Look Straight Ahead

Page 145

2012-01-30T05:50:00.000-08:00

Good morning and HELLO to everyone who came over from TJ & Amal! Thank you all so, so much for reading and/or reblogging, I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed yourselves and I hope you stick around for the rest of the ride! :D

I remember this page taking way too long. I also remember wanting to go back and touch up the snow a bit. Eventually.

Page 144

2012-01-23T05:48:00.000-08:00

Good morning. Ah, the labels page. I don't mind saying I love this one. Hope you do, too. :)

Page 143

2012-01-16T06:07:00.000-08:00

Good morning . This is RUH again - and again, not completely accurate, because there were some places I just wasn't willing to venture to get pictures.

Also this mall/cafeteria area has changed since 2002 (mostly with the addition of a Starbucks, har har), although not much.

Page 142, surprise update

2012-01-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

So hey dudes, I thought I'd post this page today seeing as how it's just a splash page. Wasn't that nice of me. :)

New page as usual on Monday. :)

Page 141

2012-01-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

Good morning. I think I'll post the next page on Thursday, just because it's kind of a filler page and I don't want it to be your only page for next week. Alright? Alright. :D

Page 140

2012-01-02T06:16:00.000-08:00

Good Morning and Happy New Year! May the world NOT end this year.

Page 139

2011-12-26T06:19:00.000-08:00

Good morning.

Uh, so Christmas. :x Hope you all had a good one. I did. I have to work today and it's going to be screaming busy.

Maybe I'll see one or two of you there, buying some graphic novels with your Christmas money. Eh? :p

Page 138

2011-12-19T06:26:00.000-08:00

Good morning.

Page 137

2011-12-12T06:14:00.000-08:00

And away we go. Did I mention this next sequence is not for the faint-hearted? Well, I just did.

Page 136

2011-12-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

Good morning . So, like I said last week, this is gonna be the last Thursday update for a while. I can't keep up with the twice-weekly schedule at the moment, so updates will only be on Monday for the next while. Hey, you're all subscribed to the RSS feed anyway, aint'cha? It should save you the trouble of checking on Thursday to see if there's an update. ;p

Plus, I promise the next sequence is going to rock your socks off, so you won't mind waiting a week between pages. Hot damn!

Also, I just found out that apparently I WILL be exhibiting at the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival in May, so WOOHOO for that!

Lastly, have a painting of Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. This is a Christmas gift for my boss. Who is awesome. The best boss in the world. I'm pretty sure he doesn't read this blog, so I don't have to worry about him seeing this before Christmas. If he does, "oops" :p

Page 135

2011-12-05T06:25:00.000-08:00

Good morning.

I should warn you all right now - I'm going to be cutting back on my update schedule. Twice a week is driving me absolutely insane.

For a long time now I've treated this comic as a matter of life and death, and that's not the way things should be at all.

So, I'll finish up this sequence and then starting next Monday I'll update only once a week for the forseeable future. Sorry for the inconvenience, but that's just how it's gotta go.

Thank you all so much for reading and supporting me, it's keeping me going. :)

Page 134

2011-12-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

Good morning . I'm mostly putting this next bit in here for my boss at work, who is a big CCR fan. I almost had them sing the commonly misheard line "There's a bathroom on the right" but decided against it. :p

Page 133

2011-11-28T07:01:00.000-08:00

Good morning. Seeing as how most of my readers are American, I had better explain this one: Mr. Dressup (Ernie Coombs) was a Canadian children's entertainer who had his own TV show on CBC that ran from 1967 to 1996, and then until 2006 in reruns. (Since LSA is meant to take place in the year 2002, it would still be plausible for Jeremy and Ian to be watching an old rerun)

Mr. Dressup was often accompanied by two puppets, Casey and Finnegan. He would dress up in costumes acquired from his "Tickle Trunk" and act out stories with them. In other segments he would sing songs, make crafts, or draw pictures on a pad of bond paper draped over an easel.

It was very low budget, and still infinitely more fascinating to me as a child than Sesame Street or any other children's show. I WEPT when Mr. Dressup died.

It was also brought to my attention that the pictures on this blog are too small to read. This is, unfortunately, not my doing: Blogger used to link directly to an image, but now each image is displayed in a horrible Flash presentation, with no way of resizing it. I suggest you click on my "Good morning" link in each post, which will take you to my own website where you can read the comic at the proper size! Hope that helps. :) I'll see you all on Thursday!

Page 132

2011-11-24T06:26:00.000-08:00

Good morning. I remember this as being one of the first scenes I came up with. (maybe I should have drawn it then, while it was fresher in my mind - oh well :p )

Page 131

2011-11-21T07:25:00.000-08:00

Good morning!

The picture you see below is a piece of guest art I did for the rad webcomic Odd Nauseam. It's fantastic and you should all be reading it - especially if you like zombies, jackalopes, and pancakes. And, let's be honest...who DOESN'T like all of those things? :p

Page 130

2011-11-17T06:24:00.000-08:00

Good morning. I forgot to mention last week that I now have a Twitter account, so you can follow my nonsense there if you wish. :D

See you on Monday!

