Archive for August, 2009
7 items.
Every story has several possible endings, which is why I enjoy drawing these strips. Of course, this strip is a humorous one, so it is reasonable to assume that it will not end badly. Even still, there’s a whole host of potential for this story, potential that will never be released. Strips like these hint towards the darker endings, the endings which occur in life and we generally try to escape in the funny pages. Some comics, especially in comic book form, deal with these endings, of course. It’s not my desire to deal with them here, but these strips remind me that they are there, and that there are manifold stories left to tell in different contexts.
Two updates on schedule? In a row? I know, you guys must be the luckiest fans in the world! Things are starting to slow down in my life, so I’m finally close to catching up on everything that’s backed up around the house. Hopefully, there will be no additional delays on the part of the comic.
I had this in my sketchbook, with roughs for all the characters and the script scribbled in. I even wrote, “Watters0n-style word balloons”. I didn’t go with that in the end, I did freehand balloons which I don’t particularly like. It’s odd that when I am thinking of a specific thing, I’ll refer to another artist’s style. It’s just easier that way.
The observant of you will notice that Watterson’s balloon style is set inside closed panel borders, where I leave my panel borders open in the text balloons to tie together the white space. Clearly, I was referring to a “half-Watterson.” Great. Now I’m inventing terms. Comic illustrating: The new skateboarding?
I used my fountain pen on the outer panels, and my Pentel brush on the inner panel where the shot was more close-in. The only other thing is that I did the rough pencils and scripting beforehand, which made things move a lot faster. Pencils, ink, scanning and painting took roughly an hour and a half as opposed to two to three hours. I highly recommend it.