Category: news

New Oddballs Journal “My Odd Life” Makes Its Odd Debut

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Are you sick and tired of boring journals with just page after page of lines? You should be! Why pay your hard-earned money for a big, blank book? Well, your pain and suffering are over!

I’m excited to announce that “My Odd Life: A Journal to Embrace and Nurture the Oddball Inside of You” is available for print through Amazon.

It’s not your average, ordinary journal. Then again, you’re not an average, ordinary person, are you? This journal has dozens of fun sketches with accompanying weird quotes scattered throughout. As you write your amazing and odd thoughts and experiences, you’ll get a dose of weird humor here and there.

This journal is perfect for the oddball in your life. If you are that oddball, then it’s perfect for you!

Click here to buy it on Amazon

Here are a few pics of the innards:

I’ve already started featuring these in Oddballs. Here’s a sample of a recent page:

Keep an eye out for a page like this in each Oddballs zine. At the same time, keep your eyes securely in your eye sockets. I refuse to be liable for readers popping their eyes out of their heads to get a better view of this astounding journal.

Pick one up today and start recording your odd journey through this odd life of ours!

Here’s a video!

@oddballszine

“My Odd Life” Journal Available #oddballs #humor #comics #journaling

♬ original sound – OddballsZine

X and Oddballs

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As you may have heard, Elon Musk has rebranded Twitter to “X.” This comes as no surprise as it has been his plan all along – use Twitter’s infrastructure and its massive user base as a foundation for X, his “everything app.” Things are about to get interesting.

I have never really used Twitter. I found it to be confusing and laborious. I had deleted my account a while back and lost all my followers and tweets. I got back on and couldn’t figure out how to gain traction. After hearing the news of the switch yesterday, I immediately got on and changed my username to reflect “Oddballs” instead of simply me.

My gut is telling me that X will become the new YouTube and Instagram. What those two platforms are missing is a way to share what you see and have a conversation about it. And creators will now get a cut of the revenue when their posts are viewed and shared (from what I understand). That’s huge! If something goes viral, you could make money with it! Before, it would simply be a bragging rights thing.

I’m not sure exactly how I’ll use X for Oddballs. I’m bouncing ideas in my head. One idea is to have Seamus C. Monster be the voice of Oddballs over there, commenting on things and having conversations. All this would lead people to the zine. We’ll see.

In any case, I’m excited about X. Are you?

Instagram PayPal Scam

Jason SalasLeave a comment

Recently, I was approached by a follower on my CoffeeShop.AI Instagram page, asking me if I do commissions. It turned out to be a scam!

The guy asked if I accept commission work. I said it depends. He wanted me to draw his three kids in my cartoonist style. We agreed on a price of $300 for the three kids together, nothing fancy. I told him I charge half up front and half at the end of the project in order to send the digital files. All was hunky-dory.

I told him to pay via Venmo or CashApp. He said he only uses PayPal; not my favorite but I have an account. So I sent him the link.

I had a bad feeling in my gut. First, I couldn’t figure out why he approached me via my AI art page, not my other two profiles (JasonSalasCreative and OddballsZine). Both of those exhibit my drawing style. Secondly, I tried the link and it worked on my end. But I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

My email address is on my website (which I shared with him) so it’s no secret. And my PayPal is linked to it as well. I don’t use PayPal much so I don’t know how people search for users so I sent it.

That “Use Latest App” deal was weird. Apparently, it was three pics that were made to look like he initiated payment.

It was after that last message that the guy blocked me. This was the email sent to me, which was in the spam folder, of course. From Gmail??? Ha!

As you can see, this fraudulent email is telling me to “refund” money to this guy. The dead image links were probably meant for me to click on them to download photos. The whole thing is a scam. I already have a business account and I’ve done plenty of business with it, over $300.

That last part is funny, about PayPal being committed to preventing fraudulent emails and how it should only use my full name. Of course, he got all this from the link I sent to him.

These are the things that artists go through. We put our work out there and put ourselves out there for work. In doing so, we attract scammers. It’s a shame but it’s part of the job.

I’ve often said that, in the term “Art Business,” the word “business” is bigger for a reason. Anyone can do art, but not everyone can do the business end of it. I fail regularly. Luckily, I didn’t fail in this instance.

“Goofy Monsters” Coloring Book is Now Available!

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My new “Goofy Monsters” coloring book is available NOW, exclusively on Amazon! Click here or the image below to check it out!

