www.nathanschreiber.com

2012-01-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

Health Care Reform!

The book I completed with Jon Gruber - Health Care Reform: What it is, Why it's Necessary, How it Works - has been out for almost a month now, but today is an especially important day because Jon Gruber - the MIT Economist who authored the Massachusetts health care plan and advised Obama and congress on the national Affordable Care Act - is delivering a speech at the progressive think Tank Center for American Progress about our book. Accompanying that speech is a three minute animated primer for the book - featuring illustrations by me! It's pretty cool - check it out here:

A few notes on the book - I've heard some criticism that the book is too "pro" health care reform. This criticism is kind of silly, though - of COURSE the book is pro health care reform, it is written by the person who authored the bill! My personal opinion is that we need a more integrated solution, something that takes advantage of the size of our population and the risk pooling that size allows, similar to what we do for veterans. But Gruber acknowledges the political realities in the book, explaining exactly why the bill is constructed the way it is.

I need to make a quick shout-out to someone important - I didn't do all of the art chores on this book alone. While I may have thumbnailed and penciled the book, I only inked a portion of it. Blue Delliquanti helped immensely with inking, the backgrounds in particular, and I couldn't have met the books slightly ridiculous deadline (145 pages from script to finish in 4+ months) without her help. She is a rising star in comics - keep an eye out for her.

2012-01-12T11:00:00.000-08:00

New Pages at MTV

So you might already know that Power Out is being serialized on MTV Geek. New updates happen every Thursday. I've made a lot of changes to the book, and you start seeing new pages in this update. In fact; I think somethinig like the next 40 of 42 pages are entirely new material.

I'm a little nervous because I'm certain some people won't love the changes. I even took out a couple of scenes I really liked. Broadly though, I think it's a big improvement, particularly when taken as a whole.

You can read this interview I did with MTV last week that explains the changes, I think it's one of the better, if not the best; interviews I've done.

In this update you start to see one of the bigger developments with this update: Justin and Carrie's relationship. Through all my edits, I began realizing that this was the book, that Carrie's letters were the times in the book where everything really seemed to crystallize. The framework of the relationship is the same, but there's just more tension and tenderness.

2012-01-04T05:19:00.000-08:00

Am I the Rob Liefeld of Indie Comics?

Do comics have to look good? Does that matter to anyone?

I've been having a bit of a comics-conscience-crisis of late. This was sparked by a lot of things - my studio-mate Julie Maroh's brilliant looking holiday card, seeing the aisles and aisles of gorgeous french comics at Chapitre, and reading an American indy comic - I'm chicken shit and am not going to say which one - that was so impossible to look at that I gave up three pages in.

Julie Maroh's work is undeniably stunning

I started wondering whether art really mattered at all. I found a review of Dash Shaw's massive Bottomless Belly Button - and this was just a customer review on Amazon - that said that readers needed to meet the comic at it's own terms.

What other medium could you ever possibly read something like this? Music? Definitely not fiction ("you have to meet the style / prose / language at its own terms????) Perhaps movies, but only when describing a fun piece of junk.

So, if art is graded on a curve in a comic, what universal standards of quality are there? Storytelling? Characterization? I also read a glowing review of a different indy book from a prominent critic that, as an aside towards the end of the review, said the characters were two-dimensional.

I'm worried these laissez-faire standards will push comics further into the ascending colon of the art world. Maybe there's nothing wrong with this - I don't know. I can't help but have a lot of skepticism about the art world's relationship with comics - when somebody sells a single issue for $40,000, maybe I will change my mind.

A Dash Shaw piece where he adapts an episode of the reality TV show Blind Date. If this type of high-concept work is what critic Tom Spurgeon calls "The Future of the Comics" I'm not sure where my role is.

And maybe it's my own snobbery. I don't know how people can read a long, bad-looking comic. I just give up after a few pages - my eyes get tired.

And hey, I understand that standards of beauty vary, but to me it's obvious when there is genuine craft involved - you get absorbed in the world, it becomes believable, and the characters and story are free to really "live" in the reader's mind. And I'm not talking about classical standards of beauty. It doesn't need to be a complex, or highly detailed, or even elegant style. It just has to have a style. Box Brown, James Kochalka, and Kevin Huizenga are quite capable artists that nobody is going to confuse with Moebius, but their work is visually harmonious and appealing. Through the power of their pictures, I can connect with their stories.

Great work from Ganges

So who's a bad comics artist? Well in this world of relativisms, one thing that's absolute is that Rob Liefeld is terrible - or at least, it's ok to say Rob Liefeld is terrible.

When I was 13 this was the most awesome thing ever, and I can still see it's charm.

Rob Liefeld is THE touchstone of bad art in comics culture. It isn't just superhero comics fans that bash Liefeld, it's the indy folks - maybe even especially the indy folks. But why? I really don't know. Is it because we have to meet superhero artwork on different terms? Is there any indy style that is trite, or cliched? Does my own work, which draws more than a few things from Clowes, fall into that cliche? Am I the Rob Liefeld of indy comics?

Is there any connection between our elevation of contemporary artists who's art we have to meet on their own terms and these massive, gorgeous, expensive omnibuses of super-talented and totally-deceased artists like Schultz / Barks / Ketcham? Or is it just cheaper to print these books after the artists are dead?

Anyway, enough indignant ranting. Power Out goes live tomorrow on MTV Geek. New stuff! I will be talking about it tomorrow.

2011-11-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

Power On?

So some (I hope many) of you might be asking - what ever happened to Power Out?

I was working on the book earnestly in the beginning of the year when a golden opportunity landed in my lap - illustrating Jon Gruber's book on Health Care reform. Paid jobs in comics are rare rare rare, so I put Power Out aside and spend the summer working on Health Care Reform. I wasn't sure when / how I would return to Power Out - I certainly wasn't making any money off of it (or I should say, what little money I made didn't cover the costs of printing the books) and unless I was prepared to live in my parents' basement for an extended period I wasn't sure when I'd get the book done.

But extremely talented cartoonist / journalist Sarah Glidden encouraged others to apply to a program she was doing in Angoulême called La Maison des Auteurs. I didn't think I would get it but hey, now I'm in France, working alongside some of the most talented cartoonists I've met, finishing up Power Out. And just my luck, mtv.com/geek is serializing Power Out in January, just to add a little more of a kick in the pants to finish it promptly.

This was a fun commission

You may have noticed I've tinkered with Power Out quite a bit - perhaps too much for some folks' tastes. There was a point when I was working on it in 2010 when I realized the story had gotten away from me, I couldn't really say what it was about with ease, and there was no bridge to the ending I envisioned. I hired Tucker Stone - a guy who's perspective on comics is consistently spot-on - to edit what I had and try to make a more focused work. I love what we came up with, even if it meant I'd have to go back and rework a huge chunk of the first two chapters. It's stronger work now, and I owe a great deal of that to Tucker.

So what's going to change? I'd certainly say there's more character development with Justin. He had a tough line to walk originally - he was a unique character but also served something as a cipher, which is a bit discordant. Now he's got harder edges, and since it's a little more clear why he's the way he is, I'm hoping he will actually be easier to identify with, if not someone the reader can substitute themselves for. Carrie plays a larger role, particularly in the beginning which makes sense because she plays a more important role in the end. Most importantly, the central theme of the book - the pleasures and perils of relationships, and the danger of disconnecting (Justin) or engaging too wholeheartedly (Carrie) is clearer while not quite being on the nose.

Anyways, I'll be pimping this come January, along with Health Care Reform. Yay. I kind of hate self-promotion while understanding how important it is. But I hope you like revisiting Power Out along with me, and please don't hate the changes too much!

My carte-postale for MDA

2011-11-20T13:53:00.000-08:00

So Angoulême is pretty great so far. Still getting comfortable (and working off jet-lag). My french still sucks, but hopefully I'll get better fast. I've met a lot of very cool and exceptionally talented artists. And I mean a LOT - there's tons of cartoonists and animators here. I'm going to start working on Power Out again tomorrow, but figure I'd post some pictures of where this all is going to happen.

La Maison des Auteurs (MDA) where I'm working. It's a pretty amazing facility, and I'm sure I'll have more photos of the interior soon. Very talented people work here.

I live above a tattoo parlor a block from the MDA. I have no idea how old the building I'm living in is, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't at least 400 years old.

Here's the staircase leading up to my apartment. It gets really dark at night, and there's lights but since it's France and they don't waste electricity, you turn on the light and then you have only like ten seconds till it's pitch black again. I'm afraid I'm going to completely eat it running down the stairs at some point.

This is the square in front of MDA. They used to impale people here in the middle ages.

this is the Hôtel de Ville, or olde city hall as Americans would call it.

2011-11-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

Been catching up on commissions before I go - here's a few of the better ones:

2011-11-15T08:12:00.000-08:00

Occupy

this protester sums up our society's problems perfectly

Disclosure - so while I haven't slept in the park or been arrested, I've been to the protest in Zucotti Park / Liberty Square four times, donated $60, and participated in a general assembly.

It saddens me that Bloomburg decided to taint his legacy by cowardly banning media access and raiding Occupy Wall Street at 1:00 AM Tuesday morning. The protesters are just exercising their constitutional right to peaceably assemble, and given the importance of their cause, they should be allowed to continue.

Economic injustice is a serious problem for our country's long term health. There is a widely held misconception that concentrated wealth is harmless, particularly if the economy is growing. But our financial system is wealthy enough to effectively buy the government, and has perverse incentives given the preference for short term gains over long term sustainability. It's important to remember our current economic malaise is a direct result of wall street banks taking grossly irresponsible risks on the gamble that the U.S. Treasury would bail them out if it ever went sour. Worked out great for them, for the rest of us, not as much.

The Occupiers' presence is a constant reminder of this injustice. I've heard more than a handful of critics suggest that these hippies or whatever get jobs. Sounds fantastic, but that's not easy in this economy. Occupy reminds everyone, regardless of political mindset, that wide scale unemployment / underemployment has consequences.

Occupy is not perfect. A lot of people want a clear agenda, but Occupy is still in a gestation period. I think the most substantial thing actually happening right now - and it seems like every news story I've read has missed this - is like minded political organizers are meeting and working together to form real social networks, of both the pre- and post-Facebook variety. Foundation-level political infrastructure is forming right before our eyes.

OWS leadership Jesse LeGreca

I hope it eventually focuses on affecting national politics by electing representatives who focus strongly on opposition to corporatism (i.e., socialism for corporations). Break up the big banks, eliminate corporate tax loopholes, end corporate personhood.

As a political junkie, I can't help wonder how Obama will react to the raid. The 2012 election, barring a complete economic collapse, is his to lose (if you don't believe this you haven't taken a close enough look at his challengers). He's always been a cautious politician. I hope, like he has before but not often enough, he'll do what's right this time.

2011-09-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, here's some more stuff I've been working on!

2011-09-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

Here's some new stuff I've been working on lately. Will have more updates soon! Oh, and I'll be at New York Comic Con in October - no table though, which means I can do whatever I want. Yay!

2011-07-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

Seeking highly qualified assistant for graphic novel production

What you'll get
depending on qualifications and output, anywhere between $2,000 and $3,500
a spacious room in a four bedroom suburban house with parking space
a studio to work in, with supplies such as paper, ink, brushes, and pens supplied

Who you'd be working with
Nathan Schreiber, Xeric-winning and Harvey / Eisner nominated creator of Power Out, Sumfin' Silly, I Came as a Rat, and Terrell Quimby

What you'd be doing
for five weeks you'd be helping me finish production on a graphic novel explaining the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as the Health Care Reform bill. The bulk of the assignment would be inking my pencils, but would also include prepping layouts for penciling, erasing pencils and scanning pages. You'd be plugged into a workflow that allows us to take four pages from layouts to inks in a day. Pages are not terribly dense, usually with minimal backgrounds and simple character design.

Where you'd be staying
You'd have a spacious upstairs bedroom with an adjacent bathroom, with the whole floor to yourself, as well as your own parking space. The house has cable, wi-fi, and a fairly picturesque backyard. Ashland is a quaint, beautiful New England town, twenty miles west of Boston, which is accessible by commuter train. A leisurely 1.5 mile walk (which is pretty nice in the New England summer evening) takes you to a fantastic bar with excellent live music.

NOTE: living on site is not a requirement if you are able to commute to Ashland, MA.

What I need
A qualified assistant who takes instruction well and is ready to work soon and works well under the pressure of deadlines. I'd ideally like them to start no later than July 11th and stay until August 19th. Portfolio MUST have have substantial brush-ink work. Work with a nib pen (crow quill or G Pen) is a plus. Preference for a candidate who is male and has transportation. Someone who takes their work seriously but has a sense of humor is a perfect balance.

Please email links to a resume and online portfolio in an introductory email to nathan.schreiber@gmail.com. Please provide two relevant references. Qualified candidates will have an interview over Skype next week. Apply no later than July 8th, preference given to candidates who apply early as I need to settle this issue fast.

