mostly banal: March, 2013

Diary comics from March.

Two for No

So, I have a newish weekly webcomic with Alexander Danner called Two for No, a series of ultra short (usually just one page) stories and vignettes. Alexander scripts them, and I scribble them up in pictures.

I've never really worked with such tight scripts from someone else before and it's fun to focus on craft a little bit. It's very different than my usual, more intuitive process. It's nice to shake things up like that, and to be able to try different approaches to drawing each new strip. There is a bit of formal exploration here, as we use certain pre-determined panel/content structures. It's fun to try and stretch these layouts in different ways as well. I try and see how far i can stretch the templates and still keep the underlaying concept intact. Be sure to read  the "about" section at the site for details on our various constraints.

As far as the drawing goes, I am consciously pushing for a flatter, more abstracted page design in most of these. I want to push away from more traditional representational art, without losing the gist of Alexander's scripts. I've been playing with perspective and figuration a little bit. It's been nothing so radical yet, or nearly as abstract (or incomprehensible?) as my diary strip work as of late. I'm just getting warmed up, though ;)

It's been a lot of fun to draw these, and of course, Alexander is a fantastic writer. We just started our first multi-installment series this week, a four-pager called 'Crouton.' Check it out, and feel free to let us know what you think of these strips.

www.twoforno.net

Diary comics, February 2013.

These are my journal comics from February of this year.

Steam comic.

Hand comic.

Time lapse comic.

Lame book comic.

Cover comic.

Advice comic no. 1.

Advice comic no. 3.

Hair comic.

Love comic (for Rachelle).

Free association comic.

Inertia comic.

Equilibrium comic.

Fluff piece comic.

Nightmare comic.

Metacomic.

Non-canonical comic.

Gag comic.

TV comic.

Information comic.

Bike

Bikes are funny. There's a weird alchemy of human being and machine. An intimacy of involvement that's very unique among modes of transportation. They're a tool, a vehicle with all the mechanical complexity that entails. But they're a vehicle with a human motor. A biological, beating heart, if you will. There's a lot of romance in the combination. You become part of the machine as much as the machine is an extension of you.
That intimacy, that lack of remove inherent in most other machines, is key to the pleasure of riding. It's not just the sum of the parts, but what those parts can let us do. That's where there's poetry.

I made this comic as part of a photo-a-day challenge I'm participating in this month. The tire is off my kids bike, the drawings from my pocket sketchbook. I don't have a bicycle anymore. I wish I did.

30 Days of Comics: Days Twenty Three through Twenty Six

Four Day mega post, cuz I'm lazy.



Day 23. I don't actually care that much for talking in circles...



Day 24.



Day 25, which is a thing that actually happened.



Day 26. Yep.

Anyway. Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(All of these posted these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Twenty Two

Thirty Days of Comics, day twenty two. Did I ever have faith to begin with?

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Twenty One

I should have drawn panels on the ducks journal page in panel 2.

Day 21, only a week behind in posting these now!

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Twenty

Ten to go in two more days.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Nineteen

I got a little behind on posting these. I was away from a scanner for a while, so now I'm playing catch up. Here's day 19.

Around this time I started thinking of these strips terms of parts to a whole rather than individual statements. That is to say, my approach shifted from thinking of this as a daily challenge, to thinking of this as a project. I started to think about how each strip I drew this month would fit together with the others, and how they would play off of each other in the end.

Not that I'd been really successful at making individual statements with each strip previous, but at this point I sort of stopped caring.


Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Eighteen

On the seventeenth of this month Rosalie Lightning, the very young daughter of cartoonists Tom Hart and Leela Corman, passed away unexpectedly in her sleep. The shocking and heartbreaking news has passed through the comics community this weekend.

Tom and Leela have touched so many, not only through their work but through their commitment to the community through support and education of other cartoonists. Recently the family moved cross-country - from New York to Florida - to start a new cartooning school, The Sequential Art Workshop.

Personally: Tom was the very first person to contact me, with kind words of appreciation, at the inception of this website. To have an established cartoonist of Tom's stature (as well as a cartoonist whose work I already admired) contact me, unsolicited, with such words of support... well, it meant a lot to me.

My heart goes out to Tom and Leela at this unimaginably difficult time for them. No parent should have to go through what they're going through right now. Cartoonist Lauren Weinstein has set up an emergency memorial fund to help them with whatever they need in their time of grief. Please consider donating.

Today's comics were drawn by my own children, Sophie (6 years old) and Jamon (4).
I love them very much and I feel so lucky to have them both.


Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Seventeen

You ever have that feeling, you just know you kind of have things figured out?
What's that like?

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(Still posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Sixteen

Sixteen days in. Just over half way through.
I'm in one of those moods.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(And as always, posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Fifteen

Too many late nights.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Fourteen

Day fourteen. Almost half way.

This one is a riff off of days 12 & 13 and also a collaboration with my son.
I've done comics with Sophie before, but I think this is my first jam with Jamon. I think he did a great job!

Thirty Days of Comics info.
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(As always, posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Days Twelve and Thirteen

Three pages (stitched together here), drawn over two days.
The comic itself is pretty self explanatory.

Days twelve and thirteen, and I'm all caught up.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Eleven

Playing catchup this weekend. Here's day eleven.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Ten

Day ten. Work comic. An altered text story born out of boredom, desperation, and bored desperation. Culled from a photocopied handout at work during some type of training where they taught us how to press buttons or something.

I am truly sorry for what you are about to read.



Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Nine

Thirty days of comics, day nine.
Yes, it's kind of culturally biased and logocentric. I know. Deal with it.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Eight

Thirty days of comics, day eight.
I'd say the third panel is in tribute to Bil Keane, except for the fact that I drew it before I 'd heard of his passing. I'll still say it though.

RIP Billy Keen.

Thirty Days of Comics info.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)

30 Days of Comics: Day Seven

A comic about raking leaves. I drew the panels on my cell phone. With my finger.

Thirty Days of Comics info if you want it.
Also, follow 30 days on Twitter, #30dayscomics.

(As always, posting these at my main site too.)