Posts Tagged ‘Brad Guigar’
8 items.
I was going to initially title this strip “Tugging on Superman’s Cape?”. In any case, today’s comic is the last in-depth thing I will say about www.webcomics.com and the new subscription model as everything I’ve wanted to say has been said in various blogs or forums.
Here’s what I WILL say about today’s strip…
I thought long and hard about doing this strip once this idea came to me. I wavered back and forth between “Should I do? Should I not do it?”. Ultimately, I decided to do this because one of the reasons I started Capes & Babes was because I was tired of people at my former job telling what I COULDN’T do. Capes & Babes was going to be an artistic expression and sometimes, artists need to take chances, or risks.
I also decided to post it because, quite frankly, I think it’s a humorous take on all the negative stuff that has gone on this week. I don’t think it’s particularly all that mean spirited. Hopefully, if you are in the camp of FOR the subscription model, you will still get a snicker out of it. If you have, then that’s one of the best compliments you can pay to an editorial cartoonist… to be able to laugh at his cartoon even if you completely disagree with it. My hope is that Brad doesn’t judge this too harshly and that he can still find some humor poked his way (even though I;m guessing it might have been a bit of a trying week for him).
I just mentioned on the Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics podcast Matt Stout and I just recorded that ultimately, we’re all responsible for our OWN web sites so it falls to us what we want to do or not do with it. We wouldn’t like someone e-mailing us and telling us they hate our re-designed site and demanding we put the old design up simply because that’s what THEY want. Therefore, we can’t expect Brad and the other Half Pixel guys to do the same – no matter how passionate we feel about it.
So, my final advice is to let this thing go. Time will be the ultimate test whether this was a good move, hasty move, smart move or whatever other kind of move you want to call it.
But, if you want to be hypocritical like a certain werewolf, then go ahead. That’s your right as well too.
PS: For savvy readers, yes you read correctly. Roy does, indeed, belong to the G.R.O.W.L. – local 227.
-Chris
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Today is my wife’s birthday. The next day will be Capes & Babes’ “official” birthday (even though a strip won’t appear until Friday).
Last week, I mentioned this story on a couple of podcasts that I either co-host or were a guest of but in case you haven’t yet subscribed to Lightbox – Illuminating Webcomics (mine), TGT web comics or The Villain’s Corner, I will tell the story again.
For many years, I was a long time convention attendee to SPX and the Baltimore Comic Con. Every fall when both conventions neared, I would always get very excited about attending each con and possibly meeting or discovering new artists. Both conventions always seemed to spark a big creative boost in myself as well. And at the end of each con, my wife would comment how enthusuatic I seemed to be.
But around 2005 and 2006, something started to change. And my wife was the first to notice.
Instead of coming home excited and re-energized by meeting so many fantastic artists, I started coming home more upset with myself that I wasn’t doing what THEY were doing. At some point, I quit being a “fan” and realized what I really wanted to do was to be BEHIND a convention table instead of in front of one. Maybe it was the fact that my high school baseball coaching career had come to an end and I finally realized I had the time it took to dedicate to my art. I’m not sure, but the Baltimore Con of 2007 changed everything.
It was at that con that I finally got over my “star gazing” and started asking some really tough questions (at least for me) at people behind various tables in artist alley. Although I was a pretty accomplished artists already – and I even had a long running weekly web comic strip at Community MX, I knew something was missing and I needed to find out what that was. I didn’t want to come home from THIS con pissed off and angry at myself for letting more time lapse and wasting whatever “talent” I thought I had. In sports terms, it was time for me to get off the bench and see if I could really play in this game called webcomics.
Two people who were extremely instrumental during that con was Brad Guigar and an artist I had never really heard of before – which was amazing since I had been to every Baltimore Comic Con from the very beginning and yet, I never remembered seeing her. Or her large, green cactus.
I don’t know why I chose to approach Danielle Corsetto and ask her the questions I did but I just happened to catch her on a slow period the last day of the Con and she was EXTREMELY gracious at answering all of my questions of how she started, where she started and how could I do the same. She probably gets tired of hearing me re-tell this story but that day really meant a lot to me in ways I can’t fully communicate. There was a lot of “transitional” stuff going on with me professionally and artistically at that time and receiving her and Brad’s advice really encouraged me to FINALLY get off the bench and go play! So both of them have a very special place in my heart for really kicking me in the butt and telling me to get my ass in gear!
So, later that night, as I came home from the best Baltimore Con I had ever been to as a fan, I sat down and created Roy the werewolf. Soon after that, I suddenly had 12 Capes & Babes strips fully completed. A few weeks later, I was ready to launch the strip.