2011-05-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

New book

Haven't posted anything in a while because I've been knee deep in producing this new book! I can't say too much about it, but it's easily the highest profile project I've worked on and will be given a pretty awesome press rollout. Looking forward to telling more when I get the go ahead from the publisher. I'm also looking forward to making finished pages! Everything I've been doing so far has been thumbnails. Tomorrow I start finishes...nervous but looking forward to it.

2011-04-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

Naruto, with color

I colored that sketch! I probably should be spending my time more productively, but there's something about making finished art that I gotta do!

2011-04-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

Team 7

Got tired of thumbnailing, had to do this Naruto piece!

2011-04-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

Naruto Podcast!

Me and my friend Ryan were screwing around and put together this Naruto Podcast! If you're a Naruto-head / total nerd you might like it! Right click on this link and save it:

http://www.nathanschreiber.com/Bingo_Book_1_Naruto_Goes_to_War.mp3

2011-04-14T14:14:00.000-07:00

Just some character designs I put together for an upcoming project. Enjoy!

2011-03-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

If I were in Santa Fe, I'd go to this....

Forgive the Tom Spurgeon impression - after all, I am in Santa Fe, so of COURSE I'll go to this! Also - it would be weird to not show up for your own book signing. Please join me and the always super helpful staff at True Believers Comics and Gallery for the advance release of Power Out Chapter 3. I'm probably going to bake cookies, or convince someone else they should, and on top of that, I'll be signing books, doing little sketches, and maybe giving a little talk on how I put this thing together.

Please come by! Or at least, visit the event's Facebook page. Please RSVP! A this point, it looks like nobody's gonna be there except me....

New pages of Power Out today: check em out here! It's cool starting the fourth chapter - the beginning of the end...

2011-03-16T00:57:00.000-07:00

Drawin' Rocks!

Holy crap - ROCKS!!!

If you've been reading Power Out, then you know I have something of an obsession with natural textures. And I LOVE drawin rocks! There's just something about em - solid, interestingly shaped - like other natural things, you can throw so much of your interpretation to it. When you draw a 1984 Ford Escort, you don't have too much room for interpretation. But you can put whatever you want into natural stuff, and you can fudge the details!

Look! This is what rocks look like!

I got pretty good at drawing rocks when I was doing portraits of Haitian landscapes to benefit earthquake victims. I would draw a lot from photographs, and even though your hardass art teacher will tell you drawing from life is better (which it is), you can still learn a lot from using photos - even lo-res ones off the internet.

Haiti

When you're telling a story though, I advise not to rely too heavily on reference. Practice from reference in your sketchbook, but then do it from your head for the final page. I'm not a hardass - I'm firmly in the camp of "there's no cheating in art." But when you're telling a visual story, over-referencing can hamper things like storytelling and composition - a rock you make can be the perfect shape for your page, and what's happening on it. So play god, it's fun.

those lines are my outline for the nine-panel grid - this panel is 2/3 of the page

So for this scene, I didn't want smooth, japanese garden rocks - I wanted hard, jagged, "HOLY CRAP - ROCKS!!!" rocks. They're getting pounded by the surf, but still appear immovable. You should feel like if you were in between the rocks and the surf, you'd be totally mangled! It's so much easier to capture raw emotion in a thumbnail, which is what I did here.

I circled the edges - look how many more lines are there

after blowing up my rough and transferring it to a piece of bristol with my handy light table, I start sketching in the details. A key thing about rocks - they're made up of planes, but you see more planes towards the edges. So your lines should "bunch up" around the edges.

When inking I basically outline the planes with a brush and then take a pen (crow quill Hunt 102, the standard) to shade some of the planes. I could just shade them with my blue tones, but when you can get bunch of parallel lines in one direction on a plane, it gives more depth to the rock. When these planes join and intersect, it gives a real shape and definition to the form.

Finish it up with a G-Pen for those fire-like waves, throw in some color and I'm done. Hooray! This page is kinda like an exclamation point - I wanted it to be loud !

Permalink to article

2011-03-14T00:11:00.000-07:00

The Panel: George O'Connor

George O'Connor is one of the most talented and prolific cartoonists working today. He's the author and illustrator of four children's books, including the New York Times best seller Kapow! He also has five graphic novels under his belt, including three in his twelve book series on the Olympians. In addition to all this, George also teaches a comics course at Pratt. I had a chat with the incredibly busy O'Connor over twitter.

NS: Let's talk Olympians. How do you take literally the oldest story in western civilization and put a new take on it?

GOC: Man, in my opinion, for many years, ALL of western civilization has been telling and retelling these stories over and over-----ESPECIALLY superhero comics. This is just me doing my personal take, filtered thru a childhood of superheroes, on myths. I should mention, the stories are so rich, it really makes my job easier.

NS: But how do you differentiate your take from all the media that already exist about the Greek Gods?

GOC: I'm a big research guy, and my take on the Olympians is pretty accurate, in its way, to what the ancients thought.

NS: Knowing myself, I just don't know how I wouldn't remake Clash of the Titans.

GOC: The old Clash of the Titans has its charms, but, man the Kraken drives me nuts...and the new one was just an abomination. Worst movie I saw last year. Here's an image of a more accurate sea monster, Cetus, rather than the Kraken in Clash of the Titans.

Cetus means whale, in fact. We call whales cetaceans after this monster, Kraken is norse, yo.

NS: Norse? wtf.

GOC: I've avoided all modern retellings, and only used ancient sources to construct my stories. That way, I find a lot of these hidden gems, things that have always been there, that I unearth for a new audience.

NS: Could you give a specific example of one of those gems, something current media tends to leave out?

GOC: well, my upcoming third book, Hera: The Goddess and her Glory, is sort if my Hera reclamation project. We all think of Hera as a mega-bitch, but she was an incredibly important and beloved religious figure in ancient Greece. The book ends up being an exploration of her relationship to Heracles, whose name literally means "the glory of hera."

NS: You mentioned superheroes - how are the Greek gods different from the typical American superhero?

GOC: Easy answer-- they could kick any superheroes ass. Tougher answer-- they don't have those distinctly american ideals. A Greek god is not interested in making the world a better place, necessarily. They just look out for themselves.
It's probabaly better just to avoid their attention in general, really. 1 of the themes of Olympians book 4, Hades, is all about the Greek tradition of using euphemistic names like Pluto (the wealthy one) to escape his notice.

NS: The size of the battles and characters is staggering. How do you achieve that epic level of scale?

GOC: Thanks! In part, I guess I've been conditioned, having grown up reading old superhero comics, like the FF against Galactus. Nothing screams EPIC like a good mismatch of scale-- tiny gods against HUGE TITANS. Also? Lots and lots of lightning bolts.

NS: Lightening fixes everything. Who's your favorite Olympian First Second would never let you make a book out of?

GOC: I would dearly love to sneak Priapus, the god of erections, into Hermes's book somewhere. I think I can do it, tastefully.

NS: So how do you deal with the constraints you have when writing for kids? Greek myths aren't rated PG.

GOC: I try writing on two different levels. My favorite example is this-- in the first book, Zeus's dad, Kronos, overthrows his father, Ouranos, by castrating him with a sickle. that's a little intense for kids. So, in my artwork, I did not personify Ouranos, i depicted him as the sky (what his name means, in ancient Greek), so Kronos just slices open the sky, not specifically castrating his father. the text reads:

"Ouranos was rendered impotent, powerless. His strength bled away into his sons"

adults will get it, and kids won't realize they just read about a guy getting his ding-dong chopped off. All the sex & violence is there in Olympians, you just have to look for it a little.

NS: You went from the bleak, adult Ball Peen Hammer to books for kids. Does your subject matter affect your mindset?

GOC: I started doing picture books first, then the adult stuff. It was a rough time, working on Ball-Peen Hammer, not the least of which was some stuff happening in my personal life, but yeah, a book like BPH can cloud your sunny day.

NS: How do you deal with it? Do you embrace the gloom and put it into the book, or compartmentalize it somehow?

GOC: Good question. I think I project it into the book. That's kind of like a diary for what I was feeling that only I can read.

NS: What else do you have on your plate besides Olympians these days? I hear you're starting a webcomic...

GOC: I'm trying to get a bunch under my belt, so I can post it in 12 big chunks. Watch Twitter for a big announcemant regarding this.

NS: What's it about? Is it similar to Olympians, or is it a big departure, a chance to do something new?

GOC: it's a kind of meditation on infinity, and infinite beings. in that way, I suppose it's like Olympians. it's going to be called Alpha Boy Ωmega, and it is the least Olympiansy thing I've ever done.

Also, I'm working on book 5 of Olympians, about Poseidon, and a new series of kids books at Simon & Schuster that I'm illustrating.

NS: You sound awfully busy. Is diversifying a business or creative strategy?

GOC: Both. I just finished 4 Olymapians graphic novels in a row, and wanted to try something new, and at the same time, I wanted to increase my publishing footprint. Also, multi-tasking is good for the soul.

NS: I always want to know how other artists do thumbnails. What's your process, pre-page? Do you have a script?

GOC: First thing I do is draw key scenes in my sketchbook. I'll jot down bits of text next to them too, then i assemble those key scenes into a blueprint of a page, my thumbnails. this is the hardest part of my process. Then I blow these thumbnails into rough sketches, about 6 by 8 inches, so I can actually make sense of it later.

NS: On a good day, how many pages can you pencil and ink?

GOC: My personal record is 5. I am pretty darn fast. Since I ink my own stuff, my pencils are so loose as to just be layouts. I average 2 or 3, though.

NS: Are you just *that* quick? Or do you make conscious choices that let you turn out high quality work efficiently?

GOC: Some of its quickness, but mostly it's my style-- I call it deceptively simple-- i look at guys like Mike Mignola and Jaime Hernandez a lot for that sort of inspiration, they're both masters.

NS: What kind of media do you consume? Do you read current comics?

GOC: Not so much lately. I've been reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes recently, partially in prep for another project idea. Also a lot of history books. Not too much comics though.

NS: Name two cartoonists you'd put in your pantheon with very different styles. Example: Mike Allred and Dave McKean.

GOC: Hmm, I'll say P. Craig Russell & Bill Watterson, since I already mentioned Mignola & Hernandez. They're all in my pantheon.

NS: Besides making comics, you also teach comics at Pratt. What kind of trends are you noticing in your students?

GOC: Actually, whereas in the past, the kids would be manga manga manga, but now the novelty of manga has worn off, and it seems the kids have assimilated manga into their styles, rather than aping it outright. It's pretty exciting, actually - kind of a glimpse at the styles of the future.

NS: What's your take on comics' future? Seems lately people have been grumbling more than usual about the industry.

GOC: The future's so bright, i gotta wear shades. I try not to predict it, really, I'll just be wrong, and any attempt to guess it will steer my awry. I just have faith in my ability to weather what may come.

Visit George O'Connor's website, and follow him on Twitter!

Permalink to interview

2011-03-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

Carrie returns

Had to draw Justin's sister carrie again after a something of a hiatus. She figures prominently in the end of the third chapter and most of the fourth, so I really need to nail the character. I took all of my favorite images of her in the book so far and put it on one 8.5 x 11 for reference:

This proved very helpful. One of the biggest challenges of working a on a book as long as power out is that it's easy for things to change. You don't want to dial your style back, particularly as you improve, but the character's still have to look recognizable. I think this page turned out to be one of my favorite in the book so far.

Had a somewhat relaxing day to try and recover from the five finished pages (a personal best) I turned out last week. 106 more to go...

2011-02-27T23:45:00.000-08:00

Have to admit it's getting better

Frustrated - I like to get four pages done a week (ideally I want to finish five pages) but only managed 3.5 - the last page proved to be quite a monster, as the entire page took place within a mini-van, had toddlers (so hard to draw - you mess up one line, and suddenly they're gremlins), and an absolute deluge of Spanish dialogue.

BUT I am encouraged, because I was looking at my pages from about ten months ago (before I stopped working on Power Out in what I might look back on as one of the dumbest / smartest things I've ever done) and compare pencils from two panels.

circa May 2010

Last week

I'll admit to something you're not supposed to admit to: while Power Out got a lot of positive feedback, it also got some negative feedback. In fact, a couple of people really freaking hated it, and one of the main things they hated was the main character. Have to say this affected me, and I've taken special effort with all my endeavors this time to make Justin an appealing looking character, to give him charisma. Or, at the very least, keep him from looking like a total chump. I think it's been pretty successful so far.

Here's a rough I did on the fly that I was very pleased with - I have the whole book roughed out, but every once in a while I'll come across a scene (this was Maya leading Justin out of his house) that I probably mailed in, so I redo it. The results were fun!

Maya looks great here, but Justin looks pretty meh. So in the final version, I gave him this funny, rubber band quality. Good times!

