Black Snow Comics

For all my American fans that celebrate, Happy Thanksgiving.  I can’t believe it’s here already.  First Halloween snuck up on me, and now this?  I must be getting old, as the time ratio of my life seems to be making events speed up.  So what’s this holiday all about anyway?  Well, if you look at the tradition and history of it you’ll find it’s mired in some controversy, like all the major holidays we observe.  So let’s not do that.  I ain’t your history teacher, so if you don’t know go do a little research.

So what does it mean in the most modern, general sense?  A time to take stock of the things in your life, give thanks for the good things, interact with family (often extended), watch football and a time to feast on traditional foods like turkey and yams.  How does this usually work?  People blurt out a few things that make them happy around the dinner table and pretend to be deep while appreciating them.  Listen folks, it doesn’t really work or have any meaningful lasting impact if you only think about these kind of things once a year.  Telling grandma your Thankful for her cranberry sauce doesn’t mean anything.  Like most people I complain a lot, so what I usually do is try to complain less around this time.  I have a feeling I’m not the only one who does it that way.  I do tend to take stock of my life and all the things in it many times every year, so it’s not exclusive to Thanksgiving.  In fact Thanksgiving isn’t a major time for me to do this.  I don’t believe it can be a set, prescribed time that everyone can do this.  Your country can’t mandate that you start appreciating things on a particular day.

So I suggest to you don’t go through the empty gesture of saying what your thankful for to people.  If you can genuinely take some time to self reflect and honestly start feeling grateful for things, well then that’s great.  And if you happen to be grateful for someone else in your life, let them know.  Don’t say in a hollow ritual, say it through kind actions.  Oh, and don’t limit them to today.

If you aren’t feeling all philosophical and introspective, please don’t pretend to be or make a half-assed attempt.  Just take the day for what it is, a wonderful opportunity to spend time with loved ones and connect as a family.

From all your extended family here at Black Snow Comics,

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

I’ve been thinking a lot about  the Ninja Turtles lately.  A couple weeks ago Alex and I were talking with our coworker John and somehow the old turtles cartoon came up and we all started reminiscing about our childhood favorites.  Like virtually every person born in the 80s I lived for Saturday morning cartoons, the king of which was the mighty Turtles.  It’s funny, this is an instant connection I can find with nearly anyone born around the same year as me, 1983 by the way.  Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters that is.  Well, our nostalgia led to some fun times watching YouTube clips and mash ups, focused primarily  on Bebop and Rocksteady.  Well, after that the Turtles were stuck in my head.  This prompted me to re-watch the 3 live action films (yes, I suffered the 3rd one) and the CGI movie with  my wife and son.  Oh, I also happened to be playing the new Turtles Smash Up game for the Wii from my Game Fly.  So that was good fun.

Then this Saturday I did something rare, I decided to check out the current crop of Saturday morning cartoons.  To my shock I stumbled upon Turtle Forever, just as it was starting.  I had never heard of it before, but I was very excited when I saw what it was.  In case you don’t know, here’s a trailer.

Pretty cool stuff. In case you don’t know the old show or the new incarnation these intros should give you a pretty good idea of what they are about.

So the premise of Turtles Forever involved the turtles from my beloved childhood crossing path with the turtles of today, which is a show that I am vaguely familiar with.  I had stumbled upon the world premiere of this new made for TV/DVD movie.  A few thoughts on it.  As an old school fan it was really strange and fun to see these characters I grew up with in some new material.  They did a good job of making everyone look the same and capturing their feel.  They made all the elements from the old show a bit too silly though.  They over simplified and exaggerated how goofy the old show was for the purpose of juxtaposing it with the tough, serious tone of the new show.  It wasn’t terrible, but a bit disappointing that the 80s show served mostly as comic relief here.  I know this movie was targeted towards today’s youth, so I can see why the current show was the main focus.  People my age who grew up on the old show are probably the minority in this audience, so I probably have a very different take on this movie than a modern child would.  The overall plot was good, and I like how they worked in all the different incarnations of the turtles.  The inclusion of the comic book turtles was really cool too.  I’ve never read the comic books, but I’ve always been aware that the exist and are quite a bit more serious in tone than the cartoons.  The most important thing I know about them is that they represent the peak success comic creators can achieve with self publishing and adapting content for commercial endeavors and wider mass appeal.

Basically this movie was the dissection of the major cultural icon the turtles have become.  The plot cleverly works this into a cohesive story that examines the essence of what makes the turtles, both intrinsically and extrinsically.  There’s a lot of subtle brilliance there, hidden underneath what I’m sure most will write off as a simple bubble gum pop, overly commercial cash in attempt.  It’s not without flaws, but definitely worth viewing.

