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Heroes Beacon

30 May

I’ve managed to rouse myself from my slack blogging long enough to entreat you, my internet friends, to help support the efforts of some Saint John pals in establishing a much-needed new comic shop in the heart of that city. The shop will be called Heroes Beacon and you can check out their plans here. As I write this they are about 2/3 funded with three weeks to go, so don’t wait for the last minute, get in there now and get one of those perks. I have already spoken for one and am thinking about going for another.

I have also drawn a poster artwork thing for them to use as they see fit, I think it makes a decent overview of what you can expect to find there once they get up and running. The important thing is to tell your friends and contribute, so share it up!

heroesbeacon_900px_url

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Adonit Jot Touch

31 Jan

I posted the other day about how much I love using the iPad as a multipurpose device. As a cartoonist I use it for writing and editing my comics scripts in Celtx, keeping track of ideas in Evernote, reading webcomics and galleys and books, and so on; but the missing piece of the puzzle, until now, was the ability to actually create artwork. I bought a stylus along with the iPad a year ago, a $15 thing that was functional for replacing my fingertip and giving the feel of using a really thick pencil; but I never warmed to it as a device for actual drawing. Nor did I care for the art apps that I tried, most of which were either free or had been purchased for my iPhone a long time ago, scaling up poorly to the larger screen.

Meanwhile, my dear Nicole had bought me a nice Wacom Intuos 4 graphics tablet for Christmas not long before I got the iPad, and it was a revelation compared to the decade-old Graphire that I had been halfheartedly using to create the occasional short comic or illustration. The Wacom was the missing piece I needed to really create comics in digital form, from start to finish, on my Mac in Manga Studio EX. After scaling the learning curve I launched a webcomic with Nicole and have been happily cartooning and slowly improving since.

Of course, it’s not that simple. As the saying goes, mo’ comics, mo’ problems; spending more time drawing means more potential strain on my eyes, shoulder, back and so on. I had serious issues when I was younger with tendonitis in my shoulder and am not keen to repeat. That means it’s beneficial for me to be able to vary how I work, which includes kicking back with a sketchbook in my lap instead of a full-sized laptop. There have been several occasions where I have done roughs for the webcomic on paper, taken a picture of the rough with the iPad camera, shared the result with my MacBook via Dropbox, imported the roughs as a layer in Manga Studio, and kept working. Not the most elegant solution, but a start.

What I have started doing this week after buying the Adonit Jot Touch pressure-sensitive iPad stylus is drawing directly on the iPad screen, essentially skipping the step of drawing on paper and photographing it. Of course, I could have been drawing with a regular stylus all along, but the advantage of drawing with the Jot Touch (or its non-pressure-sensitive brother, the Jot Pro) is like drawing with a pencil in your bare hand instead of a crayon in a mitten. Your mileage may vary, but for me the Jot Touch is the deciding factor in whether or not I want to draw on the iPad at all.

There are other nice aspects to the Jot Touch; really well designed packaging, an ingenious magnetic USB charging base, a protective screw-on cap that covers the magnetic base when in use, and a spare pressure sensitive tip is included. Like the Jot Pro, the tip of the stylus is covered by a clear plastic disc which is required for the iPad to identify the stylus as a valid input device, but since it is clear your eye can focus on the actual tip of the stylus, resulting in greater precision when drawing.

Is it perfect? No. It’s never going to replace the Wacom for me, because the Intuos is much more sensitive and offers customization. The Jot Touch does have a couple of buttons like a Wacom stylus, but the software I have used with it so far (mainly Procreate and Sketchbook Pro) either does not use them or does not allow for customization. The charging/power indicator light is not as intuitive as it could be. There are limitations associated with using the iPad itself too, most notably whether or not an app offers “palm recognition”, which would allow the artist to rest his or her hand on the screen while drawing. Finally, a really annoying limitation of the Jot Touch is that because it uses Bluetooth, the iPad assumes it is some kind of audio device like a headset, and mutes Music and other audio apps when the stylus is turned on, which means you can’t listen to music or podcasts through the iPad while you draw.

