- The secret origin of Nathan Sorry continues!

- I’m going to be appearing at the Charlotte Mini-Con this Sunday. I’ll be selling this stuff plus some Animal Alphabet flash cards which I should get back from the printer today. This is my third year appearing at the Mini-Con. It’s a fun little show and I’m especially excited this year because the headline guest is Cliff Chiang who is just an amazing cartoonist.

- A while back I started a planned series “reviews” of other webcomics I enjoy and got through one whole webcomic before abandoning it for no real reason other than it takes time to write even a simple little something about someone’s comic. But now’s a good time to talk about a comic I had planned on mentioning because today it’s running a little pinup I did (see how I just bring this back to myself?)

Usually whether I like the art in a comic is a big deciding factor of whether I even give it a chance. The art in Christopher Wrann’s Aquarium Drinking is really not that great. He’ll be the first to tell you that because Christopher is a writer, not an artist. What makes Aquarium Drinking work is that he’s a very good writer.

Chris had this comic he really wanted to do about a guy who loses his corporate job and winds up tending bar with his friend. He decided to get it done by drawing the thing himself and if that doesn’t perfectly encapsulate the DIY attitude of webcomics I don’t know what does. Sure, there are lots of webcomics out there that are far from professional looking but the difference here is Chris is a good, funny writer with a great handle on his cast of characters and he has managed to write a comic that is not hindered by his drawing skills. Instead it allows his sense of dialogue and characterization shine.

Aquarium Drinking has a likable cast of characters that embody a lot of the spirit of the times. It’s very 21st century, post-recession America. Chris is on vacation now but has a nice archive of comics built up for you to catch up on for when he returns: www.aquariumdrinking.com

100 pages in the bag. For some reason this feels like a big milestone where I should commemorate everything that’s happened to this point. But it’s really just another page in the comic and we still have a lot more to go. In fact, now is probably a great time to show you where we are in the scheme of things.

Two things people always seem to ask me is if there is an ending to Nathan Sorry and if I have written the whole thing out already. There is indeed an ending though I’ll admit there are some things that could change as I go along. I’ve written the entire plot but I only script and thumbnail out a few pages – or sometimes a scene – ahead of myself which leaves lots of room for things to change. I have no idea if this is a smart or terrible way to work on something like this or not but it’s worked really well for me so far. I’ve planned enough out to be sure that everything that needs to happen will happen and pay off what has come before it but I’ve left enough undone so that it keeps it interesting for me as I go along.

In case you’re curious, below is the entire plot for the story laid out in an iPad app called Corkulous. I first learned about this “index card” method of plotting from a blog post by the cartoonist Ben Towle. It’s a popular method for writers to breakdown their story into structured acts. This was really helpful for me to organize a pretty large story that I was previously trying to outline in sketchbooks and inside my head.

You can see from this screenshot that we’re not even halfway yet. I know, crazy, right?

What’s really helpful about this method (and using this app to do it) is I can color code different types of scenes to help me track different types of scenes. The blue stickies represent flashbacks, the green stickies represent interludes and the pink ones are scenes that either require more attention from me at some point or that I think could potentially change down the road. Yellow stickies are just plain old scenes.

Thanks everyone for reading and keep sticking around. Starting with this page we’re now into the “ORIGIN OF NATHAN SORRY” so to speak and you won’t want to miss that.

- I almost forgot, I have some prints for sale in my store. If you’ve been following my AlphaBeasts work (which I’ve fallen way behind on) I’m selling the first three letters as well as a print of an Emma Frost piece I did for the Heroes Con art auction last summer. And of course you can still buy Nathan Sorry vol 1.

- Hope that everyone has had a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah!

- An early written version of this conversation actually took place on Christmas night a little further on in the story. Casey had invited James and Nathan the dog and another character whom I will not name to Christmas dinner at her mom’s house. Casey and James sat outside in front of the house having pretty much this same conversation. For the purpose of condensing some of the plot I moved the conversation up and as a result a couple of things got cut altogether from the story. Nothing major but maybe I’ll talk about them further on down the road.

