From This Coming Wednesday's Page To You

I've got the whole page drawn; I just need to color, composite, and letter the damn thing. And it is going to be a pain. Lots of layered elements -- like the picture above the couch? A separate drawing that's going to be all colored all nice with a proper background and everything in the finished product. The worst part is that you're not even going to see this whole drawing due to the storytelling of the page. And I drew it all up, and I'm going to color it all, and you're not going to get to see it. Ugh. The things I do to create a nice, polished finished product.

Scwonkey teaser.

Half As Much, Half As Much ...

This is approximately the halfway point in the next page of SCWONKEY DOG, which by the time you read this should be posted to the site. I know I've talked before about how every time I wheel out another few of these dumb yellow-headed robots it suddenly becomes so much more real for me; seeing them all polished and slickly colored like this makes it all the more surreal, and I'm sure when the page is assembled it's going to be even weirder for me to look at.

I can only imagine what it's going to be like when the title character finally arrives on the scene in person and whips out his Star Disabler -- the weapon he was always swinging around when I was in grade school, before I gave him his twin XZL Energy Pistols. On the one hand, it's kind of annoying that I've drawn this out so much, but on the other it's given me all this time to work on the art and adjust to giving these characters to the world before the true reality of the situation sinks in at that moment when I upload the page -- the one where Scwonkey E. Dog stands, gun drawn, against the forces of evil with a cocky grin that kind of makes you want to kick his teeth in.

That's still a few pages away. But it's getting closer with each page I wrap. This one's going to be a crucial step towards that. Violence hasn't unlocked Scwonkey's memories, but Leonard is about to find the key. Why don't you head on over there and see what happens for yourself? (Unless you're looking at this within about an hour or so of me posting this, in which case, be patient. Why not review the archive to get up to refresh your memory, hm?)

New Scwonkey lineart | My sister on Recent Politics

Let's start with the politics. The following is, as they say across the Webs, QFT (Quoted For Truth):

"People keep talking about the "phenomenon" of older women voting for Hillary.

"I've never seen anyone mention ... that perhaps women who are 60 or so want to see a female president in their fucking lifetime."

Bless my sister. Bless her indeed.

Read in full here.

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This is the lineart for the last two panels of the next page of Scwonkey Dog. I'll be coloring it tomorrow afternoon and hopefully will have it uploaded by Friday morning. But I just wanted to show off the original artwork, because that last shot is probably going to have part of it cut off for effect. The next few pages are going to have a lot of close-ups of eyes and evil grins, and in contrast shots where eyes are hidden for effect, and like I said on the site, it's gonna be a lot of raging emotions and confusion and melodrama -- you know, the GOOD part. Or rather, the good part before the OTHER good part, where Our Hero arrives on the scene, fires up his Star Disabler and starts tearing yellow-headed robots into tiny bits.

Was that a spoiler? It shouldn't be. In a strip called Scwonkey Dog, you have to assume that Scwonkey Dog is eventually going to appear, and then when he does, it should be relatively easy to assume that if a jerkface like Zappilious Starr can storm about and shoot a couple of yellow-headed robots, and a competent but not-so-awesome kid like Vanessa can bat them around handily, then Our Hero should be able to rip them apart like tin foil.

Am I right, people?

Anyway, been laying out the next few pages and getting really excited about it all. If the finished pages look anywhere near as cool as the layouts, this is gonna get even better! YAY!

Two links, one blog.

I was kind of surprised today when I saw, along with my phone bill and a credit card offer, the latest issue of TokyoPop's freebie ad magazine; Johanna Draper Carlson, of Comics Worth Reading, was likewise surprised when she got her copy a couple of days ago. It has a Summer '07 cover date and mostly seems -- at least, this time out -- goth-flavored "manga" from American creators. (I'm sorry, I still think that calling stuff of U.S. origin "manga" is disingenuous and just feeds into young and budding Japan fetishists' dreams of one day being published in Shonen Jump or whatever. Three words, kid: not bloody likely. In fact, I still believe the whole American manga-flavored comics machine TokyoPop built was constructed on the two pillars of Stuart "D.J. Milky" Levy deciding to share the wealth and tell the kids that "I KAN B MANGA D00D AND SO KAN U!" following the publication of Princess Ai, which he presumably did the lion's share of writing on, and Stu also waking up one morning and realizing that most of the Japanese publishers weren't returning his phone calls anymore. Quick, name a new Japanese license TokyoPop's acquired in the last six months! Peacemaker doesn't count; that's just them picking up ADV's table scraps.)

Ahem. Clearly, as usual, I digress. The point is, erm, Summer 2007. On January 3rd of '08. How positively amateur hour of them. Reminds me of the waning days of the Turbo Grafx-16 game system, when I was subscribing to the official magazine for that gaming platform and the time between issues grew longer and longer, until eventually ... *poof* I don't expect we'll be seeing TokyoPop themselves disappear anytime soon, but clearly this publication -- which, as I said, is mostly just an ad anyway and is free -- is not much of a priority 'round the office. And on the flip-side, I doubt it's much of a priority to anyone reading it, either, at least in the internet-savvy demographics.

Speaking of the internets, I couldn't help but notice a particular line in this article Johanna posted yesterday morning, regarding the graphic novel glut comic stores and book retailers find themselves faced with:

That’s another reason to launch on the web and build up an audience willing to pay for your work, to guarantee sales and awareness for your print launch.

Votoms photography.

Got the Fyana figure around the time the big ice storm hit, so yesterday was the first time I got to crack her out. Came with some extra parts for Chirico -- tearing the figure apart was a pain in the butt, but the end result is a solid improvement. Good on Yamato.

Sure, it might seem a bit lame to get a new figure and use it to just lay there unconscious, but it came with the "out" face and it's such a Votoms moment.