This Blog, This Monster

Neglected repository for comic book history, media techniques, and all things inky stories

Analog Art Process

Every phase is done independently, as if someone else was doing the other parts. When writing, I'm only a writer. My pencilling inner dialog is, "Does that hack writer even know what editing is?" Dave the inker berates Dave the penciller, Dave the letterer thinks the other Daves are pretentious jerks, while Dave the colorist wishes everyone planned better.

thematic image of my Ask Kodiak commission work

Commission for Ask Kodiak

Art, design, and concepts for an insurance industry marketing campaign for Ask Kodiak, a commercial insurance search engine founded by Michael Albert and Allan Egbert in 2015.

Static Inky Website

Wordpress always bothered me. Since launching in 2011, managing the Wordpress file system, themes, plugins, and MySQL database seemed like an increasingly overblown solution to host comics. My being particular about markup and styles only added more complexity. I built a static HTML site as a local guide, pasting HTML content into Wordpress fields. This occasionally caused conflicts with various extensions and updates. Wordpress also generated too much spam comments and emails.

Gaspar Saladino and his admirers at New York ComicCon 2014

ComicCon 2014

Got enlisted to Gaspar's Posse, hung out with Denis Kitchen, got free lettering help from Tom Orzechowski and Chris Eliopoulos, and sold a few Inky Stories while squatting a con table. Possibly my best convention since WonderCon 1999.

David Marshall, Andrew Farago, Shaenon Garrity, and Ken Gale working The History of Comics panel of Arisia 2011

Arisia 2011

For the third consecutive year (Arisia 2011, Arisia 2012), I've had honor and privige of being a panelist at Arisia, New England's premier scifi convention for fans and professionals.

example of my Silver Age comic book art emulation

Silver Age Color Emulation Technique

Without the dots, ink gain and absorbent newsprint, the colors are louder than intended. This was discovered during the economic and technological shift of the 1980s, when publishers actually printed 64 colors on nicer paper. That's when the industry went with full digital color, effectively ending the four color process era of comics.

photo of a color Lt. Blueberry page Jean Giraud

Color Like Jean Giraud

I'm coloring the new version of "Six-Year-Old Horse Thief". Out of all the elements of comics, coloring's been my weakest (those who've read my dialog might have a different opinion). This is my first attempt of addressing this issue with history and objective analysis. In order to move forward in any mission, you have to (a) be completely sick of the status quo and (b) have some ideal to compare your current output.

instructional image of my digital art processfor comics

Digital Art Process

The basic idea is (a) draw the art with Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter or similar tools and (b) make an Adobe Illustrator file for each page, containting the art and lettering on separate layers. Gather those files in a layout program like Adobe InDesign, which in turn is used to create PDFs for print or e-Comics.

thematic image of my 2013 art exhibit at Agencyport Software, Boston MA

Gallery @ Agencyport

Art exhibition space of Agencyport Software. As part of the historic Fort Point Channel creative community, it promotes the work of local artists with monthly exhibitions. For some reason, they decided to hang my work for a month! See for yourself at the opening reception: