Comics

What’s both fun and frustrating about making comics is sometimes it feels like you’re soaring in the air or wrestling a 300 pound alligator.  There is wisdom in both.  It’s a process of finding and losing and you hope you find more than you lose.

Progress on STEEL NOODLES Number 2 from last night.  It was a good night of drawing…..  The book is getting sketchier and hence, NICER.

Working on STEEL NOODLES has been the best learning experience I’ve ever known.  As much as I ponder about how long it’s taking, I am also glad that it is.  This is the very reason I self-publish;  Freedom.   So when it starts to feel like work, I stop for a while.  It’s not supposed to be a burden.  The key is to HAVE FUN with it.

Since 2007 I’ve experienced many ebbs and flows creatively when it comes to this project.  What I’ve learned is how to produce conducive systems where I stay in a creative zone for extended periods of time.  Let’s be honest, you can only concentrate that hard for so long.  (plus in my case, I have a day job which I love equally as much) In almost five years of working on Noodles I’ve boiled down the formula for staying engaged and faithful:

1.  Have fun. It’s not work

2. Make art, not comics

3. Stick to your guns

4. Buy more cigars

5. Have fun. It’s not work

There’s kind of a loose number 6 which could be:  Video Games is both your friend and enemy.

I am very pleased to announce my new book, a GIRL n ROBOT short story called BOOMTOWN which will debut at this year’s CTN ANIMATION EXPO on November 18th.  This 40 page, 5 x 7 inch comic book will be selling at $10.00 and is on a very limited print run of 250 copies so get yours while you can.  I’ll be selling them locally through my usual outlets as well.  I’ll announce once those outlets have been stocked.

Girl and Robot are dimensional nomads in search of a way back home.  Girl is a very precocious 9 year old and Robot is her absent-minded but dependable time warping companion.  In this story they come across a dimension inhabited by some curious beings.

The book was done on Photoshop and drawn directly via my Wacom Cintiq 21ux.  In terms of production time, I set a new record for completion having drawn the book from start to finish in 5 days, including digital pre-press and assembly.  From a learning standpoint, I am beginning to understand the advantages of self-publishing in terms of executing an idea in as little time as possible.  The ideas are fresh and artistically, harnessing the momentum of that initial idea is key.  It may not work with every project but it is yet another way to work and yes, it is SO much fun to do.  STEEL NOODLES is a marathon where this is a sprint.  This is what I love about being independent.

And in terms of publishing, it’s been my longtime goal to produce an all-ages story so I am very happy to share this with all of you.  If you don’t already follow me on Twitter and Facebook, do so and get more updates about the book as CTN approaches.

Just finished a limited edition GIRL N’ ROBOT comic print which will be available only the ALTERNATIVE PRESS EXPO next weekend.  So what’s this Girl n Robot thing anyway?  The setup is simple:  It’s a little girl named Candace and a robot she calls Boxy and they get into all sorts of nonsensical hi-jinx.  In other words, pretty much anything goes.

In addition to this 50 sheet run of prints I’ll also have a few hand drawn originals for sale on my table. The print is an absolute bargain at $5  $2 each.  Hope to see you there!

Car Graphic Expression is a new Manga from Japanese artists Dave Shigahara, Takumi Yoshida and animation veteran Katsuya Terada.

Less than 21 days to go before Comic-Con in San Diego and STEEL NOODLES Number 1 is being printed as I type this blog entry. What better way of getting you set up than to post the short comic that started it all.

This waify, oranged haired girl came to me as a simple sketch back in 2006. Soon after I thought of many story concepts and in 2007, I finally settled on an idea. An ambitious one in top of that. Knowing I was biting off more than I could chew I decided to do a little test comic to see, at least artistically what this thing could look like. So while I whittled the story down, I started drawing a little side comic called A SLICE OF HEAVEN. It’s a day in the life of a character I have come to call as VAL, for her sword-wielding, Valkyrie-like look. The result was a limited run, 12 page comic which I sold at Comic-Con in 2007.

The book is long since sold out but here it is in all it’s digital glory. So while ink and paper marry at the presses, get yourself caught up in the world of STEEL NOODLES.

Got my proofs today. Overall it is looking fantastic. Just have some simple tweaks and the print run can start. Comic-Con 2010 premiere is looking great. Now prepping for San Diego plus rolling right into book number two.

Who’s the girl with the green eyes? She looks kind of familiar….

(For a camera snapshot of the full cover spread, click HERE)

Okay i’ll throw you guys a little bone… one tiny panel from the now 80 page STEEL NOODLES Number 1.

Finally finished STEEL NOODLES Number 1 early this morning. 76 pages of delight. Now it goes through spotting color, assembly and all the fun pre-press stuff. Not to mention the frantic “fix it now or never” phase. Then it’s off to the printer. So now I can start teasing you a bit more… This isn’t the final cover. That you’ll have to wait a little longer for……