Great Fezzes from History: II

Digital art experiment.

So - it looks like I got in to SPX 2013 by the skin of my teeth. So I'll be making a mini-tour of it - going to the Baltimore Comic Con on September 7th-8th, then doing SPX one week later. Should be a heck of a trip!

The Titled Gentleman

Spent today working on the title lettering for this Christmas Carol edition I'm illustrating. I still need to do some digital cleanup on it, but I'm reasonably happy with it so far. I like a hand-drawn title, me.

Once I've finally polished this off it'll be back to comedians in fezzes, all right?

Bless

More work-in-progress. I'm so very close to finishing this now...

LSD

A friend once told me that his dad used to say, "It was all LSD in my day!" L being pounds, S being shillings and D being pence, of course (the less obvious initials derived from the Latin).

Very close to finishing this job!

Great Fezzes from History: 1

Yet to Come

Work-in-progress.

Catch-Up!

And, because I missed Friday, here's a second post to catch up. This one's a total crowd-pleaser by way of apology.

Harpy Poopy

Here's a Harry Potter sketch I did for someone at some convention or other. Harry is, of course, a very special little boy.

Sad Cake

You heard.

Minimum Wage

So Bob Fingerman has a book out this week, Maximum Minimum Wage. I'm one of the artists he invited to contribute a pin-up piece to the collection (see below). Bob has been an inspiration, collaborator and friend over the years and he's a damn fine cartoonist. If you don't know Minimum Wage already, you owe it to yourself to check it out. 

Little Orphan Alien

I can't think of a single good reason why this hasn't happened yet.

Cheating

It's late and I'm tired and I don't have anything good for you so here's an old illustration job I dug up. I have no idea what went in the balloons originally. Why not make up your own and amuse your friends! (If you still have any friends left afterwards you might want to apologise by making them a nice cup of tea.)

Blah Blah Blah

Been reading a lot of Jason lately.

SPX 2013 registration

How was your Sunday afternoon? Mine was... refreshing.

At this writing I've absolutely no idea if I got in - I PayPal-ed my registration fee in the end because the SPX site melted down as soon as it opened for business. I'll keep you posted.

J. Wellington

No Intelligent Life

Ask the Inkmonkey

The first in an occasional series where I wrestle with your questions, force them to the ground and kick them to death.

Felix writes:

Hey Roger!

Can you give a fan some insight into how the publishers choose the paper they use for the comics? I love the matte paper, feel and look, that Popeye is published on. I even like what Bongo comics uses for Simpsons books. However, I can't for the life of me appreciate the glossy stock that always seems to have wrinkles, printing issues, tears, kinks, etc... Seems like it doesn't affect the cover price, but maybe the profit margin? Anyway, any insight would be appreciated! I'm only venting because I found the last 2 pages of my Rocketeer Hollywood Horror to have some massive wrinkles through the page! 

Anyway, the octopus made me think of the Spirit. Then I thought how cool would it be for the two to have a team up book? Looking forward to issue 2...

BTW - Rocketo... a shout out to the comic Rocketo?

Roger replies:

I don't have much insight into these decisions, really, although for what it's worth I hate that glossy stuff as well. I may be misremembering this, but I have a vague memory that the paper stock on Popeye was initially a mistake, but everybody liked it so they stuck with it. I know when I was self-publishing, I had two main criteria: (1) Is it cheap? and (2) How cheap is it?

As for a Rocketeer/Spirit team-up... I agree! Somebody should get on to that right away.

Last but not least, the "Rocketo" line... the comic book did occur to me, but it was more a reference to the comic strips of Gus Mager, who used to do a strip called Sherlocko the Monk. Paul Tumey recently did an excellent series of blog posts about Mager if you want to find out more about him - you can read that here. The Marx Brothers took their stage names from Mager's fondness for giving all his characters names ending in "-o", including one "Groucho the Monk".

As for why that might be significant... I couldn't possibly comment.

Ham II

It's all about the pigs today.

Ham

Missed posting yesterday because my computer was away being repaired. So - double shift today. I'll post another thing a bit later.

Inky McLangridge

Work in progress - a fragment of what I worked on today. I feel rusty inking with a brush. Hoping the juice starts flowing soon.

Even Grosser Point

Here's a sketch of the protagonists of the 1990s DC book I worked on, Gross Point. (Brian and Teri, was it? I think those were their names.) I remember thinking at the time that drawing a monthly book meant that I'd finally "Broken In" (capitals and all) and how this would be my professional life from now on.

How I laughed about that a couple of years later, when nobody would answer my calls.

The Smell

The Way to Do It

Rocky II

Quick one tonight, because I'm pooped. Just want to say thanks for all the kind words about our humble Rocketeer funnybook. Thank you too much.

Gross Point

In the 1990s I worked on a DC kids' book called Gross Point. Here's a splash page I stumbled a cross a couple of days ago in a pile of artwork I was sorting. Blimey, I was a bit obsessive, wasn't I?

Adventurous

Work in progress.

Snark Me Sideways!

Well! It would appear, judging from the box of books that awaited me on my return from Southern Climes, that the third and final collection of Snarked! is either out now or about to hit the stores any day. The book was an absolute joy to work on and I'm very proud of it. Please, if you were waiting for the collections, do the decent thing! And tell your friends!

Back from the Back of Beyond

Yes, we're back in London. Yes, we forgot to empty the fruit bowl before we left.

Old

Because I am. It's sometimes hard for me to get my head around the idea that my kids have never played a vinyl record, or known a world without the internet, or had to wait for a TV show to be on and watch it right then because otherwise it would be gone forever.

Fear of Fishing

I'm a bit fish-phobic, which makes me a lousy tour guide in New Zealand. I braved the aquarium for my lovely moppets because I'm a bloody hero.

Oh, and hey! If you're anywhere near Auckland, New Zealand, get along to an exhibition of New Zealand comics (Nga Pakiwaituhi) at St. Paul Street Gallery, School of Art and Design, AUT University. It's curated by Dylan Horrocks and features work by a bunch of NZ-bred ink-mashers, including me.