Overall, though, most of the issues I have experienced are more to do with the drawing apps, which is out of Adonit’s hands. I don’t really feel like I can make a recommendation for drawing apps yet; so far I am preferring Procreate to Sketchbook Pro, but they both have their pros and cons.

The price of the Jot Touch is no small consideration as well. It lists for $100, which is pretty expensive for a stylus or any kind of niche tool (though by Wacom standards, it’s about what you would pay for some of their pens or accessories). I got it on sale for $75, and I feel it was worth that, because the difference it will make to my workflow and the potential for being able to do better and better work at the rough stage is worth it to me. I think it is probably quite possible for a cartoonist of sufficient skill to use the Jot Touch to make comics entirely on the iPad.

Again, your mileage may vary. If you are a brush and ink cartoonist who is just starting to think about digital tools, the Jot Touch is probably not for you; get a good Wacom tablet and put in the time with Manga Studio or Photoshop until you are over that learning curve. If you are already comfortable with digital tools and want to experience what is probably the closest you can get at this point to true drawing on the iPad, check out the Jot Touch.

I’d Still Be Writing 2012 on My Cheques if I Still Wrote Cheques

14 Jan

…which is just a roundabout way of saying that I haven’t quite adjusted to the new year yet. The end of 2012 was a mad dash of holiday visiting and times with Nicole and Jack, then moving in to my new digs on Duke street, then getting back to work, part of which involved sorting out a new laptop and extracting work-related stuff from my Mac. Not to mention trying to get ahead of schedule on the webcomic, which is going reasonably well.

That said, the new year is treating me pretty well. I’m quite comfortable in my Duke street room, was able to squeeze a surprising amount of the stuff that I prefer to keep in it, and took the opportunity to get rid of some unnecessary junk at value village. My typical day involves sitting at my desk or on the bed and tapping away at the keyboard or scratching away on the Wacom while going through various series on Netflix. It’s like being in a kind of productive hibernation.

I should get off my ass and get back to running and meditating. One thing at a time, I suppose. At least I have been getting some reading done, most notably some books I got for Xmas: Corpse on the Imjin by Harvey Kurtzman, Came the Dawn by Wally Wood, The Year of the Beasts by Cecil Catellucci and Nate Powell, and The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. Coming up are Pete Townshend’s autobiography and volumes 3 and 4 of the new volumes of Love and Rockets.

I’m heading up to Kingston this weekend, with a quick stop in Toronto on the way, to visit Nicole for a couple of weeks. I also need to book tickets for the second annual trip back up with Jack on the train for his March break. It’s a 24 hour trip; good thing he likes the train!

I’m hoping to find a Jot Touch pressure sensitive stylus while in Toronto to see how it works with Sketchbook Pro on the iPad. SBPro is a pretty impressive drawing app and I could easily see myself using it for general sketching and roughs for comics, once I have a stylus that allows for more precision than the cheap pinky-sized thing I have now. I’ll post some results once there is something to post.

For now, back to drawing. Hope your new year is going well.

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Duncan the Wonder Dog: Show One

25 Aug

This is the first volume of a projected 2600-page opus by young cartoonist Adam Hines, set in an alternate world where animals can talk. Other than that, the world is much like ours in that we humans still raise and slaughter animals for food, and keep them as pets; as a result it is by turns heartbreaking and horrifying. The first volume introduces many characters and themes, but it primarily revolves around Pompeii, a Barbary macaque that is the leader of an animal terrorist group; and Jack Hammond, a human FBI agent who pursues Pompeii after the bombing of a California college library. Pompeii and his hench-ape spend a chunk of time hiding in the home of a wealthy family, leading to a particularly haunting passage where Pompeii reads the diary of the mother who lived there.