In honor of all of the super support my wife gave me, I wanted to launch Capes & Babes on her birthday. But I also knew I wanted to at least try a Monday, Wednesday & Friday schedule and her birthday fell on a Sunday. So, I launched the next day – making the “official” Capes & Babes birthday November 12th.
As much as I have said Brad and Danielle had a large supporting role in encouraging me to start Capes & Babes, no one had more influence, encouragement, patience (and you need a lot when it comes to dealing with me), advice and just plane flat out support than my wife did. She’s Joey for a reason, after all!
So, for your birthday, babe, thank you so much for Capes & Babes.
I love you so much.
Happy birthday.
-Chris
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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If you look VERY closely, you might notice a very EVIL person somewhere in the very last panel of today’s strip. I threw that in at the last minute as it just seemed to be an absolutely perfect pose for that little airplane window. So if you’re a fan of Evil Inc., pass the word on to Brad.
Of course, I’ll see him this weekend at Pittsburgh Comicon and plan to mention it to him then but more the merrier, right?Â
Also, many of you know that I do an additional weekly webcomic called “CMX Suite” located at www.communitymx.com. The strip appears every Tuesday and yesterday’s strip featured Bob Dylan as the voice of a new GPS system. Here’s the caricature I did of Bob:
And here’s the strip:
http://www.communitymx.com/flicks/09082009.cfm
Currently listening to “The Best of Bob Denver”…
-Chris
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Whew! It’s Sunday night at 12:30am in the morning. I just finished the final touches on Monday’s strip (the first panel shading took way longer than I thought) and I’m posting it now.
On Friday night, I completely sketched, inked and lettered today and Wednesday’s strips and I’m so glad I did because Katsucon 15 tied up my entire weekend. Here are some highlights from the con:
- Since I wasn’t able to get a table for this year’s Katsucon, I got to experience the entire con with my daughter
- Met Brad and the Halfpixel crew Saturday morning
- Got to talk to Brad for quite a while before the “buying crowd” really began to form
- Got to participate in Super Art Fight. If you’ve never heard of Super Art Fight, check them out here:Super Art Fight!. I was pulled from the audience and did a very quick cartoon of the Grinch dog, Max, wearing a Matrix outfit and saying “Screw the bags, Grinch!”.
- My daughter got an official Katsucon t-shirt for my participating in Art Fight.
- Finally got to meet my real good Twitter friend, Onezumi!
- Handed out a bunch of my Capes & Babes postcards
- Saturday night, I met up with Dave, Kris and Brad and a few other Halfpixel fans and ate WAY too much ice cream at Cold Stone ice cream
- Afterwards, a bunch of the Halfpixel fans (sans Dave, Kris and Brad) ate some really great Chines food in Crystal City and had an even better night of discussing a wide range of topics.
And that was just Saturday alone!
Sunday was mostly filled with going to a couple of sessions on web comics and walking the dealer room and spending way too much money. But it was a fantastic time and I took some small snippets of video throughout the day today and will post them some time soon. I also took a bunch of photos on Saturday and will post those as well.
REMINDER:
I will be in Richmond, Virginia this Sunday (February 22). Click the banner at the top of my left sidebar for more information.
And if you are an artist interested in web comics, a bunch of local web comic artists are meeting up Tuesday night at Ballston Common Mall in Arlington, Virginia at 8:00pm. All are welcomed and we usually meet (and stay) in the food court area. Hope to see you there.
-Chris
As Christmas fast approaches this week, I wanted to take a moment and thank a few people who have been very inspirational to me – and this strip – during the past year. So, if you will indulge me for a few moments, here is my list:
Michael Lohmar
Michael helped me a great deal with my current Capes & Babes design. Together, we were able to cobble a workable 3-column layout based on the first version of the ComicPress template. This is well before the latest updates to ComicPress that includes several different layouts. We did this all our selves – and, really, truth be told, Michael did MOST of the really hard work so I am very thankful for his help.
Tony Moller
Tony work with me at my full-time job. And he has helped me a great deal understanding WordPress. He also hosts my site on his server so my thanks for that can not be stated enough. And he also helps me whenever I have any kind of compuetr or IT work that needs to be done. Thank you so much Tony.
Brad Guigar
Even before Capes & Babes came to fruition, Brad had already given me a lot of advice concerning my weekly web comic strip, “CMX Suite” that I do for Community MX. But since starting Capes & Babes, Brad has been very helpful in posting various strip links on his home page and being very supportive of what I’m doing with Capes & Babes. That’s a pretty significant thing considering how busy he is with his own comics, the Web Comics Weekly gig and his full-time newspaper job. Being a ex-newspaper graphic design grunt myself, I especially know how difficult that can be. So, thanks once again, Brad.
