10/22/09

I would love to post the next stage of development of my first sunday strip, but my tiny scanner is giant crap.  But don’t worry, fans. I have been working on it.

The interesting thing about the creative process is how an idea will evolve through drafts.

In the first draft posted yesterday, the joke works and, according to my 9 year old daughter and the railroad hobo living in our shed, funny. But after working with it for a day, the script changed.  I added language in the next to last panel and the panel where Hannah loses her cool with Moe’s grossness.

And it’s better for it. Time away from something always provides perspective.

I will scan the large strip in separate chunks and piece it together to illustrate the aforementioned points.

Until then…keep on truckin’

10/20/2009 part II: Sunday strips

So here is the script for my first Sunday strip. I’m going for the cheap gross out joke. I think we’re all okay with that, aren’t we?

Good.

This comes from my need to predraw and plan incessantly before I go to drawing the actual strip. I created a template in InDesign that is a scale version of the actual drawn comic. That includes the lettering guides.

Then, I used my Tablet PC’s font creator software to create my cartooning handwriting into a useable True Type font. That way, I can type all of my script onto an actual page. This allows me to experiment with text layout before I start lettering or drawing.

You would be amazed by how a line break will change the layout of a panel.

Once I am comfortable with where the story goes, I can do one of two things:
1) Print hardcopies and pencil on them to work out the drawing stuff. I can print as many copies as I need and just keep drawing different stuff, or…
2) Print it to my tablet pc’s Journal Writer. This creates a low res digital version of the document that I can sketch on with my tablet pc.

Either way, I like to have my lettering done before I even start thinking about where people will go.

I have blocked out the panels roughly.

This is a low res version of my initial layout ideas. I like how the Hannah’s character is revealed in her specifity of ingredients. Also, I want to be creative and dynamic with my sunday layouts, so the center panel of her listing the ingredients is actuall a panel of her mixing a bowl of pudding.
Other than that, this rough stage only gives me an idea of who will be where and what size the will be.
Next, I’ll try to get creative with panel arrangements and points of view and other drawing stuff like that.
I will be updating the development of this inaugural sunday strip until it is totally finished.

10/20/2009: A return to form

Why are only the destructive/annoying behaviors turn into habits? Why is it so hard for the good stuff to be addictive? I’m going to try to make the blog a habit again. I did okay over the summer, but once school starts…holy shit. Nothing else gets done.

So here’s the skinny on the past few weeks:
1. Joined the Louisville Cartoonists Society
2. Went to the October meeting and gave them a bunch of strips to publish in their upcoming anthology
3. Finally wrote a real sunday comic strip (More on that later)

Now all I have to do is draw the fucking thing. Then I have to buy a $300 dollar scanner to scan the larger paper the sundays are drawn on.

08/01/09

After taking inventory of all the strips I’ve actually drawn, I have the requisite 30-36 daily strips necessary for a submission to a syndicate.

All I have to do now is draw 2 or 3 Sunday strips–which I’ve never done.

Drawing these Sundays are scaring the bejeezus outta me. I’m not real good with colors and I have to draw the originals at a slightly different scale, due to the different layout of the sunday.

But this is good for me. I’m finally at a point where I am compelled to draw the larger, colored, more complex Sunday strip.

I tend to play it very safe at first, only after drawing a while does my creativity loosen up and my drawing style loosen up. I play with angles, perspective and frame layout. (You’ll see that in some upcoming strips.)

So, I’m going to mess around first, get loosened up, then tackle the Sunday strip. It really is an opportunity to play and experiment.

07/27/09 Part 4: Apocolypse of the Attack of the Reckoning

Sweet animation for those who are into such things.

Click me.

7/27/09

Has anybody seen last week? I know it’s around here somewhere…I must have put it down…I dunno.

Apparently someone stole last week so I missed posting strips all last week. Have no fear, I got good stuff right here to satisfy your one Moe a day habit.

I just have to go home and scan it and post it. In the meantime, enjoy this little bit of joy:

click me

The Website

While I’m posting on the blog, I am currently developing an actual website: www.moecomics.net. But if you are the intrepid little websurfer I think you are, you just realized that there’s not much there…yet.

I am designing the site and my daughter Samantha will be authoring it.

It will be the source of all things Moe, including buying stuff with Moe’s likeness on it.

Here is a jpeg screen shot of the site in its rough form. Hope you like.

Favorite things

This is a beautiful song and video. I’m amazed at how they made it.

07/07/09

My streak is broken. I can’t post new strips for a few days because I’m stuck at a teachers’ convention.

So if you came here looking for new Moe strips, I’m sorry to disappoint.

Don’t worry, I’m still working on the strip, writing and designing the website. (You don’t think I’m doing teacher stuff, do ya? GAH!)

Conventions are like funerals for people you don’t really know. There’s a lot of saying hello to people you only see once every year, usually the last funeral. A lot of nodding in agreement as uninteresting people talk to you about crap you don’t care about while you are in constant lookout for a conversational exit or looking past them at the cute redhead. And the dead body everybody is staring at. (I’ve gone to some intense conventions.)