Strange Times

- In case you missed it the Lone Wolf is now on Twitter and Blogging! Take the time to check out his stuff. Or he’ll likely kill you.

- After a 3 month hiatus the fabled lost Day Camp strip surfaced from out of nowhere yesterday. Behold “Cliffhanger”!

Cliffhanger

Wow, not worth the wait. Classic Day Camp! I almost forgot how to draw it!

- We have been in contact with several comic artists who are interested in working on some Black Snow Comics inspired guest art. I’m pretty excited to see what they come up with. It’s always really fun to see how someone interprets your work and adapts it to their own style to it.

- Our Twitter follower count has broken the 100 barrier! If you aren’t already, please follow Black Snow Comics on Twitter for all the latest news. Oh, the Facebook fan page is slowly gaining momentum as well, so like it already.

- Last Friday I posted what I feel is the funniest comic we’ve produced yet. Check out this I’M FAMOUS!, Freakshow.

It is I! The Lone Wolf!

I am the Lone Wolf. Black Snow was my sidekick. I have started a Twitter. I am the alpha male, he is…I don’t even know what!

You may be interested to know that Nina Mercedez, known for her work in the porn, is now a bosom friend of mine. We drink friendship from the Chalice of Friendship.


I must also mention that I am of the Pro Wrestling Generation. I do enjoy a good wrestle. Just ask the strongest man of any Metropolitan Midwestern City! This tweet looks awful I must say! I will sip tea and re-read The Walden Pond before I attempt to re-create this mockery of justice and human rights. Go away, and quit my sight!

How about this one?


@FamousLoneWolf Of course you don’t even know what Twitter is, you’re an insane fool!less than a minute ago via web

I have made this blog much uglier! That’s the Detroit way.

Random Thoughts

It has become a chore to consistently try and develop a full topic for each post, so I thought I’d try out a different format and see how it goes from there.

- Traffic to the website is up, which is always nice.  We finally got some business cards and post cards printed up in an attempt to start legitimizing this place.  I think the post cards are part of the reason we’re seeing new traffic, as we’ve put them up at a few coffee shops and De Anza Community College.  Next we plan on hitting up West Valley Community College and possibly a few comic shops.

- We’re looking into getting a booth at the Alternative Press Expo (APE) coming up in October.  This would be very exciting, as it would mark our first convention, and essentially our debut into the real comic book culture.  I’ve never even attended a convention as a fan, so I imagine this will be quite an experience.

- On a similar note we are finally getting ready to start selling some products, most likely T-shirts.  Is there anything specific that you’d like to see sold?  I think we’re going to come up with a Lone Wolf I’M FAMOUS! shirt, and maybe some stickers.

- People continue to tell me that they have connections that they’ll talk to on my behalf/show my work to/introduce me to.  I’ve heard this for years for both the comic and film industries, and how many times has it happened?  A big fat zero.  I think people just like to run their mouths and drop names.  I don’t take any of it seriously anymore, as I’ve become fairly jaded.

- I’ve become more active on Facebook and Twitter and it is a lot of fun.  It’s a cool way to interact with fans and other comics.  The Lone Wolf has also started up his own Twitter! Check it out, it’s hilarious.

- Alex continues to perplex me a bit, now talking about working on Black Snow Issue 7, and even bringing up Issue 0 again after recently stating that we should focus solely on I’M FAMOUS! for awhile.  He also is hesitant to start getting products to sell, as it will require us borrowing money from someone to get it rolling.  I can see why he’d worry, but after all this time I’d think he’d have enough faith in what we’re doing and he would jump on the opportunity to take advantage of a generous offer from an interested financial backer.

- I haven’t seen the very creatively titled Iron Man 2 yet, though I’d like to.  Everyone seems t o have good things to say about it.  I thought the first one was good, if somewhat forgettable.  A fun time without being anything spectacular.  I really didn’t have any anticipation for this sequel, but the buzz has gotten me a bit excited now.

- I’ve been doing a lot of small updates to the website lately, mostly in the FAQ and Character sections, but also other little tweaks throughout the site.  Nice to see Alex step up and help a bit with writing the I’M FAMOUS! character bios, though I wish he’d write them faster.

- WWE NXT was awesome this week, with Bryan Danielson delivering another powerful promo that spoke directly to what the internet fans have been saying about the WWE for quite some time.  Better yet, he proceeded to kick the crap out of that insufferable Michael Cole.  I didn’t hate Michael Cole when he started, at one point I think I started to even like the guy when he was paired with JBL and Taz, but as the years have gone on he’s become almost unbearable.  He is just a terrible announcer.  He’s bland, the things he says often don’t make sense, his attempts to establish a character with things like constantly spouting out vintage and taking jabs at JR have failed miserably, and he’s just got this annoying tool quality that makes me hate him.  Not in a heel we’re supposed to hate him kind of way, but in an X-Pac this guy absolutely sucks way.  Watching Danielson beat him down was a pure joy.  I’m very excited to see where this leads next.

Hopefully you enjoyed that, as this may become the regular style unless I have a particularly strong topic to discuss.

Trust

When two people partner up for a true collaboration, be it in business or purely creative endeavors, genuine trust is the key.  Of course for me that means I have to trust Alex and he has to trust me.  This is not always the easiest thing, even though we’ve been friends for over a decade.

