Then and Now: webcomic

My submission to the UMVA Union of Maine Visual Artists: Journal Fall/October Issue 2014

I have been asked to submit themed web comics to the UMVA Journal since 2013. The theme for this submission is "Then and Now" which asks the question: What happens to your artwork after it is created? 

Web Comics by William Hessian

William Hessian's Life as an Artist

An autobiographical web comic about William Hessian's life, including all the various artist jobs and situations he runs into. Including his bizarre imagination and goofy friends. All 100 comics are available to read on-line.

KING of the PILL

An adventure comic featuring Jasper the Face of Many Hands and a journey towards Immortality and Happiness. This bizarre tale features bright and conflicting characters and a host of odd powers that you get after taking pills called, Glorious Upgrades.

King of the Pill Full Web Comic Finished!

365 panels in 365 days. Fully colored! The adventure story that follows Jasper the Face of Many Hands on a mysteriously goofy and bizarre trip. Glorious Upgrades in the form of pills transform people in all different ways and some bad upgrades turn you into monsters. Jasper comes from a land where Glorious Upgrades are a rarity, but soon Jasper finds out that there is an entire culture of pill addiction across the giant river. Little does Jasper know that Klimt has an alternate agenda for our peach little protagonist.

I am so happy to announce that the entire story is finished and available for you to read!
Read the full story King of the Pill now!

King of the Pill web comic page 51!

This year I have been uploading one fully colored panel off an adventure web comic called King of the Pill:

Today, the 51st full page was published. Above is one of the panels. With a little over 5 months of the story left, things are getting fun. I feel like my entire life is revolving around getting this comic done and I hope you can read it and keep up with the adventures!

King of the Pill web comic chapter 3

The daily web comic King of the Pill is now complete with chapter 3. As of today, one hundred and thirty one panels have been released in 2012! And the story is really starting to hit its stride. If you enjoy crazy adventures and odd fantasy stories then this web comic is for you. If you do go check out the story, come back and leave me a comment telling me what you thought of the comic so far.

Click the image above to check out right where Chapter 3 begins. If you want to start from the very beginning you will probably want to start with Jasper and his Face of Many Hands on page one. The other great thing about the web comic is that fans have been able to submit colored pages to the comic, some pages are animated, and you can do games and puzzles as an extra bonus. The entire web comic will be completed in 2012 as the last page of the web comic will be posted on December 31st, 2012.

above is panel 131 when Nevel takes a bad pill and is transformed into a pill monster

Preview of Page 89 of King of the Pill

If you have not been following my King of the Pill webcomic, you should start. This page, which uploads tonight at midnight, was colored by different people from different ages and skill levels all across the country! This panel is the 89th day in a row of new content for the grand adventure of Jasper and his Face of Many Hands. New content every single day. Plus, it is also why I have not had more time to do new postings here at the Bearded Bunny Art Blog.

The Best Web Comic for Kids

A Web Comic for Kids
King of the Pill is the best web comic for kids. It can be hard to find a good PG web comic on the computer, and sometimes you have to spend a lot of time sifting through back logs of web comics to make sure the comic is actually safe for kids. This is why I am writing an entire post about King of the Pill and that it strives to be a kid friendly comic. The child friendly webcomic is updated daily, and provides some extra content like activities, free mazes, puzzles, and coloring pages (that you can submit and have as part of the comic). Everything is fun, free and family friendly!



The Story
The story in King of Pill centers around Jasper, who is bestowed with a pill that gives him the "FACE of MANY HANDS". Jasper, who loves his family, is guided away from his home and set on a grand adventure of puzzles, crazy powers, friendship and exploration. Along this journey he will learn about the mysterious pills, and meet some very bizarre creatures and monsters. Jasper makes new friends, but misses his home along the way. While the story has great sound effects and characters for the kids to read, there is a lot of content that the adults will also appreciate, including loss, loneliness and being lost in a confusing world.



The Art
Bright colors and simple cartoony characters make this comic immediately fun for the younger audience. Every few days one of the pages is animated and the images is glowing or moving. Sound effects, goofy dialogue and funny scenes also make it a fun ride, and a story that begs you to start over from the beginning and read it all again. There is something fun about a wacky adventure in a wacky world where things just do not really make much sense.

Todd Balthazor and the Walker Art Center comic

On three separate occasions I have been employed at the Walker Art Center, the famous modern art gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The best part about working at the Walker Art Center was meeting and interacting with my co-workers. A large majority of these people are creative people, and many are visual artists. It seems you have to have a certain appreciation for modern art if you are going to spend 40 a week staring at it. So it makes sense that many people that work at the Art Museum are artists.