Page 129

2011-11-14T06:12:00.000-08:00

Good morning.

(that's supposed to be Erin, if you couldn't tell...)

I have also created an RSS feed for the site - you can find this at the bottom of the current page, along with the other Obligatory Buttons(tm) - Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Issue 5 cover

2011-11-10T05:23:00.000-08:00

As promised.

Gotta go, seeya on Monday! :)

Page 128

2011-11-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

And that's the end of chapter four.

Just to forewarn you, I will be taking an extremely short break from the story after this - this Thursday I will post the finished chapter five cover, and that will be all. Regular updates will resume next Monday. I knew you'd be excited. ;)

Page 127

2011-11-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

Good morning. I think this was the second page I lettered in Photoshop. I knew at this point that it was going to work, and save me a lot of time. Yay!

Page 126

2011-10-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

Good morning . Ever wanted to do this? (There is something oddly comforting about parks and/or playgrounds at night...)

Page 125

2011-10-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

Good morning. My, but Blogger is messed up today. Must be THE MAN...

You can now vote for LSA on Topwebcomics.com , so go ahead and do that. :D

Page 124

2011-10-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

Good morning. Yes, Jeremy, you're crazy. But what does "crazy" really mean, anyway?

Page 123

2011-10-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

Good morning. You can now purchase LSA #4 at 8th St. Books & Comics and Unreal City, both in Saskatoon.

That is all. :p

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I'm doing some comic pages for a local band called the Ultimate Power Duo, who are releasing a space opera graphic novel along with their newest album. There are some seriously awesome artists involved with this thing, and it's going to be amazing. I've finished three pages so far, which you can see below. Visit my Deviantart page to see these larger, in a non-Flash presentation!

Page 122

2011-10-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

Howdy. Again, this is from memory. I'm pretty sure there were more trees out here in real life and the parking lot wasn't quite as big. Oh, well.

Page 121

2011-10-13T07:07:00.000-07:00

Hey, good morning, hope you're all well. The printed version of issue 4 will be available soon, after which I will make a trade paperback of issues 1 through 4. Still debating whether to go back and change/add things about issues 1 & 2 (the lettering, for one). I've been told by at least one person "don't George Lucas it," which is probably best. Hmmm.

Page 120

2011-10-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

Good morning!

Page 119

2011-10-06T07:34:00.000-07:00

Good morning! There is a really nice review of LSA up on Robot 6, right here: Click! Words cannot describe how excited I was when I saw that. A big thank you to Brigid Alverson for that, it means a lot to me.

Page 118

2011-10-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

Good morning .

Below are some Odds N' Ends N' Things - the back cover to issue 4, and the inks for the front cover of issue 5. (Which was going to be a tribute to both David B. & Adolf Wolfli, and failed miserably on both counts - but that's fine, because now it's just a drawing of mine rather than a cheap imitation of someone else! :p )

And below that we have a treasure from the Calgary comic-con way back in June: an awesome drawing of Jeremy by Jeff Lemire of Essex County & Sweet Tooth fame. (Used with permission!)

Page 117

2011-09-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

And now some greytoning, just because I felt like it.

Page 116

2011-09-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

I can't sleep. Oh, the irony! Might as well update.

Page 115

2011-09-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

Oh, snap.

(Just realized that Blogger is now automatically turning every image I upload into a FLASH presentation - WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?! I hate that. Does anyone know of a way I can change it back to the way it was - simply linking to the image??)

Page 114

2011-09-19T07:39:00.000-07:00

There it is, with digital lettering!!

And I did indeed change every page going back to page 92 to have digital lettering - go see! It's so much prettier now!

The font is my own creation, it's called Printheads. Email me if you would like to use it for anything. :)

Page 113

2011-09-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

Yup, there it is.

I've finally started lettering all my pages digitally (I'm 5 weeks ahead, mind you, so this page still has the old lettering). I have no idea why I didn't do this before. In fact, it made so much of a difference in the look of the pages that I'm going back and redoing all of the lettering for each page of issue 4! Because clearly I wasn't torturing myself enough already. :P

And now here are some assorted drawings from Tuesday night Drink & Draw: (I won't explain any of these, make up your own story XD)

Page 112

2011-09-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

Good morning! This might be my favourite page from issue 4. It was fun to do all around.

Page 111

2011-09-08T07:30:00.001-07:00

Help!

Page 110

2011-09-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

Oh dear. Where did all this water come from all of a sudden?

Check out my brand new LINKS page! It's small right now, but it will grow. As far as links to other webcomics go, I tried hard to focus on the more obscure webcomics and didn't link to popular ones that I see linked on practically every site (although I do read some of those). Anyway, these comics I've linked are all worthy of your attention and I urge you to check them out.

Page 109

2011-09-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

So it seems I never mentioned it in the comic - this guy's name is Ian. And he is potentially dangerous. Ooo.

Page 108

2011-08-29T07:25:00.001-07:00

Here, as always.

