EMAW 10 PAGE 14

So, I erase all the pencils, and applied a few corrections. Then I cut the page in half, horizontally to fit on the scanner (the page is drawn at 11x14, the scanner can scan at close to 9x12). I scan each half at 600 dpi greyscale with the contrast turned all the way up. I can get pretty fine detail this way (like the driver's beard) and pretty much eliminate most any residual pencil. It also evens the blacks out, balancing the original piece's uneveness due to different applications and eraser (the nibbed lines stay pretty true in the original because of the amount of ink they lay down per mark, but the brush and the Pitt pen lose some depth when erasing).

Then I import the images into Photoshop and rotate them 90° so they are oriented properly. Next, I crop the images to remove any excess white edge and to get them as close to square as possible. Then I bump the dpi up to 1200 and convert them into bitmap files at 800 dpi with a 50% threshhold. Then I convert the images back to greyscale. This gets the files to printing size and pretty much nullifies any marks that aren't ink.




Later, I'll merge the two images into a single .psd (Photoshop Document) page, which will involve resizing them down to fit. Then I'll print it out and see if there are any digital corrections that need to be made (correcting for dust or lines crossing over the panel borders.

After that, I'll add the page to a printer spread and print it out for a dummy book. After checking the dummy book for problems, I'll get to the business of printing the full books.

EMAW 10 PAGE 14 PROGRESS 8

Inking is done. Now I just wait for everything to be dry so I can erase the pencils and do any onpage corrections:

EMAW 10 PAGE 14 PROGRESS 7

Taking a quick break away from the mind-numbing nibwork:



A: My brushes. All sable blends, from #2s to #12s. When I need a brush, I grab the one of the appropriate size furthest to the left. Once I've decided that I've used that brush enough (before it gets clogged with ink or when the next step requires a different tool (whichever comes first), I clean the brush in the kitchen sink (metal!) and put it back in the row on the far right. This way, I give the brushes a chance to dry out before using them again (can't ink with a watery brush).

B: Ink! I've got two 'jars' of ink going at the same time (when I'm smart). The open jar is actually the container for one of those grocery store-bought scented candles with the wax out. This one is running low, and I'll probably clean it out and then refill it with fresh ink. The jar covered in foil is actually a ceramic tea cup. This one is thickening up for use tomorrow. The foil keeps it from evaporating TOO fast, but it doesn't keep it from evaporating totally.

C: Water that I need to refresh. The water is for the Pro-White correction ink. It's actually a watercolor, but I'll call it as i use it. Deuce!

D: Excess bristol from that two-page spread I did last week. I use whatever excess board I have for wiping the excess ink off the brushes and twisting them into points.

E: Barks for shorts! Carl Barks duck pages. I usually have something on the dest (or near it) for inspiration. One of the things I'm stealing and modifying from Barks is the way he'd stagger panels. Instead of a perfect 8-panel grid (for his less adventurous page layouts), he pushes the top left panel a little wider. He then does the same with the right-hand panel on the second tier. And then he repeats for the next two. I like this idea a lot. It really helps guide the eye across each tier instead of confusing it into maybe slipping down.

F: The page in progress. One problem with the nib pen is the amount of ink it leaves on the page. There's a higher volume dropped on each mark than is normally left with the brush. It just sits there and takes a bit longer to dry.

G: My initial cover drawing for this issue. It helps me remember what everyone looks like and helps me not loose track of their clothes and excessories.

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The second #2 brush.



Normally I'm ok with whatever sable blends I pick up at the art store. There's rarely any true duds (I do check them before purchasing). Although my standards are pretty low. I mean, I'm buying cheap, store-brand blends, not Series 7s or anything. Still, I got this one particular lot of Utrecht #2s with the absolute sharpest points ever. These two or three brushes are absolutely perfect: sharp, great action... the works.

It's always a pleasure when I come upon one in my run of brushes. In fact, I'd rather use those than a pen — and I can use them for pen-fine lines. Of course, the more work I do, the more often I'll get those brushes. I should take a picture of the brushes to better explain this.

Anyway, the next step actually is the pen. There's no way I'm using a brush for Charles' beard, because the tight curls would ruin the shape of the brush. Also, there's some short, tight lines I need to do, and that wouldn't be the best use of brush.

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After the #4 brush:



That #4 was actually losing it's point, so I shied away from doing anything too interesting with it. The #2 I'm hitting the page with now is super sharp, so I'm going to try to do as much with it as possible.

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So, we did about a full day of Suave. Marcos did most of the actual work, but Kenny got the rest of his stuff down and we goofed off a bit. Some of that might make the cuts.

Then I was back here and back to comics work. Here's the first inking pass with a number 2:



Usually, what I like to do is get some ink down on every panel, starting with the upper right and then down the page like I'm reading it manga (because of the left-handedness). But now there's ink on the entire surface. Like when you try to activate the canvas in painting.

Since the panels are small, and the spotted blacks aren't overwhelming, I probably won't go above a number four brush on this page. But that is the next brush. Fill in those blacks and get some serious coverage down. Then I'll probably switch back down to another number 2, then the nib for tight details.

I haven't decided how I'm going to go about the backgrounds yet. Since there's not much room, they're only indicated with a few lines. I might go in with the Pitt pen or I might do it with the nib. Either way, I'd like to keep them light on the details.

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I'm a man of letters! Check it out, complete with typos:



I'm gonna finish my coffee and let my hair dry a bit before heading out into the bitter bitter. This might be the last of the big 2007 Suave sessions, and I want to get in that shit. Also, I want to give my hand a few hours rest before heading into the inks.

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One last shot before calling all knights:



Now for a little Lonar and his battle-horse, Thunderer... because sometimes even the King didn't try. Then it's Little Nemo in Futonland.

