Category: Comics process

“My Experiment” or “Process: Ridiculous”

Post author By Dan
Post date June 15, 2016

I recently completed drawing John Bell’s autobio/science story “My Experiment,” for the upcoming BCR anthology (and Kickstarter sensation), Boundless.

For this project I once again put into practiceÂ my philosophy of the comics-making process, which mayÂ be described as: make everything as complicated and torturous as possible and add as many steps as you canÂ (or maybe that should be, “retrace your steps as many times as you can”). Â Works for me!

Anyway, “My Experiment” is a six page story, and it started reasonably enough, with some roughs, which i also roughly ink:

…and I’m ready for final pencils. Â (Just as a side note, this comic is drawn at actual print size, unlike the usual 1.5-to-2-times larger, so each drawn page has an image area of about 4.25 x 8 inches, which is kind of challenging.)

MyÂ problems started when I pencilled the first page in blue pencil, and just “experimentally” I inked it digitally in Photoshop:

Hmmm… I liked the slickness of the digital inks, but on the whole I wasn’t satisfied. Â I found the effect overall to be clean, yes, but also somewhat tight and finicky. So I resolved to ink the whole thing with a real brush and real ink. Â Here’s page one:

…and I proceeded to pencil and ink the entire story that way. Â Done, right?

Nooo… all the while it kept nagging at me, that the slick, clean digital look was somehow better suited for this story. Â Maybe because it was about science and labs and stuff? Â There were places where I wasn’t happy with my abiity to draw at this scale with a brush. Â I just wasn’t sure, and I felt like the ONLY way to feel confident was, well, to re-ink the entire story digitally.

Which I did by taking each inked page, scanning, and converting to blue…

…then adding another layer and digitally inking over the “blue pencils” created from my REAL inks:

Gimmicky gifs aside, I ended up with two versions of each page, a traditional ink and a digital ink, and I could make a side-by-side comparison:

Click on it to look close, and ask yourself: which did I choose? Â Which would youÂ choose?

….

…I couldn’t justÂ choose, though, that would be far too simple. Â I decided I overall liked the quality of the real-brush-and-ink lines, but there were some details I was much happier with in the digital. So, since the pages were identically composed (the digital being inked over the traditional) I could just go through and grab details I wanted from the digital and paste them in over the inks. Â I hoped that I was being careful enough that the different styles (no, the differentÂ media wouldn’t clash. Â The final result:

Can you spot the digital paste-ins (hint: mostly faces). Â Anyway, I repeated this ridiculously complicated process for all 6 pages — for some pages I liked the digital overall better, and pasted in some details from the real-inks!

And that, friends, is how we fly across the ocean!

Hooves of Death: Proof!

Post author By Dan
Post date March 18, 2016

The proof has arrived! Â The book will available at MoCCA, table B129!

Comics process Hooves of Death My Comics

Hooves of Death: back cover ad and its sources

Post author By Dan
Post date March 11, 2016
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For the back cover of this faux-Golden Age comic, I cooked up this faux-Golden Age ad. This is a combination of digital collage and original art:

If you’re old enough to remember the American Seed Company ads, this will all mean more to you, of course.

Here are some of the real ads that inspired me (and from which I pilfered elements):

And then especially these Cloverine Salve ads, which featured little comic strips like the one I drew for mine (you can click on these to make them more readable):

Some showed how valuable the prizes couldÂ reallyÂ be. Â You might even use them to stop a rampaging gorilla:

The ads could get pretty bizarre. Â This one has a strangely apocalyptic tone: the “FUNman” lets the kiddies know that the World is on Fire!

Here is a get-rich-quick scheme for the young folks, basically encouraging Jimmy to become a small-time crooked casino operator:

One of my favorites is this Charles Atlas-type pitch, with art by Captain Marvel artist, C.C. Beck, which suggests an unusual use for your new he-man body: advancing at work by punching out your fellow workers!

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Comics process My Comics

Hooves of Death: One last re-draw

Post author By Dan
Post date February 25, 2016
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FinishedÂ drawingÂ the last page of this story, but I had some UN-finished business as well: I had grown disatisfied with the splash panel I drew… oh, nearly six years ago now:

Problems: the horse is too pudgy, and looks more like a stuffed donkey to me. Â Also not happy with the way I drew the skirt. Â I’ve done a lot more drawing of horses and clothing in the past couple months, so I thought it was worth updating. And take another crack at the Ghost flying in, why not?

I used a lightbox, so I could just re-draw the figures, and have them in correct positions to insert digitally into the page, without having to re-letter, etc. Other than perhaps the tail, I think everything is better:

Or, if you prefer to compare via an animated gif:

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Comics process Hooves of Death My Comics

Hooves of Death: “Betty Holds Up an Ancient Scroll….” times four.

Post author By Dan
Post date February 23, 2016
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Another bout of obsessive panel re-drawing…. Â Today, it is the second panel of page ten (next-to-last page of the story!) of “Hooves of Death,” the faux-Golden Age story I’m drawing from a script by Troy Minkowsky….

p 10 panel 2 v1 — Hooves of Death page 10 panel 2, first version

When I finished the page, I realized that I had messed up the perspective in this panel. Â Either Betty is about twenty-four inches tall, or the horse is gigantic. Â I could have probably figured out the perspective if I’d taken the time… but it’s the next to last page of the story, and I’m getting rushed and lazy! Â I tried to convince myself to just leave it as it is and move on. Â I took the page to the Boston Comics Roundtable meeting, though, and got some good feedback (as usual). Â As well as the scale problem, it was pointed out that the horse’s legs are funny — more like table legs.

