Something a little bit different.

A while ago when it seemed that winter would never end I drew a comic.  It had been a while since I put physical ink on a physical page.  In a small notebook of rough, recycled paper I turned out this:

I like it quite a bit.  I like the idea of water world but with snow.  Instead of diving for Denver you would have to dig for it.  The world above would be a blinding desert, with white dunes stretching on for kilometres.  Under the surface the worlds sky scrapers would still be there.  Where their windows broke they would be flooded with snow, and where they didn't vast networks of pitch black caves would wind their way down to the long forgotten ground.  You could light a fire inside one and see the office space with snow pressing against each window.

Anyway, I like the comic and decided to do a digital version.  Somewhere along the way I got swept up with other projects and I never finished it.  The work in progress looks like this:

 I will probably finish it eventually.  Bit by bit.

I started to draw again recently.  The board game work has shifted from drawing new things and laying out cards to networking and getting various bits together.  I haven't been making the time to draw recently (other than for this blog).  Anyway, what I wanted to say is that I have started drawing again recently and it is all thanks to the podcast Comic's Coast to Coast.  This is a fantastic podcast put out there by web comic\cartoonist people Brian Dunaway, Joel Duggan and Matthew Ducharme. Each episode they interview an artist; and the show is just freakin' great and super inspiring so go give it a listen.

That's it for now, have a good week.


Jeff K.

Collapse

I don't really subscribe to the idea of a multiverse.  This comic started as the cover of a pulp magazine.  I wanted to draw a cover and so I did; the plan was to make a comic around it, but that didn't really work out.  In the end it evolved into this.

Eventually I started thinking about what it would be like to have a bunch of universes collapse on you.  Like a room just fills with you, and everywhere you look there is another you who just turned to see you.  You would end up a black hole, the mass of infinite yous all crushed down into a single point until space-time just couldn't take it anymore.  Then I started to think about that illusion where if you stand in between two mirrors you see a line of yourself.  Usually it fades to green because the most common mirror materials don't reflect perfectly.  Eventually after light bounces around enough bits of the spectrum are absorbed until only greens are bouncing.  I forget where I heard this, I am not sure if it is true.

I sent my first board game prototype off into the world this week.  Not to a publisher, but to a good guy in the board game biz who kindly offered to look it over for me.  I will be sending copies to publishers soon I think, many more are being built.

That is it for now.  Have a good weekend.

-K

K9 Wisdom

It has been too long since a simple three panel joke gag, and this time with a splash of colour.  ho ho ho, he he he.

I have to say though I think the first panel is my most Scott Johnson-esque drawing that I have ever done.

What have I done since we last spoke?  I grew a pony tale, that is sort of new.  I had long hair before but it just kept on going.  I more or less made a board game; now begins the process of finding a publisher or self publishing.

Well that is it for now.  Don't want to go too crazy with the typing now that I am starting this up again.  I think I'll ease into it like a hot bath; but I'm sure I'll be writing walls of text in no time.

-Jeff

PS:  Now that I am back I realized how crappy my blog looked, so we are back to the default white blogger look until I take the time to make a new background and layout.

Renovation 6

Well here we are again.  The sixth page of Renovation is done for real now, I hope it was worth the wait.  This page was finished in my new studio fresh off of me moving in.  It has been a busy week but I think I am starting to get settled.

Like I said before this decision to go black and white as well as sketchier was made to both save time and free up the process from traditional comics.  If you want more detail on that notion see last week's blog post.

I like how this page ended up for the most part.  Panels 4,5,6 I think worked out particularly well, though I liked them better before I put in the word balloons.  A note for next week is to plan out where the words go better; I am still quite the novice when it comes to that.  One other thing I am not happy with is panel 8.  Quin's face sort of fell apart I thought.  I couldn't decide how cartoony to go with the expression and so in the end I think the indecision shows.  Also, maybe her head is too small.  Oh well.

It has also come to my attention that drawing multiple figures is taking me significantly more time than when this thing was just Jeremy in a car.  This fact is really obvious and I should have planned for this sooner but I think black and white will be a necessity from now on.

I said last week that I would also have a 3 panel strip.  This turns out not to be the case.  But don't fear, I do have something else for you to make up for it.

More details about this other project will be out soon.  I am going to get a website up for it in fact; so you can look for that in a few weeks.

That is all for this week.  Hope you all have had and are having a good long weekend.

-K

Renovation Sort of 6

Hello people, another Sunday has snuck up on me.  As you can tell the comic isn't 100% done; for that I am really sorry. I am in the process of moving this week and so I haven't had the time to hunker down and get shit done.  That said the Renovation page and a gag strip will be done for next week so you can look forward to that.  In the mean time I thought I could still do a blog post for the first time mid process.  So, here we go.