Only 113 more pages to go...

2011-02-18T03:03:00.000-08:00

A monster called Power Out

SO, a little while ago I was told to STOP working on Power Out. I needed to reassess, rewrite, and edit what I already had, and then the book would be much easier to bring to publishers. I did exactly that, even got an editor to go through Power Out and make it more structurally sound. I have to say, I was very happy with the results: the characters, the story, the tension, it all just worked together better.

The elderly neighbor is a MUCH better character in the rewrite

But then something bad happened: despite the re-writes, Power Out still hasn't found a publisher. I haven't brought it everywhere, but it's got rejected from enough places that I've decided to stop shopping it around until it's finished - a project ready-to-go, naturally, is an easier sell than something that needs more work, and as Power Out is largely silent at parts, it leans on the artwork more than other stories.

Power Out is quiet

Piece of cake right? Problem is, there are around 120 pages to work on - most of those are new pages, but there's a significant chunk of work to be done inserting / replacing pages in earlier chapters. This is a lot of work.

I'm trying to get everything done by SPX in September, but perhaps that's optimistic. It's also quite a slog to produce this work knowing there may be no home for it, that I might not make a dime off of it, and that I'm going to continue to live off the hospitality of my family - right now I'm living with my sister in Santa Fe, and I'm likely to move back to Massachusetts soon.

I have to finish this book. I know my sense of self will suffer some pretty irreparable damage if I don't. But it's a long, uphill slog. It takes me a full day, like, a twelve hour full day, to draw, ink, letter, scan, and color one page. There's 120 to go...

I'm trying to move forward - my plan is to update Power Out once a week, continuing with the story from where I left off in chapter 3. After completing the third chapter, I will split my time between moving forward with the fourth (and final....final!) chapter and going back redoing pages from the earlier chapters (mainly the first).

That means I'm doing the third and fourth chapters built on a foundation that I haven't shown to readers yet. So, some things might seem a little weird or confusing. Feel free to ask me if you have specific questions, but I don't want to write "spoilers" here.

Who's this chick?

I'm hoping the regular updates will get me on a better schedule with people who read (and maybe enjoy) Power Out and add some extra motivation to finish the work - I don't live in New York anymore, so I'm pretty isolated. I really do appreciate the comments people leave on the book (even when they nitpick:) ).

I'll be starting a kickstarter project soon to self-publish the next volume - I hope you will contribute. I'll have more information on that soon.

Hope this doesn't sound too bleak - a friend reminded me that about a year ago I was winning and being nominated for awards left and right, so luck changes pretty fast. And as my brother has told me, all you need is one piece of good news. I'm working on a new kid's pitch (after the last one got rejected, and the new ones I've been working on haven't really captured my imagination), and when I describe it to people, they not only instantly "get it" but seem to have real enthusiasm for it. Will publishers? Hope springs eternal...

2011-02-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

Power Out Panic Attack

SO I had a panic attack the other night - I realized I have almost 120 pages left to do of Power Out before I finish, and the work I've accomplished since I've been in Santa Fe has been slow going.

the art is getting better, or at least I think so

I know a lot of this has to do with the pages I've been working on have been pretty labor intensive - the bee cave in chapter 3 has been murder, particularly when drawing the environments. It's taken a minute to get back into the style perhaps my standards are higher now, and that's slowing me down.

this page took forever

And the time I haven't been working on Power Out has been productive, like contributing to the sketchblog Drawbridge and working on my new webcomic Sumfin Silly.

a sketch on Drawbridge of Mike Dawson's Troop 141

But still, I need to redouble my efforts - I already spend a great deal of time working on the project, the key now is to focus efforts on using that time more efficiently. Here's three steps I'm going to implement:

-not obsessing over minute details
-showing more work online, which will encourage me to keep a schedule
-integrating perspective grids into my roughs to save time on backgrounds

making the computer do things in an instant it takes me a while to do with a ruler

Here's an example of the last one in action - this should make drawing the backgrounds a little bit less of a chore. I put a lot of work into my thumbnails - I ink them and everything, so when I light table them I don't have to worry about composition. Now, just by adding two rings of emanating lines in Illustrator, I can get a good two point (or three point with a third ring) perspective without using any tedious vanishing points.

I'm going to start a Kickstarter project, either this Friday or the next, to try and raise funds to print my book for MoCCA. I want to purchase most of the equipment so I can do this work myself; it will be like my own "print on demand" service. I want to get a decent color laser printer, a book binding kit, and paper, and hell, maybe a little advertising too.

I'm going to try and do a longer form blog like this every Sunday - mainly to chart my progress and give myself an extra "carrot" to motivate me to be productive. I need to finish this book - I don't know if I could forgive myself if I couldn't. But there's a whole lot more work to do, and I feel a little overwhelmed. Hopefully, breaking everything into little, week-long chunks when I update on Act-I-Vate (and here) will help with the long hard slog.

2011-02-07T23:07:00.000-08:00

Cool drawing of some Power Out characters (including Maya's Dad, who plays a bit part) as Zombies. Get ready for new Power Out this week!

2011-02-01T00:36:00.000-08:00

You just can't resist drawing this guy running!

Interestingly, I usually draw and ink the piece at the same time. But last night, I inked a drawing I did a long time ago right before inking some pages, and it helped.

What I did last night

2011-01-13T10:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun little drawing I did for Drawbridge.

I'll have some notes on Power Out in the next couple of weeks!

2011-01-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

Warmup with Robots!

I'm trying to get a little more comfortable using my markers. I'll be at the Albuquerque Comic Con next weekend, and hopefully I can do one or two color commissions...

2011-01-05T10:51:00.000-08:00

I didn't post something yesterday because I've been dedicating my time in Santa Fe to feverishly00 working to finish Power Out. I assumed I didn't have time yesterday because I've already fallen behind my schedule of completing (pencils/inks/letters/colors/format) five pages a week. Big mistake! I spent two hours trying to draw two figures walking. Granted, it was a deceptively complex drawing but I have to remember that doing these warmup sketches actually makes me faster. Don't have anything clever to say about Calvin and Hobbes, but I liked the strip. Once again, I'm continuing in the clean line / Clowes-esque style...

2011-01-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

I've started making new pages of Power Out so I might be using my Drawbridge warmup sketches to get back into the swing of things - it's been a while since I've drawn these characters and there's some things I need to "relearn." Justin doesn't look quite right here, too short, he should look a little more delicate.

Interesting look with the red instead of the blue.

2010-11-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

The King Con II Drawbridge Sketchbook Competition Wrapup!
We saw some amazing sketchbooks at Brooklyn's King Con II:

Check out this awesome Kim Pine from Jason Borelli's sketchbook! (Don't know the artist...any help?)

Here's a Bill Sienkiewicz sketch from another sketchbook - forget who's!

But the winner was Trish Orr, who's Spider Jerusalem sketchbook had so much amazing material.

I asked Trish to pose with the sketchbook turned to her favorite sketch, and she chose Tim Hamilton's Barbarian King!

Here's the rest of the work from the sketchbook - check out these artists every day on Drawbridge!

Nick Abadzis

Bill Alger

Reilly Brown

Becky Cloonan

Rami Efal

Simon Fraser

Robin Ha

Dean Haspiel

George O'Connor

Joan Reilly

James Smith

Bobby Timony

and here's mine

2010-11-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

The King Con Drawbridge Sketchbook Competition - two days away!

Convention sketchbook veterans already know the routine, but this is a great opportunity for new collectors to start their own sketchbook! Bring a sketchbook to different tables - most artists are happy to do a small quick sketch, a head shot of a character they draw regularly, for example. For more elaborate sketches, some artists charge and others ask you to buy a book for a sketch. Be polite and friendly, and if an artist is too busy, just go to another table! And if you're entering the competition, make sure the artist signs the work with a "King Con" after their name!

Get your sketchbooks to the Act-I-Vate table by 5PM - they will be judged by a panel including 2000AD artist Simon Fraser, Marvel Artists Reilly Brown and Robin Ha, and myself. An announcement on the winning sketchbook will be made at 6:30 on Sunday November 7th. The winner will win the Drawbridge Sketchbook, with art by Nick Abadzis, Reilly Brown, Becky Cloonan, Robin Ha, Simon Fraser, Tim Hamilton, Dean Haspiel, Nathan Schreiber, and James Smith!

2010-11-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

Drawbridge Sketchbook Video!

Yes, this is the sketchbook you could win at the Drawbridge Sketchbook competition at King Con Brooklyn, November 6-7! Full of art by Nick Abadzis, Bill Alger, Becky Cloonan, Robin Ha, Tim Hamilton, Dean Haspiel, Nathan Schreiber, and James Smith!

To enter the Drawbridge Sketchbook competition, bring a sketchbook to the con and collect sketches from different artists! It's fine if your book has previously made sketches in it, but to enter the competition, at least ONE sketch needs to be made at King Con!

Enter your book by Sunday at 3PM - I'll be at the Act-I-Vate table!

2010-10-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

Wow more sketchbook art for King Con!

Whoa big ole announcement about the King Con Drawbridge Sketchbook Contest: comics superstar Becky Cloonan (Demo, Northlanders) has contributed a sketch!

And check out Tim Hamilton's totally rad digs here. Holy crap! Whoever wins this thing is pretty lucky.

2010-10-18T08:50:00.000-07:00

The King Con Drawbridge Sketchbook Competition!

Think you have the best sketchbook in Brooklyn? Come to King Con November 4-7, and enter your sketchbook in the King Con Drawbridge Sketchbook Competition! You could win the Drawbridge Sketchbook, filled with drawings by Dean Haspiel, Tim Hamilton, Simon Fraser, Reilly Brown, Nick Abadzis, Robin Ha, GB Tran, Joan Reilly, and Nathan Schreiber!

Collecting sketches from artists at conventions has been a time-honored tradition at comic conventions. Lots of collectors even have sketchbooks with particular themes: check out a sketchbook with particular theme - check out James Lucas Jones' The Royal Tenenbaums sketchbook, Jamie S. Rich's Audrey Hepburn sketchbook or B. Clay Moore's Marvel Timely sketchbook! It's a fun tradition, and a great opportunity to collect some amazing work!

Sketchbooks will be judged by a panel on Sunday, and the winning sketchbook must:

1. Have at least FIVE different artists work
2. Have one sketch made at King Con 2010!

The winner will be selected from a jury composed of artists who contributed to the sketchbook, and announced on Sunday November 7th!

King Con and Drawbridge see the competition as a way to give back to the sketchbook collectors who commission work and support their favorite artists. As comic conventions grow and transform the fundamental relationship the cons are based on – that between creator and fan – runs the risk of being drowned out. The Drawbridge Sketchbook competition reaffirms this connection between creator and fan, and showcases the depth of talent and community at King Con. We’re hoping artists and fans use the competition to make and collect some amazing work!

King Con II is Brooklyn's largest comics and graphic arts convention, held from November 5-7 at the Brooklyn Lyceum. Drawbridge is an online sketch collective for cartoonists in Deep Six and Hypothetical Island Studios.

For all inquiries about the Sketchbook Competition, contact me at Nathan.schreiber@gmail.com

2010-10-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook drawing!

You're going to be able to win this sketchbook at King Con! More details soon...

2010-04-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sketchbook Backlog

Hola amigos,

I've done a lot of subway drawings and haven't uploaded them in a while.

In my opinion a lot of these look better than some of my finished stuff. Argh! It's tough to retain that rough energy you have in a sketch.

I inked a couple that I plan on light tabling directly on to the pages tomorrow - I drew them already but they looked kind of garbagetown I erased them on good faith that these'll work out tomorrow.

There's something a little off about this face but I liked the expression on the face. Something about the original I just don't like:

I don't know, I just kind of want to smack him with that face so I figured I'd change it.

Here's one more sketch, maybe a little spoiler for the people who made it all the way to the bottom.

Don't know whether or not I'll update on Friday, per se, but definitely over the weekend.

tons o hugs yall

2010-04-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

OK! I sold a TON of books at MoCCA this past weekend at Power Out's debut - it was awesome!

I know I've encouraged people to give this pdf to your local comic book store so that your store orders it from Diamond. But hey, I figured there'd be some people who didn't have a local comic book store near them, and they could order from me. But nobody has ordered a $10 copy from Paypal yet...

Click here and click on the BUY NOW button to order through PayPal

So I'm sweetening the deal. The first ten people who order off of PayPal get this sweet, 11 x 17" print on watercolor paper absolutely free. And hey, I'll even throw in shipping!

Check it out - it's on this thick water color paper with a very nice texture.

So, once again, just order off of PayPal, click on the button that says "Buy Now" it will bring you to PayPal, just log in and if you're one of the first ten people you'll get a free poster.

Click here and click on the BUY NOW button to order through PayPal

Here's Power Out's first review from Write Club!

