Well, I tried really hard to get this thing out last night, but as you can see the rocks disagreed with me. Cripes, that’s a lot of ink. Maybe next time I can try and actually figure out that particular technique before I apply it to an entire page. My process is ridiculous. Comics are ridiculous. It’s amazing to me that anybody can bully their way through the mire that is making a page of this stuff. Especially with any kind of time constraints. My appreciation for guys like Jack Kirby, Jack Davis, Kurtzman, Eisner, Ditko – any of the old sweatshoppers – has only gone up as I’ve made more comics, as has my humility level (however unwillingly). I need to work way harder if I ever want to become a true comics artist.
Ah well, tomorrow is another page. Or rather, next week. Not counting other stuff I’m doing. I guess it’d be like, one-and-a-half pages a week. Plus illustrations.
Whatever. I love this song right now:
Later,
J.
Postscript: I like this comic a lot better now that it’s all put together. I still think it’s a hot mess, but it reads well, and the hatching looks far less random than it felt while I was doing it. Still, I’ve got to bone up on my Bernie Wrightson and Jack Davis and get some control over that. Cuz if I could…oh man. Sky’s the limit.
To be fair, Jolly Jack and the rest didn’t have the Internet and information overload – heck, Kirby and Ditko didn’t even have TV to distract them when they were starting out. I just try to imagine the thousands and thousands of hours they spent doing nothing but drawing, and then producing scores of pages of cheap, formula comics for pennies a page week in week out year after year. They would either get really good, or flat-out get out of the business. And yeah, obviously those guys are rightfully legendary, but just judging from the results, you could also learn a lot from that guy Jason Week. I mean, I’ve seen his stuff, and he’s good. And getting better all the time, the more he just draws and draws.
@JE: You do have a very good point – I never really considered the slightly reduced load of things for them (and kids those days) had to keep them busy. It’s something to consider, for sure.
and holy cow, JE. You’re waaaaaay too nice to me. It’s a good thing I had my ego handed to me on the end of a pike at cartooning school, or I’d be sure to get a swelled head. (secretly though, I really appreciate the compliments. Just don’t tell anyone.)
I think the thing that gets me is your ability to keep consistant. Your characters are immediatly identifiable and always consistantly posed, dressed and “voiced”. You never seem to at a loss for a story line or a foil for your characters egos.
Do ever sell yourself short. Your art is top notch, Barks, Eisner and Ditko would be proud.
Don’t loss that confidence, but also don’t become McFarlane.
Well, sorry to say, Jason, but you’re not my favorite artist. The one I put above everyone else is the fellow whose work I have framed and hung all over my house. Gorgeous colors, brilliant, expressive characters and landscapes, images that you can literally lose yourself in for hours – nobody today comes close. Still, Vincent Van Gogh never did a comic book, much less a web comic.
A shame. I think he might have made some money if he had …