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I've been reading and hearing from folks I know — and noticing based on my own clicks even — that color is a big attractor on the web. People are more likely to click something if it's in color. And it just so happens, I like coloring my comics (though I also love simple black and white stuff). So I'm going to start using color a bit more in my work.
And so I give you, Old, Jaded Batman in full blazing — yes, blazing! — color.
I've been hard at work on some strip ideas that ultimately I plan to use to expand Malcontent. The hope is to produce something fuller than what I've made so far, to create a character-rich, fully realized universe. Perhaps to make something I could even submit to the syndicates.
So when I say I've been hard at work, I mean it. I've been drawing like mad, and thinking constantly about this strip. But not both at the same time necessarily. I've made character sketches; and I've made character notes. And I've obsessed over possible scenarios to put these characters in, but it's been hard and I've been disappointed with my ideas so far. Creating characters is one thing. Writing stories is altogether different.
Tonight I sat down and really tried for the first time to write some stories to introduce my characters. It was slow going at first. I drew out some ideas I'd written down, but they came out lousy. At some point I decided to look at some of my favorite recent strips I'd made, strips I felt worked on some level.
I'm particularly fond of Bad Design, and looking at it I realized that what made it work so well was the physicality of the drawing. Writing-wise it's just your typical Malcontent strip, but the comical drawing adds another level. The drawing makes it funny. And that's when it hit me, and I learned something vital — obvious, for sure, but vital nonetheless: funny drawings make comics funny. Or at least funnier.
After having this epiphany the strips just started flowing. I sketched another very physical idea I had about dog hair on the toothbrush. Then, starting from a purely visual standpoint — that is, starting with just a funny drawing idea — I made one about the dog, and the punch line just fell into place. Usually I write my comics first and work from there, but it turns out it's often a lot easier to build from a funny visual than to start with the writing.
After doing this a while I started getting ideas for storylines for the characters. I got four strips about a cranky bear who wants to be human, and I even got an origin strip for a zombie character. They all have decent structure and solid punchlines. But the humor originates with the drawings. For the first time ever I'm seeing the importance of integrating the writing and the visuals, after all these years. And for the first time, I'm able to execute this concept. I'm finally starting to get it.
And it feels amazing!
I just made a new comic I call "Bigger Bear." Not really sure what it's about, just that it sort of got stuck in my head and I just had to draw it out. And then it ended up turning into a finished thing. It all started with these meandering, diaristic sketches.
After doing a couple of these I did some sketches with a similar kind of page flow. I really just wanted to draw myself in a coat and hat, but I also had this idea about bears in the back of my head.
I liked the sketches a lot, and I got a really good response on Facebook, so I decided to make it a finished comic. A lot of sketching and page layout drawing then happened, but before too long I had completed the piece.
Finally, I decided to color it. This was done on the iPad as I still suck pretty hard at water colors.
So there you have it, "Bigger Bear" in full color.