Here's an interview I did with Fandomania.

And hey, here's two new pages of Power Out

And one final note - please nominate me for a Harvey Award! I'm angling for best online comics work and most promising newcomer. Thanks!

2010-04-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

Web campaign begins this week!

I finished ads that will appear on Comics Beat, Comics Reporter, and the Comics Journal this weekend, with some super duper help from k. Check em out!

2010-04-02T02:54:00.001-07:00

New Site is UP!

Oh man, the new site is all up and working! You can watch the trailer, order a copy of Power Out - it's crazy that it's all coming together!

SO, I have a request, for everyone who wants to order a book - if it's remotely convenient, I'd prefer it if you order the book through a local comic book store than directly through me via PayPal. Why?
1. If a retailer orders one, he or she might order two (or more!)
2. if the retailer runs out, he or she might order more!
3. It gets the retailer more familiar with me and my work - if and when I do this again, hopefully a light bulb will go off.

All you need to do is print out this pdf and give it to a local comic book shop:

http://www.nathanschreiber.com/buylocal.pdf

Can't find a local comic book shop? Try this:
http://www.comicshoplocator.com

I think that's it for now, and I apologize for all the hype-tastic emails coming from me. Someday I'll be a big famous creator, and some company will do all this for me; it'll be way less tacky.

Been on a steady diet of trail mix and coffee since 8:30AM. Eat, sleep, or watch Lost?

2010-03-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

A trailer - for a book? Why the hell not?

This was pretty fun to make, all made with Apple's simple iMovie and Garage Band software. If you like the song, check out the rest of Clip Art's music by clicking *here*. It's amazing, pop-fused indie rock - I freaking LOVE that song Dead Letter (and have listened to it 25 times in the last three days) so check it out!

Looks like I'm going to get the books just in time for MoCCA! Come by on April 10th or 11th - table E22!

2010-03-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

Integreated my blog, twitter, and facebook. Why? To show bears playing hockey in as many venues as possible:

2010-03-19T01:56:00.001-07:00

Romance in a shade of blue....

I updated Power Out tonight - read the new pages on Act-I-Vate here!

These two pages were pretty special to me, and I think included one of my best pages and maybe my best panel ever. Here it is in black and white:

Coloring was a real struggle tonight, and I was extremely tired. That weird white reflection in the water on the bottom of the first update was an eleventh hour (or in this case, fourth and a half hour) solution; I'll figure out whether I like it or not tomorrow.

The book is coming right along, and I'm really excited about the book release party I'm having May 22nd at Bergen St. Comics! I'll be doing all kinds of other events, like Heroes Con in the Bronx and an event at my hometown public library, and of course MoCCAFest! I'll hype all this more as it gets closer - right now it's time to sleep!

2010-03-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

I'm BACK!

Ok, it took me a while, but I'm finally back to updating this blog. Hopefully I do it semi-regularly, or at least when I post new pages of Power Out.

There's still a lot to set up and revise, and I definitely need a a blogroll list of people to link to, but I gotta start somewhere!

So here's some images for you - when I get on the subway I get bored and draw, and I've gotten into the habit of doing headshots of the cast of Power Out. Here's some subway jams I've come up with lately:

Talk real soon!

2008-10-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Power Out Chapter 2

OK, sorry its been a while. Can't believe I used to update this thing every day! Maybe I ought to start that up again, it certainly keeps me productive during this nebulous thumbnailing stage.

I'm keeping the general plot outline for Power Out but am giving this second chapter a serious makeover. Out of every part of the book, I always found the part where Justin goes to town and interacts with its citizens genuinely lacking. But by incorporating my hometown's history, and some time-honored themes like running away and self-loathing, I can spice this part of the book up.

Judging from a lot of the feedback I've got from the first chapter, I need to make Justin more interesting. Now you're seeing a little more of his internal thought process, and how he reacts in tense situations.

Here's what I'm playing around with for the cover to the second chapter - any denizen of my hometown will recognize this thing for sure:

2008-09-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

You might not know this, but in fact, I have a book...

Exciting developments in the field of book-authorship / ownership - you might not know this, but in fact, I have a book!

Now, I know what you're thinking - Nathan, all you did was just take a print-out of your cover to Power Out on fine, glossy stock, and held that in front of the camera! The realm of book ownership / authorship - that is a realm not open to you! Ah, but my friend, I will ask you this: could a piece high quality glossy stock open up like this??

But Nathan, you exhaustedly reply. You could've just taken two pieces of paper, clamped them together in the back, and held them like so, in order to create the appearance of a book! Scholars, poets, trustafarians with charmed lives - it is these privileged folk who delect in holding a book with their own name on it! The pleasures of book-holding-by-the-book-author, these were never meant for you, you hopeless romantic fool! These notions of yours will only bring pain and suffering, as it is not of someone of your humble station to hold that-which-is-a-book-with-your-name-on-it!

Well, to you, I say, this:

And just in case you were still unconvinced, this might clarify things a little bit.

So, this is really just a mockup I made on blurb, but it came out great. The next step is sending it to publishers and making money hand over fist!

BTW, in the background is my NEW STUDIO, the corner of which is dubbed Fortress Nathan! Any contributions to Fortress Nathan! be they canned food, bristol board, respectably paying freelance work, or even just a visit will be greatly appreciated.

2008-09-09T13:23:00.001-07:00

Updates

So I finally sent Power Out to get printed. If by any chance, anyone in the nathanschreiber.com GWOT wants a copy of the 54 page book I'm publishing through blurb for the remotely significant price of forty dollars, let me know. Otherwise, you can just wait till the whole book comes out in a year or two.

Made some changes - most significantly, I rearranged and added and subtracted some panels from the power out sequence:

Also altered some things on the page where they're about to kill the baby bird. One of my colleagues said it was a much better page, I tend to agree with him:

And a minor adjustment - I changed the slightly humorous "Where's the Tuna?" article from the paper to reference the 93rd birthday of the electric clock - something you'll see celebrated in the next chapter when Justin goes to town:

So what now? Well, I'll wait ten business days for the printed copy to come back, hopefully there's nothing really egregiously wrong with it. Then I order a few more, send the existing copy to Fantagraphics, send the next batch out to a few other publishers, and wait for the inevitable bidding war to ensue. In the meantime, I'm doing some freelance work to pay some bills, and illustrating a short story with Barbara Rushkoff for Smith Magazine's Next Door Neighbor anthology. When I wrap that up, publishing deal or not, I'm going ahead with the next chapter of Power Out. I'm sticking roughly to the thumbnails I posted earlier this year, but rest assured, there will be more intrigue, action, sex, and significantly less power.

I'll keep ya posted.

2008-08-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

Keeping Busy

Some new relationship comics I did. Enjoy!

2008-08-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

First Chapter Done

I'll probably be revising this over the next two weeks, and I may not leave the link up. But click on this for the finished product:

Hope you enjoy it! I'm gonna go have a beer (or something).

2008-08-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

More Pages

I'll throw some more stuff for you here - still have a lot of work to do, but think I can still finish a rough draft by Sunday...

2008-08-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

Finished Pages

I know it's been almost a month, so thanks if you're still reading this. The nathanschreiber.com army may need some reinforcements.

Lots of changes. I've moved into a new studio, adopted a ridiculous work schedule, and live a fairly austere life. But I'll flesh those details out later - here's some finished pages from the first chapter of Power Out:

I'm up to 22 pages inked, colored, and lettered. The remaining 13 in the chapter still need to be colored, but it's coming along swimmingly. I'm going to shoot to get a rough draft of the "pitch" done by the weekend. Don't know how public I'll make everything - I may post a link up here and take it down after a few days.

I'll post more soon.

2008-06-19T11:46:00.001-07:00

First Three Pages

This is how Power Out starts now - these are the only pages I need to fully "pencil" and then I'm done (penciling) the first chapter. Onwards and upwards.

2008-06-18T07:59:00.000-07:00

Here's another page I have to do some minor lettering for - the mac and cheese box.

I've become a member of Deep Six, with rent payments and a key and everything. Exciting stuff. I have no idea what my life will be like in three months. Exciting!

This is the rooftop view from Deep 6. Brooklyn is mine!

2008-06-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

I have to put some digital lettering on a few of these pages (which I'll subsequently print out and light table back onto the pages to give the easier to lay-out but unlively computer typography a hand-drawn look) and figured I'd post the pages.

I'm staying in New York, so get used to it!

2008-06-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

First look at Power Out pencils

My sincerest apologies for being such a negligent blogger! I'll try to post more frequently, but truthfully I have been unbelievable busy working on the next run of pencils for Power Out. So, I'll get right to it, with some of the highlights.

I love Carrie's faces here, and especially how they contrast with the emotionless Justin. I'm a little worried that they look a little too realistic, most of the faces look a little "cartoonier."

This top panel came out better than I thought it would - I also snuck a bird into the silhouette. Visually, I'm going to make birds a life / death symbol in the book.

The introduction of Maya. Hopefully the audience can fall in love with the girl next door.

Good thing I went home last weekend and could take all those reference photos of the mower!

Did this page today - I love the hands!

Noticing that I'm getting slower - I would pencil in about three / four pages at first and now I'm lucky if I get two. On the other hand, the pencils are getting a lot tighter, and when I go back to tighten up the pages in the second round, obviously the last half will need considerably less work. I think this is good, though - I'm going to become a more accomplished penciler during this process, so the latter work will always look a little better, and if I can go in and touch up the earlier work, it'll even out the quality.

During the fairly monotonous (though enjoyable) task of penciling, I'm constantly writing and rewriting the later chapters in my head, and my instincts are always putting it in a weirder direction. I think I'm going to have a dream sequence and the ghost of Henry E. Warren, inventor of the first electric clock, may make an appearance in the comic.

I'd love to tell you that I'm going to be posting more frequently, but I've been spending nearly all my time working on these pages - I'm going out less and less, and my studio sessions at Deep Six have become far more regular (I've been there every single day since Tuesday, usually for ten-twelve hour intervals) as it has effectively combined my work and social life. And with some freelance gigs and an American Sign Language class in the future, there's a good chance postings will be less frequent. Who knows, though, maybe I'll buck the trend. When I start inking, there'll be a catalog of images to post, so I can tease a steady stream of unseen artwork out.

Been listening to Television, one of those bands that's always been on my checklist of bands I need to listen to. And like most bands on that list, they rock.

2008-05-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

Good start

Finally done the tedious task of transferring my enlarged roughs to the bristol, and now comes the much more interesting stage of adding more detail. Or maybe it's just more interesting because I've been working at Deep 6 studios in Brooklyn! Through fate, I've met up with Dean Haspiel, Harvey Pekar's preferred artist for his big post-American Splendor movie biography, The Quitter. Dean is part of a cartoonist collective called Deep Six - you can see a lot of their work on www.activatecomix.com. Anyhow, it's probably the most exciting thing that's happened to me in the last few months. You have to get over a certain intimidation factor certainly, but there's so much to learn, and it really pushes you to work harder and learn all you can from all the talented artists around you. After working in the studio, and taking at least a couple of ping pong breaks (I beat Mike Cavallaro today! Well, I beat him once), I don't know how I'll go back to toiling in my studio all alone.

Anyhow, here's some work I did today - the comic is starting to come together...

I'll be back at Deep Six tomorrow. Everyone keep blog superfan #1 in your thoughts and prayers - she just broke her collarbone, and might need her prodigal son to return home next weekend to administer some needed TLC.

2008-05-18T07:52:00.001-07:00

Long Week

Got a good deal of work to do this week - took a little break after finishing the 11 page excerpt, but am ready to forge on. I'm going to tackle the first "issue" of power out - I'm contemplating releasing it in five issue length parts. It's exactly 32 pages, which is perfect (printing comic books requires that you print in multiples of four - two pages on the front, two on the back of each page), but gives me little margin adjustments.

I've been doing a little sketching, to prepare me for the task of drawing again:

In some cases, I integrate these sketches directly into the roughs. Hopefully, when I print these out and put them on my light table to trasfer them to the bristol, I can get some clearer transfers and penciling is that much easier. There's plenty of times that my drawings I did in the rough stage are completely useless.

I have an ambitious mind this week. Hopefully I have lots to share with you all!

2008-05-14T06:52:00.001-07:00

Killing one bird with two pages (and mourning it with two more)

So I've been revamping the book a little bit - particularly the first part. I mapped out the whole story, and concluded that all my favorite scenes, and most of the stuff with most impact, were in the back of the book. I notice when I present people the book, I tend to rush through the first part, and it feels mostly like a setup. So I'm introducing the mortality themes introduced later in the book by killing a baby bird.