This whole scene I guess takes place in late November or early December. So we’re just past the point where every 50 or so pages (depending on how close I’m staying on schedule) the time of year in-story lines up with the time of year in real life.

- I’m usually pretty hard on myself in regards to my artwork but I’m really happy with this page. Probably my favorite one in a while. That said, I’m about to expose some warts in an effort to discuss a wider aspect of drawing that has been interesting me lately.

Anyone who’s been to art school has been told how important it is to look at a reflected image of your drawing –whether that’s by looking at it with a hand-held mirror or flipping it horizontally, if you’re drawing digitally. The benefits are two-fold. By looking at your drawing in this different way you will: 1.) More easily see imbalances in your composition and 2.) More easily see asymmetrical facial features and anatomy.

I’ve been kind of obsessing on this lately because I’m constantly surprised by how wonky my drawings can be when you flip them. I always wind up correcting things in Photoshop but I’m trying to figure out how to stop it from happening and what it is about how the hand and eye work together that causes this whole mess to begin with.

Below is a set of 4 images taken from one panel in this page. The top left is my original ink drawing. The top right is that image flipped. The bottom left is the corrected image (after some Photoshop work) and the bottom right is that same image flipped.

Now, before I even get to this stage I do about two rounds of rough digital “pencils” where I flip the image horizontally a few times throughout to check on things and make adjustments. But since these “pencils” are rough when I print it out and ink over it with a lightbox I’m still making some decisions while inking that end up resulting in some of this wonkiness.

This might not be the best, most blatant, example but I think it’s representative enough.

After drawing the first image I can tell by looking at it that it’s not a great drawing. Something is a little off about the facial features. It’s not until after flipping it and seeing the image as it is on the top right that I really notice how my drawing seems to have a drift to it that causes the facial features on one side of the face to slant downward and widen compared to the other side. In that image, the right side of the face – especially in the eyes and mouth and the overall shape of the head and hair – show this drift pretty clearly. Which means when I’m drawing, that slant is occurring on the left side and slanting up and/or I’m tightening up too much as I move to the right. Since I’m right-handed this is probably tied to how my hand rests on the page.

After the corrections in Photoshop you can see how much more symmetric her face is in both the regular and flipped image. Much more pleasing to look at.

So, what does this mean?

I don’t know, that’s what I’m asking.

I don’t mean this as a drawing tip or anything. Though if you aren’t currently flipping your drawing or looking at it in a mirror you definitely should start doing so and will immediately see drastic improvements in your work. I just find this perplexing – and mildly disturbing – that there seems to be some wires that get crossed when an image is passing from my brain to my pen and my brain is not able to stop it from happening in the moment. I’m trying to pinpoint where I’m going wrong so that I can save myself as much correction time as possible. Of course, one possible solution is probably shifting that time spent on corrections into planning and sketching. With a little more care spent in the really early rough stage where the drawing is mostly roughly drawn geometric shapes you can probably do a lot to assure a certain amount of symmetry.

One interesting thing with this is that even though it is something to try to correct, this “drift” or “wonkiness” is part of the chemical makeup that constitutes my drawing “style”. Someone somewhere once said that your “style” is simply the mistakes that you make trying to draw perfectly. Or something like that.

Any other artists out there have any good tips on how to see your mistakes more clearly as you’re drawing them? Or is looking at the mirror-image really the only way to keep your drawing in line? What do your people look like when you look at their reverse image? Are they distorted in a similar way or does something else happen?

 - Oh, hey, look the next page is the big old 100! We’ll have to have a party.

Um, hi. Remember this comic?

If you’ve been following this comic over the years than delays and impromptu hiatuses are nothing unusual. Unfortunately that’s just how it is. But I always come back. This time out it’s been a conflux of work and new baby that made the last month or so just slip away from me. I can’t really promise that I’m going to be back on a weekly schedule just yet so new pages may be intermittent for the time being.

