Little Con of Horrors

I'm setting up at The Little Con of Horrors at Spokane Community College in #Spokane right now. 10am-4pm enjoy our first Halloween & Comic Convention!!

24 Hour Comics Day

I was invited the night before to attend a 24 Hour Comics Day at Adventures Underground in Richland, WA yesterday. Unfortunately it was too last minute for me to stick around the whole time, but I did stay about three hours. I met some nice people, and that was my main goal. One girl had a really great cartoony/video game style that reminded me of Sonic the Hedgehog or Pokemon. I didn’t catch her name though, so fail on my part. I also met J James McFarland who I actually went to high school with. Bizarre, because we both moved away from the second largest city in Washington State to the Tri Cities, which is quite smaller and more rural. Since I didn’t plan on doing a 24Hr comic, I figured I’d play with an eight page mini comic I’ve wanted to do for a long time about the fairy tale, “The Cobble & The Elves.” I drew three pages while I was there, but this was the only one I completed. I’m also thinking if I keep it, I’ll redo panel one. I was really going for a silly cartoon style with sloppy inks. I was pretty pleased with showing without words that the cobbler was working through the night with the burning candle. Not sure when I’ll hop back on this project, but here’s a good start.

Here's also a sketch I did a month ago, kept forgetting to scan it.

More sketches

A few sketches from today and yesterday that I didn't share with the previous blog. General Mills' Monster Cereals are my favorite sign Halloween is near. Frankenberry is my favorite, but Count Chocula is also rad. Anyway, did a few sketches of them, and of DJ Lance Rock from Yo Gabba Gabba.

Count Chocula

Frankenberry

DJ Lance Rock

Sketch Dump October 10 2012

Hello all! Ive been busy with a move to another city, and my computer setup isn't quite ready. But I finally had time to scan in some sketches I've done over the past few weeks. Mostly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stuff, and a couple Megaman sketches.

Bebop

Krang

Krang's 80s android body

Rocksteady

Megaman

PharaohMan

Latest sketches

I haven't been sharing much recently, so I better show I'm still alive. I'm working on some comic stuff, most prominently Backyard Wrasslers and Capoeira Hermit Crab Hero Twins. Backyard Wrasslers is a fun strip format, and I have about four more strips in the inking process. BW is about kids who start their own kids neighborhood wrestling league for the summer. I'm having a lot of fun thinking about it. I can't wait to get a bit more done. I'm planning on making a 24 page teaser mini comic to introduce readers. It will not be a weekly/monthly web comic. I don't like stamping schedules upon myself. I'm moving soon, and my internet/computer access will be super iffy for a while.

I'm enjoying drawing the kids quite a bit in this comic. I'm really trying to go with a retro vibe too.

Toddler Mutant Ninja Turtle. TMNT fever has struck me again, 20 years later. I've been collecting the IDW new series since it started last year, and now I'm anticipating the new Nickelodeon TMNT series. I'm a little weirded out by the voices. Donatello is voiced by one of the Animaniacs, that's slightly jarring. Oddly though, Michelangelo is voiced by the actor who did Beast Boy in Teen Titans, and I'm not phased at all by this. They are really pushing the "teen" in TMNT, so these guys really feel 16. I love the animation so far, looks great. I've also been purchasing the new toys to display. The new toys are great sculpts, lots of fine details.

Lastly, I'm fooling with a TMNT homage/spoof. Thinking of making a 12 page story about these twin mutant hermit crabs. Hoping to choose a new mini comic project soon, and get cracking. I think this one would be a big sale at conventions. Who doesn't love mutant hermit crabs who know capoeira?

So that's what's going on with me. I also have another project I'm working with someone on, but that's hush hush for the moment.

Dream Jobs

I think we all dream of dream projects we would give anything to work for. I'd like to share mine, and the reasons why I would love to work on them.

Pirates of Dark Water was a cartoon series in 1991. Imagine Star Wars meets Treasure Island. Oh did I love this series. Unfortunately it only ran 21 episodes. The series even turned into a Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo game. A mini series was also published by Marvel comics. I would love to retell this, but complete the story. It's sad that it is frozen in an unfinished tale.

