Bramble Vine Comics

Chicken and Waffle Print Design

2012-01-28T12:13:00.000-08:00

< click to make bigger >

This is a print design I've been working for some t-shirts. A group of folks at the office are working on a Chicken & Waffle tour, looking for all the places nearby that serve the dish and trying a different one each month for lunch. We thought it'd be funny to not only show up, all ordering the same thing, but also wearing shirts with something like this on it. Whether we end up wearing the shirts or not I'm still happy with how this design came out.

Sketchbook Page

2012-01-25T08:41:00.000-08:00

< click image to embiggen >

A recent page out of my sketchbook. Trying work through the construction a new female character here.

Comic Page - Katz Bobinski

2012-01-25T08:33:00.000-08:00

< click comic to make it bigger! >

Beware the stupid for they are easily confused. This is just a bit of silly fun I had with the whole cat / mouse cartoon dynamic.

Chicken and Waffles T-Shirt Sketch

2012-01-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

This is a sketch I'm working on for a possible t-shirt or print celebrating my new favorite dish, Chicken and Waffles. I tried this at the Texas State Fair last year and, well, what can I say, it was love at first bite.

What does "Anthropomorphic" mean?

2012-01-22T07:22:00.000-08:00

< click image to make it bigger >

It's a simple idea, but an annoyingly difficult word to both read and write, but where would we cartoonists be without anthropomorphism? What a sad, dull world it would be without it! This is my celebration of the conceptual force behind a lot of my favorite cartooning works.

Slap Happy Comix Cover Design

2012-01-18T06:42:00.000-08:00

Here is the finished design for the comic book cover I've been working on. Spent all weekend on the colors and logo. Monday night was getting all the ephemera in place, like the URL, price, qcode, etc. Touched a few final elements last night and voila!

Last night I put the finishing touches on all the pages to my latest comic book, Slap Happy Comix #1, and uploaded the page files to the printer. I should have the finished books in hand the last week in February, just in time to bring them with me to the show Staple down in Austin.

It feels good to finally get this book complete. It's been a long road to finish this one up since it's the first time I've worked in color. I'm eager to see how it turns out!

Final inks for cover illustration

2012-01-15T09:16:00.000-08:00

This is the final inked illustration that will be on the cover of my next comic book, Slap Happy Comix. I just finished the inks over the weekend. Next steps are to scan this in and start colors and layout for the cover.

Comic Page - Call for Bees

2012-01-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

Of course this comic explores a lot of complex questions and philosophical conundrums. If the person on the other end of the phone call asks for a swarm of bees why call them to you? Who would be calling for a swarm of bees any way? Was it the swarm of bees' wife? If he's the restaurant host wouldn't he have already seated the swarm of bees and knew what was up? And who elected that one bee to speak on behalf of the whole swarm? So many questions, so few answers...

Sketchbook Page

2012-01-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a recent sketchbook page in which I was working out some designs for a new comic page. As you can see I screwed up the cigar pose on the Grant character in the middle there so I tried a few more focused poses of hands holding cigars.

Rough Sketch Comic Cover

2012-01-09T13:20:00.001-08:00

I have been working on the design of the cover for my next comic book, which is essentially the last thing I need to do before putting the book together. I've gone through a few different ideas for the cover illustration, bu I think I've settled on this design. This is a rough sketch out of my sketch book and there may be a few things I still need to work out, but this what I'm going with. The tittle ofthe book is going to be Slap-Happy Comix.

Comic Pages - Tree Hugger

2012-01-09T05:07:00.000-08:00

Here is a new set of finished comic pages featuring a character from my Hermit Hill comic strip, Gnorm the Gnome. These pages will be in my next comic book. It's the first time I've ever tried to color Gnorm, I always saw him as black and white in my head. I think it came out alright though.

( click each page to embiggen them )

A very important muffin related news update

2012-01-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

Attention, drop what you're doing and check out this important news announcement...in comic form.