Page 107

2011-08-25T17:16:00.000-07:00

Hello again. The background on this one was sketched with ballpoint and blurred in Photoshop; let me know what you think.

Page 106

2011-08-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

Yep, once again.

I drew all these backgrounds from memory so they may not be totally accurate. It ain't like I can go back to RUH and get pictures (and besides, I hear they've completely renovated this section - which is nice to hear, it was in serious need of repair).

Page 105

2011-08-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

I updated! I even remembered to correct the inconsistency on this page (I won't tell you what it was :p )

Page 104

2011-08-15T07:32:00.000-07:00

As promised.

New page again on Friday, possibly Thursday - see you then!

Page 103

2011-08-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. It's been brought to my attention that the latest sequence is moving far too slowly for some people, so here's another page.

I apologize for this: this sort of thing reads much better in print.

I'll continue to update twice a week for as long as I can (that is, until my buffer is gone). So there will be a new page as usual on Monday. See you then!

Page 102

2011-08-08T10:17:00.001-07:00

and again, just drifting

What Did My Lover Say?

2011-08-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

I don't post enough artwork on this blog anymore. So here's some now.

This is a piece of Green Wake fan art that I did for Riley Rossmo, the artist of said comic, in exchange for a Doctor Strange piece. (I bet you didn't know this, but I really really like Doctor Strange :p ) And hey, the first Green Wake trade paperback is out from Image soon - like any day now. Buy it, read it, love it.

(Title from here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPPkTM6aKkE )

And here is a t-shirt design I'm working on for Saskatoon's community radio station CFCR 90.5 FM. Still in progress, I have to re-draw/re-purpose it vertically. Would have done that if I hadn't gotten distracted doing the piece above.

And now I'm about to embark on another huge music-related project, whoa...I'll post more about that soon...

Um...anyway...I'll see you tomorrow morning with page 102.

Page 101

2011-08-01T08:30:00.001-07:00

Oh yeah, Monday. Update Time.

Page 100

2011-07-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

Good morning, again. I'd just like to state for the record that no other comic of mine has made it into the triple digits (although I'm sure I planned all of them to go at least as far as that). I might be nearly at the halfway point now. Might. So here's to 100 more pages!!

Page 99

2011-07-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

new page new page woohoo

Page 98

2011-07-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

I like this one, it's not often I try my hand at moody lighting such as this. In fact, I am greytoning some of the upcoming pages just because I've gone almost as far as I can go with pure black & white... :I Argh!

Page 97

2011-07-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

Good morning.

Page 96

2011-06-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

Slightly late, sorry about that, won't happen again.

Edit: I also found these two pages that I drew for issue 3 and then never used...I still think they are pretty swell, so here they are!

Page 95

2011-06-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

New page. I also have a rather cool thing from the Calgary con to post (several things actually, this is just the coolest one). But I left it somewhere an hour's drive away and I should probably get permission from the artist first, so...maybe in a few weeks.

See you next week.

Page 94

2011-06-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

And so.

Shuster Awards this Saturday - wish me luck, I'll certainly need it...

Page 93

2011-06-06T06:56:00.000-07:00

Good morning.

Updating this early because I won't be able to do it later today.

See you next week!

Page 92

2011-05-30T18:23:00.000-07:00

Guest appearance by Saskatoon's Royal University Hospital. I used reference photos for these - I probably took them about a year and a half ago...

Page 91

2011-05-23T08:27:00.000-07:00

So Yeah.

I finished drawing page 100 a few days ago. That's a pretty major milestone for me. I think the next milestone is page 152, because by then I'll have drawn twice as many pages as I did for Printheads (which soldiered along until page 76 before sputtering and dying a horrible death).

Till next week...TTFN.

Issue 4 cover, splash, & page 90

2011-05-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

Three for the price of one: Because it would be idiotic of me to make you wait three weeks to see the next real page.

Cover

Splash

Page 90

See you next week!

Page 89

2011-05-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hell yes.

And that's the end of issue three. Finished cover, splash page, & page 90 coming next week!

issue 4 cover

2011-05-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

I'm bored.

Here's the issue 4 cover in progress, then.

I have been wanting to draw this for at least a year.

Though, now I'm looking at it and thinking that the colours are going to look pretty off once it's printed. If the print version of issue 2 was any indication. (I think that one looked awful in part because of the cardboard texture I dropped in - never again...)

Page 88

2011-05-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

A day early, because I love you.

The dead tree version of issue 3 has now been printed and is available at 8th St. Books & Comics and Unreal City, both in Saskatoon.

Issue 1 is available from Orbital Comics in London, UK.

Issues 1 & 2 are both available from The Dragon in Guelph, ON.

Page 87

2011-04-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

Here you go. The "info" page is also finally operational. Needs a graphic of some sort though. I'll get on that.

Page 86

2011-04-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

Dun dun dunnnn.

Books still not printed yet; hopefully they'll be ready by next week.

Page 85

2011-04-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Another week, another page.

Issue 3 will be printed...soon. Yes. I swear.

