Black Snow Comics

Black Snow: Two Drink Minimum page 39

I love this page.  I think I’ve fallen into a new groove here, and I’m having a lot of fun with this more gritty, dramatic style.  Really heading towards that noir goal that I’ve always had.

This page features things that I haven’t really done much of in some time, aside from the last page: silhouettes, hatching, heavy “inking”, a wider variety of shot lengths and more attempt at depth and perspective.

I also like that this scene has already demonstrated a new dynamic between Black Snow and Lightning Lad; basically that one handles things like a professional while the other acts like a moody amateur.  A very odd reversal of the dynamic for a superhero and sidekick, if you are going to look at the traditional roles they play in comics.

Kind of your classic by the books cop matched with a wild rule breaker partner, though the rookie is the one playing it straight here.  He also seems to have tapped into the Detroit underground better than Black Snow, despite being in the area only for a short time while Black Snow has lived here all his life.

Basically I think we are starting to (if we haven’t already) get the idea that Black Snow just doesn’t know what he’s doing and has given up in a lot of ways, while Lightning Lad has all the tools to succeed and a bright future ahead of him.

That is quite a gross bum I drew.  He’s certainly no good old time hobo like Happy in DMC.  Sadly he is not so unlike the many bums I see on a fairly regular basis in life.

I like that this bum seems to dislike superheroes, as I think a bum really would.  What have the superheroes done for them?  Nothing.  They are still barely scraping by and no one is “saving” them.  Usually if superheroes have any involvement at all they are hurting the homeless for committing petty crimes.  Black Snow has a lot more in common with the homeless then most heroes, and I hope it is an aspect we’ll get to explore more in depth at some point.  And I don’t mean that to be foreshadowing.

But let’s talk about the elephant in the room here, we just used the word faggot, and not in a particularly politically correct way.  Black Snow has always been peppered with some swearing here and there, but we’ve always tried to avoid getting too crass.  In fact, I’ve toned things down that were written with more harsh language at times.  I don’t like bad language just for the sake of it, it’s a lazy crutch bad writers use to try and make their stuff more edgy and entertaining.

But I do think it is sometimes necessary.  We are dealing with adults here, and adults living in an incredibly tough city no less.  You walk doewn those streets and you’ll here a lot worse than this.  Hell, you’ll probably here worse than this on any public school playground.

But we aren’t just talking about a curse word here, we’re talking about a sensitive “hateful” word being used in a way that organizations like GLADD are trying to eliminate.  So why did we use it?  I was with Alex when we wrote this and it was actually my idea, because I thought it was fairly shocking, entertaining and added a new level of realism and darkness to the comic.

I know we’ve poked a bit of fun at gays in the past, but that is not what this is about at all.  I (and Alex) have nothing against gays.  Much to the dismay of the gay community faggot is commonly used as a derogatory slur, with a variety of hurtful meanings, but most having nothing to do with sexual orientation.  It’s just a fact of life at this point.

It happens all the time, even in the ultra liberal, gay friendly San Francisco bay area.  For whatever reason it seems to happen to Alex pretty commonly (though he is quite the ladies man in truth).  So are we here to perpetuate stereotypes?  No.  But we’re not here to create role models either.  Look at who is saying this here, a filthy angry uneducated bum.  I wouldn’t call him a role model for the kids.

And I’ve always said Black Snow should not be anybody’s role model.  It says Anti Hero on his shirt for a reason.  The dude has a lot of personal problems and characters flaws.

So before you send any hate mail or think us too ignorant, consider the context in which we use our colorful language and the reasons we may be doing it.  Then send your hate mail.

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Happy Groundhog Day, and more importantly Happy 2nd Anniversary to I’m Famous!

And the winner of the drawing contest is…Kenn Wislander of The Angry Bunny.

The Winning Entry

Congratulations Kenn, I hope you enjoy the book. I’m glad a good man won.  To all you who didn’t enter, I’m glad to see sloth and apathy are still thriving in America.

Let’s talk briefly about year two of I’m Famous! It started with a bang as we celebrated the first anniversary pretty hard. We had celebrity guests, won some contest, found Thor’s hammer, continued our limo tour through Hollywood…then things quieted down as Two Drink Minimum took center stage.

