Archive for September, 2009
14 items.
The Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics…
Earlier this week, Rob Chandler of “Tuned Out Frequencies” invited me to be a regular co-host with him and Matt Stout of “Big Sandy Gilmore” on a new Podcast. Well, tonight was our first show. We’re going to try and make this a pretty regular thing. If you’re interested in listening to the show, here’s a direct link to Talkshoe:
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=64644&cmd=tc
The guys mostly wanted to talk to me about my experiences of going to the small amount of comic book conventions I’ve gone on so far. I’m by no means an expert of cons but now that I have attended of few of the biggers ones (Heroes Con twice, Pittsburgh Comic Con once, Baltimore Comic Con twice), I shared with them my experiences and how beneficial I truly believe cons have been for me.
Hopefully, I didn’t sound too much like a stuck up jerk!
The show should be available on iTunes pretty soon. Once it’s there, I’ll post a link here and add it to the site’s sidebar items.
-Chris
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As I mentioned on Friday, today’s strip is an ode to my father. And for all of those people out there that know my father (especially my friends), they know how truly accurate this strip is. 
My father is notorious for his sense of directions. When you’re a tour bus driver working the mean, hard streets of Washington DC, you BETTER know every single alley way there is. And even before that, my dad was a long time tractor trailer driver when we lived in Nevada.
And even though we kid him about his enthusiasm for providing directions for any trip longer than 45 minutes, his directions are ALWAYS, ALWAYS, A-L-W-A-Y-S more accurate than Yahoo Maps or Map Quest ever are.
But I swear… the man will spend an hour and half explaining to you the best way to shave 10 minutes off your drive time.
-Chris
-Chris
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Since I put my father in-law in the strip (Bob the Barber), I thought it was only fitting that I do the same for my own dad. I had wanted to do so for a VERY long time but hadn’t thought of a way to really incorporate him into the strip.
Until now.
And this isn’t really the TRUE introduction. On Monday, you all will REALLY be introduced to my dad.
I REALLY can’t wait until Monday’s strip. I hope you all will love it as much as I do!
-Chris
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During the Pittsburgh Comicon, I had a chance to have an extended conversation with Brad Guigar about possibly writing an article for Webcomics.com about my experiences hand-lettering Capes & Babes.
The more I thought about it, the more I was excited about that possibility. It’s been well over a hundred strips now since I decided to switch from digital lettering to a more traditional hand-lettered strip and to be quite honest, once I got over the resistance of the graphic designer in me who absolutely loves digital fonts, I have quite enjoyed hand-lettering the strip.
And as I told Brad, there have been several surprising things I’ve discovered along the way. One of those things that surprised him was the fact that hand-lettering has really sped up my work. That’s mainly due to the fact that I sketch in my word balloons whereas before, i was spending LOTS of time in Illustrator trying to get JUST the right balloon and never quite being 100% satisfied. With hand-lettering, that’s no longer a concern. And, quite frankly, I’m enjoying discovering my own unique style for balloons as well. That never would have happened in Illustrator.
I didn’t tell Brad this but I’ve also cut down tremendously on typos. That’s mainly due to the fact that I keep a dictionary handy as I letter the strip because it’s SOOOO much harder to edit the text by hand then it is digitally. But it’s also because my misspelling were quite often TYPOS as opposed to actual misspellings of a particular word.
In any case, these are some of the subjects I’m planning on addressing and writing about in the Webcomics.com article. When I have finished it and submitted it, I’ll let you know!
-Chris
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I was hoping to have my little Pittsburgh Comicon video file ready by today but I had to help my mom and dad with a bunch of household chores all Saturday and that through my self-imposed schedule all out of whack. But here are some things that still ring fresh in my head from Pittsburgh:
1) Sitting beside Joe Pecar all weekend long! That was pretty cool (and not nearly as intimidating as I first thought it would be).