Page 84

2011-04-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday: New page.

Issue 3 is all but done. I just need to do some stuff to the last page. And then figure out where I'm going to have it printed. And then faint at the cost. And finally wait impatiently until it's printed.

See you next week!

Page 83

2011-03-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

True to my word, it's Tuesday and here's a new page. This one is not in colour. But most of them aren't. Why not read the entire comic to find out why? ;)

My website has a favicon now, too, woohoo!

EDIT: Here is the back cover I've started for issue 3. Ummm...tomorrow I'm going to try making it look a bit more like a stencil.

ONE PAGE LEFT TO DRAW AND I'M DONE ISSUE 3. Hot damn!!!

EDIT THE SECOND: New & improved back cover. Much better.

Page 82

2011-03-22T17:16:00.001-07:00

A new page is up! And it's in COLOUR, oooo!! Go read it here. :)

I'm going to try very hard to update with a new page every week from here on out. This is the first step in shamelessly promoting myself online. I... haven't bothered to do this yet because I'm afraid of trolls. Yes, really. But I suppose if I'm serious about this I'm going to have to bite my lip and get on with it already.

Issue 3 cover finished

2011-03-11T21:59:00.000-08:00

You can now read the comic at

http://www.e2w-illustration.com/lsa.html !

I'll probably keep posting pages here, though, cuz I'm weird like that.

AND NOW

ECCC was fucking amazing. Can we do it again? Right now? Can we? Huh huh huh?!

Issue 3 cover inks

2011-02-25T21:16:00.000-08:00

You can now read the comic at

http://www.e2w-illustration.com/lsa.html !

This includes a whackload of pages I haven't posted here yet. Enjoy! (Also please bear with me as I tweak a few things such as dead links & so on :p)

OH HEY WHAT'S THIS

I did all of this today. I think that's probably a record for me. Wahoo!

Yes, this is meant to be a rehash of the drawing I did for my art show flyer - it's a super-special super-secret gift for someone, sshhhhh!!

Gonna take Photoshop CS5 for a test drive when I go to colour this. I do hope it's true that they've improved the brush parameter settings, because all the earlier versions sure do suck in that department compared to Painter et al. :p

Pages 60, 61, & 62

2011-02-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

Click here to read from the beginning!

Previous - Pages 58 & 59

OH NO YOU DI'INT!!! D:

I reckon I have 6 pages of issue 3 to go now. Aiming to have them finished before ECCC (March 4-6), not that it matters a whole heck of a lot, I suppose... :p

Pages 58 & 59

2011-02-06T21:20:00.000-08:00

Next - pages 60, 61 & 62

Previous - pages 56 & 57

I've just finished page 75 and I'm probably only about 10-15 pages away from finishing issue 3. So let's see about clearing through this enormous buffer of pages I've built up.

News

2011-02-04T08:00:00.000-08:00

I've just been informed that Look Straight Ahead #1 & #2 have been nominated for the 2011 Gene Day Award, which recognizes Canadian self-published comics released in 2010. Wahoo!

Here's the complete list of nominees: http://joeshusterawards.com/awards/about/2011-nominees/
(scroll down a ways until you see "Gene Day Awards")

Thank you to the panel for nominating me and thank you to everyone who has supported and continues to support me as I work on this project - you have no idea how much it means to me. :)

(Back to work, now!)

Pages 56 & 57

2011-01-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

Previous - pages 54 & 55

Next - pages 58 & 59

About time for new pages, innit?

And for the record, these are two of my favourite pages ever.

The art show can safely be considered a success, since I sold about 8 pieces and 3 of those were to people I barely know. (Because you know what they say...if the only people buying your stuff are family and friends, it's time to think about a career change!)

That's also not counting all the books & prints I sold. (the print being the "Dance Party In Hell" image below) There are still lots of prints left (for the paltry sum of 10 Canadian dollars), so if you'd like one, go see Theo at Unreal City in downtown Saskatoon.

If you don't live in Saskatoon but you still want one, email me and I'll see what I can do to hook you up.

Dance Party In Hell

2010-12-18T06:42:00.000-08:00

Heeey folks, hope you're well.

Here's a drawing I'm working on to put on some flyers advertising my show.

It's a dance party in hell. Of sorts. Still debating whether or not to add some shading, but y'know what, I don't think so. :p It looks fab with flat colour.

Pages 54 & 55

2010-12-04T18:56:00.000-08:00

Next - pages 56 & 57

Previous - pages 51, 52 & 53

Issue 3 is now progressing much faster than I expected, SOOOO...let's begin.

It'll have some coloured bits as a storytelling device. I'm going to regret doing that once I go to have this printed, I'm sure. :p

Also a splash page.

I don't care for this all that much, but a friend told me she wanted it on a shirt. I'll definitely keep that in mind if I ever re-draw it. XD

Pages 51, 52 & 53

2010-11-15T20:47:00.000-08:00

Next - pages 54 & 55

Previous - pages 47, 48, 49 & 50

These are the last three pages of book 2. Although I'm about 4 pages in on book 3, I'll still take a break from posting for a little while. Hope you've enjoyed book 2. I love you all, thanks for your support.