Funny, the old show that I look back so fondly on was an obvious “half hour long commercial” for action figures and toys, but it’s never bothered me.  Hell, it’s made me want the toys!  This may have been the most effective show of this nature of all time.  The show spawned countless imitators, none of which saw anywhere near the same kind of success.  It has remained endearing and never presented itself to its audience in an obnoxious manner.  The fact that there has been so many incarnations, and that the turtles still produce regular new content today, some twenty plus years later, is a testament to the quality behind the characters and stories.  It’s interesting to see how they’ve attempted to update themselves to stay relevant to the times, since their original popularity was such a phenomenon of a specific period in pop culture.  I doubt they’ll ever achieve that same level of popularity, but it’s nice to know they are still around.

In my youth I watch the show, played the games, drew the turtles, bought the toys and even created my own costumes and weapons so I could go out and pretend to be the turtles with my friends.  I was Michaelangelo, in case you were wondering.  Some of my friends still are able to remember specific plots and quotes from the old show.  That’s not really how I work though.  My memories from childhood aren’t so specific, more I remember how things made me feel and they’re general overall tone.  I’m able to recall the essence of something and tap into the same emotions that I originally felt when I experienced it.  This is also true of the 80s TMNT.  I’m amazed at how detailed these characters and plots are documented on Wikipedia, I sure as hell don’t remember all that.  I also don’t remember when or why I stopped watching the show, but the turtles eventually stopped being a part of my life.  I saw the new incarnations, but it wasn’t the same and never hooked me in the same way.

Something happened in my teenage years, Hot Topic was created.  Suddenly many of my beloved old shows from the 80s were popping up on clothing and key chains and a bunch of other things.  It still seems really weird to me, and I don’t quite understand it.  It doesn’t feel like a true or genuine portrayal of  things like TMNT or Nintendo, but rather some cheapened bastardized version.  I’ve never been able to really embrace the whole revamping and repackaging of the culture of my youth.  I can’t tell you exactly why, but Hot Topic’s mere existence and popularity has always troubled me.  Perhaps it’s all the posers I see working and shopping there, or the young kids wearing T-shirts they don’t even understand like Che or 80s shows that they were too young to even experience.  I don’t know exactly, but I do know that I don’t like it.  I’ve also never really liked people that cling too much to the past and talk about it adnaseum, which Hot Topic seems to inspire.

In a final note I’d like to talk about the importance of embracing your inner child.  This is critical for multiple reasons, but especially so in creative endeavors.  Children aren’t afraid to try new things, explore new areas and test there limits, and these are all admirable qualities when trying to create something new.  I consider myself to be a fairly well rounded person, that displays many facets.  I can be serious, intellectual, goofy, a lot of fun and a million other things.  I have both very adult and childlike tendencies.  I drink alcohol, pay my taxes, create and organize spreadsheets, balance my budget, manage employees, follow the news and a plethora of other adult things.  I also draw, play video games, watch cartoons, play with my son, keep pets, get really into celebrating holidays and a bunch of other more childlike things.  It’s important to find a good medium ground, as leaning too much either way is not a good thing.  To be really creative you must be able to tap into the childlike mentality of doing something simply because it is fun, not for any other altruistic goals.  Not to succeed, or to profit or anything like that.  That’s something I’ve really had to remind myself and come to terms with while working on Black Snow.  It’s not always the way of thinking that comes naturally, but it is important.

I bring this up because in many ways the Ninja Turtles represent my childhood.  The original cartoon captured what felt like it was a simpler, more innocent era, both in my life and culture as a whole.  Things didn’t have to be edgy, they could just be fun.  Wholesome didn’t seem lame, it was something to embrace.  Of course this might not be true, but it’s the way it felt to me.  The turtles were simple fun.  They weren’t judge harshly or demonized for being too commercial or too violent.  They just entertained me, and apparently an entire generation.  That makes it all the stranger to see them appear with the current turtles in Turtles Forever.

You may ask yourself if the Turtles have inspired anything in Black Snow?  Of course they have.  I’m sure much of it on an unconscious level, as I learned to draw by copying the cartoons I watched as a child.  So yeah, they’ve undoubtedly had an impact on my style.  More overtly their eye masks were a direct inspiration for Black Snow’s.  At one point I toyed with drawing it with the knot in the back and the ends hanging down over the shoulders, but opted to make it a simple wrap around the head in the end.  April O’Neil was also a direct inspiration for Mary Summerhall, both as a character and in the way she’s drawn.  I’m sure there are a few others, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

To close I’d like to say thank you to the Ninja Turtles for providing me with countless hours of entertainment over the years, and here’s hoping for many years to come as well.

Check out Alex and I’s Latest video, for the good folks of Future Ford in Sacramento.

Black Snow issue 6 is done and posted, as of today!  Before you read any further here I strongly suggest that you READ ISSUE 6, as this will contain some spoilers.  That being said, let’s talk about 6.

