Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Smart Press Creators: Bridget Scheide's Brother Nash



The plan is to color this but I have too many irons in the fire right now, so I'm posting it with absolutely no Photoshop work. No thresholding, pencil lines still visible, but I did crop it.

I'm looking forward to coloring this because I want to emulate Birdget's color palette for Brother Nash.


Sunday, September 11, 2011

Small Press Creators: Stan Ford's Jet-Pack Jenny


I have a notion deep inside my psyche somewhere that perhaps, someday, I'd like to try my hand at a newspaper style strip. Something action-adventurey, with a 1940's flavor and a lot of tips of the hat to Milton Caniff and Roy Crane. I think about it sometimes and then decide, "No, I still lack the strength of skills to pull something like that off and not look foolish." Yeah, I'm still a little too lily livered to give it a try but you know who's not? My buddy Stan Ford. Stan has been plugging away at "Jet-Pack Jenny and the Factor of 01" since 2006!! I greatly admire his fortitude in cartooning. Jet-Pack Jenny is smart, layered work with one foot in traditional science fiction soap opera and another in astute social commentary. Plus it's fun to read and, even better, it's drawn by a person with enviable skill and ability. Very often there are dense, muscular lines and pools of absorbing black shadows that draw in the eye of the reader with irresistible gravity. Stan moved to Charlotte a little more than a year ago, I believe, and it has been my pleasure to know him and be constantly astonished by the wide array of knowledge he has amassed about comics and cartooning. Give this little link a good click to check out "Jet-Pack Jenny and the Factor of 01" plus several of Stan's essays and observations on comics culture:
http://www.carpaltunnelpress.com/

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Small Press Creators: Rich Barrett's Nathan Sorry


I'm afraid I'm a touch late in contributing to the Small Press Creators sketch topic here at BDS but, with a vacation now over and several small projects done with, I'm pleased to have had some small amount of time to post up a quick illustration of Nathan Sorry, inspired from a flashback sequence in Rich Barrett's graphic novel/webcomic of the same name (http://www.richbarrett.com/nathansorry/ ). I really like and admire Rich's comic, perhaps more than any other by a local creator. Nathan Sorry is so smart and well-constructed that it is always a delight to read. Rich makes a beautiful brushline that is personable and descriptive without being fussy or overdone. He's really learning how to draw a hell of a beard too. If I had stars or thumbs or whatever to give out, I'd give Nathan Sorry as many as I had on hand. For real, you should give it a read. After all, you only live once.