The teenagers are the party torment a half-alive baby bird and then the big guy mercifully (but...dramatically!) puts it out of its misery. Justin finds the bird later when he's mowing the lawn, and Maya performs an impromptu funeral service. I love the contrast between the savage and sweet - I can see the reviews right now:

The unassuming chemistry between the main characters creates more than a few tender and genuinely touching moments, but Schreiber avoids sentimentality by unflinchingly showing the savage consequences of teenagers' darker impulses. With this virtuoso first novel, Schreiber catapults himself into a an elite class alongside Clowes, Ware, Crumb, Michaelangelo, and the Lord God himself.

Anyways, enough daydreaming. Gotta get crackin' so someday there's a review to write!

2008-05-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

First leg completed

It's finally presentable - click on this to read the 11 page excerpt from Power Out:

Doesn't necessarily mean I won't revise it before making any sort of announcement about it tomorrow. I'm still very on the fence about the lettering. It adds a personal touch, but I am not a gifted letterer by any stretch of the imagination. Pretty much everyone tells me to letter my own stuff, and all my favorite cartoonists do it, so I feel like it's a necessary step. Maybe I'm just not ready? Don't know, maybe it'll grow on me. If you have any strong feelings let me know. I also hate Justin's faces on the fourth page. Blech! But I might just say f*¢k it.

It could still use some work, but I really like my description of the book on the title page. Was at a party this weekend and when people asked me what my book was about, I was like "it's a coming of age novel set in a New England suburb during a power out and there's a party and he gets lost in the woods and then lights candles and other stuff happens" and I could just see their eyes glaze over. Now it sounds relevant and exciting.

I'll confess that I'm pretty intimidated sitting at the precipice of really starting this book - now that this excerpt is done, I have to tackle the whole thing now. I'm revising the entire script now, as I've been looking at it and realizing that all my favorite parts are at the end, when things get kind of surreal. There's going to have to be a buildup to that; the novel starts too much like a conventional family drama. I might have it begin with Justin living on the watertower, pages of his constellation books ripped out and held down with spare rocks, waking up to the sound of the National Guard sounding some huge convoy-style horn. Little more intrigue than Justin sitting on a couch playing video games while his overbearing mom tells his Dad what to put in the trunk of his car, and the reader will be know it's going somewhere. And I might replace the "can't start the lawnmower" scene with Justin finding some sort of dead animal in the path of the mower, to tie that theme in earlier.

I think I've finally overplayed the last Radiohead album, so I've been listening to St. Vincent (I think she's from Polyphonic Spree? I've never heard their albums). Good stuff. Her music is just as beautiful and psychopathic as she looks.

2008-05-10T14:30:00.001-07:00

Sketches and lettering

Been putting in the lettering for the pages and I scanned in some books I really like to get a feel of the sizing.

From the "Best of the Sixties" Archie Americana series:

tell it like it is, Ronnie

From the excellent adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass by Paul Karasik and David Mazzuchelli:

And the extremely creepy and weird Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron by Dan Clowes:

Been doing some warmup sketches for the first dozen pages of the book, which I'm starting next week. I've been doing so much inking, coloring, and formatting I have to reteach myself how to draw again!

2008-05-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

Tha Mawnstah

Still might need to do a little more work on this one, the skyline in particular could use some work. But I still think it's works pretty well.

2008-05-07T19:43:00.000-07:00

New Studio

Back in Park Slope, Brooklyn's homiest neighborhood and an excellent place to make comics. It may not be as big as those halcyon days in the Bronx, but I have two - count em, two - north facing windows and plenty of space to set up all of my stuff.

Finished the coloring on this 11th page. This is probably the only page where I like the pencils better than the finished inks / colors. I still think it evokes the feeling of alienation / isolation between the two characters, though.

And here's "tha mawnstah," as my friend Ryan might say. I feel like i could still work on this more, but at some point you just need to set it down. Still gotta color this one and touch up a few spots, but I think it conveys the necessary overwhelming moment when the two characters look out on top of the watertower.

This is obviously in the rough n' tumble phase, but I've started making the Power Out page, with the pages in order and in introductory page. This will get refined over the next few days, as will the pages themselves - particularly when I add dialogue.

Have another ambitious day tomorrow - starting the first pages from the book. Have to figure out just how many pages i want to go at a time - 11 seemed manageable.

2008-04-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

Lost Art

Been packing for a new move, it's certainly been a chore. There's always that box you keep that has all the stuff that you just can't throw away, like letters from ex lovers, your loved ones wedding programs, and even mementos from friends who are no longer with you. You go through this box by yourself in an apartment stripped and boxed of all comforts, and it can get a little heavy on the heart.

I'm moving to a temporary sublease, and unlike any of the other six times I've moved in this city, I'm going to be doing it all by myself. So this time I'm really really trying to pare down what I have - I've already thrown away countless drawings. Feels weird to throw your own artwork away (and occasionally others - one of the hazards of my past life as a gallery proprietor), but there's something strangely cathartic about it too, particularly when it's art that I feel I've matured way past - both craft and content wise.

But I found a few gems, too: I did a story Three Kings (a prequel to Sparrows) that I was pretty, well, I wouldn't say ashamed, but I certainly wasn't proud of it. It had awkward storytelling, excessive violence, and no coherent point, and I made it for a class I took at SVA that I hated. But I actually drew a part after the class that was pretty interesting - don't know if I'll ever finish it but I was surprised at how much it looked like a precedent to Consumed. I guess all I was missing was the brush.

This page in particular was pretty cool. I do love to draw birds.

And as I was looking through my old stuff, I was discouraged that I had lost something, but eventually found my favorite photo of myself! I know it's tacky to engage in something so blatantly narcissistic (but certainly not unprecedented here) but this is the photo I'll show to my grandkids (real or imagined) and say: "See, your grandfather wasn't always bent over like a hunchback from all his work at his drafting table, which made it so he couldn't brush his teeth and they fell out, and I couldn't chew meat so my muscles became all withered and structureless, which, subsequently made me unable to get out of the way of that bike messenger, which is why I have this giant scar on my face and neck and back. In fact in my day I was quite the looker!"

A half-Japanese half-Austrian girl named Mikayla took this photo of me five (or maybe six?) years ago for a project. The week after we went for a mambo dance lesson where at the end of the class the instructor danced with her for thirty minutes straight while the only people left in the club were the three of us and the bartender. It probably ranks right alongside the blind lunch date I had that turned into an insurance sales pitch - certainly more emasculating, but perhaps a bit less dull. Nice photo though. Also one of the precious moments where I look serene, as anyone who knows the kind of dedicated intensity I put into everything I care about, comes nowhere near as often as I or the wonderful folks who have to bear with me would like.

I'm coloring the 11th page and it looks a little weird. I have a whole lot to do tomorrow, but cleaning up the color on that page and posting it are a priority. It's a shame, the pencils really do look better than the inks / colors.

2008-04-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

Couple more pages

Startin to come together. No consensus on the color yet, it would appear that people have a wide range of opinions on the subject.

Inked the 11th page, but still have to figure out something for the roads; they should be a darker texture than the rest of the page. gotta figure out how I'm gonna do that.

2008-04-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

Blue Green and Purple

Here's the other two pages:

On the advice of exceptional cartoonist Jason Lutes (and anyone interested in Weimar Germany / great historical fiction should pick up the first book his Berlin trilogy) I'm trying using just one tone, and exploring something other than aqua (which, he says could read as too "tropical" for this story). Here's a light purple:'

And here's green:

need to sleep on these before I figure out how I think. I like that you can see more of the linework, but there's something a little less weighty about the page (another thing to consider - one color might be a lot cheaper for a publisher than two). Speaking of which, gotta print them out - how something looks on screen and how it looks in print can be a substantial difference.

2008-04-22T01:21:00.000-07:00

My Dog Ate It

Had two other pages nearly finished, but my computer froze at an inopportune time. Will post them soon.

Wish I was a real inker - then I'd take that lake in the background in the third panel and work it in black and white tones. Maybe I'll experiment with that if it bothers me too much. I'm learning that a big part of being a ~~--*prolific*--~~ cartoonist is learning when to say f---it.

2008-04-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

More Finishes

Here's the other two pages:

Here's what the pages look like without the color:

Gonna shoot an email and then I think I'll take the rest of the day off. I'd like to get more done this weekend but my back needs a rest.

2008-04-17T23:50:00.000-07:00

Back to Black (and shades of aqua)

It's been a crazy couple of days - some 22 hour days, staying up till 3, drowning in self-doubt and loathing and ultimately reaching a few breakthroughs. There are times in my artistic life when I plateau - I look at things in a different way, take a few chances, and usually learn to expect more from my art and myself. It doesn't happen too often, it's never easy, but I'm grateful for the experience. But like most times, it's conveniently located on one of the fault-lines in my personal life, as figuring out what the hell I'm doing with my life is suddenly becoming a little more urgent.

The catalyst was R. Kikuo Johnson's Night Fisher, which had returned to me after I had lent it out to a friend. Johson is a master draftsman, has an amazing sense of graphic storytelling, and is so proficient at brush inking that he finishes every element of his comic with a brush - even the lettering (just...think about that for a minute). He's an incredible talent. He's also three years my junior.

This prompted a fine "who the hell am I fooling?" echo in my head the whole time I was inking the first of a sample of three pages. Around 6:30 PM of the second day of inking, twelve hours after I had woke up, I looked at this image of Maya hanging from a ladder:

Maya's arms (and face) appeared to be constructed out of some form of instant croissant mix from Pillsbury. I left the house exhausted, thinking I'd get a beer or three at some shithole in Williamsburg. Walking there, I got some sort of cramp in my left hip, which, when combined with my bum left ankle and shoulder made me feel like my body was breaking apart. Instead I grabbed Night Fisher and opted for my local joint, and over a freshly brewed cup of coffee came up with a plan of attack for the next eight hours.

This isn't Leonardo or anything, but it's a vast improvement:

I nearly have the three pages finished, but still have to work out some of the coloring. I'm concerned I'm using the aqua a little too liberally but it really does make the pages "feel" better. This is the only page I have totally done (and of course, I might revisit pieces later):

I only figured out later that my left side problems are attributable to my drafting table's low angle, and as per Gary Martin's fine book on Comic Book Inking, I set a 60 degree angle and it already feels a lot easier on my back.

(an aside: Wouldn't it be great if art instruction manuals were full of practical advice like this? 90% of what you read goes like: Follow all the exercises in order! Draw everything you see! Don't listen to music while you draw! Be a disciplined hardass (presumably, like the author)!!! You read through like forty of these Spartan-isms to finally get to the part where he tells you to put a napkin under your hand to keep the oil from smudging the paper)

Lots of progress. Who knows? Maybe I can show these pages to someone at ComicCon this weekend.

Everyone who knows her think / pray for my sister today-it's her birthday!

2008-04-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

Inkling

Had some modest goals for the weekend - touch up the pencils and get comfortable with my new crow-quill ink pen. I had a negative experience with a crow-quill in high school, but already the crow-quill feels so natural that I'm wondering how I did Consumed with Rapidographs.

Anyways, here's some mark making, all straight lines with the crow-quill, curvy ones with the brush. Not much, but all I needed was to remember how it felt to hold these tools.

Looking forward to inking. It can be kinda nerve-wracking, because it requires a great deal of concentration. But there's a certain moral hazard when I ink digitally; I don't take a lot of care with the lines I lay down because I know I can just undo them. As a result, everything takes longer.

As indie comics legend and misogynist nutcase Dave Sim notes, inking is 90% confidence. And that's exactly what you feel when you're in a groove, and it's kinda infectious. And the brush especially just lays down a beautiful line, which, even when you mess up, manages to look all right.

Going to try and finish two and a half pages tomorrow. Maybe a little ambitious...

8:30 - 10:00 - breakfast, clean up studio, prepare for interview
10:00 - 11:00 - interview, file claim, fill out form
11:00 - 1:00 - first pass ink
1:00 - 2:00 - snack, mon amor
2:00 - 4:00 - second pass
4:00 - 5:00 - break
5:00 - 7:00 - third pass
7:00 - 8:00 - dinner (chicken), call Aaron
8:00 - 9:00 - third pass
9:00 - 12:00 - beer with Aaron, fourth pass

2008-04-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

Pencils Down

Finally got the pencils done tonight. Of course, I'll need to revise a few things (like lenghtening Maya's shorts, re-drawing the level of the trees relative to the water tower to match the spread, making sure Justin's body is consistent) but I can do that this weekend while I get re-acquainted with all of my inking tools.

The double page spread - lot of love went into this. Trees are harder to draw than one would imagine. Unfortunately, you can't really see the faint upper part but it adds a much stronger layer of depth. This will really pop when inked (I hope)

A lesson to all you field marshalls in the nathanschreiber.com militia - keep your studio and especially your tools clean! There's this kind of rubbery thing I typically employ for long curves that I used to draw the water tower, and it had some un-erasable gunk on it that got on my drawing! Fortunately, this gunk kinda looks like the rust on the water tower, so while I wouldn't call it a "happy accident," the damage is limited (you can see it just to the right of Maya and right above the ladder). First thing tomorrow, I'm cleaning up this mess!

