Guest Strip Time!

A while back, Ricky Garduno over at Dumm Comics asked if I wanted to do a guest strip for his comic, 1930's Nightmare Theater. Because I was on vacation, I didn't get around to it until only a week or so ago. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and it gave me good practice for my own strip (the site will hopefully be up and running very very soon.) Click on the horrifically painful yet insightful work-in-progress image below to check it out!

The premise was based off of something that I remembered way back as a kid. I used to watch the old Disney shorts on VHS and on TV (back when they did that), and it always bothered the hell out of me when I'd see a Mickey Mouse cartoon where he was pie-eyed, then a short when he had eyes with pupils, then pie-eyes, then 2 pupil ones, etc.. Same when characters looked different from director to director at Warner Bros. or some of the more drastic design changes like Woody Woodpecker. As a kid I didn't understand that the designs had evolved over time, I just thought it was kind of random.

Then later on I saw Roger Rabbit, where the characters were literally made of ink and paint and that they could be killed with "Dip". I came to the conclusion that the characters probably had some sort of cosmetic surgery, and that it would probably be the most painful thing they could possibly experience. And on top of that, since they were a "minority group", they didn't have a choice whether they wanted to go through with it or not. I could just imagine a scene like in A Clockwork Orange, but with Mickey strapped to a chair in the late-30's, screaming his falsetto lungs out while they rubbed his eyes out with turpentine soaked rags while the silhouette of Walt Disney looked on behind glass above.

I thought about again around when it came to my thesis film at SVA. I was thinking about doing it, but then I realized it would probably freak out a whole lot of people, myself included, so I opted for the much more general, less eye-gougy route. I'm glad Ricky came around and asked me about the strip when he did, because this idea was still lodged in the back of my head and it needed to get out somehow.

This is probably hands-down the most horrific thing I've ever drawn in my life, and I'd like to thank Ricky for giving me the opportunity to do so!

Make sure to check out Dumm Comics every day of the week!

Digital Doodles

Fiddling with Manga Studio...

Manga Studio 4 is AWESOME (also Shannon's been here)

My girlfriend Shannon and I have been spending the last month or so together. We've had a really great time; taking drives, going out to eat, even spending a week in Disney World! It's been a blast!

During that time, we've also been drawing together. We've done a few jam comics and a couple little doodles back and forth. The other day, she asked me to draw a picture of my dodo, Randy, that she can use as a desktop background on her laptop. So I started roughing out a picture for her:

Earlier this month, she gave me her copy of Manga Studio 4. I've been fiddling around with it for the last few weeks and it's really grown on me. It's a REALLY fun program to draw and ink in. The brushes are really versatile. I'll be doing my comic with that program.

Then I moved on to inks:

I have to say, I usually don't like the inking process. But in Manga Studio, it's a lot of fun. I don't think I've ever had as much fun inking as I did with this. The uke and tree are a little wonky, but otherwise I'm really happy with how this came out.

Finally I sent it off to Shannon (all the way on the other side of the room) and she started coloring it in her program of choice: PaintTool SAI. I've heard nothing but good things from my friends and colleagues about that program. In fact, while I was at SVA, a lot of the underclassmen were using it to ink their films. And I don't blame 'em! The brushes in that program are godly-amazing. Sadly, it's a PC-only program, so I won't be able to use it anytime soon. Oh well, I'm content with Manga Studio.

Anyway, Shannon put in color, highlights and shading, cropped it a bit and the final product looks like this:

I really think Shannon and I make a good team. I can't color for jack, so I definitely need her help when it comes to coloring. She'll be coloring my comic, which HOPEFULLY will be starting up soon. I would've started sooner, but Shannon and I have been busy with other things.

Sadly, she's leaving in a few days to go back home to Washington. But I'm not too sad, because we'll definitely be seeing each other again real soon! Besides, we'll be talking and collaborating on stuff all the time, so we won't really be too far apart.

See you real soon!