Now that’s how a comic page oughtta look.

Or, rather: I got my holy-grail-crazy-expensive japanese brush pen to work right. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but to reitierate – the inimitable Ms. Flyky (to whom I’m married) bought me a lavish gift for Christmas 2010. One of these:

And it’s been sitting in a drawer because it just didn’t feel right. Too much ink flow. Turns out it made a big difference when I tried using the ink cartridges that came with it. Yesterday. Over a year later. So, duh, now I have an INCREDIBLE brush. Like, a forged-from-the-bones-of-a-frost-giant-and-handed-down-by-the-gods-to-fend-off-ragnarok +1 pen. It’s like inking with a living thing. I’m probably going to start talking to it. Heck, I should probably give it a name, then.

Anyway, in case you didn’t realize this about me – I’m pretty sure that I’m only as good of an artist as my tools will allow. So expect big things from me and Percy. Percy the pen.

See, I’m a good writer because I’m alliterative.

Later,

J.

ps: I’m sure it’ll turn into dust tomorrow. In that case, disregard any expectations this post has created in you.

                                      

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.

                                      

Well, we’re back. Feels REAAL good to get back to my drawing table after a week of hard sketching on the computer. My eyes are happier, too. I did manage to start tackling a cool (in my opinion) Billy print/wallpaper – which you can check out further down the website. Or here, here, and here if you like. I figure I might as well document the process. If it’s gets all those rotting old posts off of the main page, so much the better.

I don’t think i’ve mentioned it here yet, but pretty soon I’m going to be starting up a new webcomic for the incredible CLYW – otherewise known as Caribou Lodge Yoyo Works.

It’ll be bringing together a bunch of the CLYW stable of characters (which is surprisingly deep for a yoyo company. Heck, it’s pretty deep for an animation company) in the most over-thought and pseudo-philosophical manner I can manage. Which will rock.

And speaking of Caribou Lodge, the man himself Chris Mikulin and a big chunk of his team are in Prague right now for the European Yoyo Chamapionship. So, GOOD LUCK. Chris sponsors some really amazing guys that absolutely live up to his incredible yoyos. Seriously though, I’m not biased.

Next week the comic should be back to normal schedule – meaning it goes up midnight Thursday, because I actually finish it before wednesday.

Thanks for being awesome and patient you guys!

Later,

J.

                                      

UPDATE: There’s a blog post below that is relevant to your interests. As long as your interests are picnics and burial mounds.

Hooray! It’s up! Sorry for the delay, but I had a very important project that I had to do.

We did ten pages of these in one day. Thankfully the kids didn't riot when she read the book to them.

Now Ky’s preschoolers (hopefully) understand what peace is a little bit better. It’s not such an easy concept to get across.

Also on the mixed blessing newsfront – I’ve got to take next week off from Billy. I know, I know – there’s bound to be some sort of riot. But it must be risked. Turns out I’ve got oodles of work that actually pays money right now, and one of those gigs is an honest to goodness book. Like, with a real publisher and whatnot. BUT, I’ve got about 40 sketches to get done by the 15th. Which is compounded by the fact that my brother is back from Iraq and visiting my hometown pretty much the exact same weekend. Rock and a hard place, you know? I’ll try and make it up to you by posting something in the blog area (below the comic post. I know it’s been a while.) a time or two next week, so check back or look on twitter and facebook.

Lately I’ve actually been picking up a decent number of gigs – more than I’ve ever had. Problem is, as I get more paying work, the time I have for Billy is going to get harder and harder to find. The only way I can take that time back, is for Billy to start bringing in some actual, y’know, money. So I stuck a donate button up in the sidebar. I don’t like it, but after doing this for two and a half years, I figure I’ve earned a respite from my neverending self-imposed rules. So do your thing with the paypal if you’re feeling it. Just like Radiohead, man.

Thing is, that’s only going to go so far. I LOVE Billy. This comic is my life’s work. I mean, I’ve been with these characters since I was nineteen, and they haven’t given up one centimeter of real estate in my imagination since the day I created them. They aren’t going anywhere. But to keep doing it as often as I do now (or more often, if that would ever be possible), I need to get more people to the comic. So if you enjoy this comic, tell somebody. Or, if you know of a website that does webcomic reviews or plugs, tell them about Billy. Cuz’ I need you guys.

Aaaaaanyway, I’ll talk to you guys next week – seriously, check back even the comic is off. I’ll have some fun sketches of the kids up or something in the blog. I’ll need to blow off some steam on some funtime drawings for sure.

Later, and thanks -

J.

                                      

Happy (almost) New Year everybody! Hope you all had a fantastic december holiday celebration of your choice. Or, not so much choice as childhood programming. I guess. I mean, it’s probably blasphemous or something for me to celebrate Christmas. Then again, the pagans? Of course, I’m not really a pagan either. Ach, it’s mostly a food, family and fantastic white elephant holiday for me anyway. I’m not kidding about that white elephant, either. Last year FlyKy and I snagged one of my sister’s homemade blankets, a handmade wooden nativity, Unicorn fortune telling cards, and…uh…well, how could anything else be memorable amidst that haul.

