The Challenge Has Been Issued!

I would like to offer a little challenge to everyone who follows this blog and might also be attending the NYC Comic-con (or if you happen to be in the area Oct. 11 - 14th). 

We will be posting posters that look like this around the area.

If you can find one that has NOT been defaced already, take a picture of yourself defacing it on face book or at after.comic@gmail.com and you will get a prize!!! (PRIZES ARE TBD. Feel free to make recommendations) Here are some examples:

PS
Don't get caught!

Stuff, and other things. (namely two additional thank you posts)

Hey, everyone. This is the finished I promised to post ages ago. I have been a bit busy lately, so this (posting a blog) was dropped on the back burner. I have a batch of posters for comic con that I will post soon as well. Yes, one of the privileges of following our blog is that you get to view some of our material before the others!

I have a few important "thank you" messages that were unfortunately omitted in Bry's last post. It was accidental, I assure you. I would like to thank Brett/Bert/Bort Wilshe, Alissa Dittamo, and Mr. Anthony Hansen for all of their help. Alissa has made a totally kick-ass logo for us! Anthony and Brett have generally been very supportive, and have also agreed to help us out with promoting ourselves at comic-con.

For your patience I feel you deserve more than what is included in this post thus far.

Here is a quick sketch for one of the posters and the image I might use as my bio-picture thing on the website.  Let us know if you have any thoughts on our work! Thanks again!

This last image is my possible bio pic. I think it is pretty accurate.

We Have a Webcomic!

Hey team, the website is up! I'm beyond souped! More souped than a soup-making chef even! Last night Katy and I met with a few helpful friends last night, and after a great deal of cropping, coding, swearing, and drinking we created http://www.after-comic.com.

Firstly, I want to point out that, if you wish to visit OUR comic, do not type in aftercomic.com. Our post-apocalyptic webcomic has a very important dash between "after" and "comic", namely "after-comic.com". In contrast, "aftercomiccom" is a site for cartoon porn. So, if you fancy our comic, then you should type www.after-comic.com into your URL.However, if animated pornography is more your angle, visit out site instead.

More importantly, Katy and I have put have put a lot of blood and tears into this project (Mostly Katy's blood. I'm in the tear department). However, the result of our efforts would have been a mess without the help, love, and support from our friends and family. And so, thank you: Dmitry Gimzelberg and Michael Shapiro for guiding us in how to make a proper website; Katie Terezakis for providing us with a great reference material and resources; Jessica Kizmann, who was responsible for creating the title design for our first chapter; Robert Bajor; Dan Scharch; Jessica O'Brien; Jim Cottage; Christine Cuiule; Matthew Vimislik; both our families, who have been nothing short of supportive throughout all of this business; and to all the random strangers who have taken an interest in our weird, little comic.

Go to http://www.after-comic.com! We're updating weekly!

In-for-mation

Another old notebook comic drawn during biochem

The actual webpage is...sort of, mostly, close to, in the proximity of being finished It is functional, but looks like a big old butt. While the layout is what I'd like it to be, I'm focusing this week on making it aesthetically pleasing and logically organized So, for now, let's call it 85%. Once it is 100%, I'm going to organize the experience into a brief summary that might be helpful to another prospective webcomic.  Until then, here is a very helpful blog I found that will probably be of more substance for the actual website-building experience: http://www.makingcomics.com.

Jason Smith, an illustrator and graphic artist, has a very useful series of posts pertaining specifically to webcomics found here: http://www.makingcomics.com/2011/11/07/so-you-wanna-publish-a-web-comic/. I do not know him at all personally, but his posts have been a useful reference when I'm get stressed to the point that mah brain stop havin useful thinks.

Katy made that useful post about her artistic process. I truly wish I could do the same, but I don't know if my writing process could even be called a "process". It usually involves a great deal of monitor-staring, then writing something down as soon as I can capture a proper scene into words. When writer's block starts to creep up on me, I try and circumvent it with whiskey. That's not something I feel comfortable with recommending...

