Money Doe$n't $tink (page 2)
Fitz on Nov. 26, 2007
As you might have noticed, the page got here a liiittle later than usual. Oh well, didn't hear anyone complain ;) Anyway, try as I might, I didn't manage to get it done by Sunday. Worked all last week, all weekend, dawn till latenight hours, no leisure time, no tv… Managed to stay up till 2am on Sunday night, but it still took me 6 hours today to finish the page. Talk about devoted, huh? What can I say, I love my comic :) And now that the new page is here - let's drink and rejoice ;)
I wanted this one to be more artsy. Don't worry, Mick & Ryan will be back - but meanwhile, I wanted to try out a bunch of ideas and tricks. I like the smoke effects, especially in the panel to the left. But my favorites are, ex aequo, the hand and the New Beetle. And I love it how, while googling various images, I just kept stumbling upon things letting me make use of the red-green palette - like the NYC parking ticket (since that's what it is, btw). And the shoes. Actually, the shoes have multiple meanings here and refer to the conversation and the whole story on several levels. LOL that sounded odd… But it's true! This page is just STUFFED with all kinds of allusions and minutiae - some of which were inteded, some I only discovered when re-reading the story. Enjoy fishing them out, if you can be bothered :)
In other news: Mick and Ryan made a cameo on AntComics' 50th page:
http://www.drunkduck.com/Antcomics/index.php?p=312959
The page has plenty of cameos, so you'll have to scroll down to find them among the many familiar faces. But I have to say, Amy's done an AMAZING job there. Seriously, she drew them better than I ever could. So yeah, if I'm ever lazy, I could ask her to draw the comic for me and be sure it's gonna rock :)
But it doesn't look like l will have time to be lazy. Not anytime, soon at least.
This week is writing week. I seriously need to sit down and get to work on the book. If it keeps inching on forward like so far, I won't be done with it by the end of this decade. And there are so many others waiting to be written! Also, I'll be co-working on a group project called Heroes Unite:
http://www.drunkduck.com/Heroes_Unite/
It's a DD superhero crossover, started and written by Nepath, the author of Energize, with several artists drawing several pages each. I've been accepted as a colorist for the second issue of Heroes Unite, for which I'll be coloring pages drawn by my friend Abt Nihil. And just today, Nepath e-mailed me asking if I wouldn't like to do some coloring for Spudsy's upcoming pages in the current issue. It's not 100% yet, but I'm excited, anyway :D
Loud_G at 7:28AM, Jan. 15, 2008
You don't have to ask permission, go for it :D I would love to see the visual fruition of the idea :D
Fitz at 11:58AM, Jan. 14, 2008
LOL that one totally cracked me up! :D Especially the steering technique. Why haven't I thought of that? Would you mind if I used the idea someday?
Loud_G at 10:55AM, Jan. 14, 2008
Lol, now I've got the image of a mouse working the pedals of the Ferrari while the other steers by walking along the wheel. :D
Fitz at 8:23AM, Dec. 17, 2007
For the record, I'm not a fan of G Unit, I do prefer Wu Tang - BUT this particular G Unit shoe is a reference to a bunch of things here. First and foremost, it's 50 Cent's - whose nickname refers to the money theme here: the dollar, the quarter, etc. Secondly, the shoe appears as a metaphor for a Ferrari GTX. As it happens, the symbol of this shoe is GXT, often misspelled as GTX. And thirdly - well, it has red elements :)
Abt_Nihil at 10:46AM, Dec. 1, 2007
(BTW, the supposed Heroes Unite link is really an Antcomics link)
Abt_Nihil at 10:45AM, Dec. 1, 2007
Whew, there I finally am, glad I got my own personal notifier, otherwise it would have taken me some more days to realize what my life has been missing all these days ;-) A wonderful new page, that is! Actually this one reminds me of the Monty Python Terry Gilliam collage animation style, especially the hand in panel 4 and the way the objects are arranged... really looks like a collage work. And I second Midge's Linklater reference, I only remembered Waking Life was directed by him when you pointed it out... I saw it on TV only recently. But I still prefer the dilaogue in your comic... Waking Life seemed a bit random to me. Not that that's a bad thing (you may say: life is random that way), but I prefer the way you handle your subject matter. The red/green color scheme has some psychological effect on me... if only I could say what it was! But it's definitely a bit unsettling, combined with the surreal close-ups of everyday-objects. And OMG a G-Unit shoe... how could you! ;-) It could have been Wu-Wear! I don't think I've even started to pick out the minutiae... the boy seems to "invest" his buck in coke, that much I figured out ;-) Oh yeah, peculiar nun omelette, did you make that up? I laughed so hard when I realized what it meant. So in short... everything's greatly appreciated, it really shows that this comic is a labor of love.