It was sunny today (and warm! hooray) so I could take a reference photo for the long shadows on the eleventh page. Note the improvised shorts.

2008-04-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

Tighter

Things look like they're starting to come together. I got really hung up on one panel, and I'm still working on that double page spread on top of the water tower, but the project seems to be taking shape and I'm enjoying the process / results so far.

Got some good advice from my friend Lisette tonight regarding the length of Maya's shorts - she presently looks like quite the saucy little tart. Might just make the shorts a little longer and lengthen the camisole a bit - the character can still ooze sexuality without looking like a 13-year old waitress at Hooter's.

"¿Como se dice "nymphet" en español?"

Like that panel where they're hauling each other up - a little stiff, but background / composition works well, and the sandal flopping helps convey movement

The last page in the sequence is a little light - there's so much detailed perspective that I had to be "careful" with a higher lead. The lower left panel took me more than half a day. Grueling, but I think I got the right feel. I'm going to have to take a good look at my shadow on a sunny day to really nail that third panel.

Have to readjust the schedule - I'd like to set a aside a full week for the inking. I'll focus on finishing / retouching the pencils and getting the dialogue prepped.

10:00 - 12:00 - first pass double page spread
12:00 - 1:00 - snack
1:00 - 3:00 - second pass
3:00 - 4:00 - lunch
4:00 - 6:00 - third pass
6:30 - 8:30 - gym
8:30 - meet up with Vadim / dinner
dialogue

2008-04-07T23:12:00.000-07:00

And I'm an idiot

Once again, I have laid plans that are too ambitious. Looking at my last blog post and the utterly ridiculous schedule I laid out. In two and a half days, I'm supposed to ink eleven pages??? What goes through my head when I make these schedules? I am insane. A professional inker, if he's exceptional, can get three pages done a day. If I can get half done what I've laid out, it'll practically be a miracle.

And speaking of being stupid, I felt like I needed to treat myself at 8:30 tonight...to coffee. So now I'm up way past my schedule - I did get a good amount of penciling done (although not "the overwhelming majority") but now I have to wake up late and eat into tomorrow's cycle. I just took an ambien (which might kick in before I finish posting, so keep your eyes out for anything w a c k y), which occasionally makes me wake up and feel terrible. groan

Still beats makin underwear.

What on earth is going on with Maya's right elbow in that third panel? goodness.

Even though it draws a fair amount of blushes when I show it to people, this is one of my favorite sequences in the book - mostly nonverbal, it's a "coming-of-age" moment for both characters as they realize the hazards of intimacy and realize their own capability to hurt someone they are close to. I'm also proud because it looks believable enough but I don't have any incriminating reference.

2008-04-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

Building Grit

There was a pretty interesting article in the times last week defining willpower as a muscle you can build over time. As you can imagine, this sort of celebration of discipline is like cotton-candy colored crack to me, and I'm already brushing my teeth with my left hand. I'm going to try and view my work schedule similar to how someone trains for a marathon. I certainly need to stretch more frequently, but would like to get to a point where I can sit at my desk and draw or ink in a highly focused manner for somewhere between four and six hours straight.

Was home this weekend visiting my niece and parents and also took some reference photos for Power Out. The water tower exists, and I can see how I was enamored with it as a pugnacious lad. Exhilarating and terrifying.

must........not...........die

Will have to risk life and limb again on a non-overcast day when the leaves are in bloom.

Lots lots lots I want to get done this week.

MONDAY
clean studio, taxes, laundry, get overwhelming majority of pencils done

7:30 - 8:30 - shower, breakfast (bagel, oatmeal, juice)
8:30 - 10:00 - clean studio
10:00 - 12:30 - laundry, taxes, correspondence (Oliveros, Mazz, Melody)
12:30 - 2:30 - first pass at drawing, apple
2:30 - 3:30 - lunch (eggs, bagel) walk, reference photos
3:30 - 6:00 - second pass
6:00 - 7:45 - buy groceries, dinner (green beans, rice)
7:45 - 9:45 - third pass
9:45 - 10:00 - scan finished pages, break
10:00 - 11:00 - scan, blog, dialogue
11:00 - daily show

TUESDAY
Practice inking with a brush and crow-quill, finish taxes, pencils

7:30 - 8:30 - shower, breakfast
8:30 - 10:00 - finish tightened pencils
10:00 - 12:00 - practice inking with crow quill and brush, scan
12:00 - 2:00 - first pass at inking
2:00 - 3:00 - lunch, walk
3:00 - 6:00 - second pass
6:00 - 7:30 - buy groceries, dinner (green beans, rice)
7:30 - 9:30 - third pass
9:30 - 9:45 - break
9:45 - 11:00 - dialogue, scan, blog
11:00 - daily show
11:30 - plan going away party

WEDNESDAY
inking

7:30 - 8:30 - shower, breakfast
8:30 - 12:00 - inking first pass
12:00 - 1:30 - break, snack, walk
1:30 - 5:30 - second pass
5:30 - 7:00 - dinner, walk, errands
7:00 - 9:30 - inking last pass
9:30 - 9:45 - break, scan
9:45 - 11:00 - dialogue, scan, blog
11:00 - daily show
11:30 - 12:00 - correspondence

THURSDAY
finish inking, digital retouches

7:30 - 8:30 - shower, breakfast
8:30 - 12:00 - finish inks
12:00 - 1:30 - scan, snack, walk
1:30 - 4:30 - digital touchups, add ruled lines
4:30 - 8:30 - gym, dinner, shower - dinner, walk, errands
8:30 - 11:00 - dialogue, blog
11:00 - daily show
11:30 - 12:00 - correspondence

FRIDAY

7:30 - 8:30 - shower, breakfast
8:30 - 11:15 - finish up anything that has rolled over
11:15 - 1:30 - lunch
1:30 - 4:00 - character designs
4:00 - ?? - ???

2008-04-03T19:05:00.000-07:00

Tightening Up

Been working on tightening up the pencils before inking them - I've done a good amount of work on the eleven page sequence but these are the only two pages that are ready for ink:

Looking at these, I realize I need to change Justin's eye in that fifth panel. He's nervous, but he shouldn't like like he's shitting his pants.

Going to go home this weekend and get some references. I've been drawing some trees from photographs, but it's just not the same. Looking forward to the leaves coming out soon.

2008-04-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

Brush with Ok-Ness, no chicken

They weren't selling those $3.25 whole chickens at the Associate (three bucks! It's a whole roasted chicken!) so I had to get roast beef. Other than that, though, I've been following the schedule I set out on Monday pretty well.

I used a light table with a blown up copy of the roughs and just inked without any pencil lines underneath. It looks a little raw, but it may have convinced me that I need to use a brush for inking. It just feels right, especially given the tone of the story. I forgot how quick it is, too - Consumed just took a long time (two pages a week) for a lot of reason but a big part were because I used rapidographs, which just totally suck. This time, I might be able to just use a computer for any work unsuitable for a brush. I might also buy another sable-hair (like, a windsor series seven number 1, as opposed to my trusty #2) to help with the smaller stuff - as you can see, any time things get tight it looks blah.

Here's the original roughs:

And here's the inks:

I might just take the roughs and lightly trace them and work out any problem areas with the pencil. Ideally, I want a system that allows me to finish 2-3 pages a day. But one thing I gotta prepare the legions of die-hard nathanschreiber.com fans for is that this might not be the best looking work I've ever done. I'm hoping I can really nail down a more minimal style that works, but I can't do anything super-detailed or elaborate - this thing is almost 150 pages!!

2008-03-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

Revisions

Tired! Revised some pages tonight - came up with some pretty good stuff, like this one where Justin and Maya kiss for the first time:

Here's a shot of them walking through an isolated suburban neighborhood - I really like the super-overhead shot with them on the bottom.

And here's my attempt to make Justin's sudden attempt at wood carving in the book a little less unexpected. It also gives me an opportunity draw a bird and some birth imagery (hooray!). Oh, and the bottom two pages are the first, the upper right one is last, and there's just some random stuff in the upper left.

Didn't get to inking. Tomorrow, tomorrow.

2008-03-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Back at it

I've had a wonderful week, hosting and enjoying a city I love but will leave soon. Close friends and limited time tend to foster perspective, and a reminder of what's important. Assessing where I'm at in this current story and where I need to go, I am determined to have a productive week.

I have a whole lot to do in the coming month - my taxes, moving out, and investing enough time for an appropriate farewell to a place I've called home for four years. I also want to create a "packaged" version of Power Out to send to the Center for Cartoon Studies, hopefully improving my chances at their half-tuition scholarship. This will include a printed out thumbnail of the entire comic with balloons for dialogue, character design sheets and descriptions, a brief summary of the plot, and a sample of around 10 or 12 pages. Such focused ambitions have previously been aided by a certain personal asceticism that reminds me every time I look in the mirror that I'm fucking serious dammit! but I might have to hold off until my sister's wedding. It's going to be interesting figuring out how I want this book to look, and will actually try a little ink (like, black liquid stuff in a bottle that I apply with a brush) on some roughs tomorrow.

There's so much to be done this week! This might require more planning than usual.

MONDAY

Get Ready, Finish Roughs, Back to Brush Inking

7:30 - 8:30 - shower, bandage ankle, breakfast - oatmeal, psyllium, tea, cereal, OJ
8:30 - 10:00 - make list of pages I need to redo, pick two pages to ink, print pages and put them up on wall
10:00 - 12:00 - clean up studio, get out inking materials
12:00 - 2:00 - mini-roughs of added / redone pages
2:00 - 3:00 - lunch - apples w/ peanut butter, buy bananas, and fruit
3:00 - 6:00 - drawn versions of redone pages
6:00 - 7:00 - clean up closet with tax information, find 2007 forms
7:00 - 8:30 - Casa Mon Amour for dinner
8:30 - 10:30 - ink page with brush
10:30 - 11:00 - correspondence
11:00 - 11:30 - Daily Show
11:30 - 12:00 - blog

bed by midnight

TUESDAY

Start Taxes, Digital Inking, Gym

7:30 - 8:30 - shower, breakfast
8:30 - 10:00 - pick out good scenes for character design, find reference
10:00 - 12:00 - online tax forms, change / file claim
12:00 - 2:00 - digital inking
2:00 - 3:00 - break
3:00 - 5:00 - digital inking
5:00 - 7:30 - gym
7:30 - 9:00 - dinner (smoothie, chicken with green beans)
9:00 - 10:30 - start entering dialogue into pages
10:30 - 11:00 - correspondence
11:00 - 11:30 - Daily Show
11:30 - 12:00 - blog

WEDNESDAY

Finish taxes, character designs, brush inking

7:30 - 8:30 - breakfast
8:30 - 10:00 - draw character designs
10:00 - 12:00 - finish taxes, clean studio, correspondence
12:00 - 2:00 - inking, brush work on sample pages
2:00 - 3:00 - lunch
3:00 - 6:00 - brush inking of sample pages, character designs
6:00 - 7:00 - correspondence
7:00 - 8:30 - dinner, buy food
8:30 - 10:30 - enter dialogue into pages
10:30 - 11:00 - correspondence
11:00 - 11:30 - Daily Show
11:30 - 12:00 - blog

THURSDAY

Start Sample pages, Gym

7:30 - 8:30 - shower, breakfast
8:30 - 10:00 - pick out sequence for sample pages
10:00 - 12:00 - rule out paper for sample pages, dishes, housework, errands
12:00 - 2:00 - start drawing roughs for all pages
2:00 - 3:00 - break
3:00 - 5:00 - next pass
5:00 - 7:30 - gym
7:30 - 9:00 - dinner (casa mon amour)
9:00 - 10:30 - third pass
10:30 - 11:00 - correspondence
11:00 - 11:30 - Daily Show
11:30 - 12:00 - blog

FRIDAY
7:30 - 8:30 - shower, breakfast
8:30 - 11:30 - make first draft of "package"
11:30 - 2:30 - lunch, Jim Handley's
2:30 - 5:00 - drawing at Dean & DeLuca
5:00 - ? - ????

I got a Mozart double CD and a New Pornographer's album - new music always makes it easier to stay at your desk.

2008-03-27T22:43:00.000-07:00

My beer with Mike Huckabee

The following story is completely false. There is absolutely nothing remotely true, nor is their any attempt to convey anything closely resembling truth. In fact, the very intention of the following story is to create a fabrication about a public persona, something that I believe our media does every day.

I eagerly marched into the candle-lit bar exactly on time, but my friend - who I'd never met yet had grown to love - was already seated at a stool, cocking his head with raised, bushy eyebrows when I walked through the door. Turning his body towards me and resting his elbow on the bar, he flashed a warm, toothy smile my way.