Danielle Corsetto
I have told this story many times to other creators privately… two years ago, at Baltimore Comic Con 2007, Danielle was kind enough to invite a complete stranger behind her desk to ask her a bunch of questions about her strip, her success and, basically, a bunch of other web comic-related questions. In the end, after being so kind to him, she asked to see some of his stuff and after the guy showed her what he did, she proceeded to kick the guy in the rear and chastise him for not having the guts to get a table and join in on the party known as “web comics” because he was certainly good enough. For whatever reason, that small little event helped kick start the motivation this artist needed to finally quit watching the game on the sidelines. So, Danielle, thanks for that kick in the butt.
Topher Davila, Lee Cherolis and Joe Combs (C4 Cartoonists Group)
Thanks guys for, basically, just being there and offering a great support group for a fellow cartoonist and convention-goer. Our Talkshoe chats are really great and they always either energize me or RE-energize me. So I thank you for that and look forward to the next time we can all see each other at the same convention – maybe Baltimore Comic Con 2009, perhaps?
Rosscott, Inc. and Chris Impink
Thanks for welcoming me into the Washington DC webcartoonists group and sharing with me all of the comic and convention going experiences you guys have learned over the years. Much appreciated.
Judi, Dani and Tyler
There’s really no way this list of thanks and appreciation would ever be complete if I didn’t include the three most important people in my life and the three that are REALLY responsible for me trying to make Capes & Babes the best strip it can be.
For Judi, thanks for putting up with my wanting to show you the latest strip I just completed – no matter what time that might actually be.
To Dani, thanks for being such a great little artist in your own right, girl. The world is full of possibilities for you and hope those possibilities just keep growing and growing.
To Tyler, even though autism is a maddening, perplexing and mesmerizing puzzle, I hope that whatever is going on in your brain fills you with the same kind of wonderment I have whenever I look into your eyes – or when you look into mine.
And to everyone else who has discovered this strip in the last year, I hope my crazy sense of humor fills you with a little bit of joy and that you appreciate the wacky world that’s in my head. Otherwise, I would have to start taking some SERIOUS medication! I hope that you will continue to enjoy this strip and to let others know about the crazy antics of Marc, Joey, Roy, Al the Alien, Veronica, the valley girl vampire and all the other wild characters I have so far introduced during the first year of this strip.
Even though it’s not the New Year yet, I hope the holidays (and the New Year) bring you nothing but joy.
Sincerely,
Chris Flick
Hopefully, somewhere in Philly, Brad Guigar is relaxing from the “ordeal” known as San Diego Comic Con, has fired up his computer, clicked on his computer, started up Firefox, scrolled down to his web comic bookmark list, found “Capes & Babes” and got a tremendous chuckle out of today’s pun.
Brad, you’re still the “King of puns” but it was still a lot of fun coming up with the idea for today’s strip. On a side note, I actually came up with the idea of “Annette Tome” and “Tori Telling” almost at the very start of the whole “Heroes Con” story arc. I even wrote it down on my big wipe board next to my drawing table just so I wouldn’t forget about it.
-Chris
Boy, lots to say today. First kids, here’s the important reason why you should always build up a buffer of strips if you want to do this cartooning thing “professionally”: Monday evening, while playing my normal game of volleyball at the gym, I dislocated my left pinky. Fortunately, I draw with my right hand so if I had dislocated any finger on my right hand, I would have been royally screwed. Now, even though I’m out of commission from playing volleyball or baseball for a few weeks, I can still draw.
Second, for all of you Philly people out there that might take a bit offense to today’s strip, please bare in mind that I live 20 minutes outside of “the murder capital of the world” known as Washington DC, so it’s only poking a little bit of inter-city rivalry/fun at Philly. It’s all supposed to be in good natured fun. And if Brad Guigar himself thinks today’s strip was funny, well hey… maybe you can too! Don’t shoot the messenger and all that, you know? 
And lastly… man-o-man, what a friggin’ all star game! I got home from my own baseball game tonight thinking that I got home just in time to see who might have won the MVP. That was at 11:00pm. Little did I know that I actually got home in enough time to see the REAL game! It was actually kind of refreshing to see “secondary” all-stars make such a huge contribution to the game! Yeah, I’m disappointed that the National League lost yet again but secretly, I was so hoping for a 16th inning – just to see what kind of craziness would have happened. I tell you, unless the expand the all-star rosters to include more pitchers, AND if they keep this silly rule of World Series home field advantage, one of these days you will see a position player have to come in a pitch an inning or two. THAT will be GREAT!
Anyway, hope you all get a big kick out of today’s strip!
I’m going to bed!
-Chris
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