Well, it’s not like I haven’t studied horse anatomy a bit in the course of this project, but since I’m getting rushed and lazy (see above), I thought I could wing it, and not actually look at horse reference this one time. Â The result: it looks like the Ghost has had a bit too much to drink and finds himself under the dining room table, which for some reason is on a racetrack.

Again, I tried to convince myself I could live with this… but… my consience nagged at me, and it was draw-it-over time.

What followed was a strange blend of diligence and laziness. Â I just started re-drawing, perfectly willing to draw the whole panel over and over, but still refusing to do any diagrammatic “figuring out” of the perspective (though I did look at horse-leg reference), going with trial-and-error instead. I just felt like doing it the stupid way (or the intuitive way, to be kinder), that’s all I can say. Â I got Betty better-sized, but then the relative sizes of the Ghost and the horse’s legs would seem wrong, so I tried it again… and again…

Did I stop when I got it right? Â Or did I just run out of gas? Â You be the judge….

p10 panel 2 v2 — Hooves of Death page 10 panel 2, second version

I think the Ghost looks too small relative to the horse.

p10 panel 2 v3 — Hooves of Death page 10, panel 2, third version

Now I think the Ghost looks too BIG relative to horse, and the horse’s legs are too squat.

Hooves od Deth, page 10, panel 2, fourth and final (?) version.

A little better. I think my favorite drawing of Betty so far, and the relative sizes of the figures seem okay… though the horse’s right leg looks not quite right… but there’s the bell, class is over!

Comics process Hooves of Death

Hooves of Death: “The hunger-fueled Madness nears a Crescendo!”

Post author By Dan
Post date February 13, 2016
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The first panel from page 9 ofÂ Hooves of Death. Â I drew this three times. Â I’m getting into a pattern of allowing myself one re-drawn panel per page.

Maybe the first version shouldn’t “count,” because I just abandoned the entire pass at the page, for reasons not particularly to do with this panel. So I never really finished inking it:

So this was my first “final,” finished version:

I felt that this panel was the weakest on the page for a couple of reasons. Â I had totally overdone the shading with all those lines… muddied up the panel and the page.Â It doesn’t look too bad out of context, but when reduced, it really just turns into a gray mess (I’m drawing this story Golden Age-style, “twice-up.” Â In other words, it will be reduced by 50% when printed.

Also, the pose of the central figure was not satisfactory. Â So…

Altogether cleaner with simple black and white shading, and by moving the woman to a side view I could call better attention to the baby in her arms. Â I made the guy eating his hat larger, and placed the crawling betterÂ so I didn’t have to crop him. Â IÂ Â had to lose some of the background figures… but a stronger read, I HOPE, especially when it’s reduced.

Comics process Hooves of Death My Comics Process & studies

Hooves of Death, studies.

Post author By Dan
Post date January 22, 2016
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Studies from Golden Age comics, and sketches for figures on page 9 of “Hooves of Death,” comic I’m drawing from a script by Troy Minkowsky. Â

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Comics process Hooves of Death My Comics

Hooves of Death, part 2 preview: The Evil Horse Gets the Upper Hoof!

Post author By Dan
Post date January 10, 2016
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I just drew the same panel — page 8, panel 5 — four times. Â Version 1, in the original page. Â I got feedback that it looked like the horse was crushing his feet, and I didn’t like the falling figure much, and I thought I could do better on the horse. Version 2 (aborted).Â I can’tÂ remember what I didn’t like about this one, actually. Â Maybe the fact that the horse looks like a large sausage, Â not enough detail in the reflections off the fur. Â Oh also I think the guy is too big relativeÂ to the horse? Version 3… Everything better, except the way I changed the position of the horse (in order to make it bigger), making the panel less dynamic. Now the horse looks stiff and even more sausage-y. Â Also, still relative size problems. Â Either a very large man or a pony, not a horse.

OK. Â The figure was probably better in 2 and 3, but overall the best, I think. Composition works… I thinkÂ my best horse, and put more care into the background details as well. Oh, well, time to move on… Â wait, actually… I think there should be heavier shadows on the guy’s right leg…

Comics process Hooves of Death My Comics

Hooves of Death!!!! (part 1)

Post author By Dan
Post date January 7, 2016
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Five years ago, there was this project going to happen… an anthology of stories based on Golden Age heroes in the public domain. Â Troy Minkowsky wrote a crazy script about an obscure Nedor character called “The Ghost,” and I started drawing it. Â Then the book project fell apart**, and I got busy on other things and left it half-drawn. Â Well, the time has come to finish it, and I’m at work. Â Here are the five pages I drew back in ’10. Â The new ones coming soon….

(**CORRECTION! Â My mistake, the book WAS published… Dime Box Comics from Fat Cat Funnies. Â SoÂ we’re just running about 5 years late on the deadline. Â I’m sure they’ll still be able to squeeze us in.)