Happy New Year!
Sneak peek 2013
First up is Midnite Matinee Comics #1. I've been working on this project off and on for the last couple of years and it's finally finished. The idea was to recreate the Saturday afternoon movie experience of yesterday. The book takes films from the public domain and rewrites them for satire in a photo funnies style. It begins with a super violent Rickey Rodent cartoon, a government propaganda film, "Hemp For Victory," and a chapter of a movie serial, "Bolt Uprite & The Crossdressers from Space." The feature presentation is "Island of Lost Gorillas," a bromantic comedy/action/horror/ musical adventure starring the comedy duo Wanker & Goombah as a pair of familiar looking lounge singers stranded on a mysterious LOST island with danger at every turn. I will be posting links for ordering and preview pages soon.
SHAM Comics #3 is nearing final edits and should go to press within a couple of weeks. This time out, it's an anthology issue featuring "Skunky McGee" the smelliest private eye ever. Several short horror and sci-fi tales are included, such as "The Girl of my Screams," "Hilda Hogthrottle's Haunted Honeymoon," and "The Planet of the Pooches." The issue also features the epic story of "Conad the Aryan Barbarian" as he goosesteps across the ancient world. Rounding out the issue are some new ads for old products, like the Gahoon, government surplus Body Bags, the Buck Wilde Bully-in-a-Minute Method and live animals through the mail. Watch the blog for more news on this one.
Finally, production is nearly complete on "Zombie Marge Comix & Stories." All the strips from the past year have been reformatted into a comic book with other new features like zombie-related ads, pin-ups, interviews and behind-the -scenes stuff. I will be posting more on this comic as it nears publication.
This looks like a pretty good year!
Episode 20
Episode 19
 |
FIRST BACK NEXT |
It’s been over a month since the last Zombie Marge comic went up, so I guess I owe her loyal readers an explanation. I’ve tried to stick to a bi-weekly schedule for the strip, and for the most part have managed that. But a month or so ago the arthritis in my shoulders, that I had learned to tolerate, moved suddenly and dramatically down into my right arm. This made drawing painful, if not impossible. But I worked on this episode in little bits and pieces when I could, while I sought some help. I’m on the mend, not quite back to normal, but having longer and longer periods of drawing time each day. I'm nearly back up to speed and should have the next one up within two weeks. I've missed posting. It's good to have this one finished at last.
How To Go To The Doctor-part 3
How To Go To The Doctor-part 2
How To Go To The Doctor–part 1
I'm completely fascinated by these bland filler stories they used to run in the backs of old comics. My take on this story is not too far off from the original; "Between You & Your Doctor" that appeared in Young Doctors #5, September 1963. Tune in again tomorrow for more words of wisdom from Mary and Dr. Futternutz.
Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
This was supposed to be a Zombie Marge weekend. I was all
prepared to go full steam into the next episode. But, when the inspiration to
write hits, I’ve learned to just get out of the way and go with it. So instead
of Marge, my time has been spent on my side project, SHAM Comics. I’ve posted
some here before. In a nutshell, I take old comics and rewrite them as cynical,
satirical, post-modern tales of angst and heartbreak. The fun never stops.
While I was researching pre-code romance comics for SHAM #2,
I came across an interesting sub-genre of medical comics. For a couple of
years in the early 60s, medical drama was all the rage. Ben Casey and Dr.
Killdare were on TV and General Hospital was a daytime hit. Charlton was one of the few comic companies to capitalize on this trend. They published a series of
titles depicting the lives of young doctors and nurses (all white) in the exciting world of modern medicine. However, as this was an outgrowth of their
romance comics, the books focused on the love lives of the main characters. The
results are highly entertaining. When the doctors are not busy giving
cigarettes to their patients, they are in some broom closet making out with the
nurses. The nurses are strong, independent types, except when they are mooning
over the doctors. There is also had a very high percentage of people bringing
guns into the hospital and patients trying to jump out high windows. As I said,
they are highly entertaining.