Fitz at 4:59AM, Dec. 1, 2007
Bocaj: Yeah, you are right - I did the smoke and the cig separately, and it looks like I will need to touch that up when I'm not as lazy as I am at the moment. JMT: Yeah a considerable amount of mindwork went into that, so I'm proud of that one, too. Take a try with the other ones, too! Midge: Waking Life was very inspiring, both in the visual aspect and the writing. Gotta love the dialogues in his movies. And I loved it how the actors actually co-wrote their lines in Before Sunset. Definitely added to the chemistry and the natural feel of it. Ersatz: That's the trick! And it works, 'cause they love bastards :) Christmas season is a killer everywhere, I guess. Imagine post offices! Can't wait to get a couple days off for xmas! And then I have to go back to wrap up this years red tape before New Year's... Blah! Jeff: That's the art of seduction at it's finest :) Don't let them know you want them. Make THEM want you. And there's no better way to do that than to make them feel ignored :D And more flattery is ALWAYS welcome ;) Marine: Wow I'm happy you do stick around :)
Coyotejeff at 7:13PM, Nov. 30, 2007
Why is it that that last line is so spot on! If you love somebody, become rich and donââ¬â¢t give them the time of day. Thatââ¬â¢s Love, American Style. Of course the art is great but looking over these comments, you donââ¬â¢t need me to tell you that.
Ersatz at 12:55PM, Nov. 29, 2007
Love that final line! Heartless yes highly amusing! :) Sorry I've not been around lately, Christmas overtime's a killer!
TheMidge28 at 12:19PM, Nov. 28, 2007
Waking Life is a huge fave of mine. Not one movie in particular. Pick one like Dazed and Confused, one of the Before movies...what I love about his movies is this playful dialogue...like you have going here.
jmt at 6:20PM, Nov. 27, 2007
I love the lotto ticket / parking ticket thing.
Bocaj at 2:25PM, Nov. 27, 2007
Love the smoke and sideways quarter. One thing: Smoke in panel three is slightly separated from the cigerate, it is a little awkward.