( click comic to embiggen )

Long ago in a far away land a brother and sister sat watching an obscure, half remembered sit-com on TV. On this short lived piece of broadcast entertainment one character ran a muffin shop, got drunk in one of the stories and declared the humorous aspects of baked goods related word play. The show was so bad the brother and sister watching thought it was hysterical. Thus, this line has remained an inside joke between them ever since. So, here I have immortalized the joke within a different, nonsensical context. Maybe this one is only meant for those two people specifically, but oh well. It's my web site.

Comics Pages - Love at First Lick

2012-01-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pages from my upcoming new comic book. This short story tells the tragic tale of two star crossed lovers who's momentary embrace leads to a tragic conclusion. A cold, creamy, delicious conclusion, yet tragic just the same. *sniff*, So sad. So... very sad.

( click each page to embiggen )

I like the weird ones!

Comics on a Kindle

2012-01-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

I recently got a new Amazon Kindle e-reader thingy as a gift. I've been poking around in it and reading some books and I have to say that despite my skepticism towards digital book reading I'm actually enjoying it. I commute to work on the train and spend my 45 minutes each way reading, so I go through a lot of books. After going through a few volumes I think this thing is a keeper.

Last summer I put out a book of single panel cartoons through Lulu.com, Bramble Vine Cartoons. When I had the book posted to their sales site they also gave me an option to post a digital version for sale, but I've never really bothered to find out what that experience was like. It was a free option so I figured what the heck, never really gave it much attention. Now that I have a Kindle myself I downloaded the digital version of my cartoon book to the device. Here you can see the results. I think it's actually pretty neat!

Coloring Hermit Hill

2012-01-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

The series of pages I am currently working on for my next comic book is a story featuring a couple of characters from my old comic strip Hermit Hill. That whole strip series, two year's worth, were all in black and white. I really prefer working in black and white, but for this next book I'm challenging myself and going for full color. This is the first time I've tried to even envision these guys in full color.

Here's one of the panels fully colored so you can check out my progress. Gnorm the Gnome is gathering sticks to help his little blue buddy build a better bird's nest. More to come!

Custom Cartoon Christmas Card 2011

2011-12-31T10:22:00.000-08:00

Since I am a cartoonist I can never resist an opportunity to show of, so every year I design my family's Christmas card. The past couple of years I've down some kind of Texas theme since my family back East still finds it funny and weird that we moved out here. I played that up again with this year's design.

( outside front of card )

This is the front of the card. A cowboy hanging out at the saloon, western theme and a hint of Christmas in the dialogue.

( card interior )

Here's the inside of the card and the big payoff. I don't get very schmaltzy with my Christmas card, I like to go for the funny or weird. So far feedback from friends and family has been positive, people seems to have gotten a kick out of it.

I used Zazzle.com to print up the cards this year and I think they did a good job. They are a little more pricey than other services that do custom cards, but the quality is much more professional. Very strong card stock, crisp white look to the paper and a nice glossy sheen to the outside. I'm happy with how it turned out.

( photo of the finished card, outside front )

( photo of finished card, outside back )

That's the card for this year. I need to design it a little sooner next year since there was a bit of a rush to get it done in time and out into the mail. Although, I say that every year...

Comic page - Towel Off

2011-11-14T12:23:00.001-08:00

( click image to embiggen )

This is another page from my latest comic book, Slap Happy Comix (tentative title). I may yet change some of the colors. I'm still learning the whole coloring comics thing. I very much prefer to create comics in black and white, but I've committed to doing this next book in full color so I'm soldiering on with it.

The comic book is going to be a collection of silly, disconnected short stories with all different characters. It'll be kind of like the ensemble comics from the 60's and 70's or Mad Magazine or Nickelodeon Magazine. However, now that I look over all the finished pages I see there was a sort of theme to it all. Nearly all the stories in this book have to do with anthropomorphism, which is a fancy pants word for giving human characteristics to non-human story elements, an essential aspect to cartooning. It's a strange concept to explore because once you allow for a thing to have a human-ish face and consciousness a whole host of bizarre possibilities open up to any story teller if one were willing to push that to it's extreme conclusions.