A bit more research revealed that these comics are in public
domain and therefore a prime target for the SHAM treatment. For the past few
months, I’ve been collecting these comics wherever I could find them. I’ve
amassed a nice little pile of them. That’s a few of them above. The Young
Doctors cover on the far right was the one that convinced me this was comic
gold. So SHAM Comics #4 will be the all-medical issue, titled “Calling DR.
SHAM.” In addition to Dr. Studley Sham, it will feature “Niki Nookie, Night
Nurse,” “Dr. Fingerman-Two-Fisted Proctologist” and “Dr. Lance Girth-Hardboiled
Plastic Surgeon.”
Episode 18
Good things come to those who wait. Or in this case another installment of Zombie Marge, this one with a bit of exposition. At last, a freakin' explanation as to why Marge seems a bit sharper than your average, run-of-the-mill zombie.
Hey, where's my Zombie Marge comic?
Tales from the Dealers Table!
We're back, safe & sound, inside the zombie-proof bunker, after a weekend at the Third Annual Cincinnati Comics Expo. And what a show it was! Andrew Satterfield, Matt Bredestege and their crack staff put together a great convention every year, while raising the bar each time. This year was no exception, with great events spread out over two days, plus Friday night's VIP events, if you want to get technical. The attendance was very good and our sales were strong. There's Daryll and myself, above, in the new booth, pushing Zombie Marge on an unsuspecting public. And, what do you know? She was a hit! That's Proofreadin' Dale Trush, below, making an impassioned sales pitch to a pink haired girl.
And I spotted some great t-shirts and some interesting costumes. "Hey, Mr. Scarecrow! That comic is upside down!"
Now, indulge me while I name drop for a minute. We got to see some of our comic pals, Craig Boldman and Dustin Carson of No Gods. We made some new friends, like Rodney Fyke of Peanut, Puddin' & Jelly, Todd Goodman and Danial Frazier, and Mike Norton of Battlepug. And we had a blast hanging with Jon Lennon and Leo Perez of Cheese Lord Comics from Chicago. Great creators, one and all!
And a big "Thank you!" to David Leighton, the official Zombie Marge photographer, for some inspired photo journalism.
Episode 17
FIRST BACK NEXT
This was a fun installment to work on, both the writing and
the art. The location offered so many funny tangents. I like to start the first panel with a large establishing shot. In this case, the color rendering looked so good, I erased all my line work. This current series of
strips begins to open up Marge’s back-story a bit and explain why she doesn’t quite act
like your typical mindless, shambling, inarticulate zombie. We will even touch
on her “mission” coming back to the land of the living.
And who’s this smart-mouth kid with the
zombie fixation? It’s none other than Skip Wingus! That’s cute little Skip
peddling his papers on the cover of Twelve-Way with Cheese at the left of this
column. He’s grown into a pasty, sullen, emo tween who listens to The Cure and
reads too much of The Walking Dead. And is he ever happy to make the acquaintance of a real zombie! But
how will Marge take to having an actual fan? Stop by in two weeks to see. As usual, to read all the strips, go to the archive in the right column.
SWAG!
We are just one short week away for the Cincinnati Comic Expo
and expectations are running high here in the bunker. Zombie Marge will be well
represented at the show. Table assignments just came out and we are very
prominently positioned in the first row, center to greet the fans as they come
through the door. Our new booth graphics will mirror the look of this blog with
Marge’s lovely rotting face. I will be in attendance from the Friday night VIP
reception, until closing time on Sunday. Joining me at various times during the
weekend will be cartoonist extraordinaire Daryll Collins and our own
Proofreadin’ Dale Trush, selling our usual array of goodies, Twelve-Way, Little
Olden Books and SHAM Comics.
