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...).