Beautiful work. Great last panel especially. Makes me want to see the next installment soon. Always so admirable how you actually re-draw by hand, things like the last three panels, whereas others might be tempted to simply cut and paste. I can see the subtle differences in the panels, and it adds a certain "aliveness" to the moment. "Zeppelins" should have an "e" in it.
DAMMIT! ANOTHER misspelling??? My brain must be going! ARRRGGH! I could just say she was mumbling incoherantly, but instead I'm going back into Photoshop. I considered myself a very good speller... until today. Grumble.
Scott, do you hand letter all your comics? Looking closely at your letters I think you must, unless you have a comic font in Photoshop that has several alternatives for every letter and swaps among them. The words have that warm, slightly irregular, human feeling to them, but it must be a fair amount of extra work compared to just typing it in with the standard "comic" font. Another example of going the extra mile for quality.
One of the best things about your style is the "readability" of your comics. In terms of graphic clarity and layout, balancing the amount of picture and the amount of text, and writing dialogue that uses simple, short words, you are right up there with people like Carl Barks. There are big-name comics artists like George Perez and Neal Adams that draw beautifully, but whose pages don't have that same "inviting" feeling. If you look at a really good comic page it should feel like it's easier to READ the page than NOT READ it, like you can't help yourself, and that's how Cork feels.
Thanks everyone for leaving comments, they do really keep me going! Thanks Tom for the observations! Yes, I hand letter everything. I know not many people liked it at the start, but I thought with the type of comic this was it would end up as a better fit than a pre-packaged font. More intuitive than technical. It is more work, but I like the full comic lettered on the original. It's nice and finished compared to art with no balloons. However sometimes I think it would definitely be better and easier to go with the font. In terms of the short, to the point dialogue it's a mixture of necessity and feel. I only have so much room in the panel and the beats and rhythm of the piece will tell me how many frames there should be and when a punchline or set-up should be short and quick or long and heavy. Alot of times I'll draw out the visuals first not knowing ahead of time the exact wording of the piece, but knowing that a particular "beat" will occur in that frame. So sometimes I'll go nuts trying to figure out what it is with the comic waiting impatiently for me to finish. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's also a general rule not to fill up a page with alot of dialogue just for the reasons you specified - it's not an inviting read with too many words. Readability is key. Visually, so far it's been a mixture of my comic book storytelling along with traditional comic strip profile to profile composition. Definitely leaning more to the comic strip way of composing. I've always loved high contrast black and white and I'm starting to fit more of that into Cork. It definitely feels more "comfortable" and "inviting" if you get the mixture right. Again, just as it is with dialogue, visual readability is a must. I'm no expert in this by any means, but those are the lessons I've come to learn so far. Ellis, Tom, Kali, Marty, others who have commented - thanks for the input. It helps the psyche and the art. More Cork to come soon. Kali... I wouldn't worry too much about the pillow. I'd keep a wary eye on the George Liquor doll if I were you.
As always, my pals at TAG get first Cork dibs. Here ya go.
Great Gag. Maybe the best yet.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good hedge against layoffs to have an great Intellectual Property this far along.
Beautiful work. Great last panel especially. Makes me want to see the next installment soon. Always so admirable how you actually re-draw by hand, things like the last three panels, whereas others might be tempted to simply cut and paste. I can see the subtle differences in the panels, and it adds a certain "aliveness" to the moment. "Zeppelins" should have an "e" in it.
ReplyDeleteDAMMIT! ANOTHER misspelling??? My brain must be going! ARRRGGH! I could just say she was mumbling incoherantly, but instead I'm going back into Photoshop. I considered myself a very good speller... until today. Grumble.
ReplyDeleteScott, do you hand letter all your comics? Looking closely at your letters I think you must, unless you have a comic font in Photoshop that has several alternatives for every letter and swaps among them. The words have that warm, slightly irregular, human feeling to them, but it must be a fair amount of extra work compared to just typing it in with the standard "comic" font. Another example of going the extra mile for quality.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best things about your style is the "readability" of your comics. In terms of graphic clarity and layout, balancing the amount of picture and the amount of text, and writing dialogue that uses simple, short words, you are right up there with people like Carl Barks. There are big-name comics artists like George Perez and Neal Adams that draw beautifully, but whose pages don't have that same "inviting" feeling. If you look at a really good comic page it should feel like it's easier to READ the page than NOT READ it, like you can't help yourself, and that's how Cork feels.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm going to be staring at my pillow like all hell until I fall asleep!
ReplyDeleteScotty, love it--really love the look of this page. Well done Dr. Buncake!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for leaving comments, they do really keep me going! Thanks Tom for the observations! Yes, I hand letter everything. I know not many people liked it at the start, but I thought with the type of comic this was it would end up as a better fit than a pre-packaged font. More intuitive than technical. It is more work, but I like the full comic lettered on the original. It's nice and finished compared to art with no balloons. However sometimes I think it would definitely be better and easier to go with the font.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the short, to the point dialogue it's a mixture of necessity and feel. I only have so much room in the panel and the beats and rhythm of the piece will tell me how many frames there should be and when a punchline or set-up should be short and quick or long and heavy. Alot of times I'll draw out the visuals first not knowing ahead of time the exact wording of the piece, but knowing that a particular "beat" will occur in that frame. So sometimes I'll go nuts trying to figure out what it is with the comic waiting impatiently for me to finish. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's also a general rule not to fill up a page with alot of dialogue just for the reasons you specified - it's not an inviting read with too many words. Readability is key.
Visually, so far it's been a mixture of my comic book storytelling along with traditional comic strip profile to profile composition. Definitely leaning more to the comic strip way of composing. I've always loved high contrast black and white and I'm starting to fit more of that into Cork. It definitely feels more "comfortable" and "inviting" if you get the mixture right. Again, just as it is with dialogue, visual readability is a must. I'm no expert in this by any means, but those are the lessons I've come to learn so far.
Ellis, Tom, Kali, Marty, others who have commented - thanks for the input. It helps the psyche and the art. More Cork to come soon.
Kali... I wouldn't worry too much about the pillow. I'd keep a wary eye on the George Liquor doll if I were you.
Kali and Buncake, sitting in a tree...
ReplyDeleteHey, you've given me an idea. For the next Cork don't have any text and we'll each fill out a version .
And you pick the best one.
Mine will have the line "Is toe a flavor?"
Goodson and Hellboy sitting in a tree...
ReplyDeleteI'm cool with all those pairings as long as that isn't a "family tree" ... ;-)
ReplyDelete