Funny Thing . . .

 We checked out the Portland Comic Expo for the first time. It was held in the Exposition Building, a big roomy place, but not a heck of a lot was filling it. MECAF was more impressive.

There were a few people wandering around in costume, including some vendors. We didn't feel like waiting around until 3:00 to see the costume contest though.

Carrie went to Hellboy and back.

 

He followed me home. Can I keep him?

click on any boot to enlarge the whole costume

Happy Thanksgiving

I'll try and post some pictures of this White Thanksgiving once the sun's up and Carrie is safely off to her job.

Kreation Stories

A Samurai Slate adventure starts with an idea for the theme of the puns. It often starts with a pun I've read or one Carrie or I have said. It might be one that I'd like to build a story around, or just one that makes me think that there's a good theme lurking there. Although it has also been that one of us tosses out an idea for a theme and I try to figure out if there's enough pun potential afterward. 

For this particular script, I had long ago thought of creating a private eye character for my funny animal universe. He would, of course, be an insect, a private fly. (I've never actually written any stories in this funny animal universe, but I have a big cast ready for it.)

 The next step in creating Sam's adventure, is to start listing out all potential puns under the theme. I do this by listing down all the related words I know to have pun usage, sometimes noting ideas for them, but I also list a lot of words that don't immediately lend themselves to puns in hopes of future inspiration, which often comes. As I write and contemplate I start seeing how different puns fit together in a cohesive sequence until I get a core scenario. Some come easier than others. But I have to make sure I have some sort of conflict and resolution. Depending on the ideas generated while writing down puns, either one can come first, but usually it's the punch line that takes the longest time to come up with.         

Once I have a pretty solid outline, I start to break it down to fit the format I use of a six panel page. The first panel is the title, which I tend to come up with after I've finalized the script, using a decent leftover pun. I vary the panel sizes and try to have some flow of text to fit appropriately. I may decide it's too light on puns in some place or another, or too heavily laden making it an uneven trip, so I do some polishing until I'm happy with it. Once in a while I will do some sketches on the script to help me picture how want the text to fit in context.

The start of the art is penciling the panel borders. I ink them and then do the lettering (straight to ink for that) in what I hope will be a good spot for the art. I usually have some idea of what I'm going to draw in each panel having stared at the script in all its stages for so long, and it sometimes comes out exactly as I planned. 

After the lettering I see if my pencils will actually fit in the allotted space. Generally fairly rough pencils. I start tightening them up, and try to get the characters to look consistent throughout. Then final tightening with the inks. I let the ink dry at least overnight before erasing the pencils. I do touch up on the inks I messed up with my erasing.

 

Finally, I scan the art and do some more touch up on the computer. Mostly getting rid of the incompletely erased pencils. And I add the title.

Just so you're not too confused, this was a two page episode.

No decaf for MECAF

Four wide aisles to go up and down.

adapted from the radio show?

she made the skirt herself

Another comics day today, for it's the annual Maine Comics Art Festival in Portland. We started out early to do the usual leisurely drive in to check out yard sales and flea markets where I bought a couple of books and a cast iron old fashioned mail truck.

MECAF had new digs this year a short distance from the old ones, but it looks like they managed to keep all the exhibitors in the same room for once. We met up with long distance pal EJ Barnes, who was one of the driving forces behind putting out the Luisa Felix tribute book. She now has about ten copies that have my autograph in them (I was a contributor).

I brought along some Samurai Slates and found them so well received that I ran out. And I still haven't sent copies to everyone on my mailing list as I ran out of the correct size envelopes. Guess I'll have to print up more. Lots of fellow mini-comic producers at the event and I came out with a bag full of trades.

Afterwards we went to Green Hand and got more books!

The Price of Freedom

I like Free Comic Book Day for a multitude of reasons. I mean, free stuff is good, but free comics is awesome! It also exposes me to a lot of titles that I haven't looked at or been aware of before.

But I also get a chance to share my love of comics in a more acceptable way. I'm not telling people they should go out and start buying comics, I'm telling them how to get free stuff. I start a month or so before the event, put up a sign at work, mention it once in a while. More often the week before. And on the Friday of Free Comic Book Day Eve, I was asking people if they wanted me to tell them the closest places to find participating retailers.  There's also a lot of positive media coverage with little of the old Zap Pow stereotypes showing up any more.