So where were we? Just starting a conversation between Casey and James that will take us through the next few pages and will have lots of little flashbacks and juicy nuggets of backstory. Probably another thing that’s slowing me down a little is that this entire scene is turning out to be more complicated to draw than I had anticipated. Lots to think about in how I coordinate what is being said with what is being shown. Especially when we get to the James/Nathan bits. I think in general making a long conversation between two people in comics is tough to make interesting even with flashbacks to fill in some visual space.

- In other news, I spent a good part of early 2011 working on a 12 minute animation to illustrate a discussion by the economist Richard Wolffe about class inequity in the U.S. It just went live online recently and you can watch it all here: http://rootsofhealthinequity.org/how-class-works.php

I was working on this long before the whole Occupy Wall Street movement began but it eerily predicts the idea of the middle class rising up the way it seems to have begun and a lot of what is discussed in this video is basically what the movement is trying to raise awareness about. If you’ve got the time take a look. I’m really proud of how it came out.

To tie this back into things a little, this is a job I got because of the work I’ve done here on Nathan Sorry. Although I don’t make any significant amount of revenue directly through the comic I’ve gotten a good amount of paying work this year indirectly from it.

- If you’re in Charlotte next month swing by the Charlotte Mini-Con on January 22. If not to see me then to see superstar artist Cliff Chiang and to buy this poster that he and local cartoonist Dustin Harbin created.

This will be my 3rd year appearing at this convention. This time around in addition to selling copies of Nathan Sorry Volume 1 I’ll probably be selling prints like this and maybe some postcards like this.

- Finally, the pop culture blog Four Colours & The Truth listed out their Top 20 Digital and Webcomics of 2011 and Nathan Sorry came in at #6. It’s a smart and tasteful list filled with a lot of great webcomics that I would highly recommend myself. My comic beat out comics by people like Warren Ellis and Chris Ware so obviously the guy who wrote the list is a crazy person but still I’m honored to place so high. I put a lot of work into this book and it’s always a trip to see people enjoying it even more than I ever hoped they would.

- Thank you Daylight Savings Time for allowing this post to still be officially on time and not a day late.

- I talk a lot about my process here and usually it’s about how I’m changing it. I once again switched things up starting with this page and I’m pretty happy with the results. Previously, I would start with penciling a page on paper pretty roughly. Then scan it in to adjust mistakes, fix perspective, wonky anatomy, and move things around to make for better panel compositions. Also, this is where I would start laying in word balloons to make sure there was room for them and that the story was reading properly and art and words were meshing together. Then I’d print out the adjusted sketches and ink over them with a lightbox. After that I’d scan the inks in and inevitably there would be a lot of stuff I’d still want to adjust in Photoshop. This final adjustment stage has been the longest part of my process and the part that seems most eligible for a change.

So that was my old process. What I realized was that #1, I was wasting time sketching initially in pencil. And #2, I wasn’t taking enough care with getting the drawing right in the beginning.

I’ve resisted going too far in the digital direction with this comic because I spend enough time in front of the computer as is it. But I get more and more digital as I go to the point where I may now no longer be using a pencil. The inks are the only non-digital portion and even that has about 20% digital correction to it.

Below I’ve attached some of the various stages of this page for anyone interested in looking at them.

I always enjoy looking at cartoonist’s drawings that use multiple colored non-repro pencils to layer up their under-drawing before putting inks over them. That’s basically what I’m doing in Photoshop now. Two layers of “pencils” to get the drawing right (though still somewhat rough in order to keep as much life and energy in the inks as possible). Then, print it out and ink over it. I don’t have a printer large enough to print on the paper size I use so I’m actually printing these colors in black and white, taping it together and inking over it with a lightbox. So I don’t really need to use the red and blue but I just like the way it looks. After inking I scan it, clean it up, finalize my word balloons and add the tones.

Still takes a damn long time so I’m sure I’ll continue to optimize this whole process.

Click on these thumbnails to view them full size.

