Today’s Geek of the Week is Greg Lobanov, a student at Drexel University.

He’s roughly a decade younger than the average Geekadelphia writer and already cranking out multiple video games, effectively making us oldheads look bad.

Are you currently in school? Where do you go and what for?

I attend Drexel University, studying Digital Media. I’m currently in my second year, and it’s been quite a learning experience thus far. It’s been my first time working with 3D modeling and animation, I must say it’s been quite a challenge.

How did you get into game design?

I can’t pin it to a single moment or reason—from a very young age I enjoyed making games, though back then it was with paper, cardboard and markers. Something about it felt very natural to me, defining rules of play and making the pieces. I also loved drawing comics and writing stories to go with them. When I started to get into computers and the internet, all those things got tangled up, until some point I was making computer games.

What kind of games or people inspire you?

I think the best (and most inspiring) games are the ones that give the best “feel.” You might be thinking that’s very vague, but I stand by it. I find a lot of games very interesting and effective for all very unique reasons. The qualities that make a good game are far from universal; they’re hard to define in strict germs. Generally, I think that you can realize a game is great from the point of being able to nearly feel the passion that the artists and designers put into it. That passion transfers into my own work.

I liken myself to director Quentin Tarantino and musician James Murphy in the respect that my inspirations are often shown very clearly through my work and combining them in unique ways. (more…)

Today’s Geek of the Week column features Brad Guigar, local graphic artist and web comic cartoonist.

Some of you might know this talented local guy from a number of his projects, including Greystone Inn and Evil Inc. Brad was kind enough to chat with me about his background in comic drawing, his inspirations, and how he creates such fabulous pieces of art.

Tell me a little bit about your history with comic drawing. How did you get started?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a cartoonist. I remember getting How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way when I was about eight years old and carrying it with me everywhere. In college, I subscribed to the Detroit Free Press for one reason and one reason alone: Bloom County.

Without giving too many trade secrets away, what’s your usual process? What traditional or digital tools do you use?

I work in traditional pen-and-ink on a heavy Bristol board. I scan in the illustrations, doing touch-ups in Photoshop, add the lettering in InDesign, and send the master files to Ed Ryzowski, who has been coloring Evil Inc for several years now. He returns two versions, a high-res file for print and a low res file for Web. Typically, I have between two and six weeks of buffer – comics that are completely prepped and ready to be updated on the site.

The high-res files are then forwarded to the newspapers that I self-syndicate the strip to. (The Philadelphia Daily News for one) and reformatted into graphic novels, which I sell on my site.

How long have you been publishing your comics on the web?

I started in 2000 with Greystone Inn and switched to Evil Inc. in June 2005.

I’m a huge proponent of what self-publishing on the Web can do for creative professionals. In 2008, I co-wrote How to Make Webcomics which described the “webcomics business model” of making money by giving away your content for free. The book was extremely successful (it’s currently in its third printing) and it launched Webcomics.com, a site I run to offer advice and tutorials to other webcartoonists. (more…)

“It Could Be Great” Official Teaser 1 from Adam Evans on Vimeo.

Adam Evans, a junior in Temple University’s film program is currently working, “It Could Be Great”, a documentary for IGN’s StarCraft II tournament, IPL 3.

He joined some of the best players in the world, their fans, the tech crews, announcers and broadcasters in Atlantic City in early October of the period of four days to attain about 7 hours worth of footage for what will ultimately be a 40-60 minute runtime. In layman’s terms, IPL 3 (organized by popular gaming website, IGN) is one of the fastest-growing competitive gaming tournaments in the US, with winners competing for a total of $100,000 in prize money.

Originally introduced to the original game through the oft-forgotten Nintendo 64 port, Evans returned to the franchise with the long-awaited sequel, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty last September. After getting hooked on Justin.tv, a site to which he’d refer to for gaming strategies, watching tournaments soon eclipsed actual gameplay. “Before I decided that I wanted to be a filmmaker in middle school, I wanted to be a game designer. I’ve been a part of game culture since I was a kid. So upon seeing how quickly e-sport is growing in the US, I decided that I’d love to do a documentary on the subject.” states Evans.

His ultimate goal with the film is to elevate the exposure and prominence of e-sports and the culture that surrounds it. And in the very least Evans says, “I hope it motivates someone to either get into the scene, or to get them vocal about how much they appreciate what these people do for our entertainment and for our sub-culture. This film is a tribute to the fans and that is the audience I’m hoping to capture.” Though, he does hope to garner the attention of those from outside of the community. Evans is motivated so much that aside from the blessing of IGN and some resources as a filmmaker from Temple, he supplied the $500 budget to create this film completely out-of-pocket.