Alex has to trust that I will take what he has written and draw it in an entertaining way.  I’ve never written something for someone else to draw, but I imagine that you have a pretty specific image of the scene in your mind while you write it, so it could be frustrating when it is drawn in a different way.  I used to ask Alex about this with specific examples of something I had just drawn vs what he had written, but it never seemed to be an issue for him.  In fact, he’s never complained about the way I drew anything.  Sometimes he seems genuinely happy to see that I interpreted something in a way he hadn’t thought of.  The closest thing I’ve heard as far as criticism from him is joking about the expression on a character’s face seemingly not matching what they are saying.  These comments are usually pretty subtle though, so I don’t really know if that’s what he means.

He seems to have complete faith in my work, and offers little in the way of feedback.  When he writes it is usually vague and focused mostly on dialogue, so he gives me room for creative interpretation.  Honestly I’m a bit shocked he never complains, as he (like me) is prone to complaining about most things.  I know that my drawing style is pretty weird and was pretty unpolished when we started the first Issue of Black Snow.  It can’t be what he expected when we started, but I guess he likes it.

He also has to trust me to represent the comics online, as I run the website and virtually all of our online presence.  Well, actually he doesn’t have to fully trust me on this, he could involve himself but always chooses not to.  So I guess he choosing to trust that I will be the representative to the public.  In fact I’ve asked him to help me with this many times, but for some unknown reason he just won’t.  It’s really puzzling since he spends his time online messing around with social media sites anyway.  A bit frustrating.  Oh well.  I’ll take it it as a compliment that he thinks I’m doing a good enough job on my own.

Lastly he trusts my input when writing.  We often will sit together while he writes and I’ll offer up ideas.  Most of the issues of Black Snow where written together, and he seems to like doing it that way.  He’s been more independent while writing the strips, but I still get a fair share of my ideas used in them as well.  Usually I’ll contribute larger ideas and he’ll break them down into the actual dialogue and character interaction.

For this to be a real collaboration I need to trust Alex as well.  Much like I think my art has an odd style I think his writing style is pretty bizarre.  He’s got a lot of unique quirks that makes his stuff one of a kind.  It’s not the way I write, and not how I would do things, but I trust that he knows what he’s doing and that his style is good.

I also have to trust that he is supplying me with good content to draw, and that his vision is worth creating.  Yeah I said I get my input in and he leaves me some room to interpret, but when all is said and done he is the one coming up with the completed scripts.  He pens the final version and I draw everything based on that.  Sometimes I’ll see something he’s written that I just really don’t want to draw, or I don’t even know how to draw, but I still do my best to draw it as written.  As much as he has to trust me when I give him input, I have to trust his overall vision and decisions.  Not that we often has disagreements or anything.  That is part of the benefit of working with a long time close friend who has similar tastes to you.

For instance, I recently wrote about wanting to work on Black Snow again.  I found the outline for Issue 7 and read it with Alex.  It’s pretty good, a lot of drama.  Personally I wanted to move forward with it and start scripting it.  Alex didn’t want to.  He has very strong feelings that I’M FAMOUS! is our future at this point.  He thinks it has the most mass appeal and will get us some notice.  I suspect that he also has the most fun working on it, as that comic tends to be quick to write and very flexible in tone.  It does not take things too seriously and can be fairly outrageous. So I conceded that I’M FAMOUS! is where we should focus our full efforts.  In some compromise Alex will be working Black Snow into more of the stories, so the character will still be around.  So that is where things are headed for now.

Punch…Lines?

If you’ve read our comic strips then I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that they don’t offer what most would consider traditional humor.  Unlike most other strips we don’t put a lot of emphasis on closing with a punch line in Day Camp or I’M FAMOUS!  I like to think our humor is more subtle and organic.  They aren’t jokes, just amusing situations.  I think this has more to do with Alex’s writing style than my input or drawing.  Lets take a look at some examples.  Begin at the beginning I always say, so here’s the first Day Camp and I’M FAMOUS!

The first Day Camp

The first Day Camp

The first I'M FAMOUS!

The first I'M FAMOUS!

So there was some attempt at closing with a punch line at first, but they are kind of weak and abnormal if you judge them purely by those standards.  Alex and I often joked about that fact, especially as the strip went on.  I don’t think Alex ever read many comic strips or cared for jokes, so I think that has probably contributed to his unusual style.  If left to his own devices I think he’d still be writing fantasy novels and short stories like when I first met him.  Good thing we met!  Let’s see some more examples.

Day Camp spider?

Day Camp spider?

Day Camp racism

Day Camp racism

Day Camp Game Boy

Day Camp Game Boy (I actually wrote this one)

I'M FAMOUS! Daniel's drinking

I'M FAMOUS! Daniel's drinking

I'M FAMOUS! Nazi bashing

I'M FAMOUS! Nazi bashing

So yeah, I guess there are punch lines at the end of most of the strips, but they aren’t really important.  That not really where the humor lies.  It’s the strip in total.  The moments being captured.  The interactions between people.  It’s not just setting up for something to come.  In short it’s looking at the comedy and absurdity of life.  Life is not about what comes next, but what is happening now.  It’s not always funny, but there’s usually some humor inherent to every moment, especially when viewed by an outside observer.

Does that mean our strips are the funniest.  Probably not.  Perhaps even the opposite.  Then again I believe it makes our humor much more genuine and true, which touches the reader deeper and has a lengthier impact.  But what do I know.  I’m obviously biased.  Let me know what you think.