The first thing I should say is that my plan for this week was to do the strip black and white.  this decision was made for two reasons.  Firstly, as I have talked about before I have never really liked colour.  It always makes me uncomfortable and I don't know why.  Secondly, I knew I was moving this week so I decided ahead of time that I could speed things up and get the comic done if I didn't colour it.  And look how that turned out!  In any case I feel like not colouring was a good idea because I didn't want to approach this like I usually do.  Let me explain.

When it comes to process I have been really traditional with Renovation.  I started with rough "pencils" then I "inked" the stuff, then I coloured it all in and added the words last.  When it comes to the drawn elements of a comic that whole pencil, ink, colour thing is like the holy trinity.  In my opinion it is a pretty archaic way of going about things.  But that is the way I have done this because that is the way comics are traditionally made.  As Liza would say balls to you that.  I got to thinking that this three layered methodology sucks because it was made in a physical media mind set (instead of digital) and furthermore it was designed in the traditional comic industry, where you had different people to do each of those steps.  All this brings me to the biggest change I made this week, other than a really rough sketch to sort out layout I am just drawing this weeks comic.  That's it.  It is being drawn in photoshop; as in that is the one and only step.  As much as I hate to harken back to my artschoolspeak I am treating it like a painting.  It is just a bunch of stuff on a flat page.

Now, that said I am still not using the fact that I do this digitally to it's full potential.  As much as I rail against tradition in the previous paragraph I am still not using this new medium to it's full potential. I am fully aware of that, but baby steps.  In two weeks ill come up with something else to disturb, but for now this is it and I hope it has made things a bit more interesting.

Other than that I would say that I like how the page is turning out.  I finally get to draw someone other than Jeremy, so that is a treat.  I particularly like Tod's expression and pose in panel 7.  I didn't think it would be that interesting but I am liking it more and more.  

I think that is it for now.  Have a good week.

-K

Robots Can't Love 2

Is this a lazy retread?  Maybe.  But I like the gag; it is the type that bludgeons you.

I started to think about it and I am not sure I agree with the premise of this comic.  As funny and dark as I find a robot in cheesy situations failing to understand emotion I feel like a bit of a hypocrite.  I do think that eventually if AI gets complex enough they would understand love and emotion.  Whew- now that I have that off my chest I can go back to whatever the hell it is I do.


How was your week?  Mine disappeared and then it was Sunday.  I can never tell if that is a good or bad thing.  I honestly can't tell what I feel about it.  All I know is that it is not apathy.  Or is it!?  People say that time goes by faster the older you get.  I don't think I agree with that.  I agree that older people have more shit to get done and so it seems like there isn't enough time to do everything you want or need to do.  But even still I seem to find myself caught in lengthy moments of work or play where everything seems so utterly stagnant. 


In any case, it has been a good and productive week.  I have thoroughly enjoyed it and I wish the same for all of you.


Here's to hope that the next week will be the same,
-K

Renovation Page 4

Hey everyone, sorry I am late.  This is as good a time as any to talk about scheduling.  From now on this comic is going to update on Sundays.  This just works out much better with how my week is typically planned out.

In other news I graduated with my BFA this week and so it has been kinda hectic; hence the late comic.

But back to business.

No playlist for this comic.  The vast majority of this was done in silence, it was just one of those weeks.  Probably the earliest sketches were done to the new Daft Punk album; but I can not be sure. 

So linework.  You may remember that in my last blog post I talked about how I was not satisfied with my lines.  Well this week I feel is a bit of an evolution but I am still not satisfied.  I was mindful in some of the panels to have a thin hesitant sort of stuttery line, just to see how that would work out.  In the end I feel like it was equal parts good and bad. It seems like where I used this type of line things seemed to fall apart.  Shapes are made, but they don't know what they are exactly; almost like they are perpetually on the verge of rattling apart.  I am not sure how I will move forward in the next page.  My guess is that I will focus a lot more on the line, cross hatching, fully blacked out shadows, that sort of thing.  That said, there is a chance that I might make things even flimsier just to see what happens.  I did have moments of weakness (panels 2 and 3) where I fell back onto a thicker line made with a more confident stroke.  So maybe the answer is to expunge that idea completely with no regrets or second thoughts.

Colours are coming along.  I have always felt that they are my weakness and I feel like I am getting a better grip.  I am still trying to stay away from anything too painterly, but at the same time I am giving myself some room away from a purely graphic approach.  I have a hunch that I might have gone overboard with the textures a little in this page.  I have been hesitant to use them in my digital work, I feel like some people use texture to cover up bad drawings or colour choices and I don't want to do that.  All in all I am happy with the colour, though I think I should have made things a little bit lighter.

 I am happy with page layout.  Nothing is too adventuress but then again not everything has to be.

As far as story is concerned I am biting at the bit to get past this prologue and introduce the full cast, but I do want to take things slow; it is a thriller after all.