The ambition, complexity, and artistry of this book cannot be understated. It frequently reminded me of another great series about man’s relationship with nature; The Puma Blues by Stephen Murphy and Michael Zulli. The art reminded me of the tragically aborted Alan Moore/Bill Sinkiewicz series Big Numbers, by Hines’ use of collage, graphite, ink and mixed media. He employs mathematical principles to design panel and page layouts, reflecting the natural world that he depicts. Long silent passages of the camera drifting over darkened wheat fields or forests give way to human streets and buildings rendered in line art. Like Chris Ware, Hines employs a variety of visual devices and metaphors to compartmentalize the narrative, without losing the tension that runs throughout.

In short, Adam Hines and his book are the real deal. I read most of Duncan the Wonder Dog last night, and found difficult to put down and difficult to sleep afterward. It’s not for the faint of heart; great books or art never are.

You can read Duncan the Wonder Dog online here.

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On the Board

19 Mar

Here’s the panel I’ve been “pencilling” tonight. At this rate I think I should be able to launch this here webcomic in a couple of weeks and give myself a good lead time for weekly instalments. I’m really enjoying drawing these guys and am having some good ideas for stories.

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The Secret World of Arrietty (****)

28 Feb

The Secret World of Arrietty is the latest release from Studio Ghibli, where the great Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed the likes of Spirited Away, My Neighbor Toroto, Nausicaa, and Princess Mononoke, which was bigger in Japan at the box office than Titanic. For a man who frequently makes noises about retirement, Miyazaki is still pretty active, serving as the producer and co-screenwriter for this new adaptation of the children’s classic The Borrowers. I am guessing he also served as the inspiration for director Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who sprinkles references to other Ghibli films throughout, especially Totoro.

The film is narrated by Shawn, a sick young boy taken to a cottage in the country by his grandmother to rest before undergoing a dangerous operation on his heart. His parents are divorced and his mother, for whatever reason, is too busy to be at his side but also does not like to return to her parents’ cottage, due to disappointment at never seeing the “little people” that her father believed were around. In many ways this is of course like the plot of Totoro. Shawn catches a glimpse of one of the borrowers – so called because they only take tiny amounts of food and other things from the human household, so as not to arouse attention – and he wants to be her friend. Arrietty trusts him but her parents do not; when a borrower is seen the family must move or risk being captured or destroyed by curious and excited humans. When the cottage’s interfering old housekeeper discovers the truth, their fears prove to be well-founded.

While there is some suspense, this is a film that plays out with the languid pleasure of a summer day, a coming of age tale for two friends sharing the same rooms and yard with vastly different perspectives. The hand-drawn cel animation, lush painting, and quiet moments brought tears to my eyes more than once. For some reason Disney felt that they had to do multiple English voice casts (one for the UK and one for the US), but I certainly have no complaints; the US cast includes Amy Poehler and Will Arnett as Arrietty’s parents, Carol Burnett as the housekeeper, and Disney Channel regulars Bridgit Mendler and David Henrie as Arrietty and Shawn.

The Secret of Arrietty is a beautiful film in every way, the best film I have seen so far this year, and a fine successor to some of the most beloved animated films of all time. Catch it on the big screen if you get the chance.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8

12 Feb

During my travels yesterday I managed to catch up on “season 8″ of the Buffy comics, which I had read until issue 22 or so and then lost interest. It went on for another 18ish issues, with one-shots and specials peppered throughout.

I like the idea of Joss Whedon continuing his creations in comics form and calling it canonical (Season 9 is underway). He managed to get some good writers to work on the book, including several who worked on the TV series and more recent rising stars like Brian K. Vaughn. What I didn’t like was the early decision that since the show was now a comic, they should start depicting bigger monsters, more exotic locales, and bizarre situations that would have cost too much to film. It was cute at first, but like a lot of Joss’ work, wore thin upon repetition.