Conservatively speaking, he tells us the project should be finished within the next few months, before the end of the year. Speaking for a lot of people, I can safely say that some of us are very big fans of StarCraft (and Blizzard Entertainment in general). Personally, I was impressed by both the size of the gathered crowd and the sheer fact that there was a massive projection screen of a StarCraft II tournament (with play-by-play announcer) at New York Comic Con this year. If that’s any indication, this bootstrapped, passion-empowered film project should be a roaring hit.

I had the chance to stop by and chat with the folks over at Storably the other day. Founded in the summer and launched a few weeks ago, this Philly-based startup aims to resolve the challenges associated with finding a decently priced parking spot or a convenient storage location.

Early this year, co-founders Apu Gupta and Josh Kowitt both came to the realization that there was an opportunity to match the free spaces people have to the spaces people need. Kowitt was already taking in requests from friends to store stuff in his basement, while Gupta was growing frustrated with parking availability. “In many respects, Storably is like the AirBnB of parking and storage.” says CEO, Apu Gupta.

Gupta and Kowitt launched their community marketplace to utilize unused or underused spaces. There’s a benefit for two types of customers here: people who’ve got spare space and people who need it. That’s simple enough right? If you’ve got space to spare, they’re providing an easy way to generate some income.

If you’re looking for space, they’re providing some options that normally don’t arise. For example, say I owned a mansion in Queen Village and wanted to rent out one of my driveways, I could let Johnny Commuter park his Ford Tempo next to one of my spare Audis.

If only I had space to spare though, it’d be great to make some passive income. The Storably folks are pretty confident that sites such as AirBnB and RelayRides demonstrate that people are becoming comfortable with these types of concepts. They felt that parking and self-storage was the inevitable next step.

Community Manager Brendan Lowry reading his second or third favorite blog.

For those who follow the startup scene, Storably is actually based in the former office of Venmo. Timing worked out well when Venmo [secretly] moved to NYC a few months back, as speculated by Technically Philly. Hopefully, our new friends at Storably can meet comparable success coming out of that sweet Rittenhouse-area office.

Go ahead, browse some listings for parking or storage. Or perhaps, clear out that Hoarders-attic of yours and profit off of somebody else’s hoarding: www.storably.com

Many people know that cars are probably one of my most favorite things, ever. I honestly can’t think of many things that can so beautifully combine engineering, technology and design in one functional necessity. The automobile has permanently shaped the progress of the entire world for the past one hundred years.

It’s in partial thanks to cars that cities have become such large sprawling metropolises and allowed for less of a separation between city and countryside. I could go on and on how cars have shaped our society, influenced our terrain and landscape, and have also caused concern for the environment.

However, I’ll let Michael Furman, automotive photographer, give his insight as a chronicler, designer and author. He’ll be presenting some of the most beautiful and important cars of the last one hundred years as part of DesignPhiladelphia.

The Art of the Automobile: A Presentation by Michael Furman
(part of DesignPhiladelphia)
12pm, Sunday, October 23

Simeone Automobile Foundation Museum
6825-31 Norwitch Dr.
Philadelphia, PA 19153

BuyStarWarsCostumes.com has more officially-licensed Star Wars costumes for sale than any other site on the web. I was treated to a nice X-Wing Fighter Pilot costume. I’ll be wearing it to our Mustache Madness Halloween Bash with IndyHall on the 28th at Tattooed Mom.

Why?

Because I’m one mustache way from a Biggs Darklighter costume. Behold.

There’s no shortage of all sorts of Jedi and trooper costumes for men, women, children (even toddlers). Heck, ever have the urge to dress up like Plo Koon? They can get you started. You, with the deep pockets, could be evoke me with supreme envy. Pick up an Imperial Guard Costume. Or perhaps you could don this terrifyingly authentic Darth Vader costume? What’s the best SW costume? Not sure.

There could be an innumerable amount of things we could argue regarding the Star Wars Universe. Who shot first, Han or Greedo? How much do you hate Hayden Christensen, a little bit or a lot? Why does Lucas feel the need to make more updates to his films than an angsty teen did to their journal at the height of the Xanga days? Some of these things are dependent on film revision, extended universe or just subjective opinion.

There’s one SW-related thing you can’t dispute. What can I do on the website, “BuyStarWarsCostumes.com?” As their company name might indicate, you can buy Star Wars costumes. And we want to give two of you a $70 credit toward our new favorite website to do that, just in time for Halloween. Keep in mind, they have more than just costumes, like this Wampa Floor Rug.

