Denial & Error 101

This sketchbook page is a few months old, but I felt like posting these clouds after receiving a letter from a friend with a similar design printed on the inside of the envelope. She apologized for sending such “girly” stationery, but it turns out that I’m fascinated with this sort of symbolism. I keep an encyclopedia of “Tibetan Symbols and Motifs” near my drawing station, and occasionally I’ll turn to a page and attempt to work out some of the designs in my sketchbook.

Adventures of Junior

Words by Diane McCarthy, Art by Rob Kartholl

One of my twitter friends told me that she had some ideas for a comic strip, and I told her I was having trouble coming up with ideas for my comics class. So like peanut butter and chocolate coming together, this cartoon was born. I used pens, brushes, and markers to get the different blacks here, and I don’t like how the words are coming out sort of grey, but that is why I’m taking a comics class. If I already knew how to do everything, I would probably have a way fancier blog.

Talking ‘bout Eggs.. Ink, pro-white, paper

My Intro to Comics Writing class at the Old Town School of Folk Music is putting together a little zine for the upcoming Chicago Zine Fest, so I put together this PSA. I was inspired by a Sarah Becan print I saw at Challengers Comics, where she illustrated the instructions for cooking a perfect poached egg. I won’t link to the Sarah Becan comic here, because maybe you’ll be inspired to trek over to Challengers and check it out for yourself, where you might even buy a copy! Also because Sarah’s work is about a million times more incredible than mine and I don’t want to look completely like the amateur that I still am. Another fifty or hundred drawings and I’ll probably start to get the hang of this, but for starters I’m okay with this one.

From Amazing Spider-Man #665, by Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman.

I walked away from comics, and superhero comics in particular, for a long time. There were bills to be paid and other things to do, and frankly the mainstream stuff just got kinda bad there for a while. The “indie” crowd has consistently won me over with more amazing stuff than I’ll get into here, but it’s moments like this one, from Amazing Spider-Man, that have shown me that superhero comics are worth paying attention to again. There is some great writing going on, and of course the artwork is just as incredible as it’s ever been. I choked up when I got to this page. The human side of being superhuman is something that’s been done before, but when handled like this, well, I might have cried a little. Read the whole issue if you can find it, and if you can’t find it, strike up a conversation with your local comics retailer. Tell them what kind of comics you enjoy, what it is in particular that you’re looking for. There’s certainly something out there right now that they can steer you to.

I LOVE YOU BUT I’VE CHOSEN COMICS after Simon & Kirby

Ink, Pro-White, Paper

I produced this drawing for the weekly Challengers Assemble! blog. Mostly I used a “pocket” brush for this drawing. It is a good brush for sketching, but I promised myself I’d get a real inking brush once I completed a decent drawing. Looks like I get to buy a new brush. Aw yeah! to justifying new art supplies.

Tomb of the Cybermen. Charcoal, newsprint. I worked on this drawing last autumn, while watching this Patrick Troughton classic. I picked a sequence from the middle of the series and tried to figure out how to demonstrate the action in a single page. All told this page took about two furious hours to complete.

I was working on a comic strip this weekend, but I wasn’t quite happy with it so I’ve decided to work on it a bit longer. As a distraction, I ended up going through my old folders and finding my student artwork, mostly to convince myself that I actually have improved somewhat over the past twenty years. This image is the first cartoon I submitted to my college newspaper, and it might be my best cartoon from that era. It’s probably the best one that still remains, anyway. In order that I at least post something this weekend, I’ve decided to upload it here.

Humor in a Jugular Vein.. this Issue of Mad Comics #2 will be featured in the first of several “True Stories” comic strips that I’m working out.. Stay tuned..

First Spider-Man drawing, age 39 1/2.. Ink, newsprint.. Originally submitted to Challengers Assemble!