Burg Drachenstein!

Hello,

I’ve managed to get my Deadlines under control this week and take back the night. MW #4 is sent off and Prophet is on schedule (My Walrus sketchbook is taking longer than I planned hmmm) 

Here’s the MW #4 cover if you didn’t see it:

This issue is Snerk sized!– that means I added more pages but but it still costs $2.99.

Here’s a 2 page spread from it that I drew around Xmas. Floating islands. 

This is at the end of the book so I wanted to make sure everything fit. I ended up doing a lot of planning on big butcher paper. Here’s me trying to figure out how to draw the insides of that skull island castle:

The idea for it was like if Skelletor’s Snake Mountain Lair in He-Man was taken over by a gentleman who loved to garden. 

Here’s another butcher page roughed out in sharpie:

and the final–That rock with arms is a garden golem. & all the birds on the island are tied to ropes.

I feel like I’m just getting a good direction going after 4 issues–but I guess that’s also just how I work.

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In Prophet stuff, I just got this amazing cover by Fil Barlow for issue #37 (#33 will be out soon): I love that line of light in the sky. (and the hidden skull)

I’m so thrilled to be able to connect my work with artist whose work I’m so excited about. 

Fil’s Devinatart: 

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I’ve been going through a frustration with comics recently, and I never mean the medium just the scene can get to me. Trying to aim high and make ART in the middle of all this action figure bullshit can be rough.”snoot snoot” Here’s a Milo Manara comic called Untitled that I think illustrates it well, where he shows Fellini’s Casanova being interrupted by adult diaper commercials:

Or even:

Twitter is probably bad for me, I’m always trying to remind myself that it’s cool that people like what they like and rather than paying attention to whatever Xmen bullshit is going on I can aim my focus towards the parts of comics that excite me. Part of it is just that by working with Image or anything verging on a wider audience I’m in an end of the pool that I never identified with. But I’m here now and I’m lucky to be here so I might as well take what I like from it and try not to take what I don’t. cool? cool.

I found this Cornel West video really grounding, it helped me feel sane. I really like how he talks about not trying for wholeness and the part 11 minutes in where he says “when you have a romantic project, you’re so obsessed with time as a loss and time as a taker”– but how he sees “time as a gift and time as a giver” and gratitude that you’re able to do as much as you do. –Smart dude. Hearing that, helps me deal with things. 

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One thing I was thinking about recently is about how people seem to perceive the speed artists draw comics vs my own ideas of how they work. I saw someone commenting on a Nate “non player”Simpson thread awhile back saying something like “he’s so good I’d be willing to wait 2 months for each issue” –maybe it’s just my own putting people in boxes but I feel like there’s a couple basic types of cartoonists (obviously with many exceptions):

Like Nate or Rafael Grampa– are the kind of artists who you can expect maybeeee a book a year from. at best.

And then there’s the 3 books a year guys, I think I’m a 3 issues a year guy who fights to be a 6 issues a year guy. and I end up around like 4 or 5. Other guys like me would be my pal Farel,or maybe Frank Quitely.

and then slightly faster guys like Simon Roy or Stokoe. Who can do maybe more like 6 to 8 books a year.

and then the fast guys- Giannis, Moritat, Ross Campbell or Erik Larsen. who are the unicorns who can maintain a monthly. .

I think my point here is that none of this is about quality, but just knowing the speed that someone works best at. and it seems strange how many books run 12 issues a year when so few artists can match that. I think it’d be nice to see more books run in seasons and switch up artists less (of maybe figure out some scam like we’re pulling on Prophet) 

Annnyywayy I’ve been slowly reading Nausicca.

I read some Nausicca in the 80’s when it was first translated by Viz and I liked it but at the time it never clicked with me as well as the other manga I was reading. But reading it now I’m getting so much out of it–it’s teaching me stuff.

One thing I like is how his storytelling feels so unique to him, I’d want to say it’s like storyboards but it’s better than just that. A lot of comics feel like tv shows or movies when you read them but this feels like it’s own thing. It’s a comic.

It’s interesting to me what he chooses to show, like at the start of book 1 where Nausicca first casually lands. He skips showing her actually land:

and then later in that scene when she’s in a hurry to take off, he shows it with a lot more panels: “1, 2, 3” 

It’s a cool stylistic choice, you’d think with her being in a hurry he’d want to show it in less panels.Like this—-

Another cool thing is this scene where Princess Kushana cuts Nausicaa’s sword in two. I like how he drew it so you never get a clear look at Kushana’s sword. and how the sound effect cuts across Nausicaa’s face. “Kiiin”

Also, a trick he does in the writing that I like, is how he uses the dialog to emphasize how impressive or important something is. “something special about her” or “the finest swordsman”

it seems to help underline a character’s impact. There’s scenes where Nausicaa will do something cool that might not hit you so hard but then just how he shows the other characters flip out makes it seem so much more “she’s amazing!”

It’s like an argument for — showing and telling. 

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I wanted to put up some of the cool MW drawings by other artists I’ve seen. 

Emma Rios drawing Nura:

Emily Carroll drawing Nik and Sexica–

Mmmmmike mcghee drawing Nura & Nik:

Lin Visel Sex&Nik:

annnnd Brahm Revel drawing Nura

and here’s a Brandon Williams Dirty pair drawing he sent me for my B day:

and here’s an Asterix map:

 

later.