More crowd scenes, part of the reason why I’m so slow with posts these days. For my next storyline, There will be just two people in an empty white room.

(I’ve also gone in and made a few changes to the stylesheet, and some very subtle design modifications to the last few comic installments.)

Next Time: Tragedy

A Spirou and Fantasio adventure: Le journal d’un ingenu by Emile Bravo. Recently the folks at The Comics Reporter posted this more detailed review. This book caused quite a sensation when it first appeared in Europe and received high acclaim. It celebrates time-honored traditions of Franco-Belgian comics with wit, humanity, rich historical detail, and more than a few ‘easter eggs’ for fans.  It’s also beautifully drawn. I’m really grateful to my pal Tom who was visiting Europe a month ago and found this, since it’s not readily available in the USA, despite the magic of the internets. I haven’t heard of any plans to translate this book into English, or what the chances are for an American distributor.

Spirou is one of the widely recognized and beloved characters of Franco-Belgian comics, although he began as something of a Tintin rip-off. Like Tintin, Spirou is a world-traveling youngster with a distinctive haircut and a knack for stumbling into adventures filled with intrigue, dastardly villains, and narrow escapes. Unlike Tintin, The Spirou series has had a number of different creators over the years, who had the freedom to expand the cast of characters and take the stories in their own imaginative directions. This was especially the case during Andre Franquin‘s tenure, whose books are among the most cherished of the series, offering some of the liveliest artwork and compelling stories I’ve seen in comics anywhere.

Journal d'un ingenu by Emil Bravo

Emile Bravo’s  Le journal d’un ingenu is part of a new series of of Spirou books which break the continuity of earlier stories while retaining the original characters, and introduce real historical events as central themes in the story. (I’m not keen on using words like re-boot, and I don’t think this is necessarily the case) This particular story has cast young Spirou as a porter in a fancy hotel during the weeks before the outbreak of World War II.

If you’re a fan of  Asterix or Yves Chaland, I strongly encourage you to check this new series of Spirou Adventures. The ‘classic’ Spirou books are also recommended, particularly those drawn by the great Franquin. Go to Europe and find these books if you can, or ask a friend in Europe to get them for you; you won’t be disappointed.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, the folks at Fantagraphics books have won my deepest respect by printing translated editions of the great French cartoonist Jacques Tardi. So far I’ve had the pleasure of reading You are There and It was the War of the Trenches. Tardi’s distinctive illustrations are always very detailed, favoring clean outlines and large areas of solid black. He applies the same style whether he’s doing genre fiction (particularly crime stories), supernatural adventures, or war stories.

You Are There (Ici Même), written by Jean-Claude Forest (of Barbarella fame) and illustrated by Tardi, reads like a fever-dream political allegory. Political intrigue and sexual deviations surround the adventures of a sad, half-insane man who has been driven from his family’s land and forced to live atop the walls which now divide it. It’s a complicated tale, rich with absurd plot twists and many opportunities for Tardi to illustrate some really wild visual metaphors, dreams and hallucinations. Tardi’s beautiful black and white artwork alone is a compelling reason to re-read this book, but I also want to gain more of an understanding of the historical background and the references to French consitutional law. To be honest, much of it went over my head the first time so I’ll have Wikipedia nearby for my second reading.

It was the War of the Trenches by Jacques Tardi

It was the War of the Trenches is regarded as Tardi’s masterpiece. An uncompromising look at the grim struggles and flat-out horror of World War One, as seen through the eyes of soldiers on the front lines. Tardi has done a ton of research on this, and based his stories on accounts from veterans he personally interviewed, including his own Grandfather. Tardi’s illustrations are unforgettable in their depictions real-life terror, despair, agony and madness. This is nightmare fuel of the highest order, so I discourage this as light reading at bedtime, unless you’re prepared to stay up all night.

I would recommend Tardi’s work to anyone who appreciates literate, and occasionally mean-spirted comics for grown-ups. Not to say that they’re anything like Frank Miller or Alan Moore’s work, but they share that similar dark n’ gritty appeal. Fantagraphics will apparently be continuing their publication of Jacques Tardi’s work in the USA with editions of The Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec later this year. Yaay!

