Black Snow Comics

Happy New Year!  Tomorrow.  Hopefully your having a good eve.  Once again I drew this comic totally digitally with my new tablet.  I’m very happy with the results.  It was very quick to do and I already see a lot of improvement from my first digital attempt.  I learned a lot the first time and put it to use here.  There is still more to learn though.

Funny, I think this digital drawing looks much more inked than my standard traditional drawing, which actually uses ink.  That has to do with my ability to choose how wide I want my pen to appear and my templates ability to sense the pressure I’m applying to the pen.  Amazing how much this technology has improved and become affordable.  I remember when it was thousands of dollars not too long ago, and a mere  pipe dream.  Now you can get one for under a hundred.

I wrote this one.  I also wrote the next three you’ll be seeing.  Nothing as epic as the plane arch from a few months back, just simple silly jokes I had rumbling around in my head as I thought about this meeting.  I did my best to continue in the tone Alex had done, so hopefully it’s fairly seamless.  I think they’re funny.

I like that this one focuses a bit more on the Lone Wolf’s arrogance, more in line with his original depiction in Black Snow.  Sometimes I think we’ve turned him into more of a bumbling innocent fool now a days, but I like to remember that he has a darker side.  He can be quite rude, and I think he is smarter than he tries to appear.

Hope you all had a merry Christmas.  Originally I planned on writing up one of my holiday spiels, but opted not to…out of apathy.  Oh well.  I’m allowed.

Anyway, I never talked about I’M FAMOUS! 70 and I just put up 71, so lets look at them.

A few words about this one.  I think it’s funny and fairly accurate when it comes to most group projects I’ve ever worked on.  One guys does prep while everyone else screws around.  I like the way the relationships are forming and the dynamics are becoming established.

By the way, what the hell is the Lone Wolf’s book about anyway?

This one is very significant.  Not because it’s so good, because I don’t really think it is.  In fact a messed up a bit while making it.  Not because it finally points out that the Wolf Pack has been MISSING since they arrived in LA.

No, it is significant for a technical reason.  Notice a difference in the way it looks?  Besides the fact the the drawing isn’t quite as good that is.  This marks the first time I’ve ever drawn something digitally. I got a tablet and stylus for Christmas and this was the first time I used it.  Normally I draw with pencil and pen on paper, then scan it, then digitally color it in Photoshop.  This comic was 100% drawn in Photoshop.

It was a real learning process as I had to come up with a whole new creation process.  Something that I still need to refine, but definitely developed as I worked on this.  It was really weird, but I think there are a lot of benefits and I will improve with practice.  Just the disconnect of having what my hand is drawing only being visible on a separate screen is hard to get used to.  It is bizzare to have to look at on spot while my hand is drawing at a totally different spot and to mentally connect the two.  But I’ll get better.  I think I already did improve with each panel.  I started on the bottom left, then right, then the top two, followed by the middle from left to right.

I just sort of jumped into things, but I already feel more prepared for the next one.  I think it will be worth it, as it is faster to draw and there are more things I can do creatively then starting with pen and paper.  It also lets me give it a more flashy look.  My plan is to continue with the tablet on Famous from now on, but I’ll likely stick with pen and paper when we get back to Black Snow or Day Camp, as I think it lends to their tone and style.

The meeting continues, and Lone Wolf wants to star in the movie.  Is that really a shock?  Long time readers will remember that he clearly understood the concept of an actor starring in his movie, as he previously requested Daniel Day Lewis.  Is that inconsistent writing?  Not really.

The Lone Wolf, like most insane narcissists I know, has a short and highly selective memory.  This is a fun exchange between all three men.  Funny to see Rosenstein flex his authority and put Lone Wolf in his place, as one might a child.  Does Rosenstein have a man crush on the Lone Wolf?  I’d say so.  I’ve never smoked a cigar before (or a cigarette for that matter) but he makes it look fun; a nice affectation that adds something to the character.

Here it is, the cover for the first Black Snow graphic novel, entitled Last Call.  This picks up where issue 6 left off.  As you can see the cover plays off the Last Call title, which is of course associated with bars getting ready to close and offering patrons one last chance to order a drink.  It can have multiple meanings though, and here you see Black Snow apparently digging out of his grave.

I don’t want to give anything away, but I’ll just say that I feel this is an appropriate cover for several reasons.  It was fun to do, as I love the macabre and it was nice to get back to black and white.  Now that I have I’M FAMOUS! to experiment with color I’m really excited to see how far I can push things in Black Snow with only  black and white.  Well, and grey too.

I really like the way things went style-wise in issue 6, and I plan to expand on that here.  I also have a lot of new ideas in mind.  Lately I’ve been rereading my Hellboys, and it’s given me some inspiration, some of which you can see on this cover.

The sad thing is that Last Call is not finished being written, so I can’t really get started on it yet.  Some scenes are done, but a lot is just in outline form, and Alex needs flesh it out.  Much is not even really fully outlined, so there is still quite a bit to do.  We know the story we went to tell though, so that should help guide us.  So why draw this cover now? To get everyone excited.  And by everyone I not only mean you eager fans, but Alex and myself as well.  I hope the cover will inspire us to speed things up.  I know it will motivate me to bug Alex even more to get writing.  Hopefully it will also inspire him to want to finish writing it.

The other reason I drew it now was because the image was stuck in my head, and when something like that happens I want to get it on paper before it fades away.

I really like this one.  I’m happy that we’ve finally gotten to the movie making proper.  It’s true, people want explosions, not intellectual satire. I can’t tell you how many people comment upon reading Black Snow that there should be more fights.  Issue 5 was kind of my way of throwing them a bone while mocking the whole thing by going over the top.

I love the way this turned out, looks-wise.  You can really see a lot of emotion in the characters.  Rosenstein in the bottom panel is a particular favorite.  He’s so damn excited about the explosions he is imagining.  What a nut.  I really like Eric here as well.  I drew some subtle differences in his chin line and tried to emphasize what a small, thin man he is.  He is slight and meek.  I’ll probably keep the character design changes I attempted here.

If you’ve ever wondered what my handwriting is like, just look at the cursive in Eric’s notes.  The note thing is funny, and reminds me of Michigan’s journal entry in Day Camp.  I like creating the illusion that this takes place in a real world, these characters are real people, and the have real lives that we are only seeing small parts of.  Things like revealing notes adds to that.