Now that I've noticed this as a theme throughout my book I may put a wrapper story around the whole thing calling out to it. Maybe it'll seem like that was my goal all along and I'll appear much smarter than I really am! Hmmmm....

Inking phase, more pages getting finished

2011-10-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

( me, inking a new comics page )

I am trying to get my latest comic book finally wrapped up. I have the full 24 page book written and pencilled. About half the pages are now inked and about a third of the pages are scanned in and colored. Adding color to this book has really tacked on a lot of time to getting things finished. I have put out some full color prints before, but this is the first time I've attempted to color a whole comic book. All my previous stuff has been in black and white.

At the same time I've come up with a whole new project that I'm also excited about. While pages sit on my hard drive waiting to be colored, I have started pencils on my next project, which is bad for productivity. I need to get one finished before I start on the other, but I find coloring to be such a drag it's hard for me to drum up the enthusiasm to get the colors laid down. I would much rather be drawing new stuff. I hate the coloring process, but I see such a noticeably positive reaction when people see the color work I've committed to giving it a shot for next year's convention season.My goal is to have everything on my table next year be in full color.

A great motivating factor to driving ahead and getting the pages finally finished has been adding a deadline. I've purchased my table for STAPLE, a great indie comics show here in Texas which is like SPX, but on a smaller scale. I want my next two books to be done in time for that show. It's the first weekend in March, so I need to have the books off to the printers by late January if I want the books in hand by early March. That's two months to wrap up the first book, which is about 75% complete, and then to really jump into the second one. Having a deadline now seems to have drummed up the motivation I need to get things done. Can I do it? It's a lot of effort, but I'm going to shoot for it.

Sketchbook page - The Old Couple

2011-10-21T08:52:00.001-07:00

An adorable old couple, still in love and excited by life, roaming through one of the pages in my sketchbook.

Sketchbook page - Rats!

2011-10-21T07:35:00.001-07:00

This is a recent doodle out of my sketchbook. It reminds me of a time I was working at this small game company. There were two other animators on staff whom I had gone to art school with and we used to keep pages of sketches of mice. We'd challenge each other to draw a totally different character in various styles, but recognizable as a mouse. After a few months we had this stack of pages of cartoon mice in the office. I'm not sure whatever happened to them, but it was a fun exercise in character design and cartooning.

Sketchbook page of cartoony delight

2011-09-29T12:05:00.001-07:00

This is a recent page from my current sketchbook. I wasn't really thinking too hard on this, just mindlessly doodling until something started to take shape.

Bramble Vine - Labels

2011-09-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

( click comic for larger version )

My co-worker at the office, let's call him Blaine, accused me of being an empiricist and this is the actual conversation that went down at breakfast. I found it hard to argue his points. I guess maybe I am a bit of an empiricist. Even though Blaine's basis of comparison is a character on the TV show 'Bones' he may have a point. I looked up the meaning of empiricist in a dictionary just to be sure. According to the article I read there, one of the most famous empiricist philosophers was John Locke, who's name was, of course, used as a character name in the TV show 'Lost'. So, between 'Bones' and 'Lost' I guess I'm at least in interesting company.

2011-09-24T06:31:00.000-07:00

Here is the doodle from yesterday cleaned up. This has given me some ideas for a new series of comic strips. I've already written several scripts for it and drawn two of them. I'm nearly done with the colors of the first one.

However, I really need to stick with finishing my next comic book. Half of those pages still need to be inked. I'm so close to getting that finished I really need to stop getting distracted by other stuff like new ideas. Conflicting projects! Not enough time in the day.

Oh well. This is going somewhere. Eventually.

