It’s probably not a first for comics in general, but it is a first for me. In order to get the artwork right on an upcomic strip, I had to finger-paint one of the panels.

I considered, ever so briefly, using india ink. Then I looked at how crappy and smudgy Chopping Block comes out (Lee Herrold is a total hack. I’ll never understand why his stuff is so popular, even with the Goth crowd), and decided that using poster paint would be more professional.

The piece is drying, awaiting scanning now.

–Howard

I had a pretty good day today. I pencilled an entire week, inked a Sunday, and managed to get out of the house for a few hours too.

I’m looking at tomorrow’s calendar, and I see that I’m THIS CLOSE to succeeding in my goal for the week of finishing two weeks’ worth of strips in one week. All I need to do is ink six rows (theoretically that’s two to three hours of work) and then color nine rows (theoretically that’s another two to three hours of work).

I could start at 8am, and be done in time to grill something tasty for lunch (theoretically.)

Crankage!

–Howard

I got up this morning and read today’s Schlock Mercenary, and my first thought was “where’d the punchline go?”

Honestly, at some point SOMEWHERE I swear I thought today’s strip was going to be funny, or at least amusing, but for the first time I can remember, the gag fell COMPLETELY flat for me.

So… if it fell flat for you too, I’m sorry.

If it WORKED for you, and you actually found it amusing, or (and I’d find this hard to believe) you actually laughed out loud, please let me know. I’d certainly feel better, as it would mean that all I need to do is recalibrate my humor receptors, rather than fall on my sword.

–Howard

“Crap. I can’t draw that…”

Every so often I come across a strip, a row, or even a single panel whose concept as scripted requires me to do something difficult. You know, with my pencils and pens. Let’s face it — as much as my artwork has improved over the last five years, I’m no expert. I’m a hack professional who gets by with sneaky tricks, shortcuts, and really, really strong writing (if I do say so myself.)

So I’ll stare at the page, a picture forming in my head, and as the picture forms, this voice says “crap. I can’t draw that.”

I need to shut that voice up, or at least convince it to say something ELSE. Sure, there are things I can’t draw yet. And yes, there are times when I need to take shortcuts, or re-script the action so that what I CAN draw will tell the story. But most of the time when that voice chimes in, what it’s really saying is “I don’t want to try to draw that, because I’m afraid it’ll come out looking like crap.”

This coming Sunday’s strip is one of those. It’s not going to look especially complex when it airs, because I DID take a shortcut or two in the end, but I let myself try some of the difficult stuff too. Most of the problem was composition. The voice was right — I CAN’T draw the pictures from my head if they’re incomplete. I just needed to take ALL FREAKIN’ DAY to compose two panels.

–Howard