Dave Lasky's One-Page Comics: Microfiction Class

I recently took this online class from the wonderful David Lasky. It met every Sunday on Zoom for six weeks, and after David would give a demo and a prompt, we would work on the assignment over the course of the week. Here's all six of my assignments, plus a bonus.

Week one

The theme for the first week was character design. David had us design two characters that were visually distinct, and put them into a story in which they met a challenge. This one was pretty much in my wheelhouse, so I trotted out a version of the Sorcerer Woochi and a little unnamed monk and set them on their D&D-esque way.

Pencil on sketch paper

Week two

This lesson involved pictureless comics. David showed a variety of examples, including the infamous John Byrne "Snowblind" pages and then tasked us to specifically create a story that happens completely in the dark. I cheated a little and used black paper, so I wouldn't have to ink a lot of darkness, and I think I was a little too clever by half. I originally did a six-panel layout but then David suggested we try at least nine panels so I redid it. I like aspects of each.

Prismacolor pencil on black drawing paper

Week three

This assignment was a challenge. David had us draw panel layouts and add shapes to the panels without thinking of any narrative to go with them. It was very hard for me not to start story-fying the shapes as soon as I put them down. I finally got a page done with an empty mind and then filled in the story post facto. It's just a goofy anecdote but it made me play with camera angles and composition.

Pencil and ink on bristol

Week four

This might have been the most challenging exercise. David's demonstration had him placing watercolor blobs on the page and then gently teasing out a narrative and adding elements as they came to him. Then it was our turn to try it. My biggest issue was not having any watercolors, just watercolor pencils. No matter how I tried to lay down colors and get them wet, I couldn't get any decent blending that could lead to some clear and inspiring shapes. I did find something in each attempt: maybe an end of the world story in the first try and some sort of monster tale in the second. I tried to pull the story out with brush pens.

Watercolor pencil and brush pen on multi-media paper

Week five

This was a real trip involving scaffolding with other creative works. We started by brainstorming songs that we knew and liked but really didn't know the lyrics to; we took the lyrics as a basis for our story. Then David showed us pages from various comic artists and we were to select one that clicked with us. We were then supposed to use the panel layout of the page we selected to present a story built on the scaffold of the lyrics. I chose Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and a page from Seiichi Hayashi, a Japanese manga artist I am totally unfamiliar with. This really took me outside my comfort zone, but it was a blast to do.

Pencil, ink, and marker on bristol; computer-generated text

Here's a link to the song lyrics and a copy of the Hayashi page:

Week six

This week focused on writing exercises. David shared a multi-stage story-generating process, with a clear step-by-step from brainstorming to plotting to outlining to drafting. While it wasn't my usual way of composing, I went with it, and came up with this vignette featuring the Six-Gun Gorilla (who has starred in strips before).

Pencil and ink on bristol

Week six bonus

We looked at Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work, a legendary guide to comics drawing. David showed us several pastiches/hommages from various artists, as well as some versions (including one of his own) that turned the 22 panels into a coherent narrative. He gave us a friendly challenge to do the same, with all or some of the panels.

Here's the source:

For the challenge, I took the eight panels in the lower left corner and came up with this:

Flair pen and Sharpie on typing paper

Coda

All in all, a great class! I highly recommend taking a David Lasky class any chance you get: you feel a wonderful tone and mood and get a chance to explore techniques and approaches you might not otherwise.

Bonus bonus

Some time ago I did do my own (non-narrative) version of the 22 panels, using some superhero characters.

Adorkastock Draw Everything!

 I don't do socials, but here’s my (I count 21 not 20) 21 Draw Everything entries! (In reverse order.)

Closing the notebook

To be continued?

So, I want to stay in touch with all my peeps, but I am getting weary of the whole social media scene and blogs are apparently just too 2008. In light of this, I am suspending operations on Instagram and on this blog - no new posts will be forthcoming.

But fear not- if you really want to continue to hear from me, just click the link below and subscribe to the Walaka Tribune!

