Hi it’s me! I bet you’re wondering what it is that I’m standing up to my waist in. Well, that’s the thick, soggy bog of making comics. No, no not the drawing part-that’s fun! This is the hard part. This is the part where I’m trying to figure out what the story is and how my characters get there and how it all fits together in the world that I’ve built and how to make sure there’s no plot holes and why it all matters. What’s that? Oh, this weighted vest that I’m wearing? That’s the other thing I’m working on! It’s a pitch packet/book proposal of another comic project that I’m hoping to start sending out to agents in hopes that I convince just one of them that I’m good enough. Haha, hahaha. NOpE. aLLs FiNe HeRe! EvEryTHinG’s gReAt!
Okay but really though: I feel like I’m just eating and sleeping comics. But not in a healthy way. Y’know those old cartoons-or maybe it happened in old TV shows too-it was the moment the parent discovers their kid smoking a cigarette. So they punish them by making them smoke the entire pack of cigarettes all at once. They’re like, “Oh! You wanna’ smoke huh? Well here’s the entire pack! Smoke away kiddo!!” And it makes the kid sick and he never wants to smoke or see another cigarette ever again. I feel like the kid and the cigarettes are the pitch I’m working on. I eat, sleep and dream my pitch. I’m reading one graphic novel after another to get an idea where my book might fit it so I can tell my future agent and make their job...easier? I guess. I’m watching YouTube videos made by agents telling me all the things they want and don’t want to see in a pitch, while drawing character designs to add to my pitch because they said that was what I should do. It’s like doing creative taxes. It’s checking off boxes and getting all your forms together and thinking the entire time I hope I don’t mess something up because if I do I’m going to get audited and the agents will send me to graphic novel prison because the two sentences of my log line didn’t entice them enough.
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So...how have you been?
ART!
Sorry about that guy up there. He’s tired. He just wants to make comics and hates the business side of pretty much everything. Let’s look at pretty pictures for a minute, huh? Below is the latest pet portrait I did of Bruno and Izzy.
Below is an illustration of Eerie that I shared with you guys before. But I am going to use it for (gasp) the pitch packet so I colored it. Here’s the colored version.
I’ve always had a hard time drawing kids. And, for Eerie’s pitch packet (y’see what I mean, there’s a theme that’s developing) I needed to draw some character sketches of some of her schoolmates. So, for practice I cracked open my old elementary school yearbook to see what we looked like back in the early 90’s. Let me tell you, we were goofy lookin’ back in the day, and the hair was so big. Here’s some cartoonized faces of kids that were in my sixth grade class.
What’s Making Me Happy This Week
It was Saint Patrick’s Day this past week and I spent it eating my favorite breakfast at my favorite diner, I went and bought some books from a local bookstore, ate tacos at my favorite taco spot and tried to remember why life is worth living. St. Paddy’s Day is more than just drinking beer and wearing green for me. For personal reasons (it’s a long story) it’s a day that I set aside each year to simply enjoy, exist and to count my blessings. So, I did (or I tried).
In case you missed it, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secret of the Ooze is celebrating its 35th year anniversary this week and has returned to movie theaters across the county for special screenings. Rhea and I went on Wednesday to see it on the big screen and I’ve said it before so I’ll say it again, no matter how many times you watch a movie at home nothing beats seeing it on the big screen in a theater. It’s...better somehow. I’ve now seen re-screenings of the first TMNT movie and When Harry Met Sally and although these movies aren’t sci-fi spectacles or special effects laden, the big screen just makes things better.
That’s all for this week’s newsletter! I promise I’ll get back to making comics as soon as I can. I hate not drawing them just as much as you hate not reading them. I promise things are in the works! Don’t be mad. Good things come to those who wait and I appreciate every single one of you. Thanks for reading. See you next week!
~b