Carrie and I were planning a nice day trip for that Saturday, yardsales in the early morning, Zimmies in Lewiston, then a drive down to Portland to hit Casablanca and a few non-comics stores afterwards. Our cat Ghost curtailed the long trip as we had to take her to the vet. We still did yardsales and Zimmies, and we got to Bull Moose Music (in Lewiston) between. The selection at Bull Moose was paltry. I wasn't expecting much from Zimmies, but they surprised me with the number of free titles they were offering. They may even have had one of all the FCBD titles. We didn't try to get one of everything, just those that looked like they might be interesting.

We read most of the titles over the course of the next couple of days so that Carrie could bring a couple of them in for a coworker and I could bring all the others that weren't good enough to become part of the permanent collection (which was most of them) in to work to offer to my coworkers. I set them up by my desk and invited people to come over and take a few. So I again get to share my love of comics! The first one is free...

This is the second year I have also had my own comic to give out for this special day. The store clerks are always surprised and delighted to see the reverse of their give aways. This year I also ended up giving one out to a guy at a yardsale as he had a bunch of Dilbert and Calvin & Hobbes books.


As another follow up, a guy I knew when part of a mail art exchange group sent me a comic produced local to him for promoting literacy. Reading and using comics to promote reading are things I am a big fan of. The comic also mentions how an earlier comic created to do the same thing inspired a lot of kids to create their own comics. Another thing I think is great. Charlie had as an added bonus newspaper clippings about the local event that included much community interaction with the mayor in a Wonder Woman shirt. I brought these in to work and put them up in my cubicle for many people to come and marvel over.

And talking about pushing my buttons, he sent it all in in this envelope with a nice eclectic mix of stamps amongst which is his drawn self portrait as a stamp that his post office put a cancel on! Thanks Charlie.

To enlarge any picture, click on it and shout Shazam!

Comic Relief

Tarzan #50

Another yard sale find were these 10 comics for 25 cents each. Tarzan, which is in the worst condition of them all, was the second best find. I collect Tarzan comics but didn't know if I had this one or not. Turns out I don't. With that in mind, in spite of its condition, I would have paid more for this one comic than I did for the lot.

Brothers of the Spear is another series I collect, but in this case I already had this issue.

Best find was Secret Agent #1. I never thought I would actually get to own this. There were only two issues and they are generally priced beyond my perceived value, so I am very pleased.

Brothers of the Spear #13

Dell 4 Color 1066

Cimarron Strip #1

Wagon Train #6

Garrison's Gorillas #5

Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp #4

Mission: Impossible #2

Mod Squad #8

Secret Agent #1

To enlarge a comic, click on a finger.

Kreation Stories

A recent post on his blog from Dale Martin about enjoying reading fellow creators' creative process along with something similar in some emails we've exchanged has prompted me to write a little bit about mine.

You can break down what I do into two parts. The art and the writing. Sometimes one begets the other and sometimes they have nothing to do with each other.

I was making some envelopes with Tarzan wrestling a tiger in anticipation of the upcoming Edgar Rice Burroughs postage stamp release. This led to my thinking about if I were wrestling with a big cat, it would be for play. I then wrote some thoughts about it.

Carrie and I are constantly doing various wordplay with each other: punning, rhyming, alliteration, etc. Doing something like this in the middle of the night does happen. I wrote about it. The art had to go along with the text to really work. I was reading a collection of Secret Agent X-9 comic strips and admiring Al Williamson's skill in doing more than just talking heads (panel 3) in the small panels allowed in newspapers. He often will focus on active hands (I did feet) and he can have more than one plane in the panel (Qwill in foreground, bedroom in back.)

Most of the time what I want to write and what I want to draw have nothing to do with each other. In my first kard of last year I felt like drawing a cavern, but had other things to say. Still, I try to do some tie in anyway, even if it's only symbolic. In this case I had me carrying a lantern as if in search of something. the text ended with "if I can find the time..."


If you have some of my other postkards handy, take a look at them and try to guess which category they fall under.

click between the panel borders to enlarge a kard

Samurai Slate

Many many years ago I came up with an idea for a 20 to 30 minute video I wanted to do featuring a private eye character called Samurai Slate. It was going to be filled with lots of word play and visual puns somewhat akin to the movie Airplane. Logistics to make this happen were just more than I could, or was willing, to undertake, so it never happened.