2) Going out to dinner with Danielle Corsetto and some other friends the first night of the con. I ended up accidentally ditching some friends who had invited me to FRIDAY’S with them but I was screwed when I tried to call them back and my cell phone died. Note to all con goer’s – always make sure your cell phone is fully charged. Mine was the next day but it was too late by then, of course.
3) Having Gene Gonzales stop by Joe’s table to say “Hi” and then, as he was walking away, recognized Capes & Babes and remembered my name! How cool is that? Of course, I was too stupid to ask him to pause for a photograph. Duh!
4) Meeting and talking to Ken Kelley – the painter of the KISS – Destroyer album – at the Pittsburgh Comicon auction.
5) Giving Ken a copy of my book and then meeting him later in the day and having him tell me he liked the book – ESPECIALLY the Gene Simmons cartoon! (Marc interviwed Gene a while back – look for it in the archives).
6) Giving Brad a copy of the book and spending quite a bit of time talking to him. Actually, this should be a lot higher than just #6 but since I’m writing this blog post on the fly, that’s where it ended up (sorry, Brad).
7) Throwing mini-Tootsie Rolls at Vince during slow periods of the Con.
Selling more books so far than I have at any con so far. I think Pittsburgh beat heroes by a book or two, so that’s a challenge to you, Baltimore!Â
9) Dinner Saturday night at FRIDAY’S. I fully admit I crashed a party of some fantastic artists on Saturday night. Most of them were from New York and they were all kind enough to let me jopin their party and enjoy a couple of hours of great conversations about movies & comic books. Can’t get much better than that! Thanks guys! You know who you are! 
10) Getting a “Furies” baseball jersey. If you’re a fan of the movie “The Warriors”, then you know what I’m talking about. Now I just have to lose that extra ten pounds by Halloween so I can COMFORTABLY button the front of the jersey.Â
I’m sure there are more things I can list here but these were the things that stuck out the most to me as I was writing this blog. If anything more comes to me, I’ll add it to this list.
Hope you enjoy today’s cartoon.
-Chris
Hey everyone! Look who’s back! I hope you all enjoyed the last few days of “Babes” pin-ups I featured for this week. It was just a little something fun I wanted to do.
But now that the weekend is almost here, I’m going to get back to doing the regular strip now. You probably won’t see any more pin-ups for quite some time (Baltimore Comicon IS just around the corner though, so you never know…)
}:-)
I’m also going to have a MUCH bigger post this weekend about the Pittsburgh Comicon. I’m in the process of splicing my video together so you all can get an idea of what I saw this weekend…
Currently listening to Kieth Sweat’s “I want her” on Sky.fm – 80’s music on iTunes
-Chris
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Because, you know, if Superheroes really existed in this world, this would probably be one of the many STUPID questions TMZ would ask as they stalk Thundra.
Only, Thundra would probably do to them what MOST celebrities WANT to do to TMZ.
-Chris
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As promised, here’s another Pittsburgh Comicon Pin-up I did. This one is of Zatanna.
I REALLY love this one so it’s a little bit bitter sweet that nobody ended up buying it over the weekend. On one hand, I’m glad they didn’t but on the other hand, it’s disappointing because I really do think this is one of my best cartoony pin-ups.
Ah well… it will be available for sale at the Baltimore Comicon next month!
-Chris
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As the commentary above says, I had an ABSOLUTE BLAST at Pittsburgh Comicon!
But I’ve been on the road for almost six hours (thanks to an overly extended dinner in Breezewood, MD) so I’m signing off and heading to bed!
Nite all!
-Chris
That’s right… you read that bottom bar correct!
If you are planning on attending the Pittsburgh Comicon this weekend, stop by the Capes & Babes table. If you mention today’s strip ANYTIME during the Con (Friday, Saturday or Sunday), I will give you something for FREE!
Now, I ask you, what other webcomic artist out there will do the same thing?
(Well, probably a lot but you get the idea, right?)
-Chris