Sketchbook me

2011-09-23T08:05:00.001-07:00

I doodled this into my sketchbook, a cartoony version of yours truly, and a flood of ideas came to me. Hmm. More to follow...

Small Press Expo post show wrap up

2011-09-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

I spent this past weekend in Bethesda, Maryland selling my books and prints and comics at the Small Press Expo (SPX). It was an exhilarating show and a lot of fun. The skill and experience on hand there was intimidating, but also inspiring.

In the first five minutes of opening day I had a girl run up to my table and immediately buy one of my Super Happy Hero prints, the one of Green Lantern. She also happened to be wearing a Green Lantern t-shirt, so I totally nailed it on that one. That has to be a con first for me, making a sale literally the moment the doors opened.

The room filled up quickly and within the first hour traffic between the aisles was shoulder to shoulder with a line still forming to get tickets into the show. I couldn't believe how busy the place became right away. Folks were streaming past the tables, skimming everyone's wares and trying to take it all in. It was a bit overwhelming.

At one point early on I had an older gentleman walk up to my table and asked me what was going on. He had apparently just sort of snuck into the conference room while staying in the hotel to see what was happening in the conference rooms, not being a fan of comics or aware of what everything there meant. I showed him the sort of stuff I was selling and explained the difference between what one might find at a regular "mainstream, superhero type" comic book show and the more independent focused work on display at SPX. He got enthusiastic about the whole thing and I think he headed back out to buy an actual ticket. I tried to be a good ambassador for comics.

My books and prints sold pretty well at the show. It was great to have an audience of readers eager to find new material, things they'd never read or heard of before. I had one guy pick up my "Quitter" print, explaining to me that he'd been trying to quit smoking and intended to hang it up in his office as inspiration. The average SPXer was energetic about comics and happy to hear about what I was offering. They were into the art and the stories and very supportive of all us indies.

I'm sorry to say that most shows I attend usually have at least a large amount of material I wouldn't consider ready for putting out for sale. I think people often over estimate their readiness or just don't polish their work to a very craftsman-like level before slapping it onto copy paper and putting it onto a table with a price tag on it. NOT AT SPX THOUGH. I was thoroughly intimidated by the amazing skill and artistic flourish on display at SPX. There was some truly amazing stuff here and the high quality seemed to pile up around me on nearly every table in the room. I was certainly just another face in the crowd here.

The highlight of the show for me was all the amazing people who's work I've admired over the years who I was able to meet in person. The amazing Roz Chast was friendly and incredibly smart. I actually saw here during registration on Friday night and then again at her table. I just love her work and her sharp wit. Keith Knight signed the book I bought from him and was very generous with his time while I pelted him with questions about his process. I was shocked to see some of his original artwork and how small he draws his strips. He tells me that's how he's able to draw so many of them during the week. I am a tremendous admirer of his style, he's amazing.

Jen Sorenson was super nice and really fun to talk to. I've admired her work for a while now and was able to pick up he latest book as well. She's very smart about cartooning and very willing to discuss her process. Danielle Coresetto, who I've actually met several times before, was there being cheery and talkative too. Her work gets more amazing each time I see her put out a new book. The prints she had on hand this time were fantastic.

This is a photo of me taken by a photographer named Ian. He was doing some kind of photo collection on the hats of SPX and since I was wearing one I was snapped. You can see his whole collection from the show on his Flickr feed here.

It's always great when you have good table mates and my neighbors this year were Michael Lariccia on one side and Sara Turner on the other. Both of them were amazing artists and incredibly nice. This could not have gone better and I hope they both did as well of not better than I did while at SPX. Great people are just attracted to this show!

I'm now back home safe and sound in Texas. This trip concludes my 2011 comic show season. I think the next one I have planned is about six months out, so I have plenty of time to get a couple more books put together and a bunch more prints ready in time for the 2012 tour. Thanks SPX for another amazing experience!