2009
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| Mickey Mouse Scary House | ||
| Jan 1, 2009 1:48 pm | ||
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This week’s pick from Youtube is an old Mickey Mouse cartoon from the 1930’s! I love this early Disney stuff because I feel like you can really see the animators pushing what the newly born art form could do. There’s a lot more to watch on Youtube, but I picked this one in particular because of how terrifying it is. You’d never find Mickey enduring such a horrible nightmare these days, because it’s not as broadly marketable. But back then, Mickey was a living, breathing character. So far I’ve watched him fighting lions and alligators on a desert island, working a downtown taxi service, and broadcasting a homemade radio station from his barn. Sometimes I think one of the greatest assets an artist can have is ignorance about what his or her art form can’t do. Well, I’ve decided to start posting updates about my progress on the Mal and Chad book, since people have been asking me about what’s going on. I'm nearing the final drafts for my script. My editor mailed me some corrections for it. I think we’re getting close to the final draft. I’m excited to dive into the thumbnail stage. I'll post pictures when I get there. Unfortunately, I had him mail the script to my apartment back at college, and since I’m at home on Christmas break right now, I won’t be able to look over it until I get back. Ah well. I’ll keep you all posted! Thanks for being there! | ||
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| My Paper Mind | ||
| Feb 10, 2009 10:38 pm | ||
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Here’s a cool experimental animation called “My Paper Mind,” done by Javan Ivey. The technique is called “stratastencil.” You can read more about it here. Well, I made corrections to the script and sent them off to my editor. My editor is in the process of moving apartments right now though, so it might be a little while before we push into the final edits of the manuscript. In the meantime, I made character turnarounds of Mal and the gang so that I can draw them proportionately throughout the book. Be sure to check them out! | ||
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| BANG! The Race Begins | ||
| Mar 17, 2009 12:05 pm | ||
| Before we start today’s blog, please enjoy the adventures of Kogepan, the burnt bread roll.
These shorts were done by San-X, the creators of Hello Kitty. There are a total of ten episodes that you can watch on Youtube. Don’t watch too many though, you’ll get a cavity. Well, the Mal and Chad graphic novel project has finally sprung to life after a winter hibernation. I’m starting to understand how the publishing world works. It’s kind of like waiting for a marathon to begin. You wait and wait, and then when you least expect it, the gun goes off, and you begin the race. But little did you know that the length of the race has been shortened, and you have to run faster if you want to win. So you begin sprinting. But then another gun goes off, and everybody stops, and you have to wait to continue the race. Yesterday I received a call from my editor. Because of the economy, we can’t afford to print the graphic novel in color. The book is going to have to be in black and white. But this makes it a lot easier on me. I don’t feel very confident with my coloring skills yet, so I actually feel kind of relieved. But because the book can be completed faster now, the deadline has been moved up to the end of July or the beginning of August. ... Needless to say, I’m excited and terrified, nervous and thrilled. Will I be able to finish the graphic novel, graduate college and stay sane these next five months? I’ll keep you guy’s posted. | ||
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| Mal and Chad Thumbnails | ||
| Mar 28, 2009 9:54 am | ||
Hey everybody!
 Lately I've been drawing tiny sketches, called thumbnails, of every page in the Mal and Chad book. I'm on page 54 of the thumbnails right now. I suppose it's going rather well, but I find myself impatient to get on to the next stage. At this rate when I'm thumbnailing I'll want to be penciling, and when I'm penciling I'll want to be inking, and when I'm inking I'll want the book to be done and published. I think I need to slow down and enjoy each stage as it comes. A graphic novel of this caliber is not made in a day. By the way, if you guys have any advice for me on how I should approach this whole process, you can send it to me through the comments part of this blog entry, or I set up an advice thread at the Flight Forums that you can contribute to if you have an ID there. Hope you all are doing well! | ||
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| The Invisible Line | ||
| Apr 12, 2009 8:27 pm | ||
| Hey everybody!