This was it. I was finally going to have a beer with Mike Huckabee.

He placed a firm hand on my back, and I bashfully looked down at the bar, too overwhelmed by emotion to meet his compassionate gaze. "So, how are you man?"

Two hours before our meeting I was curled in the fetal position on a filthy bath mat while an assortment of stimulants and depressants fought to stave off a nasty episode of self-loathing. But when Mike Huckabee puts his hand on your back, the fact that he's asking - hell, that he even cares - how you're doing engenders only one kind of response.

"Great, man." I looked up with a delicate smile and wounded eyes. "I'm doing great."

He smiled and closed his eyes, pausing briefly. I imagined him digesting my pain, breaking it down into its basic components and reducing it to soft, warm light that danced in his stomach. But neither of us could, or had any desire, to continue so sentimentally, and I was grateful when he lowered his head, interlocked his fingers, and asked:

"So - what are you drinking?"

It didn't matter, of course, but I took a quick look at the tap. "Uhhh, a pale ale would be kinda nice..."

"I was thinking exactly the same thing. Bartender!" he ordered with a firmness that betrayed no arrogance. "Two of the Boddington's!"

The glowing amber nearly spilled over the rim of our glasses, and we raised them slowly. For an instant, our pinched eyes met. "Cheers." Huckabee pulled the glass close to his nose and rapturously smelled with closed eyes, the tiny pool of beer rippling slightly while his shoulders rose with the inflating of his chest. He kissed the glass softly, sipping at first, his mouth widening as he took increasingly larger and louder gulps. I was so fixated that I hadn't even realized that my own glass was nearly half-finished. He swallowed and lowered his pint.

"Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhh."

Wasting no time, he picked up his glass again and looked at me slyly. "God's work here on earth." He proceeded to drink his pint of ale as if there was nobody else in the room, or anything more relevant in the entire world. Watching the glass slowly tip further upward and seeing his Adam's apple rise and drop, I came to a revelation: I didn't just want to have a beer with Mike Huckabee. I wanted to get completely fucking shitfaced with Mike Huckabee, to the point where something violent, shameful, and regrettable could be appropriately forgiven.

"Bartender! Two double's of Maker's Mark. And another round of Boddington's!"

"You sure this is where you want to go?" Huckabee asked coyly, unable to hide his gratitude.

I was so full of anticipation and doubts about my own self-worth that I had no response except for an eager smile.

After downing the whiskey, the night quickly devolved, and my recollection of this part is hazy at best. A few strangers bought us drinks, and I had a passionate discussion about education in Arkansas. More drinks. Mike's arms raised, screaming "I'M MIKE FUCKIN' HUCKABEE!!!" We're at another bar (or maybe just the basement?) I think his shirt came off - the circular pattern of hair on his chest and stomach strikes one exactly as you would imagine it. I throw a stool against a window, but it doesn't break. I'm bawling my eyes out and apologizing while Mike is pleading with the bouncer to let me stay. Then we're both outside in the cold, and he hails me a cab.

"We'll do it again, sometime, I promise." I knew it was a lie, but accepted it immediately, knowing that despite some minor regrets, I'd fondly remember that night for the rest of my life.

2008-03-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

I bleed in beige

Been obsessed with the Pavement song "Cream of Gold" today.

I met up with two of the most talented people I know to get some feedback on my story - Tim, who expressed concerns that the story was overly sentimental, and Nicole, who gave me a little insight on how 12 year old girls make out.

Not exactly sure where to go now - there are scenes I definitely want to revamp, so I guess I can redo and add and revise pages, but I also want to start really working out how this final book is going to look. I'm looking through the roughs and figuring out which images I'm firmly committed to and making final versions of them in ink. Hopefully, I can come up with something that captures the energy of the initial roughs while adding the necessary detail to tell the story.

Here's a few sketches I made at my favorite coffee place in Manhattan:

2008-03-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

"...it's all over now."

Never was a less true statement made. It is, however, the last line in the comic's rough draft, which turned out to be - craziness of all craziness - 138 pages: the exact amount I predicted before I started.

I must confess to a certain degree of smugness - I love the ending, it tightly wraps up all the loose ends I deem important, and is pretty funny. I had tried another ending out first - Carrie's (Justin's sister) diary entries explaining all the changes she'd seen in Justin (and a brief glance into what happened to her during the power out) but it over explained things, and was grossly sentimental for a story that included corpses, masturbation, and arson. I confess that I don't ever explain why the power out happened, how the power came back on, or how the family gets reunited. I consider these "plot holes" kinda irrelevant, as the story is about Justin's own journey of self-discovery.

Anyhow, I posted this one a little bigger so maybe you can read some of the dialogue.

Next step - tweaking the parts that need work, cutting out the excess and figuring out how this thing is going to look!

2008-03-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

End is Near

These eight pages represent the climax / finale, but I still have to think of a proper denouement. Couple ideas, hopefully I put something up tomorrow and can work and rework it later.

2008-03-21T00:13:00.000-07:00

Talkity talkity talkity

Lot of dialogue on these pages - or considerably more than the rest of the book, which contains more pages without dialogue than with(69 to 58 so far and a lot of those pages just have a couple of words).

I tend to be a person that thinks that comics and dialogue don't really get along because of that bizarre "desperation device" known as a word balloon: they take up WAY too much space for a medium so dependent on composition (these are static images!), they can mess around with how you position your characters (the character who speaks first usually has to be on the left), and when I open a spread with a LOT of text, my first instinct is to just flip the page. (It's like, what am I reading?? A book?)

This is not to say that there aren't a lot of great comics with a lot of dialogue, or that there aren't clever and inspiring tricks to get around these problems. The fundamental problem is, you have a visual medium and you need space to convey sound. There's a reason why comics don't become stage plays and vice versa.

But, it was fun to write these scenes, particularly with the quirky characters that inhabit Justin's abandoned town. Might be the funniest parts of the book.

2008-03-20T00:09:00.000-07:00

Small Town Apocalypse

Here's a part I've been excited about ever since I started the project: Justin walks through his deserted town after everybody has left on convoys to places with power. If you've ever been somewhere and imagined it as a set for a movie, you can understand the satisfaction in casting my quaint home town as a setting for a quiet apocalypse.

Incidentally, been listening to classical music lately. Noticing I'm considerably more productive.

I don't care what your politics are, you need to listen to this speech. It's downright shocking to hear a politician speak so frankly about race.

2008-03-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

And now things get weird

Feel a little ill tonight - I've been undereating lately, and overcompensated tonight. Ugh.

This is right in the middle of the longest stretch of the book without dialogue - maybe 25 pages? - and has more than one surreal turn. The end of the book - which is the next part - gets a little apocalyptic. Gotta finish this up soon, though, I'm already well past 100 pages.

Met up with Paul Karasik on Friday so he could add his signature to Mazzucchelli's on my copy of City of Glass, which is in my humble opinion the best comic ever made. Karasik had some interesting comments on my artwork - I gave him a copy of the The Glacier which he initially told me looked great but when I showed him my roughs for Power Out he seemed much more impressed.

Paul was at the book store representing the Center for Cartoon Studies with a students Sean Ford and Alex Kim, and I voiced a concern about the computer facilities there, which simply put, are sub-par for an MFA program. Karasik then contributed the improvement in my artwork to its non-digital method of creation, claiming that computers were robbing my work of vitality.

I was skeptical - after all, roughs nearly ALWAYS have more energy than finished work which requires far more consistency, detail, and the demands of reproduction. But then I looked at a comparison between a page from Consumed, which I inked with a brush, and a page from the Glacier, and it does seem that there's something "magic" that the brush brings. This page feels like it has a lot of life in it, but it makes me wonder if I inked it with a brush whether it would have even more. Using a computer is very efficient, which is vital when making time consuming work like comics. Still, there are advantages to using a brush, too, not least of which is that you can display (and sell) your finished artwork a lot easier. A lot to consider after I finish the roughs and I figure out how I want the book to look.

On an encouraging note, the students told me Jason Lutes would be full-time faculty at the school next year. Besides being a great guy who probably gave me the best interview of my life, I've just finished the first installment of Berlin and can say with confidence he's one of the top cartoonists working today.

2008-03-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

Gotta finish roughs this week!

GOAL - 16 pages

8:00 - 9:00 - breakfast: toast, cereal, OJ, tea
9:00 - 11:00 - mini-roughs
11:00 - 11:30 - two pages
11:30 - 12:45 - make copies, buy roast beef, outmeal
12:45 - 2:00 - roughs
2:00 - 3:00 - break, smoothie, pita with hummus
3:00 - 6:00 - roughs
6:00 - 8:00 - news hour, dinner: roast beef with red peppers, chips
8:00 - 9:30 - roughs
9:30 - 10:00 - blog

Music: St. Germaine, This is Nowhere, Menomena, MM

2008-03-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

"He said he wants to focus."

"bofus?"

Anyone who knows the setup for that joke gets a gold star.

No Power Out today, did some figure drawing with some old friends in the Bronx.

Nice to draw a wrinkly face after spending so much time drawing these perfectly tight skinned teenagers! There is also something deeply satisfying about making a person who is not by conventional wisdom attractive a work of art - reminds you it's all in the way you look at things.

Anyhow, a host of very exciting distractions, from elections to video game controllers shaped like guitars and everything in between have taken the wheels off the Nathan-bus' momentum. Anyone who knows me knows my patented way to get back on track - obsessive hour-based planning!

FRIDAY

7:30 - 8:30 - breakfast: OJ, toast, cereal, tea; send transcripts
8:30 - 10:00 - finish mini-roughs
10:00 -10:15 - break, dishes, water
10:15 - 12:30 - roughs first round
12:30 - 1:00 - snack (raisins / peanuts)
1:00 - 2:30 - roughs second round
2:30 - 3:15 - lunch (egg bagel sandwich, chips, tea), call Grant about book
3:15 - 5:00 - coffee shop midtown, new mini roughs
5:00 - 7:00 - meet Karasik at Handley's, get food
7:00 - 9:00 - coffee shop round II, finish next round of mini roughs

9:-- -? whatever

Bed by 1:00

MUSIC
First Shins Album
Cuban Linx
After Goldrush
Amelie Theme
Power Out mix
Grant Mix

2008-03-11T23:20:00.000-07:00

Hot Teen Action (and death)

It's late (the posting time it says on the bottom is always three hours earlier than the real time) so forgive the sparse commentary.

Mini-roughs:

Biggie-roughs:

Remind me to pat myself on the back for designing Maya with those long-ass bangs (or whatever you call it when women have that hair in front of their face). They're so fun to draw!

2008-03-10T22:33:00.000-07:00

S P R E A D

I'm gonna try and finish all the roughs by the end of this week. Think I can do it.

This one has my first double page spread - it was a challenge to time right, but I think its pretty cool.

Mini-roughs:

Biggie-roughs:

I like the way this interaction between Justin and Maya works, but fear it might be a little too cliché. I figure there's enough twists (it's usually a woman in the role of being surprised, and there's a significant communication barrier) that its fresh. I'll have to re-examine it later, but I think it works for now.

and here's the spread:

And I know I talk about politics every once in a while here, and I don't want to really make it about anything other than making comics. But a lot of people are comparing Obama to JFK, and I don't think people really grasp JFK's legacy. This is a really important video and I think it clarifies JFK's role in American History, for better or worse.

2008-03-07T22:52:00.000-08:00

Of Roughs and Mini-Roughs

So I've started to make a rough of my roughs. A lot of artists would call these drawings "thumbnails" but I'm going with "mini-roughs." One sounds like a hard and sharp part of your body you routinely trim off, the other sounds like a treat you'd feed a dog.

What makes a mini-rough so appetizing is you can focus purely on storytelling: you lay the page out, pick the shot, subject, and frame. This allows me to focus more on composition and detail in the next stage. The results so far have been pretty good - I've gotten better looking roughs. Some might even be good enough to ink over - that could save considerable time. The mini-roughs do take a long time, but the larger versions are much much shorter - and you don't have to redo them.

So heres some mini-roughs I did today, followed by their "un-mini" version:

Mom, check out the sleeping position in the bottom left page. Look familiar?

2008-03-06T19:50:00.000-08:00

Hey I'm blogging again

Sorry for the hiatus - went to Rhode Island to campaign for Obama, but I'm back now and ready to work on the book.

51 Pages into the roughs, they are starting to come easier. I'm currently at an interesting stretch of the book: roughly 20 pages without dialogue. When you start getting more visual, an utterly unique aspect of comics becomes more apparent - page breaks. There's a rhythm to the suspense of a page break, because when a reader flips the page, for a brief instant, they're going to see where the story's going on both new pages. So, you usually want to put the tension on the lower right hand part of the spread and your "reveals" on the subsequent page's upper left hand corner. I couldn't imagine how important this principle would be in a horror story, where tension and revealing information are the trade. I'd give you an example, but I have to try and at least spare some spoilers.