Enter this contest. Comment below, with a valid email address and tell me who you’d most like to dress up as from the Star Wars Universe. Before end of [business] day tomorrow, I’ll pick two random winners and put you in direct contact with a rep from BuyStarWarsCostumes.com.

Our friend Conrad of StreetsDept is throwing his first art show on Saturday, October 22nd over at PhilaMOCA. He’ll be featuring the work of some of his favorite artists: Joe Boruchow, Kristin Smith, Nom Now, Jessie Hemmons (Ishknits), Get Up, Amber Lynn (Project Gastric) and a new mural from Yis Goodwin (NoseGo).

Conrad has been photographing the work of these artists for some time now. He tells us if you like the kind of street art he’s been sharing with us on StreetsDept, then you’ll love this show.

Find the event on Facebook, and invite all of your friends to come on out. Yes, all of them.

StreetsDept Presents at PhilaMOCA
7-11pm, Saturday, October 22nd
531 N. 12th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19123

Our friends over at Seamless are launching the CRAVED Restaurant Awards, it’s a program that allows you the chance to honor your favorite Seamless restaurants. Nominations are currently happening and continuing through this Saturday, October 15th. Between the 16th and the 30th, you’ll be able to vote on the restaurants with the most nominations in each category.

My nominations/votes would probably go to Philly establishments such as Tiffin, Machismo and Mr. Chicken, provided their wings are as good as I remember.

To get the CRAVED Restaurant Awards their proper kick-off in Philadelphia, the folks over at Seamless are happily giving away a $20 gift code credit. In order to participate, just simply comment below with a valid email address and tell me… What Seamless restaurant would you nominate?

Comment away. I’ll be contacting a random winner at the end of this week, just in time for CRAVE Restaurant Awards voting to begin. To learn more about Seamless, the nation’s leading digital service for ordering delivery and takeout, visit their official website. They’ve got over 250 Philly restaurants listed.

Philly-based composer and vocalist Matt Campana is currently in a contest to have his work featured in the next Assassin’s Creed.

Matt’s work with music stretches back nearly a decade, starting with private music lessons. In recent years he’s acquired some additional skills and knowledge through Drexel University’s Music Technology and Berklee College of Music’s Composition and Game Audio programs.

He’s created quality music and audio assets for film, TV and video games. Some of his past work includes arrangement for Video Games Live. In an effort to run with that idea, he’s now looking to get his work included in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.

Let’s help a fellow Philadelphian and geek out by casting our vote on UJAM. It’s simple, just head here and click the Facebook “like” button. At the time of writing this, he’s number 9. After the voting ends, the top 20 will be reviewed by Hans Zimmer (top Hollywood and video game composer) himself.

Vote now. It ends tonight at 11:59pm

For more info about Matt and his work, visit his website:
www.MattCampana.net

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The other night, I had the chance to catch the Philadelphia premiere screening of Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles at the International House.

If you haven’t heard about this documentary or the Toynbee Tiles that they’re based on, you’re missing out on an incredible Philadelphia-based oddity and urban legend. While I’d rather not go into detail of anything that would remotely spoil the film, I can safely summarize my takeaway from the film as follows: I feel closure on something that’s been a mystery to me for half of my lifetime.

Sure, these tiles and their odd messaging was never something I obsessed over to a great extent. That job can be left to the film’s cast (primarily focused around Justin Duerr and including Colin Smith and Justin Weinik). (more…)

This is a message to all you fashionistas, fashion geeks, lovers of good clothing/style and generally you guys and gals who don’t have an entire wardrobe based on Threadless/Woot! Shirt tees with geeky obscure references.

There’s currently a pretty sweet foursquare promotion running right now. The promo ties together the fabulously elegant Le Méridien hotel, upscale clothing brand Lilly Pulitzer and VisitPhilly’s With Love, Philadelphia XOXO campaign. Tied together how per se? Well, the gorgeous XOXO scarf from Lilly Pulitzer (featured above, valued at $118) is the grand prize.

Eligibility? Simple, be the mayor by October 26th. You’ve got nearly two months to check into the hotel. Book hotel stays or simply check in when you swing by to dine atAmuse or Le Bar at Amuse.

You’ve probably already seen this site making the rounds, what with its major local appeal. It was all started internally at Neiman Group. They’ve got something called Neiman Labs.

The entire goal of the group is to explore the new developments that have come about with the adoption of tech and social media, Philly SteakOut is a product of that exploration. I had a chance to chat briefly with Chris Reif (a Tony Luke’s guy but admitted Steak ‘Em Up is his dark horse) and George Ward (cut from the same cheesesteak wrap as I, being a fan of the steaks from John’s Roast Pork) from Neiman to learn a bit more.
(more…)