Nathan Sorry | Page 137

Rich — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:45:01 +0000

- Dream sequences can be a lot of fun to write/draw but they can also seem indulgent at times. With that in mind, this is not going to be an overly long sequence, just a couple of more pages. But I’ve also been stretching it out a little longer than I had originally planned, by using some larger panels, particularly on the previous page. I’ve become very conscious of trying to let this comic breathe a little more even though that of course slows down the pace when you’re reading it a page at a time on the webcomic.

This dream sequence is one of the very first scenes I fleshed out back when I was writing the story and had yet to draw any of the pages. It’s one of those scenes that has lived so long in my head, it’s weird for me when it finally comes to life here.

- Last weekend was HeroesCon. I had a really fun, successful weekend selling books and AlphaBeasts postcards at my table in Indie Island. In fact, I am pretty much sold out of Nathan Sorry Vol. 1 now. I did a few commissions that I’m really happy with that I’ve posted below. I also moderated a panel about Design and Comics. This was the second time I’ve done this but this time I had an accompanying slideshow. You can read more about that panel and click through the slideshow here.

Carrie Brownstein

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Nathan Sorry | Page 136

Rich — Thu, 30 May 2013 10:40:29 +0000

- I’ll be at HeroesCon in Charlotte June 7-9 selling volumes 1 and 2 of Nathan Sorry as well as my Alphabeasts postcards. I’ll also be moderating a panel on Saturday at 2pm about Design in Comics with an amazing panel of guests including cartoonist/designers Jim Rugg, Matt Kindt and Robert Wilson IV plus Chris Pitzer of Adhouse Books, Tim Leong from Wired Magazine and illustrator Matt Stevens.

- My second column at Mental Floss went up yesterday. Every Wednesday I preview the 5 most interesting comics releases of the week.

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Nathan Sorry | Page 135

Rich — Fri, 24 May 2013 02:56:16 +0000

- Starting this week, I am now a weekly contributor at Mental Floss. Every Wednesday, I’ll be highlighting new comic book releases as well as new digital comics and new (or newish) webcomics. Mental Floss is a great and extremely popular website and I’m really excited to be bringing their first comics-related feature to the site.

You can read my first post here.

I write a little more about the new gig over at my blog.

- HeroesCon is coming up really soon. I’ll be at Table 1015 in Indie Island. I’m really excited about this spot because it’s in a block with some really great cartoonists like Dustin Harbin, Evan Dorkin, Peter Bagge (!!!), Mike Maihack and a bunch of others including my friend and comics writer Christian Sager who highlighted some other folks in the area. I’ll be selling Nathan Sorry volumes 1 & 2 and my AlphaBeasts postcards, most of which I’ll have at Heroes for the first time.

- I’m also going to be moderating another panel about Graphic Design in Comics at this year’s HeroesCon. Details are still coming together but the last one I did two years ago was really well received and I hope this one will be even better.

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Nathan Sorry | Page 134

Rich — Thu, 16 May 2013 11:49:26 +0000

- This scene is going to be the most challenging one I’ve had to draw yet. I’m glad that it’s happening now and not towards the beginning of the book. I’ve grown a lot as an artist these past few years and feel more confident with what I can pull off. Drawing over 100 pages of comics helps get you to that level. Still, it’s going to be tough.

- HeroesCon is coming up in a couple of weeks. I’ll be in the Indie Island section for my 4th year. I’ll also be moderating a panel that I’ll announce in a couple of weeks.

- A reminder that Nathan Sorry vol. 1 is on Comixology. Volume 2 will be up there soon.

- I’ll have another announcement next week about something new I’ll be involved in.

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Nathan Sorry | Page 133

Rich — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:00:21 +0000

- It’s been a while since I’ve drawn clean-shaven Nathan.

- I can’t seem to find the post, but a year or so ago I wrote about some great novels that deal with 9/11. I’ve just finished another one that I’d like to add to that list. Technically it’s about 11/9 and not 9/11. 11/9 is the day that Christian fundamentalists from third world America hijacked two airplanes and flew them into the twin towers in Baghdad. In Matt Ruff’s excellent novel, The Mirage, Homeland Security agents from the United Arab States foil a new terrorist attack and their investigation leads them to discover artifacts and theories that point to the idea that the world they live in may not be real.

It’s a great read. Part Sci-fi, part detective novel, part socio-political commentary. You can read more about it here.

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Page 132

Rich — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:40:58 +0000

- Nathan’s clipping of his own obituary has been a key factor in the fugue state he’s been in as we saw back in page 53 and on.

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Nathan Sorry | Page 131

Rich — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:21:58 +0000

- The laptop bag, once owned by Nathan’s colleague and mentor, Pryor, has been a frequent accessory to Nathan in this story but we haven’t seen it in a while. The best look at it we’ve had was way back on page 24 here. Jumping back that far gives you a pretty good comparison of how my line work has gotten a lot cleaner over the span of about 100 pages.