Doug was a great show from my childhood. It was like a 1990s era Archie. A kid who goes to junior high, maybe high school, and goes through all things boys that age go through. He's also a comic geek, and writes and draws his own hero, Quail Man. I honestly think this would be a really great digest comic that could rival Archie. I think Disney owns the rights to Doug now, and they own Marvel Comics. It could come to fruition. Marvel/Disney, are you reading this?

Thundarr was a cartoon series in the early 1980s. It falls somewhere between Conan, Star Wars, and Kamandi. It's an apocalyptic future earth where "super science and fantastic magic" both reign supreme. Thundarr carries the powerful Sun Sword (light saber like), and he is friends to a princess with magic, and Ookla the Mok (wookie).

Only Pirates of Dark Water ever made it to a comic format, but all these would be perfect for the format. A more serious Thundarr would be perfect. Just look at what wonders Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord did for Conan in Dark Horse! Comics is a perfect medium to keep a loved cartoon series alive.

My Comics Process Part 3 - Lettering

Welcome back. If you haven't been following, part one is here, and two is here. I hope you find these useful, and always, if you have questions feel free to ask.

Well, first and foremost, I finished my newest mini comic, an all ages story about a Shaolin monk who must save the village from a wild ogre. The comic is totally free to read online at Graphic.ly: http://graphicly.com/jesse-acosta/shaolin-monk-the-tale-of-zhao-and-meng/1

The book will also be in print and can either be purchased in my Etsy store (soon), and at any future comic conventions until copies run out.

Shaolin Monk cover!

So now on to the comics process. Every mini comic I take on, I try to work on a couple key points to expand my chops. The two big things for this book were environments and lettering by hand. Last comic was a little background-light, so I really pushed it for this book. As for that, I don't think I need to go into much detail. As in part one, I found a lot of reference photos to use for locations in the comic.

But lettering, that's what I'd like to talk about. As I've heard countless times in Jessica Abel interviews and lectures, hand lettering can make a world of difference. Also, in my portfolio review a few months back, this statement was also reiterated. Word balloons, dialogue boxes, sound effects, they are all a significant part of the art as a whole. They shouldn't deter from the art, they shouldn't be an eye sore, they should be integrated. Hand inked sequential art can clash against streamlined perfectly smooth vector balloons and fonts.

If you know much about lettering though, it's all about laying out an ames guide, ruling out lines, and creating word balloons with french curves. My art style doesn't express complete perfection, and I was looking for a quicker turn around for lettering. So I came up with an alternative approach: creating the balloons and text digitally, then printing them as non photo blue, and inking it by hand. This way you get a lot of precision, while still getting the uneven individuality of every letter by hand. Interestingly too, even though I'm going over a certain font, my own hand gestures make it in. The outcome is a blend of my own handwriting, a touch of varying line-weight, and slightly reminiscent of the original font.

The most important thing is the tool for inking the balloons and letters. I choose the Pentel Sign Pen SES15. The tip is pretty rad, it has a lot of give to it, but it's not uncontrollable like a brush pen can be. They are pretty awesome tools. The one trouble I have with them is that they don't seem to be waterproof. That leaves marker coloring and watercolors on top of inks to be slightly a messy situation.

Here is a comparison between my hand lettering, vs the digital fonts and vector balloons I made. Click on it to zoom in, and compare. I think it's not bad for my first attempt at this method. I also really dig the brush style letters, it feels very calligraphic. It's fitting for a story about a Shaolin monk.

This page is my digital lettering, colored in non-photo blue (Cyan 7%). I scaled the letters at 200% larger than the size it will be in the printed book. I printed it on bristol, then started to ink.

Here's what I came up with. I scanned it in, and placed it over my finished pages, and that's it!

I really like this outcome. If anything, I think the brushwork was a little thicker than I planned. Next time, I'll try printing the balloons out at 225% - 250%, thus making my signpen lines a touch smaller.

Have any of you tried out this method before? It saved me time, while giving me some nice unique letters and balloons. It really matched the book.