BIRTHDAYBIRTHDAY

So, this turned out to be a pretty good birthday. I got some big comics, watched some The Sweeney, I finished that page that's dogged me all week, and I've gotten deep into the next page. I don't think the blueline shows up in this picture, but I am actually slightly further along than it might look:



Even though I've loaded up on Urasawa, Beto, Matsumoto and Kirby (oh noes Sonny Sumo!) and am still pretty immersed in old-school Sienkeiwicz and Druillet, I decided to cover my drawing table with Carl Barks for inspiration. I'm severely Barks-deficient, but I wanted to get some of that Duck into my system. First of all, I had a sort of Phoney Bone/Scrooge McDuck/classic animation pantomime I wanted to get across. Second of all, I just wanted to get some master osmosis (even if SOME people don't think he deserves more than a brief mention when discussing the Masters of American Comics — I guess he was no Caniff...).

EMAW 10 PAGE 13

Happy Birthday to me! One year older and miser.

Page 13 took a bit of time because of all the perspective — the mind killer. And then I screwed it up a bit too! So, I'll have to fix some of that up. Pages 14 and 15 should go faster.



As a gift to myself, I went to the Jim Han;ey's 30%-off sale. THat's a hard deal to beat. The store was actually not nearly as crowded as I feared. It was more like a Wednesday than an inpenetratable mob. Picked up the third 4th World Omnibus, that Tekkon Kinkreet brick, Monster 11 and the third New Tales of Old Palomar. Now THAT'S a haul. Should keep me pretty occupied while I'm on my epic trip to Florida.

EMAW 10 PAGES 2-3B?

Just a look at the final drawing without the bad script:

EMAW 10 PAGE 2-3?

This is a quick approximation of what pages 2 & 3 will look like, but I'm thinking I might do something different with that text. It didn't do what I wanted it to do and looks more like a mess.

PROGRESS 5

It's quarter to 4, so one last progress update, including my heaviest use of ProWhite to date:

PROGRESS 4

Closer and closer...

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259 to go!




Ah, the Crazy Stevens. We hardly knew ye. One night of pencils, lettering and borders. One night of inks. 16 freakin' panels all up in your. It's certainly no worse than my worst pages before. That one panel is a little whacker than I'd like, but it just points to a deficiancy I've long had.

One of the things that facilitated this page was the pencil. An H with the tip flattened ahead of time. It gave me the hard and thick. An unbeatable combination. Or is that a very beatable combination? Damn you, metaphor!

Also helping was the ink looseness for kinetics. I'm particualrly fond of Steven's right shoulder (our left) in the far-right panel of the second tier. That was a sweet mark.

Inspirations have to go over to Osamu Tezuka and Matt Kindt for this. MW and Super Spy are the books in the mind right now, and I could see both their ghosts screaming speed and quality in my face. Half of one and 6 of the other right.

Of course, Matt Kindt is very much alive, but you know that dude's got his very own ghost already.

And, for the record, MW might be a minor Tezuka work, but I think it was really just a few hundred pages short of Ode to Kirihito. If that makes any sense? And it definitely felt less like I was being punished for reading it than the first volume of Buddha did (maybe that wasn't the best book to start with). My biggest problem was with the ending. Why on Earth did the cop think his plan would work? Was he reading the story?

And the first question I've got for Tezuka is, "What do you have against upwardly mobile young men in glasses?" The second is, "What's with the Catholicism?" The third is, "How do you rape someone into loving you?"

With MW in particular, I want to know how I can get that cop's hair. Man, Japan must've gone nuts when Brian May stepped on their shores.

In some strange way, that sort of reminds me of my second biggest problem with the book. Getting that balance of two people struggling over a worldwide conspiracy/threat is a tough thing to do. I'm not entirely sure even Hitchcock managed to do it. I'm thinking North By Northwest, here. The threat just never felt big enough for me. Even if the MW was just a macguffin, then the personal story never felt like the stakes were quite right. I liked Yuki and could identify with him, but I never felt worried about him like in that scene in Strangers on a Train when he's trying to reach through the sewer grate. And I had no idea what to make of Garai. It's hard to say just what he was trying to do, even though he repeats it constantly: Save Yuki's soul. But how?

Still, all the depravity and dog-drawings and female impersonation and deception and brief cosmic sex scenes and brilliant schemes laid out by Yuki and clear (if never transcendant) linework and murder murder murder keep the damn thing moving so fast that I didn't have any problems until the last act.

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I need that on a t-shirt: "WE'RE TOTALLY GONNA ROCK YOUR — dammit."

Catching up again! And nothing says catching up like a full-page spread. Boo-YA!

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Oh, Sweetie!




MY WIMMINZ!

EMAW 10 PAGE 6

EMAW 10 PAGE 5

16 panels! Super-density!




Man talk about some Mary Sue action. I show up TWICE on this page. Old Justin and New Justin. That's how we do.

Gran Patron is supposed to be the ultimate of Patrons. And Patron is like the ultimate of tequilas. The cheapest bottle I could find online was about $140. Five double shots is close to half a bottle. That's $70 dollars in shots at cost, before 100 years of inflation. Before bar markup. Now, I'm sure there are laws somewhere about doing shots of the stuff at all, it being a sipping tequila and all. But that's how the girls do.

In the backgrounds, there are other stories going on. In a bar, everyone is part of a different play. Also, there are ads for True Crime Stout and Estibrau, the beers of the future.

On paper, I was starting to worry that all the patterns and patrons were starting to obscure the compostions (such as they are), but I think they hold up ok here. Working this small and tight is good for strengthening the compostions. At least that's what I wish she'd said.

I shouldn't also point out that the whole point of this page was to do the bow-legged joke. It wasn't the point story-wise, but it was the grain of sand I rubbed in an oyster to make this pearl necklace.