But I was making mini-comics around that time, so I decided to use the main character for one. I didn't use the same storyline as I'd planned for the film, and I don't have any notes about it in my files that I can find, so it is lost forever.

I do, however, still have the original art from the mini-comic. You can read it on Facebook here.

I realized recently that he was the perfect vehicle for the kind of comix I want to write right now, so my newest postkard, mailing out this weekend, brings him back for a new adventure. If you aren't on my mailing list and want to see the new comic, let me know your address.

Sam was named partially as a nod to famous fictional private eye, Sam Spade, and partially after my former roommate, Shannon Slate. Shannon even had a trench coat. And enjoyed odd adventures as seen in the photo of him below.

Antique Lawn Comics

It's been a very rainy past few weeks and the yard loves it. You can see how well it's growing with Pandora just peeking over the grass. We pulled out our riding lawn mower last week, on one of the few not raining days, and discovered the battery was dead. We now know we should bring the battery inside during the winter. Carrie bought a new one, now I just have to figure out how to get the thing primed again. Hopefully we'll start the mowing process again over this long weekend.


Last weekend we went to the Maine Comic Arts Festival in Portland. First convention type event we've been to since we moved up here. We bought a handful of comics. Actually, Carrie bought most of them. I made sure she saw the ones I thought she might like and she bought all but one of the ones I thought I might also like (that were not overly expensive.) So I did buy one.

Carrie got a free Tiki drawing from Daniel Edwards. He had an interesting children's book, that we'll probably want to investigate once he's turned it into comics or a cartoon. He's been drawing some tarot cards to use in the story line so we chatted for a bit about comics and tarot and Sita Sings the Blues. Tikis are getting featured in his next book.

Another artist was giving out free sample panels of his comic. A couple got Carrie to laugh out loud, so she bought a copy of his sampler, Secret Harbor.

Upstairs was even bigger and more comics were bought. Kitty Hawk had the best cover in the place, and I want to read the webcomic now. A couple of books had artwork very similar to Jeff Smith's work. Grune was the one we picked up. The Underburbs looked good enough to buy the first collection, but they were sold out, so only issue one was purchased.

Carrie bought a mini-comic about cats from Gynn Stella, but what brought me to the table was the banner hanging from the front, especially the art you see to the right. Back in the days when I was playing in fantasy role playing games, I had a character named Meep who was a were cat. Guess this is from one of his as yet untold adventures...

Weather was cool enough to wear my Love & Rockets the band hoodie, and this time I wore my Love & Rockets the comicbook t-shirt underneath. The shirt got a lot of compliments. And a couple of people even noticed the hoodie.


This weekend we started by traveling down to visit Kemmer in Massachusetts. We went to a few antique stores and ate at a Thai restaurant. And I am contemplating the purchase of an expensive toy. It's made out of wood, just over 3 feet high, 4 and a third feet long, and in need of severe TLC. But expecting to be quoted a price in the thousands, I was stunned to get one in the hundreds. Carrie and Kemmer both seem to think it would be a good buy for me. I'm still a tightwad, so am sitting here today talking with Carrie about where to put it. We already think we can do enough repair work to it ourselves to make it look good enough and not fall apart. But if it cannot be placed somewhere safe and yet well displayed, there is no sense in spending the money. If I can talk myself into it, I'll go again next weekend and see if it's still there.

As always, click on a photo to get a bigger view of it.

Stand Up Comix

The light shining through the hole in my head makes my eyes glow.
Click on my glasses to see better.

The first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day, so that was the basis for our plans that day. Carrie wore her Hellboy t-shirt and I wanted to wear my Superman shirt with a Love and Rockets hoodie over it. The hoodie I won at Cover Me, a music blog I visit once in a while. In case you didn't know, Love and Rockets is both a band and a comic book. The band was named after the comic, which annoyed one of the creators of the comic as he wanted to form a band with that name. So you can see how I wanted to show off my geeky knowledge to the crowd. But, in spite of cool weather before and after that Saturday, it was a darn nice day, too warm to wear either a sweatshirt or even multiple layers. Needing to wear long sleeves because of my sensitivity to sun exposure, I just wore the plain blue shirt. I have no long sleeved comics related shirts. But I did wear a small Usagi Yojimbo pin.