Fitz at 11:44AM, Nov. 27, 2007
Dawn: I can't decide which is my favorite part, myself :) I'd say the first panel, since it required the most work, and it actually came out nice - but then again, I'm in love with the bouncing cig. Hate cigarettes in real life, but the smoke looks cool! UsedBooks: I'm always trying to push the artwork a step further each time... which will either lead me to perfection - or insanity. And I'm ALWAYS afraid I won't be able to top the current page. Not to mention keeping subsequent pages on par with it. But otherwise, this comic is so much fun to do I don't notice the time go by :) Shin: Hardly ;) God did his work in six days and took a day off on Sunday. This page took me seven days to do and I worked on it all weekend :) But ok, let's say I'm some lesser deity :P Nepath: I think that's because I auto-updated. Normally I post in the afternoon/evening, so you might not even be around, and the asterisk is gone after 6am the next day, so you don't get notified. As for the absence of the mice - I just thought I had better ways of showing some things than the talking heads. Not that I mind showing them, but I think this is what makes the comic different - the fact that the characters aren't always there. As for Heroes Unite, I'll see what I can do tomorrow. I'm still yet to contact Spudsy to get his blessing for what I intend to do. And hopefully I can make something that won't completely suck ;) Harry: Are you speechless again, my friend? LOL ;) Tantz: That smoke was the first thing I drew for this page. I think there's room for improvement, but I'd say it came out quite decent. I love the left panel more, though :) Midge: The way I drew the humans in this episode was largely inspired by your style in BloodHound. It's also a bow towards my original idea of drawing only black silhouettes, but I just thought I need to take it a step further on such an art-centered page. As for Linklater's movies, which one do you have in mind? I actually love his movies and his way of storytelling, I'm a big fan of both Before movies and Waking Life. D0m: Yeah I'm about to try coloring a day scene for Heroes Unite and I don't quite know how to handle that, yet. We'll see... :) And there will be day scenes in ABC in the future, too. Amy: Yeah it's kind of hard to define the style. I wasn't trying to imitate any comic I knew back when I started, so it took the shape it did as a matter of slow evolution as I learned new things. I see my comic as sort of cartoon stills. That's why I keep my characters hand-drawn and cel-shaded while everything else approaches realistic quality. And You're welcome :) I seriously loved the way You drew them. And I love Your comic! Trevor: Yeah a lot of mindwork goes into figuring out how to look away from certain things and stay on-topic at the same time. But that's what makes this comic so much fun to work on :) Nibbi: Me? LOL! I could USE one! Ryan is just the cynical/ironic part of me that I'm poking fun at :)
nibbi at 10:25AM, Nov. 27, 2007
You should be a life coach!
trevoramueller at 9:41AM, Nov. 27, 2007
Oh my god this page is GORGEOUS! I love the lighting, the shading, the smoke effects, the car, the shoe - ALL OF IT! The dialogue is great too, as always, and I love how you avoid looking at certain things directly (like showing the shoe or the quarter). Very unique, very awesome!
antcomics at 7:59AM, Nov. 27, 2007
Fantastic detail--I can tell you put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into these! (I can identify!!) Like Dawn, I really like how you drew the hand. Your comics have a good balance between 'serious/cartoony' (only way I can really describe it). In short: like nothing I have ever seen! Thanks for the plug on my comic. I'm glad you liked it and I was glad I was able to pull off drawing Mick & Ryan. They were a lot of fun to draw!!
D0m at 5:46AM, Nov. 27, 2007
Great page. You're getting a massive amount of comments! I like your style of coloring and shading objects like cars. It does seem like you and I have the same dilemma, though... (tough coloring day scenes?)
TheMidge28 at 4:49AM, Nov. 27, 2007
Well done, again!!! love the rendering on the smoke and the little details through out the page. These little vignettes remind of characters from a Kevin Smith or Richard Linklater movie. funny and intriguing.
Tantz_Aerine at 4:12AM, Nov. 27, 2007
That smoke from the cigarette is amazing. Also I really like the way you use the close ups of certain items as we hear the voices of your characters. Really well done :)
harryq at 3:01AM, Nov. 27, 2007
Nice.
Nepath at 1:42AM, Nov. 27, 2007
For once I was told you updated!! Excellent page, this is a real class act this comic. The fact that the lead characters are not even on this page does not matter at all, the way the story makes me kind of visualize them there anyway....which is weird! Great job and I can't wait for the next page. As for Heroes Unite, i sent you the artwork I have received from Spudsy that needs attention so if your up for the job it would be great to have you involved. I'd like to say that I would have offered you involvement in the project from the outset but didn't know if it would be your thing.
ShinGen at 11:13PM, Nov. 26, 2007
So beautiful... not worthy... You are a GOD.
usedbooks at 10:22PM, Nov. 26, 2007
The smoke looks awesome. And I love the red accents against the green palette. Fantastic page as always, Fitz. (They're all really great, but somehow continue to get better!)
dgriff13 at 10:17PM, Nov. 26, 2007
fantastic job there Fitz. As always, like the extra touches... and my favorite part is the hand and the smoke... and the shoe.. okay, I love it all! LOL