I will be doing an art show/book launch at Unreal City on January 15th - more news on that as it develops. In addition to the art & books, I found a button maker machine buried in my closet at my parents' house and I'd like to make some buttons to sell at this thing. If anyone out there has any suggestions for LSA button designs, I'd love to hear them. :)

Pages 47, 48, 49 & 50

2010-11-09T07:27:00.000-08:00

Next - Pages 51, 52, & 53

Previous - pages 45 & 46

Has this ever happened to anyone? No?

Well, never mind then.

Hmm, I just realized that the layout of page 47 is pretty confusing. The way I've drawn it makes it looks like you're supposed to read those three/four bottom panels clockwise, but that's incorrect. D'oh!! :X

Pages 45 & 46

2010-11-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

Previous - pages 43 & 44

Next - pages 47, 48, 49 & 50

This conversation is getting rude.

But you know, if anything, for a couple of teenage boys it's nowhere NEAR rude enough. :X *sigh*

A number of people have asked me where I had my books printed, so I'll remind you again...it was Lulu.com, the go-to place for many webcomic artists. Very pricey though. I've gotten in touch with a local printing place about my next print run but after almost a month I've still heard nothing about the status of my order. I'm not impressed. Should've just used Lulu again, I guess.

I also had my business cards printed through http://www.vistaprint.com and that was fairly inexpensive. Plus they throw in cool stuff for a couple extra bucks, like a metal business card holder or stickers with your design printed on them.

Pages 43 & 44

2010-10-18T19:20:00.000-07:00

Next - pages 45 & 46

Previous - page 42

OK, I guess I have enough of a buffer to post a few more pages. As usual, I don't even know if this sequence works or if it's just totally pointless. You guys need to tell me if it doesn't work, 'kay? :p

Page 42 & book 2 cover

2010-10-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

(Previous - pages 40 & 41)

(Next - pages 43 & 44)

ain't that somethin!

Once again, go here to see the cover without Blogger JPEG artifacts.

Book 2 is so close to being done - just got one more page to finish and then a back cover to draw. Onwards to book 3 - where the actual craziness begins!

Pages 40 & 41

2010-10-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

(Previous - Pages 38 & 39)

(Next - Page 42)

Pages 38 & 39

2010-09-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

(Next - Pages 40 & 41)

(Previous - pages 36 & 37)

Oh Jeremy, stop being such a freakin' jerk.

Pages 36 & 37

2010-09-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

Yep yep.

Next - Pages 38 & 39

Previous - Pages 34 & 35

Pages 34 & 35

2010-08-25T17:58:00.000-07:00

(Next - pages 36 & 37)

(Previous - pages 32 & 33)

NEEEEEW PAGES AT LAST, YESSSS

Page 34 continues on from my based-on-a-true-story sequence. Yes, sometimes the conversations I overheard in computer class were racist. I hope it's obvious that these inappropriate comments do not reflect MY views. :0

Page 35 begins a new sequence that...well, isn't really based on a true story. It's just supposed to show Jeremy acting like a typical sullen teenager and his dad reacting to this. You'll see.

Minor update

2010-08-05T07:43:00.000-07:00

First off, a big hello to my new followers, and thank you so much for your kind comments and encouragement - it means a lot. Please let me know if there's anything you're confused about or anything you think I could improve upon - either artistically or story-related.

With that said, I apologize for the lack of updates. I had to move house back to Canada and it was a mad dash to get my flat in Bournemouth cleared out. I'm back home now and still kind of settling in. My drafting table is currently at my parents' house an hour away, so I haven't been able to draw any new LSA pages for a while. I know that sounds like a lame excuse, but I seriously can't draw on a flat surface anymore - I need the slight angle that the drafting table provides. :0

My other excuse is that I've started working at 8th St. Books & Comics in Saskatoon. I've seriously been wanting to work there since I was 16 (I'm now 25), and I always assumed it was just a pipe dream. Needless to say, it's been pretty awesome so far.

Now let's see some pretty pictures, cause I NEVER post a new blog entry if I've got no PICTURES to include!

This is a stand for my books & business cards that I made with help from my mom and Thea (thanks, you two!) for the show my course did in London. Most of the books got taken, because I'm a complete bonehead and never made a sign saying they were actually £3.50. I just pray they went to good homes. Hey, if any of you folks are out there reading this, please gimme a holler! No, I don't expect you to pay up - I just want to hear from you. :)

As Thea & I were working on this stand, the security guard came over and asked how long it had taken us so far - I said that I didn't remember, but then we pointed out my work to him (the instructors had printed the first three pages of the comic on huge, HUGE sheets of paper) and he said something like "Oh, wow! I saw those earlier and loved them! I thought a man had drawn them!"

.......and I was left wondering, what on earth is THAT supposed to mean? XD Women don't draw comics, or CAN'T draw, period? It sounded awfully sexist, but actually it was just hilarious.