- This June, I’ll have a table in Indie Island at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC. The guest list is growing fast with all these great indie cartoonists being added just this week.

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Nathan Sorry | Page 130

Rich — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:25:12 +0000

- One of the reasons this page is a week late is that it was kind of hard to draw. I decided to slow down a little and finally dig into what Manga Studio’s perspective rulers are all about. Though there are still a couple of things about them I don’t get, they are definitely a helpful feature once you start to understand how to use them. This tutorial by Eric Merced was pretty helpful in that regard.

- Drawing this page got me thinking a lot about scenes in movies where a character is walking through a set. Paul Thomas Anderson is a master at these types of scenes as this video analyzing five of his best steadicam shots proves. There are a lot of little flourishes he uses in the camera movement that is all about telling us something about the character involved.

The Career of Paul Thomas Anderson in Five Shots from Kevin B. Lee on Vimeo.

I’ve also been a little obsessed with this scene from Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie. I’m kind of obsessed with a lot of things about Godard and this movie in particular but this little dance by the actress Anna Karina and the way the camera follows her through it is just unbelievably charming. Tarantino fans will probably find a lot of things familiar about this scene.

Although I very much like this page here, I wouldn’t say I exactly captured any of the magic of those movie scenes but it got me thinking a lot about how to do so in the future. Comics are a different medium than film, obviously. What kind of drama and charm do the scenes above lose when you take out the soundtrack or reduce them to two or three frames? Better still, how can an artist imply the music or the movement with two or three drawings?

These are things I’m still learning.

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Nathan Sorry | Page 129

Rich — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:14:04 +0000

- Well, last week was a pretty exciting week. Comixology officially launched its Submit program for indie self-publishers and Nathan Sorry Volume One was one of the books available in the first wave. The initiative got a lot of press from some big mainstream sources like Entertainment Weekly, Wired, Huffington Post and Time. The article on The Verge – one of the best tech news sites out there – showcased Nathan Sorry quite prominently.

Shortly after the launch of Submit, Comixology and Marvel announced a huge offer of 700 free #1 issues that quickly brought down Comixology’s servers for days. I think everything is back to normal on that end now so if you’re a Comixology user and are interested in an affordable digital version of this book to have in your collection search for Nathan Sorry in the app or buy it right here. If you buy it please take the time to give the book a rating by clicking on the stars on the info page.

If Comixology isn’t your thing, don’t forget that you can also buy DRM free versions of both volumes of the comic right here.

- Since I’m still managing to keep to my weekly Wednesday schedule for new pages, now might be a good time to remind everyone of all the ways you can be reminded of when a new page is added:

1. Email alerts. I send a very simple email out as soon as a new page goes up. Email is still really a great notification system. And I promise I don’t use your email address for anything else except sending new page alerts.

2. Twitter. I always announce new pages on Twitter. My personal Twitter account is @RichCBarrett. I’m pretty active and usually tweet at least a couple of times a day about comics, design, illustration or whatever happens to be going on in the world. If you don’t want to be bombarded by my random tweets and just want new page notifications you can follow @NathanSorry. That’s basically an automated bot so don’t expect anything else except new page tweets from that guy.

3. Facebook. Even though Facebook has gutted the effectiveness and reach of their Page system I still use it to post new pages and the occasional news – like the Comixology announcement. So “like” the Nathan Sorry Facebook page. I generally don’t friend people I don’t know personally on my own Facebook account but I occasionally post publicly so you can always subscribe to my feed there if you want.

4. Google+. There’s a Nathan Sorry page on Google+ but I can’t be bothered to update that. I do post on my own personal page though so follow me there.

5. Don’t forget the RSS feed for those of you that still use RSS readers.

6. I always forget about services like Ink Outbreak that lets you keep up with all your favorite webcomics. Nathan Sorry is on there and it really is a great way to keep up.

Although I don’t post usually post new pages to these (though maybe I should), I’m also fairly active on Tumblr and Instagram.

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Nathan Sorry | Page 128

Rich — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:44:06 +0000

- I redesigned the homepage of this webcomic recently. A long overdue change. This is probably the fourth homepage redesign since I’ve started this comic.

- Although I’m not taking part in this one, the latest alphabet project is well underway and the theme this time is robots. You can follow the weekly progress of all the contributing artists here: http://alphabots.tumblr.com/

UPDATE: I’ve been waiting anxiously to announce this but wasn’t sure when exactly it would be available. Turns out, today is the day. Nathan Sorry Volume 1 is now part of Comixology and can be purchased through their app. I was accepted into their SUBMIT program for indie creators and am very excited to have my book available digitally via the best and most popular digital comics platform out there. You can buy the book here or find it within any of their apps on the iPad, iPhone, Kindle or Android devices.

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