scarygoround

The top table of comics

I'm still trying out new inking styles, with a slightly more chaotic feel. Trying to avoid rigidly straight lines to create movement where the line width  itself is stiff and fixed. Here's a test comic strip I made last week. I drew it first then made up some speech bubbles to go on top. The Marvel Method!

I think the main thing trying out inking styles like this has taught me is, if I'm n...

Read STEEPLE: CLOTTED CRIME pt 3 now

Your PDF is linked under the cover image - please let me know how you're enjoying the story in the comments.

The next episode, the final chunk of Steeple for a while, is due to appear here on December 13th.

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Cover by Kelly Vivanco, colours this issue (cover excepted) by Sammy Borras

Q&A 4: Complicated continuity

Jen Decay writes:

"On your own terms and without concerns for the audience talking in your face, how significant to you personally is the continuity of your sprawling canon, and how do you keep track of it all?"

I work very hard on my stories, and when my answers to questions about continuity are flippant or dismissive it's because writing (or saying) "I'm doing my best; when I'm tired, I make mistakes" isn't very funny. If I know the answer, I a...

Rave on n'more

The Destroy History Rave On project I was making here has been set aside. I worked out a way to do the story that was worth doing properly. But there was one last, experimental page. I am finding my way towards a new art style that I may or may not use for a proper project. I've taken the speech balloons off this one as they contain spoilers.

Ellerbisms is(n't) back/Garf

I'm supposedly on holiday from comics for a month after finishing work on Steeple volume 3. Thus far, the holiday is very tiring. I think I might just be old now. It's my 45th birthday on Wednesday, or as I like to think of it, my "half ninety".

Speaking of birthdays, I visited my friend Marc Ellerby on HIS birthday this year and drew him an all new episode of his long-defunct classic British diary comic, "Ellerbisms".

2021-10-18 19:17:56 +0000 UTC View Post

Q&A 3: Writer's block

Ken Kleinman writes:

Do you ever get writer's block? How do you decide which of the 12 items on your whiteboard to work on next?

Ken's asked a two-parter here, but as neither part was in the form of a statement as opposed to a question, I'm happy to tackle them as a piece.

"Do you ever get writer's block?"

I never get writer's block. I can find sections of writing more difficult than others, I might stare at a gap where a sati...

Fresh fields

I've got one page of Steeple volume 3 left to draw, the 154th page. The book, due next summer, encompasses Christmas With Clovis, the Author Unknown crossover, and the four parts of Clotted Crime. Between the start of February (when that 154th page runs on the website) and volume 3 coming out in bookshops, I'll be taking a break from the series.

While working on Steeple, I've pushed myself very...

Q&A 2: Remakes

Aram writes:

"I see artists remake their work quite frequently. I remember seeing some redrawn panels by you (maybe for the printed version of [Giant Days]?) Have you considered recreating some of the vector looking comics from the mid noughts? Why/why not?"

I wanted to write a little bit about the drive to remake old work. It's an instinct that, carefully managed, can service improvement, or it can be a very destructive process that signals creative prob...

Procreate Murders

Here's a test comic (well, half of one) that I made in Procreate today. I love the pencil tools in this app. No other program has a pencil that feels so free to draw with.

But colouring a page in Procreate is a nightmare, and it's not a lot easier if you take your line work into Clip Studio (which I used here) or Photoshop. Having spent two decades perfecting the art of colouring fast using the paint bucket on hard 1-bit black and white lines, I find colouring by "painting", ie the way ...

Q&A 1: starting stories

N. Forsythe writes:

"When you write a new storyline, does it usually begin in terms of a plot idea or with brainstorming snippets of dialogue/banter or a given situation or scene? I ask because your work does feel so dialogue and comedy driven, but your plots and emotional arcs always seems well thought out."

When I start anything, there has to be a plot element. When I worked on Scary Go Round, I was working week to week in terms of story, so a ...

Call for questions for a Q&A

Part of the reason I set up the Patreon was to be able to answer question for artists and writers and pass on a few things I have learned over 23 years of near-daily comic making. If you have a creative question, add it to the comments on this post and I'll round up a few over the next few weeks. You can also send your question in a Patreon message if you want. I really don't mind. 

2021-10-02 15:29:15 +0000 UTC View Post

Wen-Tack PDF/Wen-tack reëvaluated

Sorry again for the slim pickings in recent weeks. I'm down to drawing the last nine pages of Steeple volume 3, pages that will run in January next year, and I feel like a man at the end of a marathon. As controversial as this may sound, I'm going to allow myself a break of a few weeks once I'm done pumping out pages like old Gutenberg Bible himself.

In the absence of red hot content, I thought I'd post up a (now-offline) story that represents on the one hand a low creative watermark fo...

Mystery friends

I'm currently working on Steeple comics that will run in January 2022 -- don't tell anyone because this could get me kicked out of the Tardy Webcomic Artists' Club. When this story is finished, I'm going to take a break (as you may recall, I don't allow myself a rest very often) then think about what follows. While there are exciting things already in the works on a couple of fronts, I have the opportunity to choose what I do next from a whiteboard that has  maybe 4-5 years-worth of stor...

Some She-Hulks

I put these up on Twitter yesterday, my Twitter posts auto-delete after a month so I'll leave them up here too. A couple of warm-up drawings that I coloured for a lark. One of my favourite Marvel characters from the 80s and 90s. There's a great run by Charles Soule and Javier Pulido from the mid-2010s too, amazing art on some clever and funny comics. The character isn't always treated well, though - there have been some (putting it politely) questionable takes since. Professional courtesy pre...

Steeple #13 cover sneak preview

Just in! My friend of two decades, fine artist and cartoonist (PATCHES etc) Kelly Vivanco has done the cover for Steeple #13 and it is a beauty. What can it all mean? Find out in about a month. Your support on Patreon has made commissioning these covers possible - thank you!