We will also be premiering several brand, spankin’ new
Zombie Marge items this time. To tie into the blog, we have a mini-comic that
collects the first batch of strips in a great little package. Signed art prints
have been popular in the past and this time out we have a new Zombie Marge
poster, suitable for framing. Just by stopping by the booth and saying hello,
you can walk away with a cool little Zombie Marge pinback button for your
lapel. And pick up a trading card while you’re there, both are free.
See you at the show!
Episode 16
FIRST BACK NEXT
What's that you say? "Where's that new story you promised?" Well, here it is! It features surprise guest genius, Stephen Hawking, and tells of his historic meeting with Zombie Marge. It's set to run for the rest of the year, unless the world comes to an end as predicted by somebody, somewhere! Enjoy!Episode 15
Episode 14
Episode 13
Episode 12
FIRST BACK NEXT
Good ol’ Marge certainly deserves a night out, doesn't she? But has she made the best choice of movies? I admit to loving the film, but there’s a more practical reason for screening it for Marge and Grubworth. It seems the copyrights were never filed correctly on Night of the Living Dead, so that no one owns it anymore. Or rather, everyone owns it. It moved quickly into Public Domain, which is why you can find so many copies of it in all formats from multiple companies. In my case, it means I can use it without getting into any legal trouble.
The idea behind this series of strips was to run a tribute
to the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. That’s the last crew of the Satellite
of Love, Mike Nelson and his robot pals, in panel 2. Check out their current
movie riffing venture at Rifftrax.com.
Since these strips require so much less drawing than usual, I
will be posting them once a week through the month of August. A new story line
will start in September. Enjoy!
And now, a word from our sponsor…
Well, lookie here! It’s Marge’s old pal, Charlie Hustle, and
he’s selling something. What a surprise!
When I’m not slaving away over a hot drawing board working
on the Zombie Marge strip, you will find me tinkering with my other favorite
project, SHAM Comics. I’ve posted some here before. Briefly, I take public
domain Golden Age stories and advertising, scanned from old comic books, erase
the original text and rewrite them in ridiculous new ways. Because the original
printing was often so bad, they are pretty easy to touch up without making them
look worse. The trick is to write a story that fits the original illustrations
and tell a story that is both funny and coherent. Often I like to add a bit of
social commentary as well.
Dale Trush, who serves as the official proofreader for all
things Zombie Marge, brought this ad to me. He’s a fan of 70s comics and
pointed out several potentially hilarious ads, like OJ selling running shoes.
Thanks, Dale.
Episode 11
FIRST BACK NEXT
It's been an interesting week charting the progress of the strip. Hope you've had fun. And here is the final version with all the little details added. Marge puts Father Nozebest in his place (for now) and goes out for some entertainment. But her choices are rather limited. If I had to pick from those films, I'd choose the same one she did. Join us in two weeks for "Zombie Marge Goes To the Movies." Let's see if she can riff her way through Night of the Living Dead like a pro.Zombie Marge, Step-by-step (Day 6)
The last step is equally the most fun and the most work.
What time I save with the simple backgrounds, is spent rendering all the
figures. Above, I’ve applied flat colors to the characters. As I’m still
working in Adobe Illustrator, that means getting the pen tool and creating
paths around the areas, then choosing the color fill for that path. For smaller areas, I use the blob brush to outline the areas, which are then filled in.
Remember, the artwork is on a transparent layer on the
top, so I can see the color shapes underneath as I draw the path. With a
complicated drawing, it can be very time consuming and tedious, but the results
are very satisfying. The colors are sharp and vivid. The file is easily editable
and smaller in size than the same page rendered in Photoshop.
Most comic how-to books treat Photoshop as the only program for
coloring comics. As an experiment I colored an older story using Photoshop. It looked
good, though a bit airbrushed. But the process took more than twice the time to
complete it and the files are huge.
Now there are only a few details left to finish this strip.
I will add some light and shadow to make the figures look rounded. I'll
finish the brick wall in Photoshop and add it to the last panel and make
room for the title logo. That first panel is on a separate layer that can be
turned off. It will only be used in a later version when I rearrange the page
to fit a comic book format.
