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cartooning books in our local library system and found several that were worth reading (though some were pretty outdated).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.