I've been VERY slowly working on new comics ideas…way too many of them…for several years now. One of the decisions for me is what kind of STYLE the comic should be.

To be clear, I'm not a phenomenal artist, to say the least. So i don't have the skill to choose among many different styles. Maybe it's more about character design than “artistic style”. Although now that I do comics using 3D software, there's the option of drawing the comic, using 3D, or having some kind of combination.

Doodling some characters just to relax awhile back, I went for a very simplified manga style and was surprised at how appealing it was to me. My simple cartooning style is one that I'm very comfortable with and is pretty fast and easy for me to do (when it's a random doodle at least).

I'll do one right now -



That's kind of the style I do cartoons in…though the look of my drawing swings wildly sometimes. I'm not…a professional cartoonist (um, yeah…we know that, Banes). I'd also add various adjustments, inking, maybe some shading and coloring and so forth.

There are artistic choices to be made, though, based on personal appeal more than anything -

will the characters have eyebrows?
-at first my characters didn't, because I heard that on Futurama, the main characters don't. Eventually I added eyebrows. It works better.

Will the eyes show irises?
-In my current efforts, they do. Sometimes. In my existing comics they usually don't.

Highlights in the eyeballs?
-At first I didn't do it. Recently I do it almost every time. Even add them sometimes to 3D renders if needed.

Speaking of eyes, I also went with a choice somewhere in between the solid round eyes of the Simpsons/Futurama characters and the arcs of Archie characters. I'll have a partial bottom line on the eyes for the most part.

Drawing lips on females?
-I used to give female characters lips. And I like it. But in the new stuff I'm working on, I struggle with it. Some females have lips and some don't.


There's a certain effect that lips have when drawn on female characters, and a certain effect they have without. And to make it more complicated, certain expressions or moments seem to work better with lips, and certain ones work better without. So for a comic, you need that consistency. It's a tough call for me, as small a detail as it seems! I think that to me, adding the extra lip lines can take away from the simple emotion or simple appeal. But in some instances it works so well to see the lips.

Maybe that's a manga influence - I've read some manga, not alot, but enough. And it appeals to me, style-wise.

Anyway, the simplicity - and the TYPE of simplicity - in those mange-inspired sketches really hit me.

There are many ways to cartoon SIMPLY. But the emotion and appeal of characters drawn even in the simplest manga style - I can see why that approach has been so popular with manga artists and fans and young artists alike. The focus on the eyes, even in those simple styles - it works. Both in terms of what lines to draw but even more, what lines to leave OUT.

One thing I don't care for is the horizontal line for a nose in some simpler manga styles. That's kind of weird looking. But I understand the simplified approach! I also didn't like the “weird triangle” look of noses on female characters in Archie comics. I love that style, except for the noses.



Don't get heated, Veronica! I love everything else about you and Betty and company! It's just…the noses…



Not you, Jughead. You are perfection itself, my friend!

But noses are a struggle to figure out too. Finding a simple style that will work consistently - so many redrawn noses!

I find this stuff to be super interesting anyway, and always a challenge to figure out with character design.

I've probably brought up this exact thing before. Probably will again, too…

But for now I'll stop.

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