Chasing Creativity
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When you do something for a long time, you tend to get good at it. Especially if you focus on making small improvements each time, your 50th attempt at something should look WAY better than your first. But if you’re not careful, you can fall into complacency along the way. So your 300th attempt looks a lot like your 75th. “Done is better than perfect” becomes the mantra, especially when finances are involved. It’s really easy to use the law of diminishing returns to justify laziness. Trust me, I've been there. To snap out of it, sometimes you just need a little spark. Recently, I was gifted a Sony ZV-1 that I’ve decided to name Sparky. Released in 2020, it’s a compact point-and-shoot camera with a flip out screen, pretty much tailor-made for filming on the go. While it has its limitations, it’s a major upgrade from the Canon T3i I’ve been rocking for over a decade. After testing out the camera for a week of vlogging, I’ve finally landed on the perfect use case — vertical video. I turn the camera sideways, showcase a comic, pop the memory card into my iPhone via a dongle, edit in Instagram and post online in minutes. As you can tell from my writings, I’m especially long winded. Because of that, making engaging videos in less than 2 minutes is tough. But I’m enjoying the challenge, and the forced creativity that comes with it. If we're going to last 5 more years on YouTube, I'm gonna need to embrace that creative spirit. Speaking of anniversaries... Save the Date Wednesday, November 12th. Not only does one of my most anticipated books of the year drop that day, but we’re celebrating our 5th channel anniversary and the 20,000 subscriber milestone all in one night! Join us at 7pm Eastern Time for Q&A, Giveaways and maybe a surprise guest or two. That night will also mark the end of our Equipment Fundraiser. I'm gonna take whatever we've raised at that point and purchase a new editing setup. It's gonna be a great time! Read Something Dope Today, BJ KICKS |
Comics Are Dope
Celebrating everything Dope about comics. Curated by BJ KICKS.
I remember the first time I heard "Livin' on a Prayer." I was couch surfing the summer before my senior year of college with two close friends -- one of whom was a theater major (is it theater or theatre? anyways...) Before the fall semester started, my friend decided to invite all her theater homies over for a kickback to start the school year. That was my first 'white' party. As a black kid in the suburbs, you don't really see white people in their natural habitat. You get to play outside,...
This week, we crossed the 20,000 subscriber mark on the Comics Are Dope YouTube channel. As I said on Threads, I don't think I've met 20 thousand people over my lifetime. The idea of that many people clicking the subscribe button after seeing me talk about fictional heroes in capes and tights is crazy to me. While I think every YouTuber (including me) dreams at least a tiny bit about having one of those 100,000 subscriber plaques; every subscriber on this journey feels like a gift I couldn't...
One of my heroes is the late Congressman John Lewis. As one of the co-founders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, he was on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement at an age when most kids are trying to decide which super easy elective they're going to take to boost their Freshman GPA. He often talked about the days of sit-ins and marches, recalling all his arrests during those demonstrations as getting into "Good trouble. Necessary trouble." Car trouble is neither of...