Some new-ish pages. Some of these are already finished - I'll post them when I have a bit more of a buffer.

And finally, the model sheet for Jeremy's dad, Bill. This is dated November, I see - and yet he doesn't even show up until page 35 or something like that. Wow.

Pages 32 & 33

2010-06-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

(Previous - pages 30 & 31)

(Next - pages 34 & 35)

Based on a true story. In grade 11 I was in a rather disorganized computing class just like this one, where the teacher hardly ever seemed to be around - giving a group of my fellow students a license to have loud, irritating and offensive conversations much like this. (Embarrassingly, it also gave ME a license to waste plenty of time online, mostly on Audiogalaxy and the Pitchforkmedia forums - aka "Pitchforkmedia Smackdown" or "PFMS" - that's what Jeremy's reading in the first panel. Ha ha. ha. I still came out with a 90-something in the class.) No one else in the class seemed to care about this. Maybe that says more about me and my inability to ignore static...

Anyhow, one day I made the mistake of telling these people to shut up, and then they began bullying me. For the remainder of the term I sat in the cornermost cubicle in the classroom, as Jeremy is doing here, just to hide from them.

I've opened up the comments field to anonymous users, which means any & all visitors to my blog can now comment! Try it out, won't you please? ;p

I'm also still trying to figure out how to install WordPress & its respective webcomic updater plugin to my website, but until then, I've added "next" & "previous" links to each blog post here, which should make the comic much easier to read. Enjoy!!

Pages 30 & 31

2010-06-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

(Next - pages 32 & 33)

(Previous - pages 27, 28 & 29)

Hi-ho, folks! I'm going to be away for a couple of weeks - tomorrow I'm traveling from Bournemouth up to Scotland with my auntie. It's going to be amazing and I'm really excited. I thought it would be best to post some new pages before I leave!

Below those we have a business card I just made for myself, rehashing one of the drawings from page 31. Since I work in so many different styles, I had trouble finding an image that best represented what I do - I thought this worked quite nicely. Now I just need to figure out how to get rid of 250 of the blasted things! ;p

Chapter 2 Splash Page

2010-05-25T13:24:00.000-07:00

The splash page to chapter 2, which I coloured out of extreme boredom. It's supposed to be about lacking identity, and feeling disconnected...or maybe I just really like drawing fake collages. The background is loosely based on a schematic diagram of a CB radio.

I'm feeling really discouraged lately, since nobody seems to be reading this comic...I know I need to make a proper website for it, since it's kinda difficult to read the way it's set up on this blog - despite my best efforts. I don't want to put you off by talking about this too much, though...I gotta stay positive...

Pages 27, 28 & 29

2010-05-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

I...I CAN'T hold off any longer. Here are some new pages.

(Next - pages 30 & 31)

(Previous - page 26)

PLEASE tell me if these make any sense at all, any feedback is seriously appreciated!!

close, up, over

2010-05-06T04:37:00.000-07:00

More "visual music." I'm not sure how or why "twirling ribbons" signify music, they were probably just really easy to draw. :p

I really think I should just set aside a day to colour stuff I've already drawn. Just for the hell of it.

Also HEY GUYS GO AND LISTEN TO THIS RIGHT NOW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRTzuutL6mA&feature=related

Synesthesia

2010-04-27T06:38:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to represent music visually in this next sequence and it's proving rather difficult. I had a look at the Bach Toccata & Fugue in D Minor segment of Disney's Fantasia again to see if that would inspire me, but no such luck. So I drew this based on an old sketch from a couple years ago and it seems to be closer to what I wanted. Whether or not it accurately represents sound is another matter. At least it looks nice. :p

The biggest problem is I'm trying to draw this as black & white lineart, but to be a better representation of synesthesia, it would work much better in colour. I think I'll do a black & white and a coloured version and decide later which one to use.

Page 26

2010-04-25T15:55:00.001-07:00

(Next - pages 27, 28 & 29)

(Previous - pages 24 & 25)

What, you've never found subliminal messages in your cereal before? ;p

This is the end of chapter 1, by the way...it might be quite a while before I add any new pages. Still working the kinks out of chapter 2's (partial) script. I PROMISE you I will do it though, no matter how long it takes. I'll post some more sketches later on to prove I'm still working.
Here's the revised splash page that I forgot to upload earlier.

Pages 24 & 25

2010-04-19T14:00:00.001-07:00

(Next - page 26)

(Previous - pages 22 & 23)

More dry brushing. That's Jeremy's friend Keith smooching Erin. Because apparently it wasn't enough to show Jeremy frozen AND impaled on tree branches. (???) JEEZ, Elaine. D: (This is still the dream sequence, of course)

From this page we can also deduce that Keith probably plays hockey and smokes a lot of weed.

