Original Art Sundays (Wednesday) No. 98: Tranny Towers, Chapter 19

Before I present the work, a big mea culpa.
I know this is way late, but a moment, if you will.
Just under two weeks ago, my housemate informed me that she needed to move her ailing mother into the house, so I would need to find another place to live. She gave me a reasonable time, but what with turning cats over for adoption (sob), work picking up on my current job and with  new teaching jobs about to start, and with the mania of looking for a place (and looking for the money to move!), I've not had time to post art, let alone make any.
Until the situation settles, I will be posting previously unpublished inventory.
I will skip No. 100 in my numbering and come back to it. I still have a very specific piece in mind for that.
So while the dust is flying, please enjoy another episode of Tranny Towers.

 

This is one strip where I fear I may have gone too far. Full frontal pre-op TS nudity is more than some people can handle, even in cartoon critters. It's also more than I'm usually comfortable with. Many of us are very private people, and constantly juggle the need for self-expression with the desire for privacy.

Rick's thought balloon is a swipe from a Bode' Cheech Wizard strip, in which Cheech is attempting to escape from a horny nymphet, and thinks "I'll tell her I got to go throw up in the bushes, then I'll make a run for it."

But I thought the art show was a great vehicle for exploring different aspects of the characters.

Next: ?

A birthday card for Reed Waller

Today is the birthday of Omaha the Cat Dancer creator Reed Waller.
I've occasionally written here about working with Reed. To say Omaha was an inspiration for Tranny Towers is a bit of an understatement, though I like to think I put my own spin on the whole funny animal soap opera thing.
I have no idea how Reed is doing these days. I've not talked to him or corresponded, aside from reading the occasional post on the Yahoo Omaha boards, for more than six years now. To the best of my knowledge, he's well and his job is treating him decently.
We hope for the best.
New work on Omaha proceeds apace, appearing in the otherwise unappealing Sizzle magazine. Actually, the last issue of Sizzle I read, issue 50, had gone from painful to tedious (aside from the Omaha stuff, of course), so I guess that's an improvement. The next Omaha installment is currently scheduled for issue 51, due out in September.
While reading Bryan Talbot's superb funny-animal Sherlock Holmes Steampunk pastiche Grandville, I noticed a guest appearance by Omaha!

Here is the image in context on the page proper.

 Here's a short video trailer for Grandville.

I suspect that Reed would be honored to have one his pieces included in a Bryan Talbot book, and next to a Mucha at that!
I can't tell if Talbot redrew these or pasted them in. His Photoshop chops are evident throughout the book, but he certainly has the skill to do it either way.
I've been tinkering with posting this for a while now, and the occasion of Reed's birthday seems an appropriate time to do so.
The rest of you: check out Grandville. Either volume. They stand alone, but there is a continuity, so you're probably better off reading them in publication order.
Steampunk funny animal noir. No reason it should work, but it does. It's smart, exciting work. But then, what else would you expect from Bryan Talbot?
There are currently two books in the series, Grandville and Grandville Mon Amour, with a third, Grandville Bete Noir in the works. The publisher is Dark Horse.
Here's looking at you, Reed D. Waller! Happy birthday!
May the next year be kind to you!
(image at left: portrait of the protagonist from Grandville, Detective Inspector LeBrock).

Original Art Sundays (Wednesday) No. 97: Tranny Towers, Chapter 18

This post was delayed by a writing deadline that ate two days more than I expected, and the extra sleep required thereafter.
Here is Chapter 18! As always, click on the image for a larger version.

A couple things about this page:
First, it's necessary for plot development. The lead up to the big event, as it were.
Second, doing a dialogue heavy page and keeping it visually interesting is always a challenge.
And I didn't have a copy of Wally Wood's classic 22 Panels That Always Work on hand to swipe from!

Third, the strip is quite dated. While some households still have land lines, few of them have cords, which is what makes the gag work here.
All that said, there are things about this strip that work well for me. The dialogue taking up the center of the page while still having a panel flow and taking place in two distinct locations is a nice touch.
Next week: Surrealist Cowgirls, It Does This, page 8!

Original Art Sundays No. 96: Oddment: window light photography

Another blast from the past. But not too blasted out, we hope!
This photo was done using only window light.

 

I like the textures a lot. The subject's contemplative expression is in quizzical contrast to the brightness of the image, and the textures and folds of the fabric are fascinating. The scan is not completely faithful to the print, but holds most of the texture.

I scanned this in RGB, adjusted levels of each channel individually, then desaturated and faded the desaturation to get maximum range.

When I was teaching a liberal arts course in summer session (high school students going for college credit), I was extolling the virtues of negatives and the darkroom.
Yeah, compared to Photoshop, it's a big clunky mess, but there really is no experience comparable to making art- any art- by hand.
next week: back to Tranny Towers, as we gear up for Original Art Sundays no. 100 in four weeks!

Comic Book Antiquity No. 2: Powermowerman by Vaughn Bode'

The next post in my sporadic series of comic book antiquities.  No. 1 was the first work of Jeffrey Catherine Jones. I've been meaning to post this piece for a while now.
Here's the never reprinted Powermowerman by Vaughn Bode!!