Until we got the delightful side journey into the crazy world of anime with I’m Famous in Japan! and the art of Mark “Rawr” Egan. We also got to return to Hollywood to find the long lost sidekick.

We put out I’m Famous! Volume 1, which is available now online, and we got more bad reviews!

A quick tangent/rant about “webcomic reviewers”. These are totally unqualified amateurs who’ve earned no credentials to be passing judgement, and they do a bad job. A real reviewer wouldn’t review a movie based solely on the first 10 minutes, a book based on only the first 10 pages, a restaurant based on a couple bites of a single dish, etc.  So how the hell do these people condone reviewing a webcomic series based on reading the first 10 or so comics? It’s idiotic, totally unprofessional and quite frankly irresponsible. Do it right or don’t do it at all, you ass clowns.

Ok, done. So year two was eventful. It wasn’t the crazy quantity of comics as year one, but I had to make a choice on what to focus on, and I chose the challenge and storytelling of Black Snow.

Was it the right choice? I don’t know. I’ve received a lot more praise for my art on TDM, but I’m Famous! is almost always universally chosen as the better overall comic. People just love it, and I can see why.  It’s simple, fun, good times.

The good news? I’m building up a surplus of TDM pages to release each Saturday, and once I feel comfortable with it I’ll start up with I’m Famous! on Wednesdays. In fact, just today Alex and I decided to challenge ourselves and see if we can get TDM ready for print by the Big Wow Comic Fest in May. If that happens we’ll have a huge surplus and plenty of time for I’m Famous!

So don’t lose hope, your favorite insane superhero will be back soon to continue his entertaining antics.

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I know I’ve touch on this subject before, but I think it bears repeating. It’ as much to explain it to you as to remind myself.

I don’t draw for the money, being as I don’t get paid. In fact I lose money on the expenses involved in running the website and going to cons.

I don’t do it for the fame, since there is none.  Even if I was a big time comic artist the fame is relatively niche, and I would always be considered a “nerd” by most of society.  My current amount of accolades and followers is nothing to write home about.

I don’t do it to be cool, because clearly many people don’t think it’s cool.  Some people think it’s silly, childish, geeky or at best interesting, but very few people think it’s cool.

I don’t do it because I have nothing else to do.  In fact I have a fairly busy life, and taking the time to do all this comic stuff often is something of a sacrifice, as it’s time I could be spending elsewhere, like with my family or doing something that makes money or pursuing my other interests (and I do actually have many non-comic related interests).

So those are not some of the reasons I draw.  But why do I draw?

I’ve drawn all my life.  Literally since before I have cognizant memories I’ve been drawing.  And it’s been fairly consistent.  More intense at some times than other, but never really stopping.  Mostly just doodling around, but always something.

As a child I watched a lot of cartoons and read comic strips, and dreamed of one day being a cartoonist.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my abilities for much of my life, so I didn’t do as much with my drawing as I could have.  I let it discourage me from really pursuing much.

Even when I started Black Snow I wasn’t that confident.  In truth sometimes I still don’t feel all that confident, but more often then not I feel pretty good about what I do now a days.

I feel OK with calling myself an artist, something I never felt too good about in the past.  It was a label that somehow I never felt I earned.  Don’t ask me why.

But I still didn’t really tell you why I draw.  When I started Black Snow it was actually for some of the naive reasons I listed above.  I thought it could make me rich and famous and cool.  I didn’t know much about comics.

The reason I draw now, as a 28 year old man with jobs and a family, is because it makes me happy.  It’s that simple.  I enjoy drawing.  I want to tell stories.  I want to entertain.  But really I like to entertain myself.

It’s been more recent where I’ve really stopped caring what other people think of my drawings or how many readers I have.  It’s more about self expression and fulfillment than anything else.

So there you go.  Nothing complex, I just do what makes me happy.

And if it makes you happy too, well that’s all the better.

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Black Snow: Two Drink Minimum page 38

I think this page contains my new favorite scene transition, beating out my previous example from Black Snow issue 4.

I was really excited to do this page ever since I laid it out (about a month ago).  We are switching to a very different scene here, and I think this will be the moment where the story shifts into a whole new gear.  A new level of intensity that I don’t think we’ve ever seen, even in the highly dramatic and violent Black Snow issue 5.