Lest you think I am not fan enough to judge the comic, I should assure you that I have watched all 7 seasons of the show – in fact, I think I have watched every season of all of Joss’ shows, some more than once. I consider Buffy Season 3 to be one of the best runs of television I have ever seen. Unfortunately it took a sharp dive after that, recovering only somewhat in seasons 6 and 7 but never quite regaining what it had been. And to be fair, how many shows set in high school do recover after graduation day?

Season 8 is no exception to the trend. It is good to hear the voices of the characters again, and the artists keep things on model quite well, especially Georges Jeanty and cover artist Jo Chen. Not surprisingly, this is a book directed very much at fans, and while it is good not to have to explain absolutely everything for new readers, it did lead to some unfortunate fan-service moments. As a person who did enjoy the show (and some of the previous comics, especially Fray), I enjoyed some of the major developments and callbacks, like seeing what became of Oz. Other developments, especially some at the end of the season, pretty much sucked.

Season 8 is, like season 6, very much about magic (with a k), and while Joss & co. mercifully did not reopen the “magic is a drug” metaphor very much, they did echo a lot of what was done in the fourth season of Angel- which is not something I would ever want to revisit. Much like all of Buffy after season 3, this is not a season that was solid from beginning to end; it was overlong with some individual bright episodes, including:

#5, “The Chain” – Joss tells the story of one of Buffy’s decoys. You can probably guess how it ends.
#6-9, “No Future for You” – Brian K. Vaughn sends Faith and Giles after a rogue slayer in the UK.
#16-19, “Time of your Life” – a Buffy/Fray crossover by Joss.
#20, “After These Messages We’ll Be Right Back” – Jeph Loeb, a popular comics writer who also developed a never-aired Buffy animated series back in the day, writes a story where Buffy dreams that she is in that series, suddenly back in high school, with her mom still alive, Angel still in Sunnydale and Willow not aware that she’s gay. It’s one of the most fun Buffy stories I have ever read or seen.
#27, “Retreat part 2″ – Jane Espenson shows us Oz with his new family in Tibet.

So, Season 8 has its ups and downs just like seasons 4 through 7, but I’m glad I caught up and will check out Season 9 sometime soon. I’d rather see more of this comic than that movie reboot that is in development.

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43

16 Aug

Yup, I turned 43 on Saturday. Thanks to my friends who got me a cake and sang on Friday night after our sketch show, and who came over to hang out and play Magic: The Gathering on the actual day. It was a pleasant (albeit dorky) weekend all in all. I had fun doing the comedy sketches and seeing others in theirs, I probably could have been a little more off-book but it worked out all right. I taught Jack how to play a simplified version of Magic (no spell cards, only land and creatures and the luck of the draw) and he enjoyed beating me as a result.

How do I feel about being 43? About the same as being 42. We number-obsessed humans haven’t attached much importance to 43 that I know of. It’s a prime number, I suppose? Good to be back in my prime, ha ha *cough*.

Coincidentally, as part of the upcoming moving preparations I have been going through my boxes of old stuff and trying to weed out as many old papers and things as I can. This has led to some nice discoveries, like a nice note I got once from Julius Schwartz, and some baffling ones, like pay stubs from over 20 years ago. Yesterday I went through a box of correspondence, some of which dated over 20 years. I decided to keep a letter from each correspondent for my files and consigned the rest to history.

For over 20 years I was a member and sometimes guy-in-charge of an APA, or Amateur Press Association, called APA Centauri. I was the longest-serving member, served as Central Mailer for the longest time altogether, contributed the most pages. A lot of myself was wrapped up in the rising and falling fortunes of AC for a while. I made some good friends there, had some spats with others, and I suppose in a way it was a kind of surrogate family for a while. I have something like 6 bankers’ boxes worth of APA mailings to cart around with me, thousands of pages of other peoples’ zines that I will almost certainly never read again. And yet, I hate to let them go.