I can't think of much else to say about this one.  Thanks for reading and have a good week.

Jeff K.

 <-- Previous Page                                                                                                             Next Page -->

It's a work in progress. . .

 

Hey people.  I have been pecking away at making a cover image for the first chapter of Renovation.  Here is part of it, a work in progress shot if you will.  I think I will include more progress images of stuff up in this joint.

Have a FANTASTIC weekend.

J

The Trouble with Tribbles

Well it has been a week and here we are again.

I should admit something.  Technically I have cheated, and I don't know if I feel bad about it.  The comic above was made several months ago for the University of Manitoba's newspaper The Manitoban.  I have never posted this anywhere else and so that's why I don't feel bad about reusing it.  But what the hell, a new Star Trek movie just came out and it had a Tribble in it.  Look I am topical.

In addition to being topical I chose to throw this guy up because I have been hard at work on other projects and frankly didn't have time this week.  That said I can guarentee that there will be a new Renovation out next week.

Till then, cheers.

-J

Renovation Page 3

Hey people it is that time again!  Sorry for being late with this comic, I was having some computer trouble, but that is all smoothed out now. Besides, I got this thing out the next morning so get off my back.

So lets get back to business.  Soundtrack for this one is mostly Iron Maiden and Beastie Boys.  If there was more then I forgot.

 I think I should mention before hand that a friend of mine, Ian, gave some good suggestions that helped the layout quite a bit. That said, I jumped the gun a bit and I think this page could have been a bit clearer.  Specifically, I think that I should have put the foot on the break panel earlier on in the page.  Other than that I am happy with how things turned out.

I decided to tighten up the linework a bit in this one compared to the last page.  Maybe that isn't the right word, but whatever.  I have a thing with lines, they strike me as being all really similar.  Hear me out, this isn't as stupid as it sounds.  I find I have a habit of making lines a bit too curvy and too think for fear that they won't be seen.  Best examples of this can be seen in panels 1 and 2.  In panel one, the interior of the car
 bothers me, and this isn't an issue with variation in line weight.  I know that I might have a problem with having too uniform of line weight, but what I don't like about the work is more that when lines get thick I don't like how they look.  Secondly, the curvieness of lines I feel like I never make straight lines, like they always have to swoop.  So, what have I learned form all of that?  Well next comic you can expect something very different in terms of line.  I am thinking of thin thin lines that don't very in weight that much, also a lot less swoop.

Colour was interesting this comic.  I knew that I wanted to have all of the exterior shots of the cars and stuff have a yellow orange haze that hinted at a day that is a little too sunny; then with interior shots, stick to cooler colours.   Not sure how well it worked out.  Also, in the battle of painterly vs. graphic I think I hit a reasonable middle ground.  Earlier versions of this comic had the gravel road and fields really worked with a bunch of grays browns greens and yellows.  It all looked a bit cluttered, and the colour began to fight with the lines so I smoothed things out a bit.  While I allowed some of the nuance to come through in the gravel and grass I think it isn't too distracting and gets the point across.  So I guess I am saying that I am happy with colour for once.

Well that's it for this week, so have a great long weekend and I'll be back again next Friday.

<-- Previous Page                                                                                                                 Next Page -->

Godzilla part 2

Hello people and here we are again at the end of another productive week.  The dramatic conclusion of the two  part Godzilla epic is finally here.  I didn't really plan to talk about it like I do Renovation, but I sort of feel like it now so I guess I will do it while I have the energy.

Again in the interest of full disclosure the music I listened to while drawing was a mix of Tenacious D, the musical Assassins 2004 reunion, Beastie Boys, and then a bunch of classical and some podcasts (mostly The Morning Stream).  Also, this cover a friend of mine made of Cry Little Sister.

I have noticed that I am getting looser (maybe sloppier?) with these black and white comics, and I sort of like it.  I think it might have to do with painting nothing but water colour paintings all year.  You would think that nothing but water colour would make me cleaner and more anal about linework and stuff, but it really hasn't.  If anything I have learned to go with the flow more and let stuff bleed over onto other stuff.

In terms of composition I have always LOVED cheesy family photo blurred in bust technique.  That is probably not what it is technically called, but you know what I am talking about.  Speaking of composition you may have noticed that this comic doesn't make much sense when it comes to physical space.  In the first two panels I mean, I think the third panel makes perfect sense.  Normally I don't like to overly explain myself when it comes to stuff like this, but today I was thinking why do I actually do that?  Why not make Godzilla blowing up some monsters while sum41 plays on the rooftop like I had originally intended instead of this weird photo-montage sorta thing.  I have come to the conclusion that I think it is just the pure unexpected novelty of it all.  I would rather have a sorta funny, sorta stupid comic that I haven't seen anything like before than some generic action shot bullshit.  Not that I have a problem with action or violence or anything, my problem is that as a nerd or movie buff or whatever I have seen so much of it.  And frankly so much of it is the same old power fantasy shit over and over again.  Now I think I am rambling and so I am gonna cut this thought off, but I will conclude by saying that I think this comic series' goal is not to be a good comedy, or good action, or good drama or whatever but just an attempt to make something new and novel to look at.  God knows there is a shit ton to look at out there.