Here’s the description from the back of the book:

“Get ready for a monstrously fun coloring experience with the Goofy Monsters Coloring Book! From fuzzy, huggable creatures to scaly, spiny pals, this book is packed with growls, gurgles, and giggles. So, grab your crayons, colored pencils, or markers, and get ready to make your new monster friends come to life!”

Here are some of the monsters therein:

I created this book with an assist from AI (Midjourney). Sounds easy, right? If you watch some videos on YouTube about the process, they make it look super easy. But it was more difficult and took longer than I had anticipated, even with my experience as a graphic designer and artist.

Needless to say, I had to learn a lot to get this book completed. But I loved every moment of it! Here are the tools and resources I used to get it done:

  1. YouTube (to learn)
  2. Discord
  3. Midjourney
  4. Affinity Photo
  5. AI. Image Enlarger
  6. Procreate
  7. Creative Fabrica
  8. Canva
  9. Amazon KDP
  10. Friends and family (to review)

The thing that took the longest was generating the images using Midjourney and manipulating the selected images using Affinity and Procreate. I didn’t have to do the latter, but the raw images from Midjourney were not up to my standards; they had shading, odd glitches, and were weird in spots. Below is a time-lapse video showing part of the work I did using Procreate:

The Oddballs Mascot Got A Makeover

Jason Salas2 Comments

As you can see, I’ve got something new to show you. It’s my new mascot Seamus C. Monster! He’ll be the “host” of all things Oddballs from here on out. That means that he’ll be the “voice” of Oddballs. It’s like he’s my first employee… only I don’t have to pay him and he doesn’t use up all my K-cups for endless coffee breaks.

You may have seen Seamus featured in Oddballs. Who can forget his “biggest hits”?

The cover of Issue #4:

As well as “2023 Resolutions”

“In a Maze with Roaches & Spiders”:

The back cover of Oddballs #7:

And, of course, the sculpture I made of him out of Bash’s Play-Doh:

My buddy J. even did a fun animation with him!

And now, here he is, Seamus C. Monster in the scaly flesh!

I commissioned a fantastic artist, Gal Weizman after seeing her work in one of Bash’s Highlights magazines. Isn’t her work amazing?!

I’m so excited to have Seamus C. Monster on board. I’m sure you’ll find him perfectly odd.

My Foray Into AI Art

Jason SalasLeave a comment

I never thought I would do it, venture into the world of AI image creation. After all, I’m an artist. I’ve been working on my skills for a lifetime. And now AI comes along and all that goes to waste? Nah, not really.

Yesterday, at church, I had a conversation with a friend about AI image creation. While we both agree that it’s uncharted territory and we must proceed with caution. That said, it is, in fact, a tool that can be utilized. I have to admit, all prudence set aside, I’m hooked!

The AI I’m using is Midjourney. It takes some time to figure out how to access the AI (via Discord), but, once you get it all set up, it’s easy. Then it becomes a matter of being able to communicate with the AI to have it produce the best results.

Here is the first thing I created:

Yes, it has some weird things, like the hands, but overall, it’s a good starting point.

I’m working on an Instagram page for these creations. Here’s another one:

I’ve been trying out different prompts to get better outcomes. Here are a couple I like:

If these seem random, that’s where I’m at right now. The Instagram page will be themed. It’s called CoffeeShop.AI. If you go there as of the date of this posting, you’ll find nothing. It’s brand new. However, if you’re reading this sometime in the future, I may have pics posted. Let me know what you think!

Sent “The Daily Times” packet

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Yesterday, I sent out four packets of The Daily Times to four different syndication companies. This packet feels solid. I’ve attempted to syndicate twice before – once with Perk at Work and most recently with Bark & Grill. I’m optimistic about this project. Why? because it deals with the issue of small, independently-owned print newspapers. I believe we will see a rise in such publications in the years to come, as a response to the clickbait world of online media.

View the Bark & Grill Syndication Packet

Jason SalasLeave a comment

You may have noticed the recent addition of Bark & Grill to this website. What exactly is it?

In short, it’s a comic developed for syndication. There’s more info on the page. Click on the Bark & Grill page.

I have not created any new comics for this property. I may or may not. Depends on mood and time. That said, I am focusing my efforts on one property at a time.

If you’re curious, my focus is on sending out two more properties for syndication: The Daily Times and Perk at Work. After that, I will focus on a bigger project. More on that later.