Tomorrow the finished strip will go up. If you’ve stuck with
me through all this, I hope you’ve enjoyed the posts. It has been fun writing
about my working method.
Zombie Marge, Step-by-step (Day 5)
When coloring the strip, I work from background to
foreground, each one getting a separate layer. By starting with the background,
I can set the color mood. Since Marge is hanging out in the basement of the old
church, I’ve been working in lots of blues and grays. The last panel of the
strip changes the location, so I move to warmer colors, with a little hint of
the same blue to tie it together. For now the orange-brown will hold the place
for a brick wall to be rendered later in Photoshop.
The flat gradient backgrounds are too clean for this strip,
so I add textures from an Illustrator library of spatters I’ve built. It adds
visual interest, but saves me the task of rendering complex background detail
in every frame. The grungy look suits the locals of the story and doesn’t
detract for the figures.
Tomorrow I will begin to color the figures.
Zombie Marge, Step-by-step (Day 4)
I break up the text into small groups and fit them around
the pictures. Many times that means rewriting bits of copy to make it fit better.
Space is always limited. No one gives long speeches here. I try to strike a
balance between the words and pictures, keeping in mind that this is a visual
medium. With the words, less is always better. Sometimes a bit of dialogue has
to go in and disrupt the art. In this case, I had to remove the severed head in
panel 3 for Father Nozebest’s impassioned plea for Marge to put on some
clothes.
Here’s some background on the type. Nate Piekos of
Blambot.com designed most of the fonts in the strip. He offers a wide range of
comic related fonts, including sound effects and titles. Many are free while
others are very reasonably priced. Check him out. And while you’re there, take
a look at Nate’s excellent webcomic, “Atland.” He been doing it for the last
several years and has over 300 pages available to read. It’s one of my favorites.
Since both Marge and Grubworth always talk within the same
panel, to avoid confusion as to who is speaking, I chose to give them
distinctly different lettering. The spooky font looks like Marge’s raspy voice might sound.
I render their word balloons differently too, so when two are pointing at her
head, the reader can tell who says what.
With the lettering all in place, tomorrow I can start
coloring the strip.
Zombie Marge, Step-by-step (Day 3)
It’s time to ink the drawings. I tape the blue pencil page
to the back of a 12 x18” sheet of Finch Fine 80 lb. cover and put it on the
light box. For speed, I ink the Marge strips with a series of Micron archival pens
and fill in the solid blacks with a Pentel brush pen.
This is the easiest part of the job. Inking only takes about
an hour to complete. Now, it’s on to the computer. I scan the page as line art
on a large format scanner, open it in Photoshop and do any clean up to the
lines. The Photoshop file is next placed in an Illustrator format for layout,
and work back and forth from Illustrator to Photoshop tinkering with the art
until I’m satisfied with the fit and all the elements are in the proper place.
I can change the size of individual panels if needed, move elements around or eliminate
details altogether. In this case, I may delete the cat in the last panel. He can
always come back in a later strip.
Tomorrow, it’s time to work on the lettering.
Zombie Marge, Step-by-step (Day 2)
With yesterday’s rough sketches and various notes in hand, today’s
job is to organize them into a coherent narrative. While working with the
drawings, I’m also writing more dialogue to make sense of the pictures. Now
it’s time to pencil the page.
Why blue pencil, you ask? It’s an old trick from way back in
the day when I would shoot my inked drawings on a stat camera that would make
the non-photographic blue-green lines disappear. Now that’s not necessary, but
old habits are hard to break.
I traced the roughs onto a pre-printed grid set-up just for
this strip. The panels are sized so that they can be cut apart later and
restacked into three rows for a standard comic book page. I’m thinking ahead
here to the Zombie Marge comic I plan to put out at the end of the year. But
for the blog, I like the two rows of panels that resemble Sunday comic strips.