Concerning my own illustrative process, one could likely learn what not to do. Honestly, look at the above image if you are in need of a visual reference; those yellow, yellow lines are there because I had a horrible scanner that with a great deal of electrical interference. I now have a relatively scanner. There should be an emphasis on "relatively", because Katy was incredulous at its lack of utility when she was forced to use it a few posts ago. Apparently my version of photoshop is also several paces short of useful to an artist...

As such, I'm going to stick to commenting on the story-making process in later posts; that's the area I feel comfortable executing and commenting on. I feel no shame in admitting that I have the illustrative ability of a sloth with both paws stuck in pickle jars.

In Progress

Hey, all. Thank you for continuing to follow us. I am producing some promotional material for comic-con this week. This is an in-progress sample of a crest for the military police (of our comic). I will post the finished product a little later this week.

Hi  prospective comic enthusiasts! 

Today's post is simply here to throw a few updates your way! Firstly, we're looking into printing posters and comic panels for sale at our comic con table (probably going to look into a local printing office, because online companies have proven to be effing expensive!) 

Next, and more importantly, our website is underway! I can't give you an exact date, but I'm confident it should be finalized within the next two weeks. In truth, it is not terribly hard to build a functional site for a webcomic. However, I'm a horse's ASS and have only recently discovered the ComicPress theme for Wordpress. This handy little theme has solved a number of issues, though created a few other small ones. Keep checking the blog, and in turn I'll do my best to keep you kindly folks informed.

process

Today I want to talk a little about my process (if you can really call it that).  I'm not  saying this is the way one should work. This is merely how I work.

It all starts off in one of my many sketchbooks (See image for example).

I have somewhere around 8 sketchbooks. They all have different bindings, different paper types, and different page sizes. This is important for me because I find that some days I draw much better in one kind of sketchbook than another. I don't know why that is. For example, yesterday I just could not work out a panel in my 10" x 12' book. So I grabbed my 7" x 10" recycled paper sketchbook (see image) and bam! The panel came together.

I begin with a general idea of the page layout. Then I sketch each panel out. My drawings tend to be very rough at this stage. Sometimes I will dedicated one page to a panel. Sometimes I will bang out a whole page on a tiny note-pad, and sometimes I will go through half of a sketchbook trying to get one action pose just right. There is not really a cohesive system for this. I will often have each panel for a page in a different book. I am in no way organized. But I can somehow remember where I drew each thing. My biggest problem is that sometimes I lose track of the sketchbook itself. It will typically appear right in front of my face 3 hours later and I am left to ponder how I could have missed it. (I do not recommend working this way. I hear organizational skills are a good thing to have).  The image below is a prime example of just how rough my pages can be. This a small note-pad.

I then scan everything into my computer at 72 dpi. I bring those images into a 300dpi Photoshop file and re-arrange each panel until I am satisfied with the layout. Sometimes this will match what I originally had in mind. Sometimes it becomes its own thing. 

I then create a finished drawing of the entire page. This is the point at which I will grab any photo reference that I might need. I have found that my work gets very stiff I start out with reference. I try to figure things out for myself first. If I really cannot figure it out, or I do not have knowledge about it, I look it up. For example, I do not have enough knowledge about cars to just pull a corvette out of my ass and throw it on paper. I would never try. I would draw a car-like thing as a place holder, and then pull reference and re-draw the car like thing as a corvette. I am fairly comfortable drawing things I am familiar with without reference. (Illustrators tend to have very strong feelings about use of photo reference. I feel stifled by it, so I try to avoid using it. I would rather try to logic it out or look around and draw from life. I do this frequently with hands. I will sketch a sketch of my own hand before I will look up hand images on google. That being said if you like photo reference, use it! Use whatever tools will maximize the quality of your work.)


To finish a page, I paint it digitally, throw in some texture, and drop in the dialogue and sound effects.  Here are two examples of a finished piece. PLEASE NOTE: These images are not from the comic. These are just two examples of my work.