For a while now, I've wanted to do a weekly book review. I read these books and want to talk about them, and give them more exposure outside of their niche interest groups. So I thought it would be perfect to start with the Contract with God Trilogy by Will Eisner. I was intimidated to read this… Continue reading Friday Review: A Contract With God Trilogy
Do you want to make comics? Well let me start with this: it's hard. Now, I don't mean that in a discouraging way. But it's hard work, probably more than most people realize. You have to wrestle a story into good enough shape to write, draw it, ink it, color it, and letter it. I'm… Continue reading Advice For Making Comics
It takes me a while to read volumes of Usagi Yojimbo. It's not because they're too big (although the Saga collections are thick). And it's not because there's too much text, or it's too complicated for me to understand. No, it's because when I'm reading Usagi Yojimbo, I'm also studying. I'm taking extra time to… Continue reading Usagi Yojimbo
How convenient that Inktober should end on a Tuesday, so I can write about it on a Wednesday. Now that's timing, October. Inktober, if you don't know, is a designated time for artist to try and draw one picture a day, using only ink. Now, some people followed the official prompt, but I did not.… Continue reading Inktober Retropsective
Another year, another trip to Cartoon Crossroads in Columbus. For all of the non-Ohio readers out there, Cartoon Crossroads (CXC) is a convention put together by Jeff Smith (he did a little book you might know by the name of Bone). Because Jeff is from Ohio, the convention is held in the Columbus Library, which is… Continue reading Cartoon Crossroads
When I was young, I had no concept of the cartoonist. Although, I'm sure I had no real understanding of how a comic was made. But even when I got older, I mostly thought of the creation of comics as several steps, done by different people. Now, this can be the case, true. But then… Continue reading Cartooning
Well, we’ve finally made it to the end of the creative process. I would say the end period, but there’s an epilogue to all this (next blog post!) And what is the last leg of creating a comic? It’s lettering! It seems to me that a lot of people might ask what a letterer does.… Continue reading Making Comics Part 5-Lettering
Alright, disclaimer: from here on out, we're dealing with the underappreciated aspects of comics. The rest of this blog series will focus on stuff that most people don't know or think about. So, if you do/want to do these things, you are a real hero. I think inking is the hardest thing to explain to… Continue reading Making Comics Part 3-Inking
Last blog post talked all about writing, so now it's time to move on to art. And, let me tell you truthfully, this is the heavy lifting of the comics process. This is not to say that all parts are not hard, they are, but this one will take you the longest. Before I started… Continue reading Making Comics Part 2-Pencils
To many, I think the process of creating a comic is still something of uncertainty. That is, they don't have much of an idea how they are made. A plethora of readers don't know about the process a comic has to go through when being made, so I'll explore this creation step by step. Today,… Continue reading Making Comics Part 1-Writing
Hot Cakes Comics 