Bringing In The Outside World A Bit

All my characters are indoor cats, but occasionally I let them look out the window and comment on things outside the home.  My own cats don't fuss much over the outdoor strays (we have a feeding station set up next to the side door) but the neighbor across the street says his cat gets very territorial when he sees another cat strolling down the driveway.

 

So for a few strips I have one of the little guys glaring out the window at a feral, who's eventually taunting the cat in the window to the point of flicking pieces of dry cat food up at him with an irritating 'nyah nyah'.

 

Things potentially heat up when a possum strolls by and wants the food bowl, but to the disgust of the watching cat, things peter out and no vengeance is taken.  Such is life.

Incorporating Dr. Who References

For the longest time I wanted to do a sort of Dr. Who reference with the two 'mad scientist' cats who sit in the boxes and come up with adventures.  But I'd been coming up blank on it.

Finally the creativity hit though.  I've got the smarter one seizing a tall box he can get into (no room for the other one in it) and he's got his sonic screwdriver (a pencil) and climbs aboard.  The other cat grins and says it's bigger on the outside than the inside, which doesn't sit well with the other cat.

His fellow cat wants in too, so brings a plunger and says he killed a Dalek. Nope, not good enough.

He brings stereo headphones claiming he fought a Cyberman do the death. Nope.

He brings a potato claiming to have beaten a Sontaran. Nope.

Finally brings an onion with those little hairy things on the bottom and says he has the heart of an Oud.  Eww No.

It's two strips long so far, I want to do up at least two more strips. We'll see where inspiration takes it.

The Upcoming Kenosha Cartoon Festival

I was super happy to hear that they've got one, and had it marked on my calendar for Sept. 17 to 19, but looking over the speaker list, it's not a full convention or anything, mostly they have six cartoonists coming who are giving talks throughout the day and signing autographs.  No other panels happening.  The cartoonists range from comic book artists to those who do political cartoons. They're all syndicated too.  You can't get into syndication anymore. 

 

Now I'm sort of waffling whether or not I should actually go.   It's over an hour drive each way and I'd have to time it for the right cartoonist I want to hear.

http://kenoshacartoonfest.blogspot.com/

Changing Focus Lately

Wow, looking back through the past dozen or so strips I've come up with, the original focus of the strip seems to be shifting. It was ALL about Marcus at first. Then I introduced the little guys who were out of the 'camera angle'. Then they came into view, then started having adventures of their own. 

 

Marcus has sort of shifted out of the picture quiet a bit, and the little cats have achieved a sort of dominance here. 

 

I'd like to get back to having more of an even playing field between the characters so sat down today and did a strip just with him in it, doing his Walter Mitty thing.  So with luck I can get this all evened out again with which characters are being featured.

The Complete Guide To Self Publishing Comics - new book out

I picked this up at Barnes and Noble the other day, it came out just a week or two ago and is really REALLY worth getting. Not only does it cover anything you'd need to do a graphic novel, they walk you through ALL the Photoshop stuff for coloring and putting in word balloons and text. 

The book is worth every penny. It's $24.99

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/228826/the-complete-guide-to-self-publishing-comics-by-comfort-love-and-adam-withers/

You can flip through several pages of the book on the website, and check what's in the table of contents.

Two Books I Think I Need

Thanks to issue 1454 of Comic Shop News that I picked up today on Free Comic Book Day at the local comic store, I think it's a very good idea to get two specific books that are coming out soon.

 

I've looked through all the graphic novel/comic/artist cartooning books in our local library system and found several that were worth reading (though some were pretty outdated). I've purchased a few of them myself, especially Drawing Words And Writing Pictures.  However these two new ones that are being released soon are looking really good.

 

The Complete Guide To Self Publishing Comics, due out from Watson Guptill is being released in April 2015 (next month)

Dearth of Ideas For So Long! Back to the Siamese.

Argh!  After going great guns with ideas, then came the writers block.  A big one.  However I think I'm overcoming it again (though I've never had one stay THIS LONG before!). 