I just ordered some new brushes, because all of mine are pretty much shot. I've read that it's normal for a brush to only last about 20 comic pages, which is kind of depressing considering how expensive they are. Oh well. :p

However, I did order the cheaper W&N "Sceptre Gold II" sable/synthetic blend brushes. I must be the only person on earth who prefers these to the ridiculously overpriced Kolinsky Series 7 sables. I find the Kolinsky much too stiff, with too much of a point on it. I'm sure I'm boring you to tears talking endlessly about brushes, so I'll end this here... :p

SHINY SHINY

2010-04-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

Handed in my project yesterday! :D And here's the finished, printed book...or at least a proof copy. No, it doesn't have my name on the cover...I hope I don't lose marks for that... :p

See how shiny it is!!

I'm hoping to order a small print run in time for the year-end illustration exhibition. GO AUCB, WE'RE THE BEST!!! I'll sell whatever is leftover from that at 8th St. Comics back home. Watch this space!

And just to prove to myself that I AM going to continue this thing...

The beginnings of issue 2, for real! OH JOY!!! :D

OH how I hate drawing cars...I suppose if I drew them more often I wouldn't have so much trouble? :p

What do I want from comics?

2010-04-14T04:11:00.000-07:00

I've already talked about some of my comic-based influences and how they've affected my own comics. I'll close off this series by talking about the last comic I drew before this one and the type of comic I'd like to make someday.

Comics can be used to tell any type of story, in any genre, with any art style, but ideally I think that they should at least try to make some use of their form as it connects with the story. I'm talking about things that can only be accomplished with comics. "Huh?" you say. I'll try to explain. One comic I tragically haven't read but have been DYING to read for years is Nick Abadzis' Hugo Tate. (Abadzis also drew the award-winning Laika, the true story of the first dog in space). The story of Hugo Tate follows a character who starts out drawn as a stick figure, and gradually becomes more realistically drawn as the story progresses and his character arc develops.

Another comic I haven't read that supposedly makes use of other formalist techniques is David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp. I've got a copy waiting for me in my file at the comic store when I get home...four months from now...sigh.

The very best example of this I HAVE seen is Dylan Horrocks' Hicksville. This tells the story of a fictional town in New Zealand where everyone reads comics, which also houses an underground library of comics that were never drawn - by real-life creators who "never got the chance to tell that magnum opus." The story contains several comics-within-a-comic, mimicking a wide range of styles - Golden Age superheroes (vs. modern-day superheroes), surreal underground comics, mini-comic gag pages, and so on. The superhero spoofs are particularly important as the main storyline concerns a character called Dick Burger, a former resident of Hicksville who moves to America and makes a fortune from a superhero franchise, which he has stolen from another creator's work. Maybe Hicksville wouldn't appeal to someone who isn't a huge comics nerd like me, I don't know. (There are plenty of comics-centric in-jokes - the town's local cafe is called The Rarebit Fiend, for example. And be sure to watch for Stan Lee's cameo!) I still highly recommend it because, like Bryan Talbot's One Bad Rat, it doesn't get the attention it deserves.

Other ideas I've seen include sculpting word balloons so that they become a part of the artwork and environment - weaving around objects, invading a character's personal space, and so on. I've decided to do similar things later on in my comic, such as having several unreadable thought balloons piled on top of each other to demonstrate the rapid thought processes of a manic person.

The page layouts also effect the story - I remember writing about this in my essay, how comic pages usually follow a straight grid and innovative frames are only used for dramatic situations or to create a disorientating effect. I tried this back on pages 3 & 4 especially, and a little bit on pages 22 & 23 below.

Phew...I hope all of that made sense. Let's take a break now to watch Printheads.

...Yeah. Basically it was a story about these two British neo-pagan hoboes (one's a wizard, one's a librarian) that drive around England in an old 1970s Ford Cortina (yes, because you REALLY see a lot of those on the road) fighting demons. And...no, that's all. Not very original. (The guy in the back seat there is basically Shaggy from Scooby Doo if he was obsessed with aliens.) I did make the mistake of giving the basic concept to someone else to write a script from, and we disagreed on how it should play out. I don't think it would have been much better if I'd written it myself, but never mind. Like all the others, it was good practice drawing comics, and I've moved on.

...Then again, I drew this 24 Hour Comic version of the same story which featured an evil Russian librarian turning into a giant potato monster (who is defeated by a bottle of malt vinegar) so...maybe I SHOULD have written it myself and made it as ridiculous as possible, thereby having as much fun as possible. (Why all the librarians? There was some sort of underlying book theme, about certain books being portals to hell - ALSO not very original - and a villain called "Spill Fector" who was a 1000+ year old demon trying to rewrite the entire world to fit his own unique vision. SOME of this stuff has potential but I just never figured out how to make it work)

Most of what I learned while drawing Printheads was dry technical stuff - perspective, proportions, composition, that kind of thing. I'm more careful with how I compose my frames now because I noticed there was often too much "dead" space in the Printheads panels. It's also much easier for me to find the correct horizon line when I start to draw a perspective grid - it sometimes used to take me three tries to get it right and now I can nail it the first time every time. Finally, I now use a brush to ink the characters and most other foreground elements, as it's much faster than using fineliners for everything.