The thumbnails for the Mal and Chad graphic novel are progressing steadily. Right now I'm on page 97! Lately, I've been rereading Jeff Smith's Bone for inspiration. Unfortunately, when I got done with the 1300 page masterpiece it made me feel quite small. It's a hard balance: seeking inspiration from other cartoonists without comparing yourself to them. There's an invisible line between admiration and insecurity that's hard not to cross. But I'm trying to stubbornly hold on to a good attitude. When I look at the old Mal and Chad comic strips that I drew for my college newpaper I think, "I like these characters! Someone else might like them too when I publish their adventures in this graphic novel!" I've also been reading Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim and Fujiko F. Fujio's Doraemon series for inspiration. I love Bryan's cinematic pacing, and of course, Doraemon is the definition of kid's adventure comics. Below is an excellent animation by a Japanese animator who calls himself Dokugyunyu, which means poison milk. It's called オオカミはブタを食べようと思った, which directly translates to "the wolf thought he was going to eat the pig." Enjoy! Oh, by the way, there's a new piece in the gallery that I did for Drawergeeks! | ||
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| Transitions | ||
| Apr 29, 2009 10:57 pm | ||
| Alec Longstreth recently made two more issues from his Phase 7 series available to read free online! These recent issues, number ten and eleven, document his journey into comics. I first encountered Alec’s work in high school; in fact it was largely on account of his fantastic first 24 hour comic that I was inspired to do my first 24 hour comic. Reading his autobiography also proved to be very inspirational to me! He has a great work ethic and attitude, which is encouraging to me as I try to tackle my first graphic novel.
Somewhere in the piece, called Transition, Alec briefly mentions how he listens to a radio program called This American Life while he works. Out of curiosity I checked out the podcast and found it to be profound and well done. I also found this great little animation, which is the fruits of a collaboration between This American Life and Chris Ware, another cartoonist I enjoy. After reading rave reviews by Scott Mccloud, I decided to buy a Cintiq 21UX. I ordered it today. It’s an expensive investment, but I think it’s worth it to prevent wrist injuries, increase productivity and give myself another level of control over my line work. For those of you who don’t know, a Cintiq is basically a large computer screen that you can draw directly onto, using a stylus that has over a thousand levels of pressure sensitivity! I feel nervous about buying it. It means that I’m totally serious about this graphic novel, about becoming a professional cartoonist. The graphic novel is moving along steadily. I just passed page 150 for the thumbnails. My greatest struggle right now is keeping a positive attitude. I wrote the story a long time ago, and it’s impossible for me to laugh at the jokes any more, or even feel for the characters. “What am I doing?” I ask myself, but still I keep stumbling forward. I did pencil and ink the first page of the story, however, and fortunately I can’t find anything to criticize about it. The style is simple yet solid, and I think I’ll be able to maintain it for the entirety of the book. Best of all, the entire page only took me about three and a half hours to draw! That means I’ll be able to plow ahead at a rate of two pages a day when the summer hits. By graduation I’d like to have all the pages thumbnailed. Then I’ll send them all in to the publishers to check over, as well as the first page for them to do test prints. Excelsior. | ||
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| The World Behind the World | ||
| May 18, 2009 10:26 pm | ||
 And in fact, I graduated this last weekend. Now onward toward the dream job. The Cintiq arrived and it’s really cool. I can’t wait to draw a full page with it. I have 6 pages of script left to translate into thumbnails. So close! I’m hoping to finish all the thumbs by the end of this week so I can send them off to my art director along with the first page for test prints. I’ve never sketched out so many pages before and I’ve begun to notice something interesting. As I am composing shots, deciding proper expressions, trying to find the right pacing, I get this sense that I am not really creating a world but instead trying to portray a world that already exists. I remember talking to Tony Cliff at San Diego Comicon two years ago and he was describing to me how an animator does not really draw a character in motion, as much as he draws the motion itself. In some styles of animation you can often pause a scene where a person is doing some violent movement and instead of finding a still shot of the figure, you will find a blur of sketchy lines. To convey the feel and motion of a person walking, an animator mustn’t focus on the person; instead they have to focus on the walking itself. Just like the animator, I’m beginning to discover that the cartoonist has a similar task. I see my characters and story alive and moving in my mind and the question I must ask is: what images should I choose to create so that other people will see what I see? Comics are not so much the panels you see on the page but instead the images readers see in their minds as they process the sequence of images. | ||
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| Happy Birthday Mike! | ||
| May 27, 2009 5:02 pm | ||
 Today is Mike Maihack’s birthday! As a present I drew him this semi-realist rendition of the star character of Cow and Buffalo, Mike’s web comic. I’ve always thought Cow and Buffalo was one of the most ridiculous comics on the internet, so ridiculous in fact that I almost couldn’t understand how Mike could bring himself to draw such silliness. But while putting the finishing touches on the Utility Udder, I realized I was having a great deal of fun, and I finally understood why Mike draws what he does. It’s just fun! Happy Birthday Mike! Well, I’ve finished the thumbnails and sent copies to my people at the publishing company. The final page count is 215! People tell me that they are excited to read my book when it comes out. I tell them that I am excited to read it too. Just what will I make in the next 5 months? I can’t wait to find out. | ||
