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This past Sunday was the annual Granite State Comicon in Manchester, New Hampshire. As always (for the last few years anyway) circlecomics was on hand shopping wares and talking to comics fans.
Setting up for the show.
The guys at Double Midnight Comics that run the show continue to outdo themselves on an annual (actually semi-annual if you count their other shows) basis putting these shows together. They have a great relationship with all of the area artists, vendors and comics related organizations. There were gaming tournaments, a costume contest, the biggest Artists Alley New Hampshire has ever seen and several quality headlining guests. On top of that they were able to get the show into a much larger and more impressive convention space within the Radisson Hotel in downtown Manchester. It really took the show to another level.
Don't make eye contact...
This was the first time in quite a while that I never really felt like the flow of traffic died down. Sure there were times that it was slower than others, but I never felt like I had a window to get up from my table and walk around to check out the rest of the convention hall. The only exceptions I made were to use the restroom, to get food and to get my picture taken with the amazing life-size portrait of Vigo the Carpathian that the Ghostbusters of New Hampshire brought with them. Let’s hear it for the GB’s of NH, by the way, top notch charity group that I cannot stop looking at when they walk by (it’s the blinking lights on the proton packs). They really need to take the next logical step and call Bobby Brown already. Like that guy has anything better to do than hold doors for them?
Tragedy and Comedy.
Thanks also to Chris or Scott Proulx at Double Midnight (whoever made up the map of the tables for Artists Alley) for sitting me next to Jeremy McHugh. I’ve been at other events with the guy and have seen him do pencil sketches during conventions or FCBDs… but this time I got to watch him water color paint. Damn. Fine. Work.
It was also cool to catch up (in person) with Blair Shedd of OneGemini Studios fresh off his run on IDW’s “Doctor Who.” 2 minutes of “hey, how ya doin’?” is about the extent of our in person communication at shows. We’re usually limited to Facebook and Twitter comments.
Lastly, the night before the show there was a Drink ‘n’ Draw event. I was fortunate enough to sit with Talent Caldwell, local (to me, anyway) artist Sara Richard and soon-to-be-FORMER-local Scott Wegener. It’s always interesting to watch how other artists approach a sketch and just being in a casual environment where you can get to know people a little more personally than towering above them while they sit and draw at their table during a convention. I ended up doing 4 drawings (Captain Marvel/Shazam, Wolverine, Hellboy and Pat Covey as the Covinator) that will be added to the stack that was produced to be auctioned off for charity.
Now preparation begins for my next appearance which will be at the New England Small Press Assembly (NESPA) show in Warwick, Rhode Island, July 18. Hope to see you there!
Oof. Been on internet silence for a while. I appreciate those of you that still swing by here now and then to check up on me. If you aren’t already a fan on Facebook sometimes I post things on the Stick-Man fan page that don’t get posted here (’cause it’s easier).
The last few weeks have been spent getting ready for the Granite State Comicon in Manchester, NH on Sunday, May 23. I’ll be set up there as usual, so if you’re in the area (or GOING to be) please come by and say “hi.” I’ve got some new prints, a look at some of the Stick-Man stuff coming down the road shortly, a stack of new sketch cards (I’ve never done sketch cards before, so the cards and the experience are both new to me) and hey… new business cards!
If you want to check out the prints and sketch cards in advance, check out the Drawings Album on my personal Facebook page. If we haven’t met in person, I probably won’t accept a friend request, but that album is set to viewable by everyone.
Lastly… the Facebook page has the debut of and a progression of photos for the cover for the first issue of the collected Daniel Larson’s Stick-Man Dailies. Go!
Some thoughts about the second page in the Weekly comic including the potential for YOU to work on Daniel Larson’s “Stick-Man.”
Click the thumbnail to read:
PART 1 – Basic Supplies That You Probably Have Within Arms Reach
So you’re ready to start Makin’ Comics the circlecomics Way. I’m proud of you for accepting the challenge. Now, did you bring your supplies? Of course not, this is Part 1, the part where I tell you what kind of supplies you need. Be ready in Part 2 though, I’m going to ask you the same querstion and you better say “yes.”
If you’ve read other Makin’ Comics guides you’re familiar with the fancy, expensive tools that they tell you to buy before you can start Makin’ Comics. Well don’t look for that here. At circlecomics, we’re only concerned with telling you how to get started already! You need to start Makin’ Comics and you need to start YESTERDAY, so let’s go! Here’s something that’s going to blow your mind. I’m the first person who’s ever told you this (congratulations to me): the supplies don’t matter. What?! What did you just say? What kind of blasphemous, dingle-dork was that? I have a Masters Degree in Fine Arts and you just said that the tools I choose to make art DON’T MATTER? Get. Out.
