Try to follow this if you can, because it gets a bit confusing. In March of this year I decided to do a 32 page comic in 4 months. Not really a small timeframe, but it was for me. Well I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve done it! I reached the desired 32 pages before the end of the 4 month deadline. And yet the comic is still not done. Confused? Let me explain.

                When I started the book in March I had no idea what I was going to do at all. My plan was to do the whole thing, the writing and drawing, in the four month time. So what ended up happening was that I drew pages which will not make the final cut into the book. This is something I often do. I have a stack of comics that were drawn for an issue but I later decided to leave out. Someday I will publish a whole issue of just rejected strips. For the most part I want to have the stories be longer. When I was younger I had a difficult time making longer stories. Now I find the stories are getting longer and longer. There just isn’t as much room for those shorter stories. I would rather have a book of 3 ten page stories then one long story and a bunch of one pagers.

                So I was working on the “main” story for Ugly People 2, and at the same time I was doing a bunch of one pagers. Well I do not think the one pagers will be in the final version. I have a few pages left to draw on two different strips, that are longer stories, and I think those 3 will be what is in the book.

                This is all just a long winded way of saying that I did do the required page count in time, but I failed to finish the comic on time. I think if I use this method for doing a comic again, where you have a set deadline, it will just be for the penciling and inking stage. Not the writing part. Also I will make sure I know exactly what will be in the finished version.

i'm enjoying doing these superhero water colors, even though they are taking up time i should be using finish my comic.

got twenty minutes? why not do a drawing of green lantern? i did.

i just wanted to drop a line and let everyone know that i only have 3 pages left to pencil and ink before the end of this month and then i'll have reached my 4 month goal! yeah!

                I’ve been doing quite a bit of work the last week. I’ve had a lot of free time. Here is a page that I finished today. I’m getting better at working with the brush and nibs. I used to use a brush years ago, but I don’t think I had the patience yet to really use it. It would take me an hour to do one panel, or I could use a pen and finish the whole page in that same hour. I just couldn’t sit there for the time it would take for me to finish the page with a brush. Now it is no big deal to sit at my desk for hours on end. In fact I bet I spend about 5 hours a day at my drawing desk, either drawing comics or just doodling away.

                Here is what I did today. This is the first page of what will be the last story in Ugly People number 2. Original I had thought that Jerkface would not be appearing in the issue. I’ve got so many characters sitting on the back burner that I want to get onto the page, and since I’ve already done so much with him, I thought it best he take a break for a bit. But it seems you just can’t keep a good man down!

                I inked this with a brush and a nip. I like the look of it so far, but I’m not as strong with controlling the brush as I’d like to be. Of course the only way to get better is to practice, practice, and practice!