Folks, this thing was a bear to color correct. The cheap paper had yellowed substantially. It's not stapled, it's glued. That's why the spread for pages 9 and 10 looks a bit off. The binding keeps it from opening properly. Also, the "cover" is plain newsprint. And I don't think the printing was so great when the book first came out. But I've tried to correct to the original colors, based solely on my experience of Vaughn's work.
This was one of those comic book giveaways intended as educational. Every year at the County Fair when I was a kid, for example, they had stacks of The True Story of Smokey Bear comics. I'm not sure what the distribution model for this book was, but it sure is hard to find now!  My guess is that lawnmower and agricultural equipment stores gave it away as a promotional device, which would explain the space for a store sticker on the back cover.
I count myself lucky to have a copy, and luckier still to be able to share it.
Here's what Vaughn said about it in The Vaughn Bode Index:
Folks, don't ever think I didn't try like a son-of-a-bitch to get rich. Alas, every time I went for bucks, my heart started wilting, and soon my cartoons forced me back on the path to harmony.
I was given just two weeks to complete the entire book! I had to write, draw and color key all of this while I was an art student at Syracuse University....
PMM made me feel a little sleezy, greenish.
The tentative quality of the work betrays the fact that's it's early in Vaughn's career. Many of the angles used are either straight-on or profile, with some remarkable exceptions, like the aerial shot of the bird in the 6th panel of page 6. The text hints at some of Vaughn's later poetry and wit, with lines like "oh, he really knows how to hurt a cad". And the colors are pure Bode'!
Also, I can't help wondering if the design of The Scamp's vehicle was an influence on the villain's vehicle design here:


I always liked that critter that Obi-Wan was riding in this bit. I just call it a puppy, although it's obviously not.
Not sure what I'll do next in this comic series, hence the term sporadic. I'm trying to reserve the series for obscure works unlikely to be reprinted, and the next one hasn't jumped out at me yet. But it will, and I will.
Until then: enjoy.

Original Art Sundays No. 95: A private Myth, p. 23, rough

Yeah, I know. Last week I was going on about working spontaneously, and here I am posting process.
Well, I want to make Book 1 of A Private Myth as good as I can, and after reviewing the work to date, and noting that I have about 1/3 of the pages to date that I want to rework, I think maybe I can save myself some grief if I do a more consistent job up front.
If that takes more time, that's what it takes.
Here's the rough layout for the next page.

And I'm not kidding when I say rough!
But it's an important step, one that helps the evolution of the page and the story, and reminds me to keep an eye on continuity issues.
I was chatting during breakfast last week with Andrew Dobson of So You're A Cartoonist? fame. Check out his work at the link, it's quite good.
He was adamant in his conviction that in order to build a readership, a Web comic artist needs to post 2 or 3 times weekly.
He has a point. And perhaps I should.
But I have the time I have, and I will tell my stories at my own pace. I mean really, unless it's paying work, what else can I do?
I only hope the story's good enough that people want to stick around for it.
Next week: an oddment.

Original Art Sundays No. 94: Surrealist Cowgirls, It Does This, p. 7

Back in the saddle again (me or the Cowgirls?).
Either way, here we go with the next page.

 

I'm a tad concerned that this page is too light, but other than that,  I'm pretty happy with it.

I really like the transparency I got on the sneeze sound effect.

The story is going some  dangerous places in the next few pages. But I have some basic rules for the Cowgirls: the story must always be at least a bit silly, it must have a fair amount of action, and it must always be a romance at its core.

I try not to use too many sound effects. I agree with Alan Moore- you can't see sound. Look how effective the jailbreak scene is Watchmen is - no words or sound effects visible in the panel, yet it's a very loud image.

I've been thinking a lot about the way I work lately. My friend Tyler Page plots out and thumbnails an entire issue of  his delightful book Nothing Better, then methodically begins rendering each page.

By contrast (and this is difficult to describe accurately), when I plot a comic story,  I see myself holding the finished book of my work. As I read it, I "see" each page. Sometimes the page changes because there were necessary changes to the previous page (or pages), but mostly I just try to write and draw the book as I see it in my mind.

I might have something to gain from applying a bit more structure a la Tyler, but I don't want to lose the spontaneity, especially in the Cowgirls material.

Hrm, as Rorschach might say.

Food for thought. I've studied, interpreted and taught storytelling techniques enough that I've internalized many of the basics, and although it's a bit of a conceit, I'd like to think I apply those basics as I go about working in my less conventional manner. But there's never harm in questioning your own methods, so long as you keep working!

Next, a new page of A Private Myth.

Note that we are six installments away from Original Art Sundays No. 100! I have a little something planned for that week, which, if I keep to the schedule, should fall right before I start teaching Comic History again this fall!

Blog list updates

I've added a few new blogs, including the great Stripper's Guide, to the blog list.
I've also removed some great ones that are defunct:
Gold Key Comics
Kingdom Kane
Comics Comics
are now gone.
I hope their creator is still active, as they were exceptional blogs.
Just for fun, here's a classic image from one of my favorite Gold Key books!