Sorry, Chuck, but it’s the truth. The tools don’t matter. If you’re ready to make comics, if you’ve got a story that you just have to get out… don’t sweat the tools. There’s only 2 things you’re going to need to follow along with THIS Makin’ Comics guide and I don’t care what you pick. Alright Dan, quit jabberin’ and tell me what I need! You need 2 things (you might want to get a pen and a piece of paper to write this down, ‘cause I’m only going to say it once): 1. Something that makes a mark and 2. Something that receives a mark (perhaps the pen and paper that you just grabbed, whoa!).
Did that blow your mind? Do you need a minute to pick the brain matter off the floor and put it back in your head? Alright, while you do that, I’m going to give you a list of the things that *I* use when I’m Makin’ Comics the circlecomics Way.
1. Something that makes a mark
You can make marks with just about anything. Different things make different kinds of marks, so you should try out a few things before settling on one. For me, it’s pencils and pens (I know, I said I was going to be different than those other Guides, I’m going to lie about a lot of things, you should get used to it).
For starters, I use a pencil. There’s all kinds of pencils and different hardnesses. You’re going to have to try ‘em to find the one you like best. I settled on a New Hampshire Fishercats pencil that I got at a baseball game.
When I can’t find that one I use one that says “Colorado Rockies” on the side.
Other than that it’s standard #2’s or a sexy ‘naked’ all-graphite pencil. The reality is that all of these pencils are the same thing. When you get into the hardness factor of pencils these are all just the same #2 hardness with different swimsuits on (‘cept for that naked one. That one’s naked).
Sometimes I don’t have a pencil handy. Other times I’m at work or in a meeting or the dentist’s office and the only thing I have handy is a pen. I love drawing with ballpoint pens. I love the smoothness of the line. I love the way they sometimes leave that little ball of ink when you use ‘em a lot. I love the way the ink smells after you’ve been using them for a while. You can vary the line weight if you practice. And bonus: when you scan ballpoint pen into the computer, you can put it in greyscale and it looks like pencil anyway.
Usually when I draw a page I’ll start with any of the pencils listed above to get a good tight line drawing and then go back over it with pen (a process we call “inking”) to set those lines fer serious. When I first started drawing comics I was using black felt tip markers ink pages but the older I got the more I thought that looked like crap. Time to upgrade.
Now I use Pigma Micron Archival Ink Pens like all the other snobs. They’re not the most expensive pens (one guy I know uses a pen that costs $35!) they’re going to run you like 3 or 4 bucks, but they are of sufficient quality if you want your comics to look more like the kind of stuff that you’re used to seeing in comics (as far as the lines are concerned, if you can’t draw, that’s something for a different chapter of this guide). Like Slurpees they come in a variety of sizes. I usually stick to the .03, .05, .08 and 1pt Brush tip. We’ll go over these more when we get to the Chapter on Inking.
Beyond pens and pencils, the world is your oyster. Heck, I haven’t tried it, but you could probably make a mark with an oyster. Get creative, think outside the box. Try using a box. There’s no limit to the kinds of things you can find that you can make a mark with and thereby make a comic with.
2. Something that receives a mark
It’s that simple. What can you make a mark on? Will the tool that you’ve chosen as your marker (possibly a marker) make a mark on this surface (or animal?). Most artists (including me) choose some kind of paper or canvas for their comics because they (we) have almost unanimously decided to work with pens, pencils or paints. Paper and canvas are ideal for those tools.
There are all kinds of paper and canvas out there and you can make comics on all of them. In the past I have used yellow lined paper, notebook paper with and without blue lines, rough sketchbook paper, smooth sketchbook paper, foamcore (seriously, you gotta try it with a ball point pen. Sooooo smooth), napkins and table cloths. Ultimately, I went with the same thing that every one else decided on: smooth Bristol Board. It usually comes in pads of like 25 sheets and you can get it in just about any size you could possibly need. For the #2 pencils and Micron pens that I use, this stuff is pretty much ideal.
And that’s it. Once you have those two things, you’re ready to start Makin’ Comics the circlecomics Way. All you need now is an idea and some characters. But, Dan, which is it? An idea or characters?
We’ll cover that next week in… Makin’ Comics the circlecomics Way Part 2 – Which Comes First: an Idea or Characters?
A few years ago Bryan McCarthy, Greg Petrin and I decided it was time to put up a t-shirt website. And so, strangeink.net was born. We made shirts, but we also sold Hopes and Dreams© (Hopes and Dreams© not guaranteed. Hopes and Dreams© must be in unused condition with original receipt and must be returned within 30 days of purchase).