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| Infinite Possibilities | ||
| Jul 9, 2009 11:03 pm | ||
| A video by the film group, Pes:
It’s been a while since I’ve heard from my publisher. I’ve been nervously wringing my hands, thinking about all the possible things that could be going wrong on the other end. Infinite possibilities are the key to unraveling me. But finally this last week I got through to my editor. He was very encouraging. Recently, he’s lost two editors due to various circumstances, so interviewing new candidates for the open positions was added to his mountain of tasks. In spite of the chaos, he assures me that he’s extremely excited to push the Mal and Chad graphic novel forward. He even generously gave me his personal cell phone number so I can call him if something comes up. I feel like I am in good hands. Still, the infinite possibilities are all pulling me in many directions. The book is in good hands, but on hold until the thumbnails return to my hands with corrections and suggestions. In the meantime, I can do anything. What to do… and even more of a challenge, how do I make myself do it? I have plans to build a website devoted entirely to Mal and Chad. I have ideas for mini-comics and graphic novels. I have preparations to do for Comicon. I am paralyzed by my inability to prioritize. Let us hope these days are but a few rough waves as I scramble madly to grab the rudder of my little vessel before plunging into the broad seas of professional cartooning. | ||
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| Crazy Serendipity | ||
| Jul 29, 2009 10:12 am | ||
| This year’s San Diego Comicon was different than all the others, but still fun.
One thing that’s interesting about this annual event is the incredible serendipity of the place. I was standing in line to get something signed by Jeff Smith, the creator of the Bone series, when suddenly my cartoonist sense went off. I looked around and spotted a guy standing two places behind me, and I could tell just by the vibes he was giving off that he had some kind of hand in the art world. I introduced myself, and had the pleasure of getting to know cartoonist Josh Shalek, who draws comic strips for a nationwide college newspaper syndicate. We had lunch together. His work appears often in my own college newspaper, so I was familiar with his stuff. It was a fun little coincidence, the kind that only happens at Comicon. That night I had dinner with a bunch of people, Mike Daley, Pascal Campion, Steve LeCouilliard, Martin Hsu, and Alex and Carla Leighton to name a few. I knew Mike and Pascal from Drawergeeks and the Flight Forums. I appreciated talking with them because it taught me a lot. They work together at their own studio doing illustration and animation work in San Francisco. And Steve is a storyboard artist from Vancouver. He also does a hilarious webcomic called Much the Miller’s Son. Martin is a character designer for Disney, who designs excellent T-shirts and prints. By the end of the night I found myself at a party for Disney employees, though I wasn’t prepared to do any major networking. But it was good just talking with people. I took the tram back to my hotel afterwards with Alex and Carla, who were staying in the same area. Alex and Carla flew in all the way from New Zealand to do some sightseeing and attend the Con. Alex runs an animation studio called Mukpuddy, and Carla is a tattoo artist. These people were especially fun to talk with. Here's an episode of Sparkle Friends, featuring Gun-gi, a magical creature with magical barf, produced by the Mukpuddy crew: I met a lot of inspirational people while I was there. One such person was Kevin Cannon, who I discovered at the Artist’s Alley section of the exhibit floor. Working out of his house in Minneapolis, Kevin penned a 380 page graphic novel with a cheap marker pen. The first couple chapters of his book, Far Arden, were banged out during a couple 24 hour comics stints. Working fulltime on his day job, Kevin only had the weekends to work on the book. When he was halfway done, he sent the work to Topshelf, but was rejected. In spite of this, he managed to finish the book, and once again sent it to Topshelf; this time landing a book deal. I also had the chance to meet and have dinner with Lesley Vamos, an Australian girl who just moved to the states with plans to settle down in Burbank and find employment at one of the major studios there. I thought it was so gutsy of her to leave her country and come here with the assumption that she’d be able to find work, even amidst this terrible economy! I’ll be very interested to watch how she does in the coming months and cheer on her efforts. It was cool to meet these people because they inspire me to work harder and not be afraid to start new projects. At the end of the Con, while I was in the airport, my cartoonist sense went off again. I spotted a guy doodling in his sketch book, and sat down next to him and introduced myself. His name was Ryan Hall, and he had just landed a job with DC comics. We had a good talk about the tools of the trade, and exchanged business cards. When Ryan left to board his flight, I also saw Derek Kirk Kim. “Gosh, the serendipity of this place is amazing!” I thought as I walked over to say hi. But I discovered poor Derek wasn’t in the mood for serendipity; he looked exhausted. Derek explained he had just had a stressful experience trying to get plane tickets home, so I felt kind for bad bothering him. Ah well, next Con I’ll make it up to him. | ||
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| Something New | ||
| Aug 24, 2009 5:09 pm | ||
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I’ve started something new. Enjoy. | ||
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| The Quiet Life | ||
| Sep 9, 2009 10:00 pm | ||
| After far too long a wait, my editor finally freed up enough time in his schedule to take a look at my thumbnails. He called me the other day, and told me: “I can’t read these.”