Actually, first a few words about what’s next.  Well, probably some new Day Camp.  I’ve been holding off of a couple that were written as part of the last batch I drew, and it’s about time I sat down and drew them.  I believe Alex plans on writing about 10 more in the next few days, so that’s what you can expect in the immediate future.  Beyond that?  More Black Snow, of course.  Right now it looks like the plan is to hold off of Issue 7 and go ahead with Issue 0.  Don’t worry, 7 will have it’s day, and it’s already been outlined.  Believe it or not, there is a grander plan and overall story arch.  What is Issue 0?  What you might guess, an origin story of sorts, set well before the events of Issue 1.  It will be like a new Issue 1 for people reading the series for the first time, but will serve as an exciting back story that enhances and clarifies things for all the current fans.  I won’t say anything else about it, you’ll have to wait and read it if you want to know more.  So now let’s really get to that look back at Issue 6.

Well, obviously there were a lot of changes and new things going on in 6.  Right off the bat, the covers in color and got a more polished look than in the past.  I’ve discussed this in previous posts, so I won’t go into a ton of detail here, but this Issue was a merge of my love for drawing and Photoshop.  I combined the two art forms into the current product you see before you.  I feel it was a natural evolution in my style, and a progression of what I had already been doing.  I’m really happy with the way it came out, and I hope it wasn’t too jarring to long time fans.  I was inspired to go forward with it after I played around with making new color images of all the characters for the website.  I was so excited by what I produced that I decided all future covers would be in color.  I also decided to see exactly what I could do with with the traditional black and white and the addition of this new Photoshop medium.  Seeing the results, I’ll never go back to the old way!  It was also a lot faster and a bit easier to produce, as there was a lot less inking and not as much pre-planning, as placing the typed words on the page and drawing around them was a very tedious and laborious process in all past issues.  The new format seems to allow for quite a bit more freedom, and it’s a hell of a lot easier to fix mistakes.

The top panel is the first time anything other than black or white appeared in the comic.

Eventually this would lead to the use of grey, which I discussed in length in the post Shades of Grey.  Will every page from now on contain grey?  I don’t know.  Maybe.  Let’s put it this way, I’ll use it when I feel appropriate.  I’m really enjoying playing with it, and kind of wish I had used it from the beginning.  I asked Alex what he thought of the grey, and he said it was great because it added a needed softness to my style, or something along those lines.  I’ve thought about it and I agree, for the most part.  There are times when it’s necessary to be hard, and in those times I will revert back to black and white.    For instance, I don’t know that I would have used any grey in Issue 5, regardless of if I had used it before or not.  I don’t actually regret holding off of grey until now though, it was a fun challenge that pushed me to explore and grow as an artist, and I’m the better for it.  It’s kind of like when they tell photographers to start out in black and white before they move on to color so they can learn the basic principles before trying to master anything more complex.

It’s easy to get caught up in all this fancy new style, what with all the drop shadows and polished effects and what-not.  Is it my best work?  Again, I don’t know.  That’s a tough  and subjective question.  It may be my best looking work  on Black Snow, but I think I’d make an argument for the striking visuals in Issue 5, like this one.

Possibly my favorite page of Black Snow.

Is 6 my overall favorite Issue?  No, that tile is still held by Issue 4, largely due to the hilarious opening scene and lengthy appearance by my favorite character, The Lone Wolf.  Seeing him with Black Snow just cracks me up every time.  It makes me laugh just to think about it now.  Not to mention the debut appearance of Alex’s favorite character, the Fisherman.  Comedy gold.  Here is a particular favorite page for both of us, containing one of our favorite nonsensical jokes.

“Two mugs then!”  Not to mention this was followed up by a very strong showing and fleshing out of the Anti-Nazi, another character I really like.  But we aren’t her to talk about Issue 4.  Back to the matter at hand, Issue 6.  Perhaps one day I’ll change my mind, and it will be my favorite.  After all, I’m very close to it now, as it’s been mere hours since I finished drawing  it.  It’s lighter in tone than Issue 5, but considerably more somber than 4.  Sort of a medium tone, that if anything leans toward more of an absurd direction than anything we’ve done previously.  A very unique issue in that the main character’s are not in much of it.  Obviously the focus is the cops this time.  They had always been a background story up until now, so this was quite a change.  One that worried me because I wasn’t sure it would work.  Let’s not feature are most popular characters and focus on some of the least popular…great idea!  I’m happy to say that it all turned out to be very successful.  I put a lot of work into making the cops interesting here, and I can confidently say I succeeded.  You really get to know their personalities here, and I think they’re all pretty entertaining.  We may have even succeeded in fleshing out some new fan favorites.  I know I like Brad a lot more now, after scenes like this:

