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On August 7, 2011, it will be fifteen years since the publishing of the first Callous comic strip!  The series has had a long and wonderful history yet, truly, it's all just beginning!

Nevertheless, fifteen years is a significant milestone and I'd like all of you to join Callous Comics in celebrating it!  Here are what I have planned:

Open for Guest Art / Comics

One of the features of the Callous Comics website is the Guest Art / Comics page.  I've been extremely blessed to receive great contrib...
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    Callous Comics and I were featured in Episode 149 of the Two Guys Talking Webcomics podcast hosted by Kurt Sasso.  This episode also featured guest co-host Liz Staley of the mecha comic Adrastus!  You can listen to the podcast either on the episode's page on the TGT Webcomics website, through the show's page on Talkshoe, or by subscribing to the series on iTunes.
    It was a grand old time as usual on TGT! Give the episode a listen and check out the rest of the podcast's episodes and disc...
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The great Rommel Estanislao, Philippine indie comic star and brilliant sculptor, was gracious enough to make this fantastic Cal Duck pendant for me!  Isn't it AWESOME?!  Thanks Sir Omeng!

Before you ask me if I'm planning to mass produce these... not just yet. I don't feel that there's enough demand to invest in such an endeavor yet.  But I may commission him to do full bodied figures of Rianne and Cal one day (when I can afford him).

Check out more of his work at his Deviantart page and Multip...
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I was faced with the task of redesigning Muscovy Duck after the events of The Land of the Guardians.  Will I bring his old spikey hair back or keep his DBZ-style 'do?  In the end, I supposed it would have been more feasible to have his last-seen features intact, including the clawed feet.  I did, however, give him his flowered Guardian Duck T-shirt back.  He's still in his green robe, only it is open and sans belt.  I'm currently writing his return in a new storyline which includes bringing b...
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I'll be the first to admit that considering the content of my comic series, Callous is not exactly the perfect name for it!  The title has little to no relation to the comic series itself!  Nevertheless, I stuck with it. Truth is, much like naming your dog something silly like, "Cat", over time it does become endearing.

In July of 1996, I was a fresh face in my university's student newspaper.  I submitted my first comic strip as a new artist in the staff.  That comic strip didn't make it to pr...
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When I was interviewed for a national newspaper regarding Callous I was asked if I considered my work as a cartoonist as a form of stress-relief.  I didn't really know it then, since I felt relatively "stress-free", but since I enjoyed what I was doing I figured it helped.

Oh, how little I knew.

Now after only A DAY of not drawing comics I feel the full weight of what I do on my day job and I can hardly believe I managed to get by during years of putting cartooning on hold when I was starting o...
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I'm in a bit of a bind when it comes to Callous for the month of May 2010 until June 11, 2010.  During this time I'll be undergoing a portion of my specialization training in a different hospital from where I usually work in.  Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to work on the comic strip while rotating there so I've reluctantly decided to reduce my comic output to one a week.  These will be the Sunday comics.

I realize that this comes in pretty short notice (I've been trying to figure ou...
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Callous took a somewhat darker turn this week, but it was all in good fun!  The Chronicles of Chaturanga story arc came into being one day while watching a fellow physician play online chess.

Online chess had been a running gag in Callous for quite some time.  It had always been a real pain for Rianne because she could never seem to win a match.





Personally, there's nothing in the world that tires my mind more than a game of chess.  I find it absolutely exhausting!  So I gave it up early.  But t...
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The April 8, 2010 Callous comic strip, "New Kicks", was actually penciled several days prior to the actual publishing.  The strip was delayed because I didn't feel the original story was appropriate for the series.  Sure it may have been funnier but it ended up with Rianne having a really sad look on her face which was heartbreaking to look at!

I never really paid as much attention before to maintaining an overall theme to the series until this strip.  Drawing Callous is a joy and I wanted tha...
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I'm fairly new to the online comic scene.  Although there have been Callous comic strips online since 1997 (Angelfire, Geocities, and Tripod were among the previous hosts), I hardly ever explored other comics in the internet at that time.  Furthermore, it seems that online comics, or webcomics, have only truly flourished in the last few years or so with internet access and reasonable bandwidth becoming more accessible to the everyday person around the world.  Paperless (digital) content is qu...
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From the start of this week-long break, Callous will be open for guest comics for display on the website! Even when the series kicks off again on March 22, I'm willing to showcase these comics alongside my own.  If you're interested, read on!

Guest material is not restricted to comic strips! You may submit artwork depicting characters or situations from the Callous comic strip and/or anything inspired by the series.

Only G-rated material will be accepted for display on the website.  PG-rated ar...
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Revisit last month's Callous comic strips with this musical slideshow!
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I've said before that a lot of my comics are based on personal experiences.  Sad to say, the above strips are no exception.  Sure, I've put some humor into it and a lot of patients are gracious enough to not make a big deal out of it but I have encountered some who long for that one-on-one with their doctor.

I was still a medical student at the time when I encountered a similar situation.  We were on rounds with a notoriously impersonal physician who walks into a patient's room, discusses his ...
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Ree debuts in the Callous comic strip on February 24, 2010!

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Callous will be taking a break from February 1 - 7, 2010.
I'll be busy with several things pertaining to my day job, particularly certain aspects of my participation in the upcoming annual convention of my specialty's local society.

During this time, you can follow my Callous and comic-related updates through Twitter!  Just follow @callouscomics!

If you're interested in my day job, you can follow my personal and medicine-related tweets through @cazsanjuan!

See you on February 8, 2010!

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The Chanceborough News reports Callous-related news, announcements, and events!

The January 2010 music video is up in the fan page on Facebook!  This month features another fun song from Dan Zanes and Friends, "Go Down Emmanuel Road"!


Join the Fan Page on Facebook for more exclusive content!

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He's finally here! I learned a lot from my attempt at animating Rianne and that resulted in a much smoother Cal Duck walk!

Click here to view the animation... and become a fan as well at the Callous fan page on Facebook!

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Talk about things I never thought I'd talk about on a blog...
First things first... I've been asked before why the main protagonist of Callous is a girl (considering I am a guy).  My usual response is, why not?  Does it make a difference whether my main character is male or female?  The point is Rianne may be female but really, it doesn't matter.  She has the same problems, thinks the same way, and goes through life's struggles like any other person, medically-trained or not.

Then came the day ...
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For those of you eagle-eyed enough to notice, you may have observed a very gradual change in several characters' (Rianne in particular) hairstyles.  Rianne originally had a hairstyle with "waves" from the part over her forehead which eventually formed an oval that framed her face.

This looked fine in black and white but when I decided to publish Callous in color I ran into some unexpected problems.  Doing a daily comic strip in my spare time means I need to do my colors quickly and easily so I...
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Yeah, I have several other blogs, but in this one I will talk about the art, writing, and overall production of the Callous comic strip series and online comics in general.  For now I'll be working on the basic infrastructure of this blog's site then I'll start writing more uninteresting stuff.

Oh wait, you're interested?!  Great!  See you soon!

Caz

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