Taking a break

I’ve been sticking to a twice-monthly schedule of posts here for a full year now, and it’s been a good exercise for me. I’ve been happy with the range of content I’ve included, finally devoting time to topics I’ve meant to write about for quite some time (such as APA-5, my stencil coloring method, my interview with Tom Cherry, and even SpongeBob Comics). As with my webcomic, I appreciate those of you who take the time to read (and even comment on) my ramblings here. Some posts turned out to be meatier than others, of course, which was part of the variety I was aiming for. But I’ve decided to step back from that frequency for the foreseeable future…

It’s time for me to rein extraneous activities in for a bit, and buckle down to my drawing table. I’ve got big plans for my fall convention schedule (confirmed: Memphis Comic Expo, Oct. 22-23 and Air Capital Comiccon, Nov. 12-13) and holiday market events that will I feel will be a better use of my time than posting just to keep on a set schedule. I’ll continue to pop in from time to time with some art or an update on my project, but it will be on a less rigid– and more infrequent– schedule.

What project is so important, you may ask? Well, I’ve never really gone back and revisited or edited past work before, but it’s high time (past time, actually) I collected my Watusi webcomics in a print edition. It’s been an interesting challenge so far: looking at the work as a completed project, but giving it a final edit separate from its original creation, and adding new scenes or tidier drawings where needed. I’m excited about the form it’s taking and feel it will be worth the effort. Here’s a teaser image to tide you over until release (which I plan to have ready for this fall’s events):

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your summer!

It’s “Draw Jackie Jokers Day”!

My friend Tom Cherry is at it again, this time with an impromptu drawing holiday featuring Richie Rich’s comedian pal. While I didn’t have much familiarity with Jackie Jokers as a character, after seeing others join in the fun I thought I’d see what I could come up with, and just how fast I could do it. Gag, pencils, and inks took about 15 minutes, with about another 45 to do the cleanup and coloring.

The thing that really appealed to me from the inspiration pieces Tom posted was this version of Jackie’s logo. Even in my quick hand-drawn version, it’s obvious that the title is linked to the Richie Rich family of books while standing on its own as a solid comic book logo. There have been a lot of weak comic book logos lately, including many of “the new 52” logos from DC. The Flash, Men of War, and Justice League logos strike me as especially uncreative, looking more like last-minute typography class projects than the professionally designed logos that major comic book properties deserve. They stand in stark contrast to the logos that were so iconic they were largely left alone, particularly those for Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Action Comics, and Swamp Thing.