Once a week (or so) you'll get a fun little email newsletter from me with cartoons, book reviews, news, photos, and random thoughts. And you can just hit the reply button to say hi back and let me know what's up with you - it's a win-win!

Here's that link:

SUBSCRIBE TO THE WALAKA TRIBUNE

I hope to hear from you soon!

Zines, Mister Rico!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything here - my daily sketch stuff usually goes on the Instagram but I had been cross-posting anything more than those and seem to have gotten out of that habit. I need to update my portfolio as well - there's lots of stuff that hasn't seen the light of day anywhere.

In the meantime, since I am focusing on mini-zines for SAWgust this year (as opposed to creating one longer comic like last year), I thought I would post my oeuvre, as it were, here.

First is one a did a long time ago, at a workshop with Ellen Forney: 

Next, is a better one a did as a follow-up. Misspelling of the character's name is a mistake:

 

Here's one I did in a few minutes during an online draw jam some weeks ago:

 

This one was spin-off of this sketch suggested by a drawing pal. I wanted to experiment with the fold-out format.

 

 

I re-inked some old drawings and out them in a little zine as well:

 

And finally, not really a zine (although it may become one) but a formal exercise in a different folding format:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Super Styles

So, while waiting for editorial feedback on my non-fiction anthology strip for SAW, I decided to work on a concept/notion/idea that I have been kicking around and playing with in various ways for some time, and that is a variant version of the Justice League of America - specifically, the "Satellite Era" team from the seventies (my JLA). I have been messing with character designs and names and whatnot, not necessarily for any specific outcome, but just to feed my inner comics-nerd. So, in a confluence of my decades-long fan status and my burgeoning cartooning practice, here's the dealio.

I started with this image, from JLA  #200 - this is the team I think of whenever someone says Justice League.

I did a bit of swiping as I replaced the superheroes with my own characters, and simplified the background (since I am not nearly as detail-obsessed as George Perez):

 To jazz it up, I tried coloring with pencils:

And again with markers ill-suited to the task:

Then, just for fun, I tried that bold, super-simple style I have been playing with:

Thoughts: 

• using Perez as a style guide is maybe not the best idea for someone with a style like mine, but who knows how it will develop

• I actually like that first inked version in a lot of ways

• color is complicated - I can see why so many folks who work in color are going digital

• I can see a use for the really over-simplified style, even

And finally, for anyone who really wants to geek out, here's the correspondence of original characters and my analogs:

Superman  ➜  Hella Man
Batman  ➜  Black Buzzard
Wonder Woman   ➜  Sister Splendid
Aquaman ➜   Aquaphibian
Flash ➜   Fleetfoot
Green Lantern ➜   Runestone
Martian Manhunter ➜   Mercurian Messenger
Green Arrow ➜   Silver Sling
Atom ➜   Nanonaut
Hawkman  ➜  Pteroman
Black Canary  ➜  Blue Flamingo
Elongated Man ➜   Putty-Man
Red Tornado  ➜  White Squall
Zatanna  ➜  Pythagora

Workshop work

I just (literally) attended a SAW workshop on Narrative Voice in Comics, facilitated by Tom Hart and hosted by the Black Mountain Institute at UNLV. It was totally excellent, as Bill and Ted would say. 

Tom walked us through examples of narrative styles in contemporary comics, and we completed two-minute writing/drawing exercises after each variation, using any character we chose. Here are my wiki-wiki texts and comics based on the prompts. (I used Betsy Murgatroyd, my philosophical barfly, not that these quick sketches do her any justice.)

First, objective third-person narrative text:

Next, subjective third-person narrative, from the POV of another character:

First person narrative:

 

 

First person narrative through dialog directed at another (in this case, a letter)

First person narrative, words and pictures juxtaposed in mood:

First person narrative depicted only visually:

Second person narrative, reader is the character:

Second person narrative, reader is interacting with the character from their POV:

Seriously, this was a great creative exercise as well as a formalist observation. Tom is a wonderful instructor and I can't imagine how great taking an entire course with him would be. But I hope to find out!

 

Betsy Murgatroyd Zine

 

All that fiddling around in the prior posts turned into something... check it out here.