Magic Tuba

A minor character from the comic I'm working on.

To meet my goal of drawing every day I've been working on some simple wordless comics.  It's kind of a mix of Lewis Trondheim and Sergio Aragones.  Here's a sneak peak at two panels.

The Temple of the Cursed Sphinx

 This mini comic project has been completed and waiting to be posted for some time, but recent events have kept me a little distracted.  Here are the first two pages.  You can read the rest on my website here.  Let me know what you think.  I hope you enjoy it.

Hulk Sad

I finally saw the Captain America movie

The Start of an Idea

I'm working on an idea starting these three guys.

Progress

Cave Cannibal

Here's another character from my upcoming mini comic. Also I'm going to try to post more of my work here at least once a week. Even if it is something simple like this.

Sphinx

30 Days of Nintendo 2

Day number 2 of 30 days of Nintendo. I was a little disappointed how Little Mac turned out. The boxing gloves are the wrong color for example. The nice thing about these 30 days projects is that there is always tomorrow. That helps me be a little less precious with things and that's a good thing in the long run.

Kevin Days A Week

The quest strip I did for Kevin Burkhalter's Kevin Days A Week is up on his blog. Go check it out right now! Kevin's journal comic is a really great read and gushes personality and fun. Plus this guy is a comic making machine. Go check it out now!

Queue Lessons

Now that I've printed up and put together the first Queue mini-comic, I've had some time to think about the whole process. This being the first mini-comic I've ever made I knew there was going to be a learning curve to the process. I'm really happy with how everything turned out, but I've learned somethings and I don't plan to do everything the same next time. I've already got a story outline for my next mini and I'm looking forward to starting. I thought I'd take some time and write out some of the lessons I've learned to help remind me for next time.

-Stapling is a chore with a typical stapler, so I've order an inexpensive long arm stapler to make the whole process smoother.
-The text needs to be bigger than you think. The text in Queue is legible in the mini but I had to post the images larger than planned online so you can read some of the text in that version.
-Work on a size closer to final format. I'm not totally sure about this lesson. I wasn't totally happy with what shrinking the art did to the line work. The line work lost some of the spontaneity when I shrunk it down 35% in Photoshop.
-Include more backgrounds. I think some more backgrounds and atmosphere would help draw the reader into the story more. I ended up redrawing page three for compositional reasons but when I redrew the last panel I included more of the background and I think it really made the page better.
-Don't skimp on paper. Cheap computer paper or copy paper just doesn't look or feel right.
-Make your layouts as clear as possible. If your editors/first readers are using too much of their imagination and are guessing what's going on that's NOT a good thing.

Like I said I'm really happy with how things turned out but every time you tell a story you should learn from the process and be a better storyteller because of it.

Mini Comic Update

I wanted to post some of my mini comic I'm working on so you all know I'm not being lazy. It's been a crazy summer. I planned to have this mini done for SPX but because of my grandpa's funeral I wasn't able to attend and I didn't finish this mini. My plan is to finish the mini in the next two weeks.

You might notice that I'm still playing with my inking style and that the level of cartoonyness is still evolving. Ronald Searle's work has been a big influence lately. And I've been digging the blog/work of Stacy Curtis and the mini comics/blog of John Martz. Also my next 30 days project theme is going to be Nintendo. I'm looking forward to starting that once I've got this mini done.

Comic work in progress

I got the first draft of my new mini comic done. I still have some more characters to design and I'm sure I'll continue to play with the layout and panel flow but the first story obstacle has been crossed.

Comic work in progress

I finished the pencils and just got them scanned. Next up colors!

Comic work in progress

I know it might seem like I was drawing a lot in April and then just stopped in May. That's not true I just have had less to post. My current project is a little more involved.

Mole Man's Monster

I've been super busy with moving and haven't had enough time to draw. Here's something from a couple of weeks ago I did for the CGS forums.

Comic Test 2

Another test for the up coming comic. I think I could push this a lot more. Now that I look at it it feels identical to my previous version.

Comic test

A couple of guys from Speakeasy are putting together a comics anthology. Here's a test I did to figure out the villain of my story. I'm trying to figure out how I want to color it, ink it, and some of the nuances of the drawing style. So there is a lot in here that is up for grabs.

Bill Watterson hands

Bill Watterson is an amazing artist. I love how he draws hands. They are so simple and even gestural but they never feel rushed.