(Deep breath.) My thumbnails are a mish mash of scribbling and notes, a code that only I can decipher, so I had been wondering how they were going to make sense of them. But they had assured me all would be fine and to just send them along. My editor apologized for the miscommunication and the time wasted. I’m fine with it. I’m trying to turn this discouraging news into something to celebrate. In order to provide them with something they can read, I have decided to pencil the entire book, and letter the entire book, and then send that. This will give them a very clear picture about the final product, and once corrections have been made, there will only be inking left to do. In other words, I’m finally working on the book, drawing full time, and participating in the life style that I’ve worked toward for a long time. It’s… pretty good. I penciled and lettered about 10 pages a day, so the whole book will be sketched out in only about 3 weeks. It’s a very quiet life. I go for runs in the morning and draw comics in my room. My lower back has been hurting so I ice it at night. I’ve also been icing my hands too, for good measure. I’m thankful that by the grace of God I have such a wonderful opportunity to try to make it as a professional cartoonist. I’m not abandoning the journal comic, it’ll be back periodically when I have free time. Thanks to anyone who’s been reading it! | ||
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| Fortress of Solitude | ||
| Oct 2, 2009 2:36 pm | ||
| The Mal and Chad graphic novel is over halfway penciled.
Naturally, I’m way behind my original estimate about the time frame I thought I could complete this book in. Theoretically I could pencil ten pages a day for six days a week and be finished with the roughs in less than a month, but life doesn’t play out like that. But I feel proud of myself. This week I spent time getting my second wind before advancing forward to conquer the last half of the book. I’ve been dealing with this thing called life. Apparently, you can’t get away with drawing comics in a dark little room for three weeks without the to-do list lengthening significantly. My little fortress of solitude doesn’t insulate me from responsibility. So I’ve been cleaning, setting up doctor’s checkups, and grocery shopping and stuff. Thanks for tuning in! I’ll try to keep you all updated on the progress! | ||
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| Tunnels | ||
| Oct 14, 2009 10:48 pm | ||
| As of today I have 32 pages left to pencil!
So close! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! And you know what’s waiting for me outside? Another tunnel. | ||
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| Comics for Kids | ||
| Oct 19, 2009 5:19 pm | ||
 Mark your calendars for a free, one day class I'll be teaching on Comics for Kids! All 7-12 year old kids are invited to the White Rock Public Library for a session on how to draw comics taught by yours truly. We'll be learning the basics of drawing comics, as well as what it takes to become a cartoonist. The event will last from four to five-thirty pm this November 19. Please spread the word! It's going to be a blast! | ||
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| Twoo Wuv | ||
| Nov 2, 2009 1:45 pm | ||
 This last week I finished penciling the Mal and Chad book. I've saved small jpg versions of each page in a file folder, and when I scroll through, looking at the 215 little thumbnail images of each one, I feel really proud of myself. My editor has liked what he's read so far too, which is a good sign. To celebrate the milestone, I took this week off to get a second wind, celebrate Halloween and attend and help out at my best friend Phil's wedding. Some of you might know Phil from the Stalking Japan movies. Well, he got married this past weekend to his high school sweetheart. I'm happy for them. Now that the week of celebration is over, I'm throwing myself back into the fray, ready to bring this book to completion. Thanks for all your prayers and support! Wish me luck! | ||
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| I'm Still Alive! | ||
| Dec 10, 2009 3:30 pm | ||
| Hey everybody!
I haven't been on the blog much lately, but I wanted to let you know I'm still alive. If you're curious as to what's been happening for me lately, there's a new journal comic for you all to check out. The comics for kids workshop went well-- thanks to all the kids and parents who showed up! I may have pictures of the event up later on. The Mal and Chad book is going well, but the process demands a lot of endurance. I've got 50 pages inked, but it looks like I'll be doing another round of edits with the team at Philomel before further progress is made on the final art. I'll keep you updated as things develop. Cheers! | ||
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