Our first stop was J & R Comics and Cards in Brunswick. We discovered them last year when they had a person parading around a more main street with a sandwich board announcing free comics and free food. Their selection of comics is pretty small, but they were such nice people I wanted to try and give them some real business. I bought 2 comics while there, but they didn't have the storage supplies I wanted. I'd held off on buying them, hoping to give J & R the money. They didn't have any free food this year, but did have plenty of free comics.

We met up with one of my coworkers, Sheila, and her husband Fred at the store. I'd gotten Sheila hooked on Carrie McNinch's minicomix and wanted to expose her to some more. Fred turned out to be a long time MAD fan, so I picked him up an issue of Groo. After the shop we went over to Bombay Mahal and had their buffet. Carrie and I think this is the better of the 2 Indian restaurants in Brunswick. The four of us got to chat for a while before heading off on our separate errands.

Next shop to hit was in Topsham. A new gaming and comics shop that we saw a few months ago. At that time they had next to nothing in comics, waiting for the shelves they said. Well, even though they weren't on the Free Comic Book Day website, they were still participating. We went in, saw they had little improvement, and left.

So third and final comics stop was Casablanca Comics in Portland. That's the shop in the above photo. They give out a good selection of free comics, their choice mostly. We usually get our comics here because it is the largest comics shop in the state, even if it seems small compared to the ones we used to go to in Arizona.

We did other things that day, but why talk about them when this was a celebration of Free Comic Book Day after all.

Moonlighting

For a while I worked at Moondance Comics in Massachusetts. I started part time and made it to manager fairly quickly. We had a pretty unique customer base, really into alternative comics partially because we were close to a bunch of colleges and partially because we who worked in the store were into them and happily promoted them. We did well enough with Cerebus that Dave Sim told us our numbers actually registered in the total sales figures.


That's Dave at the table on both the b&w pictures. He's talking to Dainis (one of my employees) and George (one of our customers) on the right.

The top photo shows me (in the Cerebus shirt) next to Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird (far right in the photo) who came in to talk to Dave. They created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I used to see the two of them around Northampton a lot. Even ran into them atop Mt Holyoke when Carrie and I went for a hike on her first visit to me.

Sunday Funnies

The stamps were released on Friday. The Post Office in Greene actually had them! I bought mine, have you bought yours?

Sending off the first batch of envelopes to get the first day cancel. I need to paint a few more envelopes before I can send the rest off. I'm doing a total of 25, 5 for each stamp.

Stamps and Comics

I've mentioned stamps about comics before. Today I found comics about stamps!

Free Comic Book Day

Carrie takes her comics seriously.

We headed out early for a long leisurely drive down to Portland's Casa Blanca Comics to take advantage of Free Comic Book Day. A national event that has been happening every year since 2002, though this is the first year I've actually been able to participate.

We planned to stop at a Post Office or two so I could buy some Animal Rescue postage stamps as well as the new Flags of Our Nation series. About five Post Offices later I finally get the Animal Rescue ones. Still no Flags of Our Nation, even though this is the second weekend we've been trying to find them.

We also stopped at a lot of yard sales. I got a wig head, a Darth Vader mask (that is now on the wig head), and a binder of more than 150 First Day Covers! Though I actually bought that at a store. But its contents looked like a yard sale.

While we were in Brunswick we got diverted by a guy with a big sign proclaiming Free Comic Book Day and BBQ. Carrie had a little to eat while I picked up some comics at JRs Cards. We never knew there was a store that sold comics so close to us. Unfortunately their selection is very limited.

Casa Blanca Comics has a pretty good selection of new stuff and we got our usual titles along with a bunch of free comics. Since they were having a buy 1 get 1 free sale on hardcovers, I picked up 4 volumes of Starman. They didn't have any of the titles I am already collecting in hardcover.

We also stopped at a cemetary Carrie found on one of her recent ventures. It's a locked cemetary, but the bookstore across the street has the key. I hope all the people that wandered in while we were there wandered out before we left. We locked up after ourselves. New to us were the rather Celtic take on the old skull design. Some knotwork along the sides of the stone are visible here as well.

click on the headstone to make it larger than death