Nice page I did today. Justin's in the woods.

Totally unrelated, but important: does anyone realize that there's a war brewing in South America??? I understand we have an exciting election, but this story hasn't even cracked the front page of the New York Times, and it's been at least two days! There's been military action between U.S.-backed Columbia and Venezuelan-backed Ecuador. This could get ugly!

2008-03-01T20:11:00.000-08:00

Rough Patch

Not cruising along as fast as I'd like - I guess the story is hitting a part with a lot less dialogue and more action. It gets a little harder to figure out a scene or a page when you have a clear idea but don't have any dialogue for exposition.

Here's a scene where Justin and Maya climb a tree is his backyard. Maya feels adventurous, and stands up on the branch, but falls forward, and ends up clutching Justin's upper thigh tensely and opening hinting at a reservoir of sexual tension. Maya's mom calls her down, Justin watches her and turns his attention to the town he can see in the distance.

Hopefully this'll all be clear when there's ink on there.

I'm going to campaign in Rhode Island tomorrow - hoping I can get some drawing done on the bus but we'll see. If I can't get any blogging done there, I'll see you Wednesday!

2008-02-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

The Future

Here's my essay for my grad school application. The topic was "The Future" - I took a personal approach. Worried that it's not cohesive enough, but I can still revise it.

"So, what do you see yourself doing in the next five, ten years?"

It was a standard interview question.

"Well, my real passion has always been making comics. But realistically speaking, that isn't something I can support myself, or somewhere down the road, a family, doing. So my plan is to work at a job" - I certainly didn't say pursue a career - "like this while pursuing comics in my free time."

"This" was a job designing prints and graphics for a company specializing in women's underwear. I had just finished college, and it felt like the perfect solution for an artistically inclined person like myself. I'd be working in an "art-related" field, and I could make money but still have enough time for my own creative pursuits. On top of that, when I introduced myself to people, I had a funny conversation-starter.

So it was not with a heavy sigh but an enthusiastic grin that I accepted the offer. The heavy sighing, of course, came afterwards. Spending two or more after-work hours a night working on comics left me exhausted, but failed to deliver the kind of progress I needed for encouragement. Breaks between these personal projects focused my attention on what I was doing with the bulk of my time - covering midwestern girl's asses with uninspired graphics in an office where my only ambition was to escape.

The "realistic" box I put over my field of vision precluded anything drastic. My anxious, undirected desperation expressed itself audibly with the frequent and involuntary under-my breath muttering "I can't wait till..." with the object of my impatience left noticeably absent. It was a vague promise of a future perfect, unweighed by the burdens of unrealistic objectives. Unspoken, because articulation could reveal the dream as illusion, and I simply wouldn't know how to recover.

Let's be blunt: making comics is hard. Beyond the formidable technical challenges is the staggering volume of time the process requires - so much so that a dedicated project effectively prevents one from earning other income. I've heard and read that making both comics and money aren't mutually exclusive, but I have yet to figure out a way to reconcile the two. As a hero of mine, Scott McCloud, once told me, a large cheese pizza distinguishes itself from a cartoonist by its ability to feed a family of four.

This was hardly news when I heard it. I was quite determined to create comics when I was twelve, and spent a lot of time drawing and occasionally writing one-page comics starring a ninja called "The Stealth." I was aware that my skills were lacking but had a certain optimism that with a little time and dedication I would be the next Todd McFarlane. But just a few years after my interest in comics began, I had what felt like a moment of clarity. Waiting for my mother in the mini-van at the college campus where she worked, I realized that my natural academic gifts suited me for an ultimately more stable career doing...I don't know, really, something, but it was a lot more practical, made a lot more money, and was something I was a hell of a lot better at than making comics. Fifteen and looking forward, I embraced reality.

It's been a rocky relationship ever since. Even though I pursued degrees in Economics (which I was great at) and Computer Science (which was practical and would impress my father), my true passion in college was cartooning. When graduation came, I courted reality again for two years until quitting rather spontaneously to pursue my first full-lengthed comic, Consumed, until the fears of reality gnawed at me again and I got another underwear job. But this time, reality, fearing a lack of commitment, broke it off first. I got laid off in early January, and I struggle to think of a better thing that has ever happened to me.

Take my word on this: there is an endless supply of underwear jobs, and I'm not cut out for any of them. Relieved of this burden, I spend my current days making comics. Perhaps that was supposed to happen in some idealistic, reality-divorced future. But that was the problem with my conservative notion of "reality": Spring followed Winter, and I could only get there by hoarding enough acorns. But there's never enough nuts, Winter is always on the horizon, and problems don't just have one solution. Maybe I could just move someplace warmer.

Which is hardly what I'd be doing in White River Junction. The climate, however looks perfect for someone who has accepted the utterly unpractical but deeply rewarding lifestyle of a cartoonist. I can't wait to meet you all there.

2008-02-27T23:15:00.000-08:00

I Like It Rough

Still making roughs - this really is the fun part of the process. I'm almost concerned that if I'm only focused on the illustration later, it could get very tedious. But hypothetically, it'll make that process faster, and every aspect of the project more coherent, so there's a lot to gain.

It's interesting going from script to images, characters take on entirely different attitudes and persona. Justin's sister has changed in the script to kind of a simple brat to a complicated, compassionate, and vulnerable young woman. Sometimes I think this is arbitrary - there's a certain space in the panel or you ate something for lunch and you end up drawing a character in a position that reveals something. It's pretty cool; I guess it's kind of like having an actor interpret a scripted character.

I finished roughs for the first of three "acts" - I originally projected the first chapter would be 38 pages and it has come close, at 31. If this trend continues, the story might go beyond 100 pages.

Here's two cool sequences I really like - the first "meeting cute" page between the sullen, insulated boy and the not-so-typical (or American) girl next door.

I have to confess, this whole project is just my attempt to retrieve Skip-It™ from yesterdecade's ether.

I liked this one because its a good visual juxtaposition and expression of the theme. You have electric power under the natural solar power of the sun, and then completely blackness, before Justin is revealed to be opening the garage door. Power, out.

2008-02-26T21:49:00.001-08:00

Tired.....

This is all you get tonight

2008-02-25T20:42:00.000-08:00

Lets Make Some Comics

I've written the rough draft, and now comes the really interesting part. In between writing the script and illustrating the final panels is the strange alchemy of half writing / half drawing, that essentially, is making comics. You pick the shots, place the word balloons, decide what and what not to show on each page and panel. It's probably the most challenging part of the job, and certainly the most interesting.

I think it's going to be shorter than the 138 I projected yesterday - maybe around 100? Still going to be a while and a few revisions before I get a hard number.

In the spirit of creating the gestalt, I've even started a makeshift cover and logo. Of course these will evolve, but I like the aesthetic, and dare I say it, love the simple logo.

2008-02-24T21:09:00.000-08:00

The Rents

This is more or less my dad, but with a little extra gut:

Hope he's flattered, but my father just happened to fit into the "dorky-cute" profile of the character.

For the mom, she's a stern, assertive, but compassionate cross between my friend's mom and Hillary Clinton:

Did a rough estimate of how many pages the story was going to be - came up with 138. Yikes! Gotta figure out a way to cut down the pages or draw a lot faster. Maybe both.

Some interesting trends already though - the dialogue is quite sparse, and there's a roughly 30 page section without any. Also, about half of the dialogue is in Spanish.

MONDAY

8:30 - 10:00 - environment design - house, bedroom, props
10:00 - 12:00 - file claim, organize portfolio, correspondence, essay
12:00 - 3:00 - revise script, create loose breakdowns, snack
3:00 - 4:00 - lunch
4:00 - 6:00 - breakdowns, environment design
6:00 - 9:00 - gym, dinner, shower
9:00 - 11:00 - scan, ink, blog

2008-02-23T20:53:00.000-08:00

I went out into the night, I went out to find some light

Here's Mrs. Gardiner, a minor character who plays a major role:

2008-02-22T19:48:00.000-08:00

My sad, emotive ladies

Couple nice portraits - I feel like I finally nailed Maya - it's a shame it took this "sad" look to pull it off, cause there's only one point in the story where she gets down. But I think I like the hair this way.

And here's Justin's sister Carrie, looking concerned.

I'm going to go on one more inking spree tomorrow, to finish up everything in my sketchbook, and then I need to get on a writing kick - breaking this down into pages, seeing how long this thing is going to be (I've been telling people it could be anywhere between 50-100 pages).

SATURDAY

9:00 - 12:00 - inking
12:00 - 2:00 - walk to Williamsburg, edit story and breakdowns
2:00 - 4:30 - gym, shower, lunch / dinner
4:30 - 7:00 - environment designs (neighborhood, another wood scene, water tower, home interior)
7:00 - ? - Zak's birthday

2008-02-21T22:12:00.001-08:00

Fresh Cuts

Cut myself on some glass tonight. Lucky for me, it only happened on my RIGHT INDEX FINGER.

Something I imagine I have in common with a musician, or anyone who's livelihood rests on their fingers, is that any sort of injury to my hand freaks me the hell out. One bad spill, and you feel like everything'd be over. Hopefully, these'll be mostly healed by tomorrow.

Trying aqua on blue. Think its nice.

A revised Maya head. Not exactly where it needs to be yet, but less cartoonish, more identifiably hispanic and more 12 year-old.

She's a pretty fun character to draw:) Here's Justin's popular and social butterfly sister Carrie.

Can't ignore the enviornment - wooden small town new england suburb. Here's where they live:

And this is probably the jewel of the day, Justin walking through a wood. I definitely need to earn my "wilderness-drawing" chops but this is a nice start.

Tomorrow's friday - not like weekdays mean anything anymore!

8:30 - breakfast
9:00 - 10:00 - environment design, Justin character design
10:00 - 11:00 - organize portfolio, clean studio, e-mail
11:00 - 12:00 - inking
12:00 - 1:30 - snack, finish second draft
1:30 - 3:30 - environment design, cul-de-sac, justin's parents, home backgrounds
3:30 - 6:00 - inking
6:00 - 8:00 - gym
8:00 - ? - ?

2008-02-20T21:26:00.000-08:00

The stars of the show

Introducing head shots of the stars of the (hopefully) wonderful story you're about to see being created on this page:

the main character - Justin, a 14-year old an introverted sort, who like many characters in coming-of-age-stories, undergoes a transformation:

And here's Maya, in many ways Justin's opposite, who enjoys engaging with the world. She's a little crazy, but in the ways a lot of twelve year old girls are.

Not as satisfied with this head - not sure if she looks twelve. Also, going to darken the hair, to clarify that she is hispanic and give more weight to her overall composition. I have to fall in love with this character if I expect my readers to as well.

Surprisingly, the sketch of Maya looks a lot better in my notebook than the former of Justin. That's one of the reasons why you need to do finished work in this beginning stage - a cartoonist can fall into the trap of drawing something that doesn't lend itself to inking if you don't give your sketch the necessary "reality check.".

These colors are just experiments - I'm probably going to go with something much more conservative, most likely black and one (or maybe...two) color(s).

I might show some sketches tomorrow, just to prove that I'm doing considerably more than I'm showing you!

music - new order, clipse, old nirvana, Ironman

THURSDAY

8:00 - 10:00 - ink
10:00 - 11:00 - dishes, clean up kitchen, random errands
11:00 - 12:00 - ink
12:00 - 3:00 - snack, environment and character design
3:00 - 4:45 - finish second draft
5:00 - 10:00 - out, friends, Lost, primary debates, food
10:00 - 11:30 - ink
11:30 - blog

2008-02-19T20:30:00.000-08:00

Back to Blog

I'm going to start blogging every day again. Don't know for how long, but possibly considerably longer than I did before. Also, I might miss a day or two more frequently, but who are you to complain? You're getting this shit for free.

Just teasing you tonight though - an nice nude I did at a figure drawing session last week and the first finished character design from my new comic, tentatively (I almost always switch the title) called Power Out.

Music: Shins WTNA, WNYC, B2B, MIA, old RZA,After the GOldrush, silverJews, Wowwee Zowee, New Order)

TOMORROW
7:30 - breakfast (toast, cereal, OJ, milk, tea)
8:00 - 10:00 - environment designs
10:00 - 12:00 errands
-email Perri, email Mike
-call NYDL
-file claim
-clean studio / kitchen
-put Glacier in InDesign
-make folder of portfolio items
-prepare snack, tea
12:00 - 3:00 - more environment design (trees), character designs
3:00 - 3:30 - walk outside, buy bagels, prepare food
3:30 - 6:00 - finish second draft, write essay
6:00 - 8:30 - gym, shake, shower
8:30 - inking - 11:00 - inking
11:00 - 11:30 - blogging

2008-02-14T09:23:00.000-08:00

Another Snowman Robot Comic

This one's by Felix Tannenbaum - check it out!

check it out here