About

Jumbo deLuxe comic strip adventures is an ongoing webcomic project by Adrian J Wallace.

The Story | The Drawings | The Cartoonist  |  Q and A

The Story
Thrills, adventures, and laffs are jam-packed in every installment of Jumbo deLuxe Comic Strip Adventures. We strive to make it most fun, finely crafted, all-ages webcomic experience you can get. Best of all, it’s free! Go ahead and jump in anywhere, but we recommend starting at the beginning just so you’ll get better continuity.

Jumbo deLuxe Comic Strip Adventures is an homage to old American and European comic strips, specifically those made between 1911 and 1945, in terms of storytelling style, composition, dialog, and art. Conversely, the story is set in 2010, so you’ll see modern technology like laptop computers or cel phones once in a while. The cartoonist loves older technology, so you’ll probably see a lot vehicles and electronic devices that were popular between the 1950′s and 1980′s.

The Narrative is a loose and shambling affair set up mainly as an excuse for the cartoonist to draw things he likes (i.e. old cars, robots) but nevertheless drives the whole thing. The stories mainly concern the adventuring trio of Emily, her brother Nathan, and their dog. Various family, friends, and adversaries cross their path on the course of their adventures. You will soon be able to read up on them when we get our ‘Characters’ page set up. Patience!

The Drawings
The Cartoonist uses a weird mixture of old timey and somewhat modern digital technology to make this:

  • A typical strip begins with a loose doodle on cheap copy paper, during which he figures out the characters dialog, blocking, props, and background scenery.
  • The next stage involves making a large drawing on bristol board with pencils and erasers.
  • Drawings that involve a lot of architecture or vehicles are sometimes conceived using Google SketchUp (3D computer software), then copied into the final artwork. Backgrounds are sometimes drawn on a separate paper, so they can be re-used over multiple panels.
  • The same program is sometimes used to generate perspective grids, too. Inking is done with a variety of crow quill and technical pens.
  • Fully inked Artwork is scanned to the computer with small desktop Epson usb scanner. Stuff is usually scanned in at 400 pixels per inch.
  • The scanned Files are assembled, corrected and colored with Adobe PhotoShop, and a Wacom tablet. Sometimes things like shaky lines or awkward facial expressions are re-drawn in this stage.
  • Lettering, dialog balloons, and sound effect words are added using Adobe Illustrator.
  • A Low res version is exported for the web.
  • The site is pure WordPress running the ComicPress theme (thank you all who made these). The cartoonist thouroughly modified a basic Comicpress stylesheet with his favorite colors and fonts.

The Cartoonist

  • Adrian was born in Nottingham, England, and grew up in various places around North America.
  • He first learned how to draw and paint from his Grandfather, but fell in love with comics when he was about 8 years old. To this day his favorite cartoonists are his Grandfather, and famous guys like Hergé, and Winsor McCay.
  • He currently makes his home in Portland Oregon, and makes comics, graphics, and web things for a living.
  • He shares a tiny house near Kenton Park with a big dog, two cats, and lovely wife.
  • Adrian is very tall and is sometimes seen wearing a beard which he grew himself.
  • He likes coffee and sandwiches, and hates getting yelled at.
  • Some of his favorite activities include listening to music, making lists, and talking about himself in the third person.

Questions and Answers

If you have a question for Adrian J Wallace about Jumbo deLuxe comics, or anything else, please get in touch through the comments section. Eventually we’ll get a contact form set up.

Hey, I Thought There was an Elephant in this? Yes, in the earliest versions of JumbodeLuxe.com there were stories about a crime-fighting elephant. I don’t have time for such foolishness anymore, and besides there are people who do this sort of thing much better than me. Nevertheless, the elephant does occasionally re-appear as an advertising spokescharacter like our own personal Krusty the Clown. Look carefully at cereal boxes or advertisements within the comic strip.

Can You Draw Something for Me? Sure, get in touch with me through the comments section. Soon I’ll have a proper contact form set up.

Your Site Used to have a lot of cool blog posts. Where did they go? Alas, some suckers hacked my site and my only recourse was to delete everything from the server before the internet police let my site go back on. My blog posts about my favorite comics and everything you wanted to know about Tintin were deleted forever because I forgot to back that stuff up. One day I might re-write them and bring them up to date.