I heart MoCCA

In two weekends my favorite show of the year hits: MoCCA! This June marks its relocation to a new, bigger space and is a must-attend for every cartoonist and enjoyer-of-comics within commute of NYC. In addition to my usual wares, I'll have a new mini collecting the "best" of my morning illos. Sorry for not making something more substantial, but all my energy is going into keeping VIETNAMERICA on schedule. Once again, I'll be sharing a table with this magnificent bastard.

Inking is like a runaway train and I'm strapped to the tracks.

Left pile: pages to be inked. Right pile: pages inked. Almost halfway there!

Commercial Break

Congrats to cartoonist pal Neil Swaab on finishing his THIRD Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles comic strip collection! With this volume, he's returning to self-publishing and doing it all on his own so check it out. It'll be available through Amazon and stores July 1st, but order a copy direct from Neil now and help free up some space in his studio. As you can see, the claustrophobia is driving him iiinnnsssaaannneee!!!

The best $8 I spend on a weekly basis.

More sketchbook pages from SVA's figure drawing.

How I spent my April 2009.

I've kept the pedal to the metal/ax to the grind/brush to the bristol this past month:




It's awesome that the work I'm doing now finally feels closer to the book's completion than its beginning.

So I remember how I did this when I'm old and feeble minded:

1. Thumbnails: story outline that only I can make any sense of, half existing as scribbles in boxes and half as scenes and actions in my mind. These sketches are on 11" x 8.5" paper.



2. Roughs: more detailed drawings with dialog so my editor can read/review from beginning to end. Drawn at print size, these double page spreads measure 14" x 9.25".



3. After editor's approval, blue pencils at original art size. (For VIETNAMERICA, that's about 13" x 17" pages) These are drawn by lightboxing the enlarged roughs but are even less legible as visuals get a little messy.



The next step is inking, the final buff and polish before scanning and coloring--coming soon to a blog near you! To minimize rewriting and redrawing, I complete each step for the entire book before moving on to the next.

"Taking a break from all your worries..."

"... sure would help a lot." More pages from SVA's figure drawing sessions--i.e. sanity breaks from the snowballing neurosis of working on VIETNAMERICA.

Mornin' Illos Part 3: Revenge of the Craptacular

Another round of morning email gag illustrations--don't say I didn't warn you:

The Odd Couple:

While filling out my 2008 taxes, I had a couple of "firsts":



It was a spectacular year.

Let the carnage commence:

Holy. Crap. After 11 weeks, VIETNAMERICA is penciled and ready for the next stage. I was actually shooting to finish the blues a couple weeks ago but forgot that I had saved the most labor intensive pages for last (i.e. all the double page spreads). This blog began last March so its one year anniversary is auspiciously marked--figuratively and literally--with inks!