0 Comments
Elbert is my favorite character aside from Herman. I actually got the idea for Elbert riding on a shuttle to work one day. It was everything I could do not to laugh and then capture his image.
I particularly like Herm's expression in this one. It makes me chuckle. Enjoy! Siblings are an important part of growing up. We fight with them, wish they would do exactly as we say, and later as adults we love them.
Siblings test the world through each other and Emily and Josh are no different. Who else would dare you to fly off the roof, put icky stuff in your mouth, and worse. But, it is all in good fun, at least in my strip. Emily and Josh resemble my kids, Kelsey & Tanner, but they didn't act like them. Or at least that's what I want to think. Arther was originally named "Bulls-Eye." Thus the target around his tail.
I'm not a big cat person, but I do like them. I especially like wrestling with them. I went to my veterinarian's office yesterday and one of the office cats walked straight over to me and began attacking me. I loved it! We had a cat that I called "Crazy Horse." He was a great friend. So Arther is Crazy Horse reincarnated. Enjoy! My warped sense of humor thinks seeing a dog drag its behind on the carpet is hilarious (except at my house.)
This is one of my favorite strips. If you look closely the text is still hand generated like in the old days. I still have the tool. It isn't as neat as computer type setting, but I like the feel of it. Tanner, this one is for you! Other cartoonists may have different ways of going about strip development, so keep that in mind as I offer my method.
I prepare a number of sketches of the characters with differing facial expressions. I also like to use tracing paper (or wax paper) to overlay on drawings to change expressions. Finally, I put the sketches in a panel approximately 13 1/2 by 4 3/8 inches. I try to consistently fit all my dailies into the same format. I do it large so when it is reduced after inking it looks sharper. I then ink the strip (at least until I am able to do it with my Wacom Tablet), scan it, and then add the type and logo. Enjoy! I've always been fascinated by hairless cats. Recently I spoke at a local high school and they had a hairless rat. So it was only natural to create my own in the strip. Enjoy and thanks for following the strip.
Anti-climatic, yes. But all super heroes are misunderstood at first. Electro-mutt is going to be one of my first 3-D sculptures. I'll post the photo when I finish it someday.
My son, Tanner, reminded me that part of the reason I started this blog was to share some of the behind-the-scenes of comic strip development.
So besides creating a persona for each character, the cartoonist must develop the character's appearance. The above sketches are different versions of Herman. Herman is based on my dog, April. The name Herman was my ex-wife's childhood pet's name. Any way, when doing a daily strip the character must be easy to draw and fun. The version of Herman I am using in the strip, though still changing a bit, is what I landed on. Enjoy! |