And so we stumble into Friday, some of us tired from the previous seven days, some of us excited by all possibilities ahead.

Welcome! I hope you’ve arrived at today more in the second mood than the first. I’m a bit of both. If you just want to look my latest images, scroll down. Otherwise …

These Days …

I am currently working on a ten page Mighty Nizz comic. I’ve drawn a lot of illustrations of the little beast in the last couple of decades. This will be her first story. It will also be the second comic I’ve finished in, well, a couple of decades. I spent the beginning of this century failing at finishing a new Oz Squad series. I spent a couple of years, prior to getting my mail carrier job, working with a writer who let his need for perfection get in the way of finishing any of the stories he hired me to draw. We have an agreement that allows me to use my art and designs in any way I want that doesn’t conflict with his potential use of the original stories but I don’t expect I’ll ever take advantage of it. I have projects of my own that are more in the forefront of my attention. A series of Nizz stories for example.

Sarah wrote this story. I expanded it. I’m currently inking it. I’ll add greytones with pencil and marker and then color it digitally. Before I started I was a little concerned about what kind of illustrations I’d produce. I felt rusty and unused to thinking in story and in composing a comic page. I try to design each page so that the images in each panel complement and balance each other. This first story is a learning/relearning process. I know that, once I’m done, I’ll see a lot of ways I could have done it better. At some point I may redo some of the panels, possibly even some of the pages. I’ve read interviews with some comic artists who fiddle with each incarnation of their work. If the story is serialized they make corrections for the collection. If it’s reprinted they make more corrections. First I’ll finish it and publish it. Then I’ll do more Nizz stories. Any fiddling will happen after I’ve got enough of a body of new work to be able judge whether the old work actually would be improved by the fiddling.

I’d rather have a lot of finished imperfect art than just a little finished perfect art. Because perfection is subjective.

Also, on Sunday I dropped off Sarah downtown for an appointment. I was supposed to pick her up again in five hours. I haven’t been downtown for anything but appointments in years. We didn’t go downtown before the pandemic. But, on Sunday, we got an inexpensive parking space and I felt like walking around. I had two destinations in mind – Pike Place Market and the Central Library. Pike Place Market was crowded. My ultimate destination was the comic book (collectibles) shop but it took a while to find that. I didn’t buy anything. I just wanted to see what was available. Before my cataract surgery I’d lost my enjoyment for shopping. I couldn’t see well enough to appreciate what I was looking at. I only shopped for things we needed. From Pike Place I wandered up to the Central Library and spent an hour searching through the graphic novel collections. I ended up selecting a heavy pile of books. With an hour until I needed to get Sarah I lightened my load by reading a few of them.

When I was a kid, comic book illustration seemed to come in two flavors – representational art with a lot of hatching for shadows and cartoony art with little or no shadows. Both types had flat colors. In the decades since, the varieties of illustration have greatly expanded. Better printing techniques have resulted in a wider variety of colors. Imported comics from Europe and manga from Japan have added more styles of art. Webcomics added more. Alternate publishers (not Marvel or DC) added even more. These days comic book (graphic novel) illustration looks like anything. Highly detailed. Crude and rough. Everything in between. All that’s important is whether the art tells the story. Any weird concerns I had that I might have forgotten how to draw a comic have vanished and I’m more relaxed when I work.

Also also – I’ve got a cold. I likely contracted it from wandering around on Sunday. I wore a mask the entire time but I touched a lot of things that other folks touched and I’m sure I touched my face more than once, to rub my eyes or adjust said mask. Right now it’s just a sore throat. It feels like every other damned cold (or flu) I’ve had before. I’m assuming it’s not covid but I’ll get tested to just to be sure.

Mugshots

This week’s process GIF features a nice lady and her huge critters.

This image can purchased on a mug in my Zazzle store and a variety of schtuff in my Redbubble store.

Before the Rainbow

No GIF here. Simple before and after versions of this design. Below is a scan of the physical art – non-photo bluelines, inks and greytones.
After the Rainbow

Below is the post-Photoshop version – corrections and colors.
I put this design on a t-shirt in the Zazzle store and schtuff in the Redbubble store. The store links above should get you there.

And I’m out. Today is the first day of a four day weekend – my scheduled Friday and Saturdays off coincided with the holiday and I plan to spend a lot of time working on the Mighty Nizz comic. When I’m not coughing from the cold.

Cheers!