Next Time: Roger’s Robot will delight and amaze

Sketchbook

I make layout drawings and concepts very quickly in my sketchbook where I try to think less about accuracy and correct perspective and more on getting nice arrangement and a correct amount of information. I sometimes regret that my final inks lack the energy, spontaneity and goofy detail of these early sketches. Every once in a while I dump some of the more acceptable stuff from my sketchbook to my flickr page, along with photos of my cats doing cute stuff, because that’s what the internet is really about.

Scanned in without any digital modification

The next phase is drawing on bristol board. I start with a light pencil sketch (I use 2h lead) and gradually work in the details and sometimes draw a grid for perspective. This one has pretty simple perspective so I just laid it in as I went along. I keep some scrap paper nearby to scribble ideas involving the layout, character blocking and facial expressions. I have a laptop and several usb jump drives loaded with reference images from the web, plus my own drawings of the characters and locations etc. I also keep a mirror nearby for reference in drawing facial expressions or hands. It usually takes between seven to ten hours to get all the drawings done for a single installment. This is especially the case when I’m making a crowd scene or an outdoor scene that has a lot of vehicles or architecture. To increase my comics output in the future, I’m considering making a story about a guy who sits alone all day in the desert. The inks are done with a variety of crow quill pens. More on this in a future blog post.

Adobe PhotoShop gets a workout when I clean up my inks and add color

Hooray for digital editing. I’m not the tidiest inker so PhotoShop gives me the opportunity to clean up my drawings and correct things like crooked lines and awkward facial expressions etc. Then there’s the color. I might have to make a separate blog post about this since it’s a fairly involved process using a lot of layers and making little corrections to the inks on the fly.

The final step is adding the text and the graphics and you end up with the strip that I posted in mid June. Again, this process might be worthy of an entire blog post.

See you soon!

Next Week: Virtue is its own reward

I’ve re-named the ‘About’ page to ‘About + Contact‘ so it’s easier for folks to find my contact information. Go ahead and send me an e-mail if you like. I’d love to hear from you. This comic is still relatively new, so I’m looking for comments and suggestions on stuff you’d like to see or how I can make it better.

I’ve also added and removed some links from the side column since some of the comics are –sadly– no longer updating, and I’ve found some new ones to enjoy.

I still plan on putting together a jumbo-sized links page for a huge list of comics, blogs, and other online diversions. Naturally, all the comics which are no longer updating, but still have a presence on the web will be there.

Sorry for the delay between posts lately. Thankfully, life seems to be settling into a predictable routine and I’m able to spend more time on the comic. With a bit of luck, a couple of pots of coffee, and a late night or two, we should be back on track with a new post next week. Speaking of which…

Next Week: Maddie’s Turn

(addendum: I googled ‘atom ant’ the other day and it turns out there was an obscure Hannah-Barbara character by that name from. Whoops.)

In the meantime, why not check out this little bit of fan art I made for my pal Neal’s comic, The Introvert Manifesto?

Introverts Cheyenne, Leif, Chip, and Cole get together to watch some TeeVee. I've put a few Easter eggs in here, click to view a bigger version.

I love how Neal’s stories walk between the tedium of everyday life, and suddenly jump into moments of high-spirited fantasy; he’s got a great faculty for visual gags and creating characters who have rich inner lives. I also admire his lively, energetic cartooning. If you’ve never read this comic before, it might be a good idea to start from the beginning or read Neal’s introduction. He has a lot of characters and three concurrent storylines in which the same characters can appear as children, teenagers or adults.

And then there’s the Stumptown Comics Fest. I’ll be volunteering and helping out while saying ‘hi’ to some very talented folks.

Let me know if you’ll be there too and you want to meet me. I would be up for getting coffee, making sketches, or just hanging out and reading comics.

If you are desperate to see some drawings from me right now, then why not check my flickr page where I’ve posted more stuff from my sketchbook and other little projects, including stuff for Halloween.

Next week: Stage fright.