 

We heard one of the cats doing a hairball downstairs this morning. I went down later to find it and clean it up but couldn't locate where it was so I figured it was just a bit of froth or such on the concrete floor. However, when I went into the 'man cave' to make sure it hadn't happened on the chair there I did see one of the cat brushes set on the table next to the chair and a nice tightly done 'wad' of Siamese fur about the size of a small egg.  Kira has been shedding, this was probably brushings from two or three days. However seeing it laying there looked really odd for some reason.

 

My Siamese in the comic strip hasn't had 'shedding' issues, but seeing that round lump got me to thinking.  I just finished two strips of sketch layouts on it - with the Siamese getting fed up with normal grooming and just swiping all the fur off and rolling it into a ball with her paws before presenting it "glowing, magical" to one of the other cats. 

 

After some speculation the others see if it will grant wishes, which of course it can, it's a cartoon after all and she IS a ninja of sorts.  Anyway, the two strips, 5 and 4 panels, seem to be working out ok and I'm going to see if I have another few strips I can work off this in regards to other uses for the 'felted' ball of fur. 

Books I Need, With An Eye Towards Publication

Thanks to the current issue of Comic Shop News that I picked up at the comic store today, I can see that there's two new books being released soon that I pretty much consider a 'must read'.  I've already gone through most of the graphic novel making/cartooning/professional comic books in the art section of our city's library selection.  And yes I've purchased several books already - especially the one called Drawing Words And Writing Pictures.  But these two coming out soon look like something I do need to get.

 

The Complete Guide To Self Publishing Comics

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Self-Publishing-Comics-Webcomics/dp/0804137803/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430634877&sr=1-1&keywords=complete+guide+to+self+publishing+comics

It's due out May 19, 2015, the authors are Comfort Love and Adam Withers, it's 240 pages, the price is listed as $24.99 in the newsletter, but only $18.62 on Amazon's listing.  I can pre-order it or wait till it comes out.

 

The other is Sequential Arts Workshop Guide To Professional Comic Strips

http://www.amazon.com/Sequential-Artists-Workshop-Creating-Professional/dp/1934460893/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430635272&sr=1-1&keywords=sequential+arts+workshop+guide+to+professional+comic+strips

Due out June 9, 2015, by Tom Hart, for $11 on Amazon, $12.95 through the bookstores.  The trouble is, it's only 96 pages long.....

 

Still, both look like they're something that I could make good use of.  There's very little aimed at artists who want to get their work published.  Most of the books run more along the lines of how to draw, how to do the layouts and panels, etc. 

Accumulating 'Good Stuff'

With self publishing the costs are pretty 'fixed'.  Not only is there the paper cost, there's the photocopy cost for double sided. The cheapest way to go is black and white. 

 

When I had the first two booklets done (they're apparently called Chapbooks in the trade) the guy at the counter told me it was best for me to buy a ream of card stock for the cover and let them use that rather than pay for each individual piece of card stock - so that was one way to save.

 

Another was for me to do the saddle stapling myself, which I could do since we had one of those deep designed staplers.  And I had to do all the 'add the cover' and folding too.  It took a while to assemble and finalize 200 booklets. 

 

On the plus side, I scored a full case of card stock last summer - stuff that was being discarded by Kinkos due to discontinued colors and discontinued use.  The colors were all pale shades, willow green, several different creams and a pale yellow that wasn't obnoxious.  By 'discontinued use' I mean reams that were formerly used for resumes.  Everyone submits resumes online now, not in paper format anymore. 

 

So basically I'm set for card stock now for the booklets, all of which will be printed up locally.  Getting the artwork redone for official book publication, through a publisher, THAT will take time and a lot of effort.  But it's what I'm aspiring towards.  Till then, I guess I keep self publishing.

Another Box Adventure

This time it's a Pirate Ship.  Still using the two 'mad scientist' cats, one finds the box, another brings the empty litter box from the closet to add in a 'poop deck'.  That's as far as I've gone so far, still trying to figure out which direction to take things.  They usually harangue the other cats who come around when they're doing their box adventures.  This will be no exception but I need to keep it light and quirky.  Hmm.