I may pencil the page a couple of times to refine the
placement of elements, or I may just make notes to move things when I ink the
strip. The above version is the one I’m happy with, so now it’s time to get out
the pens.
Will I mess it all up tomorrow? Come back and see.
Zombie Marge, Step-by-step (Day 1)
Let’s do something different this time out, shall we? The
next episode of Marge’s adventure is scheduled to post a week from today. And
I’m drawing it as fast as I can. As I work this week, I’m going to do like my
friend Jerry Dowling does on his blog and post my progress daily. I’ll show the
development of the next strip step by step and write about my method of
creating it.
To those who will find this boring and self indulgent, read
another blog this week and check back in next Sunday for the completed episode.
To everyone else, here we go!
Episode 11 is to be the wrap-up for the exterminator story
and a transition to the next series of strips, called “Zombie Marge Goes to the
Movies.” The first thing I do in developing a gag is to go to the official
Zombie Marge notebook that I carry with me at all times. Here, I jot down
ideas, sketches and bits of dialogue that come to me as I do my button-down day job. In this case the germ of an idea was the sketch of Marge
looking at the Night of the Living Dead movie poster. That will be the last
panel punch line to the episode. From there I start sketching other scenes. I
have to tie up loose ends from the hot tub sequence and bridge to Marge’s night
out. For me, the story is not over until Father Nozebest gets his comeuppance
for calling in the exterminators. So in the first few panels, Marge gets to
unload on him. She may be a zombie, but it’s very hard to get the jump on her.
Father Nozebest finds he is hopelessly out matched and in for a tongue lashing.
Above are some of the quick sketches for this episode. Next,
I will get them organized and start writing the dialogue. Tune in tomorrow.
So, you don’t trust the internet, huh!
I hear you. You say you’d like to own all those great comics
listed along the left side of this page, but you just don’t want to send your hard-earned
money out into the cold nothingness of cyberspace. Well, if you find yourself
in the Newport, Kentucky area, you are in luck.
Arcadian Comics is the latest brick and mortar store to
stock up on the fine line of Zombie Marge publications. March right up to the
counter and proudly ask for them by name. Then hand your cold hard cash to a
real, flesh and blood human. It’s a great, friendly little store with a huge
selection of current comics, independents, graphic novels and a large selection
of kid’s comics.
Arcadian Comics is located on historic Monmouth Street, right
down the block for the infamous Brass Ass. Before you stop off for a cold one
with some of their fine exxxotic dancers, go buy some comics. Tell ‘em Zombie
Marge sent ya, honey!
Episode 8
FIRST BACK NEXT
Now that Zombie Marge has gotten that editorial off her chest, maybe we can get back to the story. If you remember, the ghostly Father Nozebest had looked in the yellow pages under "Z" and called in some professionals to handle his zombie infestation.Maybe he can get his money back.
Editorial
Had she given it a bit more thought, I’m sure she would have
mentioned that here at the blog, our thoughts go out to the unfortunate man who
was savagely attacked without provocation. We wish him a complete and speedy
recovery. Thank you for your time.
Episode 7
FIRST BACK NEXT
Okay, I admit it! Marge’s new spectral antagonists are influenced by my fondness for “The Ghostly Trio” from Casper The Friendly Ghost. Remember them? I always found those troublesome spirits so much more interesting than that goodie-goodie Casper. The edgy characters are always more fun. That’s why here at this blog, there are plenty of edges.Lost Cats, man!
Episode 6
FIRST BACK NEXT
At the edge of Tanglefoot Cemetery stands an ancient church, Our Lady of the Inaccurate Contraception. The decaying ruins are home to a trio of ghosts who perished there in a fire in 1898. Father Nozebest pursues a quiet afterlife of study and reflection, occasionally enlisting Deacon Diefendorfer to scare off the curious. On the other hand, the alter boy, Mookie, longs to meet new people from the outside world and welcomes Marge into the fold over all objections.At long last, Marge has found a suitable home, even if she has to share it with three "holy ghosts."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)