I could spend weeks writing blogs about all the talented people I have met at the Walker and talk about their works. And maybe I should. Today I wanted to start with and highlight the work of friend and co-worker Todd Balthazor. The timing is also relevant because he has just started a weekly web comic called It is what it is to be posted about being a guard at the Walker Art Center on mnartists.org:


It is what it is web comic by Todd Balthazor available on mnartists.org

My first experience working with Todd, was seeing him turn the break room into an art studio. Using his 30 minute breaks to paint, sketch or draw. I knew right then that this guy was good company. I spent many of my breaks doing the same thing, and it was encouraging to have another artist frantically working on projects during their break besides just myself.

Another reason his comic strip struck a cord with me, is that, basically the comic strip is about me. Since we have the same job I understand many of the inside jokes or double meaning of the work. It is all too true and funny.

Even beyond that, I have a strong connection to Todd's web comic because I spent a year making 100 of my own autobiographical web comic in 2009-2010 which often had content about my job as a security guard at the Walker Art Center.

Here is one of the comics I made about the Walker:

You can find all 100 of my web comics on my website

You can see why Todd's web comic project is especially exciting for me. Meanwhile, Todd Balthazor's illustration work is also something people should not miss:


Find lots more at www.toddbalthazor.com

Check out his work, and read the web comic. It will be a lot of fun.

relevant links:
If you enjoy web comics you should also see King of the Pill a web comic adventure about Jasper and his Face of Many Hands.

Check out other blog posts about the Walker Art Center

Color a Future Panel of King of the Pill

Head on over to the King of the Pill Coloring Challenge and submit your page to be included in a future panel of the web comic.

One a Day 2012! Inspiration behind the WEBCOMIC: King of the Pill

Five years ago, in December 2006, my friend Matt Semke started doing a drawing a day. He has not missed a day! Semke has been posting new daily content for 2000 days in a row! Before I continue you should check out his website: cats will eat you


Here is Semke in his studio. Photo by Loren Green for City Pages interview.

Semke's website and his drawings have been inspiring me for half a decade. During these last five years my high school friend Kris Ericson started a photograph per day project (which now posts exclusively on Facebook), he has been publishing great photos for nearly three years now. A few months ago I got to meet another inspiration for One A Day projects, his name is Stephen Georg and he publishes three youtube videos every day! No joke! I even got to meet him when he was visiting the midwest:


the day I met Stephen and Mallory. Learn more about StephenVlog

I also was inspired by Bridget McAlonan in Maine, who inspired me to do Fun A Day: One Drawing a Day for one month. The results were then on display in a gallery in Portland, Maine and in other galleries all across the country. Bridget McAlonan started Inventing Trees in 2011 and has just finished her drawing a day project. Meanwhile, she is now two days into her paper doll a day project!

And then there is Took Gallagher. She posted 461 blog posts in 2011! Prolific is an understatement. Her blog displays numerous photographs, great descriptions featuring a wide variety of projects from drawing, collage to giant sculptures. I got to meet her this year and see her commitment to her artwork first hand.


William Hessian (me) and Took Gallagher in Northville, Michigan

I am surrounded all these inspiring people taking on these really dedicated one a day projects. I watch them all post so much great content on Facebook ("LIKE" me on Facebook) and I am motivated every day. That is why I am starting a panel a day web comic project called: King of the Pill. A story that started January 1st, 2012 and will end December 31st 2012. 365 panels long and one grand tale.

King of the Pill Starts January 1st!

In 2012 I will creating a 365 page web comic. Releasing one page every day of the year. You will be able to see all of the comics at the King of the Pill website. Bookmark it now, since there will be 365 updates you will not want to miss.

Cat Hole

Cat Hole is a surreal zine (miniature comic book) about a cat a hole and a muffin tree.

WARNING: there is animal nudity and sexual themes in this zine.

Limited edition to only 49. Cat Hole has been available to purchase starting on August 11th. Get yours while they last.

The Canvas Killer on MPR: Art Hounds

I did a radio spot on Minnesota Public Radio's Art Hounds radio feature. I was promoting Altered Esthetics' Comic Cookbook: Just Add Ink!

I am a big fan of MPR stations, 91.1 News, 89.3 the current and the classical station. I am also a huge fan of Alterest Esthetics gallery. I am also a big fan of local comics.

You can listen to the Art Hount sound clip on the art hounds.

100 comics

This post is to announce the full collection of my 100 comics on williamhessian.com. I posted each comic here on my blog as I finished them, it took my almost exactly one year to complete.