Not to mention the amazing debut of Detective Redmund.  It feels like this story has really picked up steam, and things are moving ahead well.  Which is why we were hesitant to move forward with Issue 0 instead of going straight to 7.  Hopefully it was the right decision.  To me 6′s main strengths were in giving characters more dimension, acting  upon long planted seeds, as well as planting some new ones.  There’s a hell of a lot going on in this series, and a lot of characters.  Funny, this isn’t that obvious for most people until they really sit down and think about it.  I suggest you take a moment to reread the comic and you’ll notice that beyond the comedy and action there’s a lot of subplots, drama and mystery.  I feel we usually get slighted in that aspect, as some how people only come out of reading Black Snow thinking it’s a “super hero comedy’.  I’d say these people are missing the point.

It’s funny, I always think that finishing an issue will feel like a great accomplishment, but it always feels sort of bittersweet.  Once it’s over, it’s over.  The journey is complete, and that period of my life comes to a close.  I have found memories of where I was, who I was with and what was happening around me when I was drawing specific panels.  Often the things going on in my life effect my work in ways that you probably couldn’t guess.  Music I listen to, movies I see, conversations I have, the events I witness, and just my life in general all have an impact on the image I produce.  I’ll share a few things that had happened in my life to make this issue unique.  The biggest thing?  My son was born last year!  Drawing around him is quite a challenge, and raising him has made me start thinking of things in new ways.  It has also exposed me to a lot of child targeted movies, TV shows, books and toys.  He has also filled me with a motivation to succeed much more-so than anything I have ever felt before.  The drive to provide is amazing!

In line with this, I also got married last year.  While not as obvious a change, we had been dating for over 6 years and living together for a few, I am just starting to realize what some of these changes really are.  I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say making a life long commitment to the one you love  in front of everyone important to you does have real, meaningful impact on your life, and your “hobbies”.  BTW, I’ve never considered Black Snow a hobby, but pretty much everyone else in my life does.  Does it really change everything if you get paid?  Then doing the exact same thing is your job?  And why do people scoff when I say it is my passion?  Hell if I know.

Other things that happened?  I graduated from UC Berkeley with a film degree where I learned a lot about story telling and visual presentation.  I then worked at Google/YouTube for a year and became enamored with the hi-tech world.  You can read about that in this post from my previous blog, 21st Century Digital Boy.  Since then I’ve started working at my family’s internet marketing company.  In this time I’ve learned a lot, and I think long time fans have seen tremendous improvements on this very website.  It’s also helped us reach unprecedented numbers of people.  A side effect of all this, I have been exposed to a lot more of the internet community and all it has to offer.  This also means I saw a lot of other people’s web art.  I draw to learn from everything I see.  In recent months I got Alex a job at my family’s company.  It is a real pleasure to be able to work with my good friend.  I think it was quite a change in lifestyle for him,  but a much needed one to help him get his life on track.  I won’t reveal any of his personal issues, except to say that he was having a lot of problems and some depression.  He reached out to me for help, and I simply gave him an opportunity to better himself.  I’m proud of how well he has done and I know he would have done the same for me.  Working together has led to us spending more time together on a regular basis than we have since the old summer day camp days when we were first becoming friends.  Seeing him so often has made it a lot easier for me to get feedback and to collaborate with Alex and produce more material.  It led to rewriting Issue 6 quickly, working on 7 and 0, and creating Day Camp.  I’d say it’s been extremely beneficial to our partnership and motivational for me to keep up my work rate.

Of course these are only a few of the things that happened in my life, and many other things impacted the creation of Issue 6, those were just some of the top ones.  Well, that’s enough for now.  I’m tired and ready to go to bed.  I think I earned a little rest.  Don’t worry, I’ll be back drawing tomorrow.  Maybe after I wait a little I’ll read Issue 6 and have some new thoughts on it, but that’s all for now.  Good night.

If today’s Something Awful story has anything like the success of the last one then I’m expected a lot of new people will be discovering Black Snow for the first time.  Well, let me take a moment to welcome you.  I’m series co-creator and artist Michael Balistreri.  Please take some time to really browse the site and get to know Black Snow and Day Camp.  We’ve got a lot of great resources and fun stuff to explore, tons of comics to read and it’s all FREE!  What have you got to lose?  Besides your precious and valuable time that is.  For a limited time only, if you are unsatisfied all time wasted will be refunded in full.  I will personally add it back and extend your life expectancy, so now you have literally nothing to lose.  So read the comics, check out the FAQ, browse the character profiles, check out the fun stuff section and look at all the rest of it if you really have some time to spend.

Oh, and I know it’s important to read Issue 1 to get the set up, but keep in mind that they get a lot better after that, and you’ll thank yourself if you continue on to 2.