it's zack! empire

Well, it’s another Tuesday, so that means it time for me...

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:11:24 -0400

Well, it’s another Tuesday, so that means it time for me to put up some more old comics. This time it’s pages one and two of the story called, “Big Daddy Bacon”, who has gone on to become one of my regular characters. Original I thought that either Jerkface, or maybe Lloyd Rivers, would be my main character, but I think I’ve done the most work with Big Daddy Bacon, or BDB, as his friends call him. I’m not sure if I should be ashamed, or embarrassed by this, but the voice of an ego-driven, sexist, image obsessed asshole is the easiest character for me to write. It doesn’t hurt that he is so easy to draw.

I original came up with the idea for this story while driving to go pick up my daughter. That first idea was far from what it became though. I had the idea to do a story called, “Battling Bacon”, which had a more cartoonish version of a bacon themed character as a superhero. Some how it warped and changed into the version you’ll be reading over the next few months. I’m sure all the changes made sense at the time, but I don’t recall why I made them now.

If you include the Introduction page there are six stories in the first issue of Ugly People number one. Of the six, this one is my favorite. I still like this one a lot. It’s just the right combination of good art and good writing. This story was a real leap forward for me.

this is a panel from a page I did the other day. This one page...

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:42:25 -0400

this is a panel from a page I did the other day. This one page actually replaces a four or five page sequence that was supposed to be the end of this comic. I just wasn’t happy with the ending at all. After I publish this comic I might put up the alternate ending pages.

hello everyone. He is a drawing of Thor by Kirby. I’ve...

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:58:00 -0400

hello everyone. He is a drawing of Thor by Kirby. I’ve been feeling stressed out about my comic the last few days, so I printed off these pencils and inked them to try and relax. I have to say, it worked pretty well.

If your someone who basically does all the work on your own comics I recommend you try something like this. It can be really fun and educational.

the drawing on the bottom is the pencil scan I used for inking.

Lonely Jerk pages three and four! I think the punch line to this...

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:36:47 -0400

Lonely Jerk pages three and four! I think the punch line to this comic is funny, but it’s also pretty obvious to me now. I wasn’t trying to make a social comment about people’s obsession on looks, I’ve never had such an ambition, I just thought it made a funny comic.

Page four is one of the rare times in the last three years where I’ve broken my rule of having at least one foot on a page. Another cartoonist, from way back in the days of livejournal, told me he liked my style, but I tended to do the “show the character from the shoulders up” shot a lot in my comics. He made the comment that my pages would be more exciting if I threw in a full body shot now and then. He was right of course, and that one comment changed my whole style. Now I generally have full characters in at least half the panels on a page.

It’s funny to me that the reason there is no full body shot on page four is because I thought it would be too difficult to fit one into the last three panels. I knew I didn’t want it in the big first panel, because I wanted the focus to be on what Jerkface was saying. I just let it go and decided that the face shots were fine for the last three panels. I say that it’s funny because now this doesn’t seem difficult to have at least one of panels show the two characters sitting on chairs at that counter. I guess that shows I must be growing as an artist. I shot that two years ago seemed impossible now seems like it would be no big deal.

another one from my sketchbook. this times it’s Kamandi.

Mon, 13 May 2013 20:25:07 -0400

another one from my sketchbook. this times it’s Kamandi.

sketchbook drawing based off of Superman secret origin cover.

Fri, 10 May 2013 23:56:15 -0400

sketchbook drawing based off of Superman secret origin cover.

three panels from a page I did today. This comic is almost done....

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:30:02 -0400

three panels from a page I did today. This comic is almost done. it should be out sometime this month.

I feel somewhat bad for writing this, considering how much i...

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:05:23 -0400

I feel somewhat bad for writing this, considering how much i love silver age Marvel, but this book is not very good. Just overall in terms of story, and the art, it comes up laking. I was trying to figure out what this book seems to be missing and i think i know: there are no subplots. The gold standard for Marvel around this time would be Spider-Man, or the Fantastic Four, and the thing that makes them good is all the subplots going on. While an issue of either of those would advance the lifes of the characters of the book, an issue of Avengers focuces on the villian of the month, and how to defeat them. It’s the kind of superhero story i just don’t like.

There are some good things though, and i should mention those as well. The story of how the team actually comes together is good, and very imaginitive. It would be easy for the team to simply already be a team at the start of the issue, like X-Men, but Stan and Jack take the time to come up with a reason for the hero’s to join together. That was really cool.

The Jack Kirby issues are, of course, stunning. I love Jack’s version of all these characters, so seeing them all on one page is a treat. Issue four where Cap joins the team, and then they fight Namor, was really good artwise. There is also a few issues where Jack was inked by Chic Stone, and i think those two make a great pair. I can’t say i really care for Don Heck that much. I did notice that his style seems to change based on the inker. I think he is one of the artist, like Gene Colon, who needs an inker that understands how he draws to really make the art the best it can be. The issues inked by Wally Wood is a perfect example of this.