From a Buddhist standpoint I certainly understand the need to break unreasonable attachments to things, be they objects or one’s past. But, as an artist and writer I think it is also important to keep a file of one’s old works, for reference and to see how one has developed. So, like any good Buddhist, I must find the middle path here, and I think the solution will be to choose a few favourite old mailings and then strip my zines out of the rest for my files. I had considered scanning them and keeping them on disc or online but I expect a few of my old mates would not really like to see their old zines on the internet a decade or two later.

One nice discovery from yesterday was a note from the mother of an AC member who died due to complications from diabetes in the mid-90s. I had sent her a drawing of the eternal flame that burns in London, ON near a statue of Frederick Banting, the doctor who discovered insulin. Her mother thanked me for the drawing and said that Melisa enjoyed looking at it from her hospital bed before she died. Not long after that, Melisa’s mother died too. All these years later, America still hasn’t fixed its health care system.

I think that as we get older we gain comfort from knowing that we have touched others’ lives, be it as parents or friends or creative people or just strangers. Whenever I feel glum about what I feel is a relative lack of accomplishment as a writer or artist or academic or whatever else, I remember the lonely and completely unnecessary death of a young woman in Tennessee who I never met, and I am humbled.

Progress

20 Jan

Finished page five of The Last Day pencils tonight, hooray. Quite pleased with how the drawring is going. Click it for a sharper and slightly larger look.

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How to Draw Comics the Marshall Way

18 Sep

So, I’m working on this graphic novel thing called The Last Day. I thought you might enjoy seeing how it’s going so far.

It has been a little while since I have created a long-form comic and when it’s done, this will be the longest I have ever finished. When I started drawing comics nearly 20 years ago, I used to plan everything far in advance, as if I was doing all the jobs in a standard Madison Avenue publishing house: write a script, draw the page in pencil, ink with a brush, add lettering and balloons, etc.

I found myself blocked at the script stage, and then I remembered how one of my idols, Jack Kirby, used to work with Stan Lee back in the early 60s on the classic Marvel comics. They would meet in Stan’s office and talk about the story for a given issue of The Hulk or X-Men or Captain America and then Jack would go away and draw the comic based on the outline they came up with. Stan would THEN write the dialogue, sometimes necessitating some redrawing but generally fitting that bombastic prose around Jack’s equally energetic art.

So, I decided to try that, and it was a revelation. I had a general idea in my head of what the story was, but as I started storyboarding, I made discoveries that I simply wouldn’t have otherwise. I wound up with about 80 pages of thumbnails. Here’s the first:

So then I thought about how to create the artwork. I’ve been tinkering with a software application called Manga Studio, and I like it a lot, but I also like drawing on paper. I thought about what style it should be (cartoonish, realistic), what media to draw with, whether or not the final art should be in colour or duotone, etc. etc. etc. I am still pondering some of those questions; but in the meantime I realized I was blocking myself again.

So, this week I just started drawing. Here’s what I came up with for the first page based on that thumbnail.

Again, I am making discoveries, as I realized in drawing this page that I didn’t need to put in dialogue at all, and I decided to change the order of t he panels.

I like how the second panel turned out: the composition, the energy. But I didn’t like the first or third. The perspective is weird in the first and the anatomy is way off in the third. This is a book where facial expressions will be very important, so the giant doll-eyes had to go.

So, I redrew panels one and three on a new piece of bristol. But first, I took a piece of tracing paper and sketched out the correct perspective for panel one. Here it is:

That big rectangle in the middle is the area that would be used in the final drawing. Note how in the correct perspective, the entire bed and the windows don’t fit into the frame. The anatomy is also fixed up in panel three; still not perfect but certainly good enough for now. Here are the final pencils for page 1, combining the original panel 2 with the new panels 1 and 3.

So, that’s a start. I think I will pencil a few more pages like this and then try creating the finished art, either through digital inking or actual inking or both. I’ll keep you posted.

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