So we go from the bright , sanitary office setting to the grimy alleys and over passes of Detroit.  We’ve never done much to really show the streets of Detroit, and I was always disappointed in that.  I felt we had not really fully captured the spirit of what we were trying to accomplish.  Of course these were more feelings than actual coherent thoughts.

But as soon as Alex and I worked on this scene I knew that we were finally going to be presenting Black Snow in the way that I had really envisioned it all along.  It”s not that I don’t like the bar  or apartment conversation scenes, it’s more that we needed some scenes like this to balance them out.

Barfing in the alley, the deep shadows, walking in these dangerous decaying areas, movement for the characters – I love it!  You’ll notice that I’ve changed my drawing style pretty significantly here to use much heavier “inking” in a way that I haven’t attempted since Black Snow issue 5.  But I think I’ve already outdone myself on this page.  This is what I wanted that issue to look like.

And I’m having a ton of fun doing it.  You may notice that I’m looser in my line work, not so formal or rigid as I feel I can sometimes be.  I think working on Detroit Mock City helped me try new things and experiment with ideas I normally wouldn’t have.

Another source of inspiration is all the Batman I’ve been reading lately (in addition to all the black shadows I regularly get in my Mignola comic).  The Dark Night Returns, Year One, Hush, The Long Halloween; I read them all on my new Kindle Fire.  I also saw the Year One dvd, which was pretty cool.  The Long Halloween, while being the least polished looking of the 4, had the unique noir look that was in the vein of what I’ve always wanted to do with Black Snow.

So look for things to pick up quickly and get more intense.

I might also add that Alex and I recently had a pretty amazing writing meeting which contained a real moment of clarity, and now I think we both have a good idea of how long the story will be and exactly what will happen.  It’s not exactly what we thought when we started out on TDM; it’s much better.

So get excited, I am!

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Black Snow: Two Drink Minimum page 37

This was another page that came out pretty quickly, and I’m really pleased with the results.  I like the Kurt, Marie and Donald dynamic.  Alex thinks that it is hilarious, especially when Kurt and Marie were being playful.  I guess it is pretty funny in its own subtle, odd way.

I like it because there are a lot of emotions at play and they keep shifting throughout the scene keeping the characters, and maybe the reader, slightly off balance.

This page has a little more to it than the majority of our standing around talking pages with Donald’s recollection, outburst, and storming off.  I’m pleased with the way that solid black background came out in the middle right panel with Donald freaking out.  I think it makes him pop out a bit and emphasizes how angry he is.

Of course the panel that should be drawing your eyes and attention is the one on the middle left, Donald bleeding on the ground and the shadows fighting around him.  It was not written into the script, just something I thought of to freshen things up visually and keep building up the mystique of The Lone Wolf.  We’ve had a lot of people talking about him already, saying both good and bad things, so obviously at some point he is going to have a major presence, in one way or another.  And in this shadow you get your first clue as to what he’ll be like.  Hint: Pretty different from I’m Famous!

Deciding to show what Donald was talking about instead of just showing him talking about it (as it was written) is the type of fun freedom that Alex gives me when we work together.  A lot of times I’ll help him start a scene and then he’ll take off with it and write the rest mostly (or completely) on his own.  This was basically one of those scenes.  I think you can kind of tell which ones I worked on with him all the way through and which ones he cranked out on his own after inspiration hit.  He’s got his own unique style.

The nice thing (for me) is that he typically writes about 85% pure dialogue, with only a few key actions and character reactions being explicitly written.  So it allows me to interpret things however I see fit.  Like this scene, where I cut up some character dialogue to emphasize certain parts of what they were saying.  Donald’s last line on the last page was written as part of his lines at the top of this page, but I thought they worked better broken up.  That’s a pretty common thing I’ll do.

And Alex doesn’t mind when I do that kind of thing or come up with ideas like that middle panel.  In fact, usually he really likes it.  I think he gets a lot of enjoyment in seeing how I’ll go about tackling what he writes.

A last thing about that panel.  I really like how the lighter lines and monotones instantly take you away from the current present and let you know you’re looking at something completely different, in this case a memory.  I also think it’s pretty slick how it makes the dark blood and shadows jump out at you.

Pretty simple stuff really, but fun and exciting for me, and hopefully you.

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