It went well enough for a few years, but it turned out that most of the good ideas came from the fact that we all worked together in our day jobs and had ample time to sit around and think of funny or clever things to put on t-shirts. The business we worked for was a Barely Competent SPORTS apparel store at the mall, poorly run at every possible level and, within 90 days of all 3 of us leaving the company, it was out of business. OK that’s not entirely true, they went out of business as far as the rest of the world was concerned. Hope you like ‘em Pennsylvania, you’re stuck with ‘em. Once we were working different day jobs the whole t-shirt making thing really slowed down.
Strange Ink existed purely as a t-shirt website (it still does) for a few years and made enough money to buy me a new bike when some mashed-potato-faced kid stole mine from outside the comic shop (joke’s on him, that bike was a piece of crap and totally inappropriate for street cycling. Have fun riding the asphalt waves of the ghetto with off-road tires, moron!). It wasn’t until the 48 Hour Film Project in 2009 that we decided it was time to pursue our OTHER love: filmmaking.
Needing a name for our filmmaking trio entered into the 48 Hour Film Project we modified our t-shirt company name to Strange Ink Pictures (I argued that this was PERFECT because “Pictures” applied to both moving pictures as in filmmaking and static images as in comics and t-shirts. This was why we HAD to use it. Greg agreed on the condition that I would stop talking). With a few modifications to the website and the addition of a facebook fan page, Strange Ink Pictures was ready to make films (about Hopes and Dreams©).
Our first film (that you’re allowed to watch) was called “Running Man Dan” and starred me (Daniel Larson) as the title character and followed my adventures as I ran through the woods to answer the call of my friend as he sat lazily in his living room. None of us had made a film before and really just used this as an opportunity to make sure we knew how to use the camera and editing software in the days leading up to the 48 Hour Film Project. It was shot and edited and scripted on the spot in one day out in the woods nearby my house.
After that we entered “Location” into the 48 Hour Film Project. Now, before you watch “Location” know that while it was the *48* Hour Film Project, we had significantly handicapped ourselves by: A. having a conflicting event where I was in Maine at a Comic shop appearance for 10 important hours and B. not having any clue as to what the hell we were doing (A. hurt us more than B). We again had no script, no budget, no experience, no professional equipment and no time. That’s not to say that we aren’t PROUD of the film, we are. It’s just that we knew as submitted that it wasn’t our best work and that there were far better films to come.
Looking for a new project following “Location” I suggested to Greg that we make a documentary about my participation in 24 Hour Comics Day (we’re big fans of events with strict but ridiculous time limitations). And so was born “24 Pages.” With a running time of 35 minutes it’s just a sampling of the things that took place during 24 Hour Comic Day, but gives you a pretty good sense of the creative process and emotional struggle I went through while participating in the event. “24 Pages” is viewable online as 2 parts. Don’t forget about that second part. For some reason Part 1 has twice as many views as Part 2. That makes no sense to me, if you’re only going to watch 1 part, watch Part 2, it’s the better part. I’m not even that punchy until Part 2.
Once again though, we were dealing with a film that had no script and no prepared narrative. It was up to Greg (fan of documentaries that he is) to cobble together a narrative within the available footage. Script and narrative were our 2 biggest unconquered hurdles. We’d made 3 films and none of them had been prepared in advance. We made our stories by luck (or accident). We needed someone or something to put us on the path to proper story telling. And just like Sir Issac Newton’s apple, I fell out of a tree and changed history, forever altering the course of Strange Ink Pictures filmmaking process.
Based on a true story (kinda) “Dan vs. Earth” at its core is the dramatization of my back injury and subsequent recovery from. We took some liberties with the actual events and added an unflinching scene of vengeance that will leave proponents of the Green Movement quaking in their hippie sandals. Coming in at a robust 11 minutes I recommend watching the film (stick around to the end of the credits) and then watching the 6 minute companion blooper/outtake reel. They really work well together and go along with the circlecomics theme of letting you in behind the curtain to not only see the film itself, but a little bit about how it’s made and the personalities of the people involved.
“Dan vs. Earth” is a milestone for Strange Ink Pictures at several levels. It’s our first attempt at making a film from a script, it’s the most preparation we done in advance, it has the most non-Daniel Larson actors (including Carlton Greene, Aimee Terravechia, Ronin the cat and Facsimile Dan), it’s the longest shoot (4 non-consecutive days) and it is by FAR the most mature (from a filmmaking stand point) film that we have produced.
So take some time, watch the films, let us know what you think and keep an eye out for our future films including “Dan vs. Earth II” and whatever we end up making in this year’s 48 Hour Film Project. Also, if you just like reading my writing stuff, I write the “Strange Ink Prop Department” blog posts (and other blog posts) so check those out too.
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