Sucker

You ever find yourself hating characters in a story so much that you can't wait for them to get wasted?

The sooner they are all dead, the sooner the story will be over, the sooner you will be free.

Super Strange Adventure Detective Agency

Now that I look at the underwater scene that I drew, I guess the Sea Devils inspiration was minimal at best. This panel depicts Eliot's imagined take down of an undersea counterfeiting operation.

Music to Draw by: Dylan, X, Roxy Music, Can, Ray Charles . . . .

Sea Devils

Page 4 will feature some adventure fantasy motifs and one panel is inspired by these wonderful Sea Devils covers, some of the best by Russ Heath (the bottom two). For much of the book's run the covers included gray tones! The shading really must have made the book pop on the spinning racks of the day.

Page 3

Just the Color Please!

I really don't want create a painted comic book. However looking at just the color layer, I can't see to help using color for modeling. Oh well!

Music to draw by: X, Lucinda Williams, LCD Soundsystem & Albert King

It Can't Be All Bad!

This morning I finally got all of the panels in order. Then I "inked" the sketches, left to right, top to bottom. Two hours killed and now off to my day job.

Music to draw by: Herbie Hancock and Ebo Taylor

It Takes Time

I really thought that I had this page nailed. I thought that I would have it posted in a couple of days. It takes time to see the problems. A few days go by and I give it a critical read. It's flat, repetitive. I can fix it, but it takes time.

Pelican Wing

The Pelicans are coming through our part of the California Coast. They are stunning when they glide in a line just above the surf. This photo is of the upturned wing of a dead Pelican. A sad scene, but beautiful.

My Brother's Chickens

You could never get down if you had these birds around. If I got stuck on a page or a drawing, I'd probably be inspired to create a fantastic headdress!

Stuck in the Middle of What the Ehf Comes Next

Sometimes a page arises visually through little sketches that come together seamlessly. Some pages, like page 3, turn out to be a back and forth between what I can sketch, the rhythms, subject and flow of the dialog, what fits on the page and finally, what is the little kicker in the last panel that makes you want to read the next page. Mr. Jon Macy pointed out this comic book necessity of page composition a long time ago. I've never forgotten it.

Page 2

The Right Amount of Rad

I've been sketching out a few poses for Eliot as he really gets into his air guitar. What is the right amount of rad anyway? Fist pumping the air, hips grinding into the body of the guitar, hanging hunks of hair swaying with the pulsating distortion . . . .

Music to draw by: Keith Jarrett, The Who (new bootleg from 1970), various artists from an African Funk compilation.

Spent the afternoon lettering page 2, using Illustrator, working out the kinks, solving the problems that vexed me on page 1.

Music to draw by: The Bonzo Dog Band and a collection of Nigerian funk from the 70's

I decided to go with color as a way of acknowledging the gurgling last breaths of the B&W indie comic book and my commitment to using the internet to make my story available. Color makes for more work, but I'm getting into it. Maybe too into it from a time management point of view.

Music to draw by: Sufjan Stevens

I spend lots of time going through flickr albums looking for 70's clothes, home decor, hair styles. There are a couple of movies from that a great for pilfering. These stills are taken from "Over the Edge" from 1979. Matt Dillon's first movie. He steels the show and his clothes are too much. I'll save his half shirts and unzipped vest over bare skin for later in the book. The last still has some nice atmosphere.

The Sebaceous Funkmeister, Jon Macy, and I spent the afternoon drawing. We even drew yesterday and I've made great progress on page 2. Vevay spent the entire time sleeping next to Jon, lulled into dreamland by the sound of his pencil marking the page.

Music to draw by: Koko Taylor, Little Walter, The Besnard Lakes and Love.