Parts Four and Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Part Ten
Ta ra,
benjamin
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
Hey! I drew a new page of The Wizard’s Lesson for you down a bit.
Before we get to that, though, I just need to put part of an old story here.
Certainly not because I’m about to finish new things with this character. Heavens no. Why would I let a marginally-beloved character have new life after years of being allowed to languish? I mean, it’s not like I once wrote about him so often that my fiancee Nadja Robot made me an action figure of Reginald.
Anyroad, here’s a bit of words:
——————
“Bored,” said Sir Reginald to nobody in particular as he threw a fifty peso coin across the room. It ricocheted off of a bronze statue of JFK, which yelped in pain.
“Bored,” he repeated, throwing another coin at the Stone of Unyielding Sorrow, which hung from the ceiling by a rope. He missed, and the coin instead landed in the bucket under it, the one that collects the tears and blood that slowly leech out of the stone.
“Bored,” he said a bit louder and flicked another coin at the back of Willy, the ghost that lived in Sir Reginald’s house in exchange for assistance with matters that only a ghost can assist with. His name wasn’t actually Willy, but Reginald liked that better than its real name. The coin flew through the ectoplasm and landed in a tank of fetid water that may or may not have had a very tiny coelacanth in it.”
To Read The Rest….
——————
And now…the drawing part.
The Wizard’s Lesson, previous chapters.
Part One
Parts Two and Three
Parts Four and Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
Part Nine
Love,
b
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
Another page of The Wizard’s Lesson is ready.
WHAT HAS TRANSPIRED BEFORE:
Part One
Parts Two and Three
Parts Four and Five
Part Six
Part Seven
I’m going to try to up my output on them so I can have at least a half-assed bound edition for Madefest 2014, where Stone Robot Enteprises will be sharing a booth with the delightful and talented Sophie McMahon. Updates to come.
As soon as The Wizard’s Lesson is finished, I’m going to get going on my next project, XXXX XX XXX X XXXXXXXXXX [working title].
It occurred to me that I haven’t mentioned the original source of The Wizard’s Lesson. The earliest translation of it in English was done by a fellow named Li Fun Yen, in the late 19th/early 20th century. He apparently lived rather a disillusioned life. I’m glad he did some work on spreading knowledge of his country’s history before things went south. When I finish the comic, I’ll have more details on him.
- More of the Wizard’s Lesson
- Two one-shots about people being filthy douchenozzles
- See previous bunch of X’s
- New Sir Reginald story [Jeez, I haven't written one in over 2 years]
- Finish that nude sketch of you
I think that’s all.
See you tonight. You won’t see me.
Love,
benjamin
Originally published at benchiladaland. You can comment here or there.
It’s here that the reason this is one of my favorite folk tales becomes very evident. What was previously an exercise in monetary vice, charity, and morality becomes…well, what you see below.
And trust me, this ain’t even to the WEIRD shit yet.
And now…CLICK TO MAKE IT HUGE:
I know, guys. I know.
And we haven’t even gotten to the part where….
Love,
benjamin
Originally published at benchilada. You can comment here or there.
Nadja and I recently watched The Holy Flame of the Martial World, and by the time it ended we both agreed that it was top-fucking-tier Martial Arts Madness. Flicks like Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain and A Chinese Ghost Story would never have happened without movies like this happening first.
Here’s the trailer, but it’s a Hong Kong film, so they’re going to throw spoilers at you left-and-right, starting right after the hair fight at :41. By the time you hit :50 you get light spoilers and at the end they give away a huge plot point. I also advise watching it in large–but not fullscreen–format.
If you don’t give a shit, watch it all. If you’ve got nine bucks, though, skip the spoilers and enjoy the breadth and butterth of this beautiful celluloid madness.
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