So where does this leave me today? After finishing Look Straight Ahead (and believe me, I'm GOING to finish it - it is my DUTY), what kind of comic would I like to create in the future?

As evidenced by Printheads, I'd just really really like to tell some sort of swashbuckling adventure story. This story should be original, entertaining, and fun - there should also be a good amount of humour. Hmmm. Shall we look to cinema for inspiration again?

Oh! A Chinese Ghost Story, of course! This has everything you could ever want from a film: adventure, romance, a good dose of humour, scary bits, great visuals and plenty of action. Although I guess I'm thinking of targeting a slightly younger audience with my hypothetical adventure story. My mother has also been after me to draw a children's book for years, but I just haven't come up with a good idea for one yet.

What other comics would I like to draw? I definitely also want to draw something surreal, dark and creepy, with a very angular art style. (In fact, about a year ago I DID start drawing a comic called "Hornet's Heart" about an evil man who murders his wife and tries to make it look like an accident - the reason being that she wants a divorce and he doesn't want her to get half of his possessions. Of course he gets his comeuppance - his wife comes back as a giant hornet and kills him. The only reason I didn't finish drawing this comic is because I can't draw insects to save my life.)

It's tough for me to write these learning logs simply because I've been drawing comics for 8+ years and have learned as I've gone along, through trial and error - and back then, a lot was based on instinct. I'd draw a close-up of a character or a long shot or something, but I wouldn't know WHY - now I know that a character's face should be shown if it's important to show their emotions, and a long establishing shot is for showing the surrounding environment and grounding the reader in a setting. This all sounds very obvious now, and I'm trying to work out things that aren't quite so obvious. Such as...how can I REALLY make page designs work to my advantage, and perhaps make certain pages works of conceptual art in themselves? How much can I get out of just black & white? How can I make GOOD use of negative space? For example, could I have just ONE small panel in the center of a page, as Craig Thompson sometimes does? How many panels per page is too many? (Hey - deliberately overloading a page with panels could serve the same purpose as piling thought balloons on top of each other - to show a character is deeply confused and frightened. HEY!)

I think that's about all I have to say. My project deadline is tomorrow (the 16th) so unless I think of something between now and then...later!

Pages 22 & 23

2010-04-13T01:40:00.001-07:00

(Next - pages 24 & 25)

(Previous - pages 19, 20 & 21)

I tried some new things on these pages, namely dry brushing and extreme foreshortening - well, maybe "new" isn't the right word - I practice foreshortening sketches almost every time I sit down to sketch, you just never get to see any of them because they aren't very good. :p I don't know how the dry brushing is going to turn out in the printed version, but it seems to have scanned all right, so I'm not concerned.

I'm going to start drawing the second chapter of the story within the next few days. Also I suppose I'd better write up another one of those learning log posts soon-ish.

Pages 19, 20 & 21

2010-04-06T15:03:00.001-07:00

(Next - pages 22 & 23)

(Previous - pages 16, 17 & 18)

Semi-finished cover and back cover

2010-03-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

Yeow! I uploaded this to my DeviantArt as well, so you can see it without the hideous JPEG artifacts: click here!

By the way, it's not QUITE finished, but it should be soon. :p

And now here's a thing that I threw together for the back cover. I was kind of disappointed I didn't get to do much of this type of expressionist scribbly stuff for chapter 1, but chapter 2 should have a bit more of it.

Oh, and while I'm posting all this stuff, here's an endpaper.

New cover

2010-03-27T17:38:00.001-07:00

A proper cover, at last - it's partially coloured but I clicked off everything except the lineart layer coz I'll post the coloured one later. I have nothing else to say except I'm really glad I figured out layer sets and the "liquify" filter in Photoshop. :p

Now what to draw for a back cover...?? :O

Last Shop Standing

2010-03-23T16:46:00.001-07:00

Another old thumbnail. Still trying to think of a way to show Jeremy's gradual descent into madness. I've been told I should stick to personal experiences - but as I mentioned earlier, I went batshit insane very suddenly and that just wouldn't make sense in a proper narrative - it's gotta be gradual. I think part of the problem is that I feel like I need to show him interacting with other characters because it's just not interesting to focus solely on him...or is it?

Anyway, I'll get to the point and tell you why I posted this particular thumbnail. When I try to think of meaningful personal experiences from my high school days, what I actually remember most is the music I listened to and the countless hours spent in stale-smelling record shops poring over shelves searching for hidden treasures. And I always felt such joy upon discovering a CD I'd been seeking out for months or even years. When I think of this now it seems so absurd...was my life so empty that I was more attached to music than people? Would this feel mundane if I included it in the story or would it feel honest?

(I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mention the digital age and the sad demise of hunting for records in shops - I do still buy CDs and I still have an attachment to music in a physical form, but most of my shopping is done online because the stores simply never have what I'm looking for - in fact, most of the time they never did.)

Now that I think of it, a search for an elusive CD could be accompanied by Jeremy's search for the truth, for the missing puzzle piece, the secret to living that he believes everyone else already knows...