To be honest thought, I tend to get super weird on certain holidays. Namely, Christmas and my birthday. It’s like a horrible feedback loop of expectation, nostalgia and depression. Doesn’t help that I’m really uncomfortable with getting gifts. I love giving them, but receiving them makes me super anxious and tense. Christmas is waaaay better than my birthday though, because despite my own personal neurosis about the day itself. I adore the lead-in, and the following week that leads up to the multi-day bacon and cheese Christmas(New Years) bacchanalia with my (many) siblings. My birthday, however…ugh. I don’t mind getting older, but it’s the only instance where I’m right on board with the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Oh hey look! There’s a comic up there.

Later,

J.

                                      

I totally forgot that I wanted to draw this on Shelley’s vaccine bottles:

That symbol makes me giggle like crazy, for some reason. It might be my perpetually dark sense of humor getting a lark out of the sheer folly of a “No Death” symbol. That is, I guess, until the singularity.

So anyway, it’s the freakin’ holidays, guys. Me, I’m a christmas guy. Yeah, I don’t believe in anything, but I can’t ignore the amazing build-up of holidays from October until January. The pacing on the Halloween<Thanksgiving<Assorted Days of Presents and Food>New Years run is damn near flawless, and as someone who appreciates a solid sense of anticipation (the actual days are okay, but mostly just for parades) this is my favorite time of year. That is, aside from the occasional massive blizzard. Blizzards are ALWAYS the best days of any year. So, my present to you guys is the drawing I swiped a ton of techniques from for today’s comic:

Cick it. It gets waaaaay bigger.

It’s by a Disney artist named Hank Porter, whom I just discovered and plan on spending some quality time with as soon as I track down some of his other work. Seriously. This is a masterpiece. Stare at it for hours, please.

So merry merry and all that jazz.

Later,

J.

                                      

Man, so far this holiday season has been a real corker! Like, freakin’ great. To start, today’s comic is one of my all-time favorites, because it didn’t make me feel horrible at any point during the drawing process. This is big news people! It’s not about drawing ability, either. No, it’s about psychology. Basically, my progression of learning how to draw better (and make better comics) has been about learning to short-circuit my frustration through my creative process. That’s the reason why I do all my layouts in photoshop. No paper trail to show how many times I’ve failed at solving the problem.  Now I’m at the point where I can’t really change my process (it’s pretty much set in stone, now), so I have to figure out how to back out of a bad sketch or inking job before my lizard brain takes over and rages. And I nailed it on this one. Happy.

Oh yeah, not to mention I got this last week:

CHEEEEEEEEF!

Yes I have hairy knuckles, and yes it’s kind of gross. But don’t let that distract you from the work of art in my hand. It’s a beauty and it’s allllll mine. Lovely.

Add in the nearly twelve foot pine tree in the living room, packed with more lights than a prison yard during an escape attempt, and you’ve got the makings of one heckuva good holiday.

Next week: Probably depression, but let’s hope not. We’re a hopeful people, us people who read this comic.

Later,

J.

                                      

And so, Billy begins his long and trying journey away from a horrible homelife, into the arms of…well…a fairly horrible school life. Still, I think it’s more or less a step up for him. At least at The School he can hang with Been and Spritzer without too much hassle.

Starting with the next page, you guys should begin to see the structure that I’m imposing on the Billyverse (yeah, I said it) through this new issue format. If it comes between the two covers, everything fits together for one purpose or another.

Other than that, not much going on here – I’ve picked up a few yoyo related drawing gigs, which is basically unbelievably awesome. Drawing people playing with toys is pretty damn sweet. Also, I should have an update soon on the little four pager I have coming out. I think. Well, anyway – I’ll let you know.

I’m off to play some late night yo-yo, while I wait for my awesome new yo-yo to get here…

Eh, who am I kidding. I’ll probably just draw people playing with yo-yo’s. I can draw better tricks than I can do.

Later,

J.

                                      

Thanksgiving made me really behind, so I’m typing this up right after finishing the comic at…2:29 am. Needless to say, I’m tired.

But the turkey was great.

Later,

J.

                                      

Did you know that there’s a whole range of cheats you can use if you have Manga Studio? Like 3d models of motorcycles and crap that you can insert into a file and trace, just to make your life easier? Well, I didn’t until I read the back of the box that I just got in the mail today. Not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, YAY – quickness. On the other, BOO – laziness. I actually want to know how to draw stuff, not just how to trace properly. I do, however, love that it allows a wider range of people to tell the stories they want to tell. That’s a good thing. Just not sure if it’s good for me.

By the way, did I mention that I just bought Manga Studio Ex 4? So, expect this comic to suddenly be overrun by doe-eyed sexually ambiguous young men with pointy hair and delicate hands riding highly accurate renderings of motorcycles. also, inexplicable body language. Like that whole bloody nose thing. Nah, I’m kidding – I actually enjoy the manga. Been reading it since I was a teenager in the mid 90′s. I even had four years of Japanese in high school. Billy’s Japanese roots run deep. So deep it’s hard to find them.

HEY, I drew this, too:

When my interests combine, it’s almost always very strange.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Sorry for the kind of depressing comic. It’ll pick up! Promise!

Later,

J.