To make it much easier to read through the comics, I have broken them into 5 sections of 20 comics. You only need to scroll down to see the next one, instead of clicking from one page to the next.

It's been a week or two since my last post, and since then I have moved from west of the midwest, to the east side of the east side. Read all about my move to Maine. I have been working on some new mazes, paintings and bunnies. They will all be appearing here in the near future.

comic 100

comic #100 of 100

my run of comics has come to an end. All 100">100 comics have been drawn, uploaded and shared on my blog. The enitre series took me a year to complete. I remember shopping in the East Side Co-Op in Northeast Minneapolis and stumbling on a collection of comics by Eric Lappegard left at the newspaper stands. I took it home and loved it. So much in fact that I decided to make my own. One year later I have 100 comics, and I am ready to be inspired by the next thing.

If you want to read the series starting from the beginning start with one of my jobs. As I mentioned previously, eventually my entire series will be ported to my art website, William Hessian dot com.

Thanks to those the appeared in my comics, left comments, encouraged me to continue, and simply support my art. Next adventure: moving from the Midwest to Maine

mental stress

comic #99 out of 100

the mental stress comment came after an argument with my girlfriend, Kelsey. It is common for us to get in petty arguments and say dumb hurtful things to each other. It is even more likely when one of us is stressed out. The comic is trying illustrate how frustrating it can. When emotions get involved, or when stress levels are high things seem so heavy and complicated when they usually are not. I am aware enough to realize it, and even draw it; now I just have to recognize it before it happens and end the whole sticky mess before it starts. in that particular argument I shut up (per Kels' request) and drew this comic instead.

its almost sad to be this close to the end of drawing these comics. although, it has been rough trying to get them done on a consistent basis. it took me just over a year to create 100 comics. Some were decent, some were pretty bad. You can see all of my comics on my comic collection, which is soon going to be on my actual website and not just my blog. It will be nice to have them full size, instead of small so you have to blow up each one you want to read.

If you want to read more about my mental stress and personal life, check out zombie robot frosting posts like A Foggy Mind.

Ax-Man

comic #98 out of 100
Ax-Man surplus stores is one of my favorite stores ever. They sell an odd assortment of objects for really inexpensive prices. You never know what you will find at an Ax-Man store. It is one of the few stores I have the urge to go to, even if I do not need something. Also, its the first place I go to look for something I need.

I do realize that reading this comic with zero knowledge of this store my seem very confusing. That is why I am giving a history of it here. Although, part of me wonders if the comic is funnier the less you know about the store.

The morkit I refer to is from a video I made a few years ago, where I invited groups of friends to my apartment to search for the morkit. The group that found the morkit first won artwork. To find the morkit the group has to decifer a series of clues that led them to open up vents, unscrew pens, go outside and dig under a tree and rip open a teddy bear. It was a blast.

Only two comics left!

Angry Candy

comic #97 out of 100
each time i sit down to draw my comics, I stare an Easter Bunny pez dispenser (unopened) that I got from either my brother or my parents (i forget which). the dispenser has been sitting there for months, and as I try to think of ideas of what to draw i keep remembering my childhood trying to load those darn things. It used to really make me mad. I assumed there was some brilliant method to which I was not privy, then I watch the Seinfeld episode and realized i wasnt the only Pez challenged person.

the other odd thing about this pez dispenser is that it comes with chocolate flavored pez. Yes, chocolate flavored pez. I am afraid to open it. The above comic features the imaginary scenario where chocolate flavored pez sounded great to me, and I rushed to open it and then found myself frustrated when trying to load the odd flavor into the dispenser. Our family used to collect pez dispensers when I was a kid. I have star wars pez dispensers, teenage mutant ninja turtle pez dispensers, holiday themed pez dispensers (like snowmen and santa), Looney Tunes pez dispensers, and some odd random ones like trucks or miscellaneous characters. Fun times.

AL wars

comic #96 out of 100

Al Wars. I love when I get these kind of e-mails. Commissions for new works, ideas for new projects, proposals for collaborations. Sometimes I get these e-mails a lot, sometimes I get zero. I was very happy when Al wrote me this e-mail.

This now leaves only 4 remaining comics to be posted. Then it will be on to these new bunnies.

cute but deadly

comic #95 of 100

see some real photos of Frasier the kitten. The cute has razor blade claws and a fearless slashing ability; all while being about as cute as any creature can be. The result, lots and lots of bloody gashes. The comic above is pretty accurate for both Kelsey and myself. Cats are worth it, even if it means you have scars all over your body.

the next few days will feature the final 5 comics. enjoy.