Sketchblog 6/22/07

Above is another project I had boiling until about an hour ago: a site template for a new restaurant in Chicago called 'Chaise' that wanted a style similar to a French wine poster from the 1920s. Above is my first stab at it, which I like alright, but I thought could have been pushed to be really outstanding. Alas, the client has decided not to do a separate site at the last minute, and have the Chaise site be part of their corporate main site. A shame. I thought this one could have been a lot of fun to do.

Sketchblog 6/21/07

Some of the stuff that's been sucking my time away from this blog lately: a few illustrations for a text book, geared towards Middle Schoolers. I was called because they wanted "edgy". Heh. I find the whole event a little odd. The images in my textbooks in school always entranced me more than the text or, god forbid, the actual lessons, and probably influenced me in ways I can't comprehend. To be making the images for a new crop of young minds to perhaps be influenced by - well, the whole thing reeks a little too much of the Circle of Life, if you ask me.

Infinite Canvas, Infinite Schmanvas

The above from the fantastic site Cover Browser. Thanks, Terry.

Sorry I've been dark for a bit: a bout of actual, big time, paying work (shock! horror!) has kept me low, backing up my Robots and Monsters production, my comic work, and fun, too, dammit. I'd be lying if I also didn't cop to a bit of blog fatigue: about two years of being steadily into it, and after a while, a realization creeps into your head.

"Ugh. I just THOUGHT that. I have to WRITE about it, too?"

But what the hell. I've gotta give you SOMETHING to read while pretending to work, right?

I'll start by admiting that not ALL of my non-blogging time is spent working, per se. Some of it is spent "working", while Skyping with colleagues, and the discussion of
web comics and Scott McCloud came up, more specifically, his new (now, old) web comic, The Right Number. I found a discussion of web comics, especially amongst people not in the echol chamber (and also potential consumers) to be informative. Present at the chat are myself, Matt Rebholz, at UT Austin for his Masters in Printmaking, Terry Salmond, a San Francisco film maker, and Rob Ford, Director of Technology for a school dsitrict in Massachusetts, and webmaster for Kaiju Big Battel.

The thread picks up on The Right Number...

Joe:
I want the interface to be an intregal part of the story? Otherwise, it's just a schtick.
Rebholz
I see your point...What if the next panel was somehow integrated into the previous panel?...but that might get even schtickier.
Joe
The teeny next panel just throws me off without providing anyting else than just "Look what I did."
Terry
Yeah...I think if it was integrated a bit more
Rebholz
If he had to put a picture frame or window or something in every single panel
Joe
Plus,if the notion of 'zooming in' is intregal to the story...tell me why
Terry
Right.
Rebholz
Maybe it rhymes with this idea of the guy homing in on his perfect mate via his crazy algorythm phone number thing... I dont have a problem w/ the zoom
I think it does a nice job of approximating the sensation of looking from one panel to the next in a print comic...like your actual focus is fixed, so you cant shift it from one panel to the next...McCloud is much more of a scholar than a creator I think
Joe
Rebholz
Indeed....web comics are hard
Joe
true dat
Rebholz
joe knows that
Terry
This seems like a way of feeling out what works and what doesn't
Rebholz
The great thing about the interface is that it didnt require any movement within the browser window
Joe
True...McCloud goes on and on about "the infinite canvas", but I HATE those type of web comics
Rebholz
It becomes an inconvenience to experience it
Joe
The experience becomes about the creation rather than the story which to my mind...
is wack.
Rebholz
You need to somehow counterbalance or make the audience forget about the loss of the comic as physical object, which is a very important part of the experience....
like McCloud points out, part of the magic of comics is the compression and expansion of time- being able to see a whole span of time in one instant, by surveying an entire page for exaample
Joe
...and also the backwards and forwards flow
Rebholz
exactly
Joe
I like artists that add things you can go back and find later..."How did that fire start?"...
Rebholz
Like Ware
Joe
"Oh, he dorpped the cigar three pages ago."...Damn, I'd like just take this conversation and blog it
Terry
We'll just be outed as dorks.


And on webcomics in general:

Joe
Joe Q. Public doesn't find advertising to be as offensive as paying 25 cents...weird!
Rob
Right, but for the content provider it's a similar idea.
Rebholz
Its no suprise that people are more willing to endure advertising than pay for a product.
Joe
No...but as a sea change, just like having creator USING the web instead of just put print comics online, it is a difference in thinking about "selling" work...
a lot of comic artists still don't feel like real creators until some schlub plunks down 4 bux for a hard copy. Its psychological.
Rebholz
Do you feel that way?
Joe
Sometimes, but im getting over it
Rebholz
I think thats natural
Joe
It's how we were brought up
Rebholz
It goes back to the appeal of a comic AS object, if you value the actual physical comic, than of course youll feel more validated if you can hold something you've made
...I dont think its a bad thing nessecarily.


Beyond the fact that I talk too much, these are all very very smart guys, and what came through in the discussion was the web comics have still not broken through the main stream to arrive as a form worth paying attention to, yet. People can talk Penny Arcade and PVP all they want, but look at the content: it's so niche and concave, you can see yourself reflected in the opposite wall. We have yet to see a real breakout, popualr webcomic, along the lines of a Maus or a Persopolis. Could it be about form?

The chat has two seemingly disparate threads: that the notion of Infinite Canvas is tiresome and not helpful to the enjoyment of the comic, and that the physical comic is desirable, but ALSO that the desire is there NOT just for print-comics-that- happen-to-be-online, which is what most web comics are. To my mind, this all means that comic artists, and especially web comic artists, need to stop bitching about being the underclass of artists, being so 'disrespected' and such, and need to start creating great, compelling ways to view their stories. And while there's been some great experiments, it sure hasn't happened yet.

To round out this talk, I present Dr. Nordten, the fantastic web comic by Thomas Gronle-Legron and Holger Marsielle, two German guys I just so happened to present with in Seoul. These guys may be having the conversation that we in America with all our Scott McClouds should be having. And once I get Thomas to send me a link, I'll be posting their 3D version. Maybe the future of comics...lies in microfilm?

Nerve Comix Issue

Just a quick note to urge you to check out the new issue of the online magazine Nerve, which is the new comics issue. I often get emails from people asking me about new stuff to check out, but I'm no Drawn: sometimes I'm too busy to actually find cool new stuff, myself. This Nerve issue has some nice introductory strips from some radical rising-but-under-the-radar artists such as Leah Hayes, as well as more established folks like the untouchable Paul Pope. Chynna Clugston has the best one on there (she's like a girl Evan Dorkin!), and even Sophie Crumb's strip isn't half bad, considering the fact that she's busy carrying around that last name like an albatross. On the whole, pretty good stuff. Also, more than half of the artists are women: that's a nice change of scenery. There's also an awesome article comparing TMNT to Sex and The City. Outstanding!

Sketchblog 6/3/07

After all that rigamarole over the past few months, I finally see nothing but wall-to-wall drawing on the horizon, and that, to use a tautological dialect that hasn't been seen on these pages in many months, is a right hearty sight for these salty eyes, me hearties. Above is a sampling of the new Robots and Monsters additions, with more on the way. Below is an avatar from a project that I just finished, which I'm OK with, considering what They-Who-Shall -Not-Be-Named asked for (don't ask). I'm not usually a fan of this type of made-for-Wacom, GI Joe coloration. I think it looks weak and cheeseball normally, but it's passable here. And with more jobs being worked on, a new episode of TBV in the works, and a super-secret project nearing completion, I'm thinking that for the next couple of weeks, this blog is going to be nothing but drawings, drawings, drawings. w00t!