I have just noticed that there is this gray streak between the bottoms of panels 1 and 2.  Up until now I had thought it was a stain or smear on my computer monitor, and so now that I know that its a fuckup I cant help but laugh.  That is why I am leaving it in, so enjoy.

That is it for this week.  Next Friday yall can expect a page of Renovation in which something sorta thrillerie happens.  Till' then have a great weekend.

Renovation Page 2

Well hot damn people it's a comic.  On Friday, just like I said it would be.

So this is where I talk about making this thing.  In the interest of full disclosure the soundtrack to making for this was was roughly equal parts Slayer, Girl Talk and the Spice Girls.

I said I was wanting to make it much cartoonier and so that is what I did.  I have to say that I had a hard time not crosshatching the hell out of this thing, but I managed to resist so that is good I think.  I may have mentioned before that I have a weird relationship with colour.  I am not too sure why, but I have never been too comfortable with it.  Maybe it has to do with having more of an Apollonian personality, though that might just be a bunch of bullshit projection.  In any case when I use colour it tends to be more washed out.  However, in my recent watercolour paintings I have been using bolder and bolder colour, so maybe I am getting use to it.

When it comes to style I am not so sure who I am riffing on.  The handling of mouths is defiantly influenced by Penny Arcade.  I have always liked Mike's handling of mouths as just one swift movement and depending on all of the angles it gives off different expressions.  One other thing I have always had trouble with is eyebrows.  I tend to think about them too much I think.  In cartoons they give a ton of emotion and they don't have to make sense always, but I don't handle things not making sense too well and I think that is the root of the problem.  There is this way of doing eyebrows that ya see in anime a bit where you see them through the bangs, but only the line-work.  I've always liked that idea, but I never really used it too much before this because I felt that when I did it it was too much of a clutter of lines up in the hair that didn't make any sense. 

When it comes to layout I knew what this page would look like before I was done page one.  I knew I wanted to have the full phone call in one page and quite suddenly I came up with the idea of having just four or five vertical panels that were defined by the windshield.  I was worried that the page might be boring because it is quite simple and nothing really changes, but in the end I think it turned out ok.  Really this page for me was about nailing down Jeremy's design and playing with facial expressions.  I am not sure how happy I am with the speech bubbles.  I had an earlier draft that didn't have black outlines on them and it made them look a bit cuter, but I thought they were harder to look at.  Also, I am in love with the idea of each person having a really distinct looking speech bubble.  The first time I saw this was in Gaiman's Sandman series and it struck me as such a good idea.

So that is it for this week.  You can expect the dramatic conclusion to the Godzilla comic next Friday and page three of Renovation the Friday after that.  Hope you all have a great week.

Love and Peace,
Jeff K

PS:  I do not condone driving while talking on the phone.  Personally the idea always freaks me out and so whenever I get a phone call I either ignore it or pull over.  Remember people, safety first.  :P

<-- Previous Page                                                                                                                 Next Page -->

Godzilla King of Monsters Part 1

Hello people!  I am uploading this a bit late, sorry for that.  I assure you that I am committed to making a strip a week.  The plan is to upload Friday nights, around 7 or 8 my time preferably.

Anywhoo...

This is the first of a two part strip.  A friend of mine showed me the film Godzilla Final War the other day.  Needless to say I liked it a lot.  It was the last of the Toho Godzilla movies, made in 2004; it's something of a swansong to the Godzilla series.  In it Aliens bring monsters to earth to try and take over.  Their plan would have worked, but they didn't count on one thing. . . Godzilla.  The entire movie is basically Godzilla wrecking monster after monster.  HE IS UNSTOPPABLE.  It gets to a point where he is fighting three at once.  I am starting to ramble, that is a sign that the movie is pure gold.

Here let me link something.

I mean look at that scene.  Really look at it, ya know?

Sum 41.

Anyway, next week will be another Renovations page, and I am really looking forward to that. The week after that you will witness the dramatic conclusion to this Godzilla strip.

Oh, also, another friend and I have a podcast, so if you like these strips you might like it, you can check it out here or just by searching "Hopelessly out of Date" on itunes.

Cheers,
Jeff K.

Welcome

Welcome to Frustrated comics, a weekly webcomic that is sometimes about things.  Expect updates on Fridays.  Other than that I don't know what to tell you.  I write another blog about stuff called The Cultural Inquirer.  It's just reviews and opinion and stuff.  If you like comics more than boring old writing then I expect you will like this one better.

-J