11/22/09: Thanksgiving

My next challenge is to write holiday themed strips. Do you realize how hard it is to write a NEW Thanksgiving joke?

This is why it is important to have a character based comic strip. The jokes have to come from their personalities.

11/14/09: Sunday Strip #2

This second strip was pretty fun to draw. I get a kick out of drawing big bugs and creepy crawly things. I think the coloring might be a little better, as I added some shadows to add depth to some of the panels.

Also, I’m experimenting with a coloring style that is loose and messy. You can really see it in the very first panel where Moe is walking past a bush. I think it gives the art a more dynamic and spontaneous feel, and a more childlike quality. It doesn’t quite work without some detailed background drawings though.

I also toyed around with the title panel. I used a part of the strip, deleted the black outlines and did some photoshopping to the color. Again, just experimenting.

I will probably recolor the strip and the title panel when I send it to the syndicates. I will perfect the title style and color technique over time.

Here it is, your Moe comic:

11/11/09: Sneak Peak

Here’s a sneak peak at the second Moe sunday strip.Notice there is nothin in the top row of panels. That’s because the throw away joke was good enough for a daily strip. So I still have to think of a throw away joke.

“What’s a throw away joke?” I’m glad you ask.

Newspapers reserve the right to dispose of the top row of panels of a sunday strip. This allows them to save space for more comics. That means the bottom two rows have to be able to work as a stand alone gag. That’s why so many sunday strips have a large title panel and a light prelude type of joke in the first panels.

You just learned something. Here’s the preview of the next Moe.

We have a winner. Two winners actually.

Cassie Bishop found the first mistake and one of my favorite students found a second error. Leave to a yearbook editor to find the problems. Atta’ girl, Beca.

Mistake #1 was the mound of mushed banana in front of Moira in the last panel. I forgot to draw it in, so I just photoshopped it.

And the second mistake was the lack of mouth on Moe in the second panel. I guess I’ll have to print two copies.

11/08/09: First Sunday strip in the can

And by can, I also mean toilet. I have a lot to learn about coloring. But I can count this completion as a success due to its completion.

A signed copy of my first strip to the first person who find the difference between the rough version and the finalized color version. And the color part doesn’t count. It’s a continuity mistake in one of the panels.

I realized while coloring that I left out an important detail in my pencils. So I had to photoshop a little something into the final FINAL version.

10/27/09: Sunday update

Here is the current stage of the first Moe sunday strip.

I’m always surprised by the changes I make while making the strip. New jokes, changed dialogue, added flair. Ideas always raise their little hands while I’m trying to work.

The biggest change was the redrawing of the middle panel. I didn’t have enough room to illustrate the visual metaphor of Hannah actually mixing up the pudding like she was cooking as she listed the ingredients. But I didn’t want another talking head, so I added little icons of the ingredients.

I also combined the “and ‘nilla wafers” line to that panel and gave Moe dialogue in the next to last panel instead of the quiet pause. I think it’s better for the changes.

I’ve started the inking and will finish that next. The last thing is the coloring. That will be a very experimental process because I’ve never really colored a strip like this.

I’m working on a set palette of colors too use for all strips in the future. That way, it will be easier, thus allowing me to be lazier.

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.

09/7/09

Technically, the next two strips happen before the sublimely understated humor of the “Chewing lightning bugs to make teeth glow” strip posted previously. But I just wanted to see green glowing teeth.

When Moecomics.net is finally working, I will be reposting every strip from the beginning in sequential order. In the meantime, enjoy.