Original Art Sundays No. 93: oddment: Tranny Towers, p. 17

Back in the saddle again!
A recent teaching gig successfully completed, on deadline for four articles due at the end of this month, and a new Surrealist Cowgirls page is on the board!
Let's celebrate with the next chapter of Tranny Towers.

Happy with the layout and the plot advancement in this one. There's a plot thread starting here that resolves near the end of the run, in about 20 episodes or so.
Had to go over a couple of the lines in Photoshop. This one is from the old Xerox book, not the original art, and there was some fading.
The issue of keeping visual interest in a dialogue- heavy page is a central concern of both this and the next chapter. I came up with different resolutions for each. I'm also having a bit more fun with the mastheads here.
Next: Surrealist Cowgirls, p. 7.

One for Jacque Nodell

I regularly and eagerly  read my friend Jaque Nodell's Sequential Crush blog, linked at left. Her knowledge of comics history is often masked by her enthusiasm for her subject!
Yesterday, she posted some of the romance work of her grandfather, the late Mart Nodell, best known as the creator of the original Green Lantern. Her post included this charming photo of Jaque with her grandparents.

 

As a favor to her, I've taken it on myself to do a quick color correction on the image, give it a little more life.

I'm reasonably pleased with the results, and hope Jacque is too!

 

There you go, Jacque. Enjoy!

The previously promised post on Oh Goodie! will be up within 24, as they say.

Jeffrey Catherine Jones: a Bode' swipe and the First Work

A backlog of stuff I want to post will come up this week and next.
First on the agenda, here's the Vaughn Bode' piece on Jeffrey Jones' work that I promsied when i was writing on her life just after her passing.

 

Next, a surprise.

I was going through a stack of Larry Ivie's great Monsters and Heroes magazine from 1967- 69 and found Jeffrey's first published work!

It's from Issue no. 2, dated 1967. 

The notes on the editorial page read as follows: "The first guest creator we thought was intriguing enough to present was Jeff Jones, whose first professional story leads off this issue. We asked him to do a tale we could save fro this, our Official Dragon Issue- and are pleased to learn that, on the basis of it, Jeff has been given similar assignments for other publications, such as Creepy, Eerie, Ace Pocketbooks, and, at last word, an upcoming series of his own in King Comics. We certainly hope that our future guest artists will be as successful, and we will try our utmost to select those whose work might lead to equal possibilities. Adding to the historic significance of Dragon Slayer is the fact that his lovely wife, "Weezie", wrote the script. We hope you enjoy it."

The editorial page also has a small photo of the couple, which I did not scan for this posting. If there's interest, I will.

Now here's the story!

As always, click the images for a larger version.

 

Next: a more detailed look at Seamus Burke's OH GOODIE! collection.

Original Art Sundays No. 92: oddment: Gnidrolog pastels

Back in the saddle with Original Art Sundays! Starting the rotation afresh rather than entering the quagmire of rescheduling.
My apologies to the faithful.
In raking my studio this week, I found a reproduction of a commission I did in the 1990s. The band Gnidrolog asked me to do a poster for a series of festival appearances they had planned as part of the tour for their comeback album, GNOSIS (scroll down a bit at the link for an album review).
That poster is presented here.

 

The original, and the poster itself, were 11" x 17", and it sold fairly well. The media  are pastel and Doc Martin's dyes, with a bit of Winsor & Newton colored ink here and there.

What works: the sultry sprite in the tree juggling the band name, the face of the founding member in the tree trunk.

What doesn't work: the placement of the band members! No way a group could march in that tight a formation with any grace, at least not prog-rock musicians in the throes of performance!

Ah well. I was mostly happy, the client was happy, and seeing it again has renewed my interest in pastels.

Next: a Tranny Towers page.

Daddy's Day

More than a bit behind on posting, due to an increased work load of late. My apologies to the faithful! The Comments contest will be extended accordingly.
Today is Father's Day. My half-sister noted on Facebook that she has few photos of our Dad, so I will be scanning the ones I have.
Like many people, my relationship with my Father is complicated. But I was lucky to get to know him. Children of divorce have stuff to work out.
Rather than descend into the maudlin, I'll just post a few things.
First, here's one of my favorite parts of HEAD,  brilliantly staged song by Harry Nillson.



While I'm not a huge fan of post-Gabriel Genesis, I do rather like the first three albums. Here's a Daddy song about a Scots war being lost by a father breaking his word.



To show what fatherhood is at its best, here's John Lennon's classic. Bear in mind that popular opinion is divided on the question of how good a father Lennon really was, because of the years Julian spent wanting to know him better.

And bringing it back to comics, we can bypass the abandonment issues of Superman and Batman and go right to the chase. The relationship of Ted and Jack Knight in Starman is arguably the best father/son relationship in comics, certainly the best in superhero books. It implies the inherited mantle that fathers aspire to in so many cases, and works as a model for the child coming to terms with the parent, each seeing the other for who they truly are.

 

I haven't forgotten about my self-imposed Original Art obligations! More soon!

Happy Father's Day. May we all get to know one another better..