2015

Point of personal impact

10 July 2015

Impact point has been waiting in the wings for a while and its time has come. At first glance it may seem like a morbidly pessimistic way to handle a bad situation, but one could argue perhaps that it is actually optimistic. A reminder that in thousands of years whatever it is will seem minuscule by comparison so why let it bother you so?

No actually that is equally bad. Never mind. The point is we all deal with stress in our own way. Or something.

I keep a small sketchbook that I write ideas in. If you do anything creative, you hear that a lot – keep a list, write it down. Believe me – do it. You will forget if you don’t. I can’t tell you how many times I open the book and see something I forgot I even wrote down. Not all are ready for use, but many, over time, will evolve into something interesting. Also the number of times I didn’t have the book, and by the time I got to it….idea was gone. Pity. Anyway – keep a book.

And the rocket’s red glare, the grills bursting in air.

2 July 2015

I was so hypnotized by the 69 Tints story line (and are we all not?) last week I nearly forgot the holiday this week. Time out for a summer day filled with explosives and outdoor eatin’.

One year a neighbor came over to me while mowing the lawn with a garbage bag. He said he worked sometimes cleaning out houses, and they had found some fireworks, and gave them to me ‘for the kids’. In the bag was a small collection of gunpowder laden cardboard of questionable legality, at least where I live. On the Fourth, after some debate, my wife and I decided that after our daughter (only one year old) went to bed, we would pick one to try and let my 3 year old son watch. I put a coffee can sized box in the alley next to our home, lit it, and went back to the driveway. Two seconds later a 30 foot column of fire was shooting into the air accompanied by ear splitting, shrieking howls. My wife and I looked at each other in alarm. My son watched wide eyed with a look of pure joy as if this was the best thing he had ever, and would ever, see in his life.

So yeah. Totally worth it.

It’s all in the spin, kid.

26 June 2015

Sometimes I reflect on the people you see credited in comics and graphic novels for doing all the lettering and wonder what kind of world produces someone full of self hatred and masochism. Really. If you feel you are ever getting too confident, letter for five minutes. Problem solved.

Or perhaps I just need to practice more.

One of my end of week morning routines is coffee and an hour noodling a comic to death with paste ups, white cover, and 0.000001 markers. It’s getting obsessive. You would think I would just clean it up in Photoshop and typeset it. Yep. You would think.

Next week: the crew wraps up the 69 Tints story and it fades into canon as we move on into new waters. Or something.

Eggsidious

26 March 2015

A short Easter intermission from the 69 Tints saga this week. Yes, Easter has returned to fill our hearts with dread and terror. And if you don’t find anything malevolent about a six foot lagomorph that hides eggs in your house, you haven’t thought about it nearly enough baby.

Again, hero of the common merman Chester bears the brunt of my subconscious holiday anxiety. Not sure how this one came off. When I showed my wife, who gets first look before posting, the reaction was along the lines of “OH MY GOD”. I’ll go glass half full and say that was a positive. I’ll get a better idea of what the kids thought when they come out from behind the sofa.

Valentines for that special someone

12 February 2015

Looooooooooooove…exciting and neeeeeeeeeeew. Or something.

Valentine’s Day is upon us, whether you like it or not. It may possibly be a more polarizing holiday than Christmas, evoking some intense emotions on all steps of the scale. I suspect even Eros approaches mid February with trepidation these days. But you can bet he doesn’t forget to bring home Psyche a card and box of candy, ’cause ain’t no immortal need that stress am I right?

Errrrrmmmmmmmuuhhhhhh

5 February 2015

No new comic this week. Unfortunately fate has seen to it that time was in short supply. So I drew this instead.

I believe that in anything a person pursues to really benefit from it you need to reach the point of The Ever Present Guilt. As in if you don’t keep at it or miss your schedule you feel the watchful judging eyes of the universe on you. So when I find myself in this situation, and it happens, this is pretty much the conversation in my head. Usually late at night, mind numbed by exhaustion, slumped over a blank piece of bristol, pencil in hand and drool on my chin.

Part of the time crunch is spending time at my kids school for their winter fair volunteering as a caricature artist. I did this last year and back again so am getting organized for 12 hours hunched over a board sniffing sharpies. Full disclosure: I don’t have much confidence in my caricature skillz. I went into this last year prepared to be run out by angry children with pitchforks and Frankenstein rakes screaming “SHAM!” But let me tell you, if you have never drawn for kids, you owe it to yourself to do it. Even one kid.

It’s an amazing reminder about why anyone spends time doing art in the first place. Not because they are easily impressed – because of the contagious sheer joy they have in watching someone draw…anything. Many of them get super jazzed and you can see in their faces that they want to do this too. Their excitement as they watch you work. Having a child look at you and yell to their friends, “HEY THIS GUY IS AN ARTIST!” is a real cure for any constant mild imposter syndrome.

Hearing a kid say, ‘This is so cool!’ makes you stop and remember for a moment: “You know what. This is cool.”

890 Caliber Boulle Special

30 January 2015

The bucket list of any cartoonist includes drawing a chimpanzee crazed with fear descending at an alarming 32 feet per second on some poor unsuspecting pedestrian. Maybe just me. No, I’m sure it’s every cartoonist.

I wonder how many creators find themselves as I do sometimes – penciling or inking a piece and it is as if you’re not even the one making it. I will sometimes find myself giggling as I work, not that I see myself as a comic genius but honestly as if I didn’t even have a hand in it, seeing it for the first time myself with no idea what it is going to be.

The gentleman receiving the face ape (© skroode 2015) is a friend who deserves better than a simian cabesa slam, but alas the fickle finger of fate has apparently singled him out.

Misadventure

22 January 2015

Adventure was just about my favorite Atari console game when I was a kid. I spent hours avoiding dragons, exploring mazes, and getting stuck in walls as some damned bat would fly off with the bridge as I was half way through. There is a metaphor for life in there somewhere. If only real life had a Grey Dot.

When my son gets frustrated with a video game in this day and age, I usually respond with “You have no idea how good you have it. When I was your age the game was to move the dot to get the dot. While not getting hit by the dot.”

Were I Winston, I’d not give that chalice up either.