One of the many style tests I did to find the look for The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue. I spent a few years experimenting with different approaches, combining various analog and digital techniques to land on the look of the final graphic novel coming out in 2024.
You can watch me finish this experiment and hear some of the ideas behind these designs during this formerly Patreon-only live stream:
If you’ve been tuning into my live streams (Saturdays at 3pm ET!) you’ll have seen that I’m in the process of redrawing A Friendly Game, a Boulder and Fleet story I created during October 2016. The original version was made within the constraints of Inktober (or Creative Challenge Season as my buddy Rob Stenzinger calls it). In order to meet my goal of finishing a 24-page comic within 31 days, I threw out the penciling stage and inked over my thumbnails. It was an early experiment in finding what I think of as my “deadline style.” It became a four-year journey to finding a sweet spot between efficiency and quality.
A sample from the live stream, where we can chat about storytelling or why we need bifocals.
The comic came together fairly well considering the constraints. The story explored some of my strong feelings about bullying and navigating conflict, and I got to invent a fun little game kids could play with whatever they find outside:
And the art was serviceable, at least for a minicomic. But I wanted the art to show the same love I had for the story, so I decided to re-draw the book. And I’d revise the layouts so it could match the aspect ratio of Boulder and Fleet: Mining for Trouble.
And in digging through the old materials for this story, I came across several cover sketches I did after wrapping up the minicomic:
For the minicomic I went with no. 4:
But maybe I can go with one of the other designs for the remastered edition!
The Palace of Doom! The Roof of the World! The Pit of Chaos! The Amusement Part of Terror! These are the wild locations in my favorite 100-odd minutes of animation. The Revenge of Cobra mini-series is a huge influence on my upcoming book, The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue. The world-spanning MacGuffin chase, the alliance-building of the heroes, and the internal dysfunction of the villains is just perfect in this mini-series.
I’ll probably be creatively chasing the feeling this cartoon gave me for the rest of my life.
(well, not really versus, more of comparison from a taste perspective)
A lot of fun chatting happened during this recent live stream. I was ready for a quiet flatting session, but a lively group showed up to talk about Clip Studio Paint, Procreate, and youthful slang!
I live stream almost every Saturday at 3pm ET. Follow me on Twitch to be notified when the next stream starts, and we can hang out and talk about creativity.
I’m starting a series of special discussions with some friends, focusing on art that influenced The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue. In this first TPD Special I’m joined by Ben Hatke, author of the upcoming Things In the Basement, for an enthusiastic exploration of the Indiana Jones movies. We look at how they resonated with us as young people, how they influenced our work, and what we take away from them today.
Lots of story analysis and philosophy in this one!
If you prefer video, you can listen to the episode on YouTube below.
A wintery panel from my upcoming book, The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue. I thought having a chapter of the book take place in the arctic would make things easier on artist Jerzy and his color assistant, but I forgot about the woods the characters needed to hide in!
Get more behind the scenes info on the book via my Patreon, or subscribe to the newsletter!
Recently on the live stream I was joined by Gregg Schigiel, creator of the Zooperhero Universe hybrid book series. We talked about the modular storytelling approach Gregg uses for his books, the astonishingly low amount of FOMO we feel this convention season, and how comics just might not be great at everything.
I’m streaming live again this Saturday at 3pm ET! Follow me on Twitch to be notified when the stream is live.
I got away for the weekend to do some distraction-free drawing. I’m trying to engage with art in a more playful spirit, but that doesn’t always come easy for me.