Another thing of note is that I’m not very familar with many of the Avengers villians. This collection here is basically all the Avenger comics i’ve ever read. It was intresting to read about villians that i don’t know everything about before i even read an issue. I am looking foward to more of that.

My final thoughts on the book is that it just isn’t as good as it should be. This is a book with almost all the A-listers in Marvel, at the time, so it should be freaking awesome, but somehow it’s boring and hard to get through. I’ve already decieded that i want to continue reading the Essential Avengers line, but it is mostly because i want to read more of the early Marvel storys, not because this book left me wanting more.

Well, here is the first two pages from a story called Lonely...

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:06:21 -0400

Well, here is the first two pages from a story called Lonely Jerk!, which is the first story to appear in Ugly People number one. This story serves as an introduction for the character Jerkface, who stars in three stories in this book. This was actually the third story I drew with the character, but I decided to place this story first, since it’s the only one where he is identified by name.

It’s pretty clear that I was under the spell of Peter Bagge. The character of Anna really looks like a Bagge design. Also the way that Jerkface appears in the first panel. Look at his arms, those are Bagge arms.

The Sweet Shop has made several appearances in my comics over the years. It is based on a real coffee shop I used to draw in, and later worked in.

Here is a sketch of Big Daddy Bacon I did. One of the...

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:04:59 -0400

Here is a sketch of Big Daddy Bacon I did. One of the idea’s I have for a upcoming comic is a story with him and Johnny Jawbreaker, so I did this drawing as a warm-up to see how I want the art to appear in the comic. I liked to get some of the black I used in Camp Trails back in there, along with using lines to establish texture. I also want to use more parallel lines that I actually measured out with my Ames guide.

Hey, everyone. I thought it might be a good idea to start...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:50:57 -0400

Hey, everyone. I thought it might be a good idea to start posting some of my older comics on my tumblr page, so why not start with issue one of my short lived series “Ugly People”. The basic story behind this comic is that i had done several short stories, some with reoccurring characters, and i thought it would be a good idea to put them all under one title. I really loved the idea of calling it Ugly People, since it did refer to how they looked, but it was also a double meaning about how they actually acted as human beings. Pretty clever, right?

I’m not very good at coming up with cover idea’s, so i was rather happy when i came up with this one. It’s pretty basic, just a group shot that is very popular in superhero comics. I did my best to try and capture the feel of the characters right off the bat. It’s kinda of funny that Lylod Rivers (the cyclops in the leather jacket) made it on the cover since he is only seen in two panels of the comic. He is a character i liked though, i really thought I’d be doing more with him. I still might, someday.

The design of the contents page is another one i liked, and came up with fairly easy, even though I often struggle with those kinds of things. The girl has one of the best asses I’ve ever drawn, but her head is wildy out of proration. I think the joke i was going for was lost on people as well. Here is someone with what many people would consider a great body, but all you really notice is her unibrow.

The first page, or the intro page as i often thought of them, was an idea I came up with based upon a suggestion from a friend. I wanted the first page to contain something that would really catch your attention, and she said I should just have something dirty and sexual on the first page. People were sure to pay attenition then, so I came up with the idea of having someone yelling out, “Boobs! Anal! Blowjobs!” I think it was rather clever. Some people pointed out that i misspelled the the word technic on this page, but that is how it appeared in the dictoinary i was using at the time. All the other spelling and grammer errors are my own fault.

listen to me ramble on about my You’re a Jerk comic

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:44:13 -0400

listen to me ramble on about my You’re a Jerk comic

Here are two panels from a very wordy page in Lonewolf. This...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:32:02 -0400

Here are two panels from a very wordy page in Lonewolf. This comic has a lot of conversation in it that just involves the simple back and forth of two people. I think for my next comic I might try and have three characters together, rather then just two. Over the last two years I’ve started to learn what kind of comics I like drawing, and where I would ultimately like to be as an artist. I don’t think I’d like the being pegged as “the guy who always (insert style cliché here)”, but I wouldn’t mind if something people said about my work is that I have a knack for writing realistic dialogue. Sometimes, I’ll read a comic and wonder if the writer has every talked to another person in their life. I see it happen a lot when a writer has to write a female character. I find myself wondering if they have ever seen, meet, or listened to a woman at any point ever.

I really like the way I laid out this panel. I’m trying to...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 23:11:02 -0400

I really like the way I laid out this panel. I’m trying to find more ways to change the panels around, and this one seemed to work out really well.

fantagraphics: arcaneimages: George Herriman Genius at work.

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 13:49:06 -0400

fantagraphics:

arcaneimages:

George Herriman

Genius at work.

more panels from Lonewolf. I really like the second one.

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:32:55 -0400

more panels from Lonewolf. I really like the second one.

here’s one more

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:49:46 -0400

here’s one more

I got a new scanner to go with my new laptop, so I tried...

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:26:52 -0400

I got a new scanner to go with my new laptop, so I tried scanning some stuff.

can you tell I like the silver age?

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:08:22 -0400

can you tell I like the silver age?

Mary Jane

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:58:37 -0400

Mary Jane