- Oh, I almost forgot. If you’re on Google+ there is now a Nathan Sorry page that you can circle. I just created this today and am not completely sure what I’m going to do with it that I’m not already doing with my regular G+ account but at the very least I will post page updates here. So if you spend a lot of time on G+ this could be a good way to keep up with the comic. I’ll also entertain any suggestions for interesting things I can do with the page or with my Facebook page for that matter.

- This week’s page is a day late and Im going to keep the blog portion a little short here.

- I forgot that I was going to try to make a note whenever characters referred to events that happened far enough back that readers would probably forget the scene they were talking about. Basically, on the last two pages, the Sheriff recalls his meeting with James earlier that morning where he talked about looking for the missing girl. That was conversation was here on page 67. Then, a couple of pages later, James meets the missing girl, Haley, and lets her run off with a sketchy looking guy.

- A new website for all you aspiring comic creators to check out is Making Comics. Jason Brubaker of the webcomic (and now graphic novel) Remind sounds like he has some good stuff cooking for this blog/podcast in the near future.

In the meantime, here’s the Creature from the Black Lagoon:

- Chapter 6 officially begins here. This is going to be a fairly talky chapter but if you’ve stuck around this long then those kind of comics probably don’t bother you much. There’s also going to be a lot of flashbacks which I think most people enjoy. They’re going to be quick ones though. Sometimes as short as a panel or two.

- The website Comics Forge recently reviewed what I think is the digital comics version of Nathan Sorry # 1. They reference the difference between this comic and the webcomic being the lack of halftone dots in the comic and I think I made the decision to nix those when I first released this digitally on Graphicly. It was a bad decision so the reviewer is right to make a point of it. I am a big proponent of digital comics. Love reading them and look forward to every advance the industry makes in this direction (although I’m also just as big a proponent of print comics – I guess I just like comics) but I’ve slowed down from publishing Nathan Sorry as a digital comic for a few reasons. One of them is the work it takes to format them. It’s not an insurmountable amount of work but it takes some time. And it seems that each platform has its own formatting requirements which means setting up the comic slightly differently each time. At this stage in the game it’s not worth my time pursuing the various digital avenues that are out there. Not to mention that they’re constantly changing. Look at the Kindle which recently abandoned its format for one that is more graphics friendly. The time spent formatting my comic for the old format would have been wasted now and my time is really better spent actually working on the comic and not trying to sell 22 pages at a time to people.

Anyway, this was a nice review. It’s funny how differently people see your artwork. I’ve been compared to Cameron Stewart, Tony Moore and a few others before but this is the first time someone’s compared me to Charles Burns. Can’t say I see it myself but I’m honored by any of these comparisons to great artists.

- Week 2 of AlphaBeasts is underway. Check out all the entries here including my B is for Bantha.

- Chapter 6 begins here. I hate to have to let this page be the only update this week. Usually when I post these chapter break pages I make sure to have the next page ready as well but even though I have about 85% of that page done I’m going to hold on to it until next week to assure that I don’t fall behind right now.

- In the meantime, this week begins the new weekly alphabet project run by cartoonist Ben Towle. Last time we drew animals for each letter of the alphabet. This time we’re doing fictional creatures and beasts. Anyone is welcome to take part in it and the turnout for this first week has been immense. People like drawing monsters, it seems. Considering that I draw a comic about people sitting in restaurants or on their couch getting stoned and falling asleep I wasn’t sure how well I’d do at drawing monsters, but I’m pretty happy with my first entry and I’m looking forward to keeping up with it each week. Here’s my Abominable Snowman:

- Going to keep this one brief because we added a new baby to the family last week so I’m just trying to keep my head above water right now in getting work done until we all settle into a groove here.

- This page finally finishes up Chapter 5 which was a long one. Coming up in Chapter 6 we’ll delve a little into the pasts of both Casey and Nathan.

- If you’re an artist and want to join in on a fun drawing exercise, Ben Towle is starting up a new weekly alphabet project. Starting Oct. 17 everyone is going to be drawing fictional beasts and creatures for each letter of the alphabet. Anyone is welcome to join in. Here’s the info: http://www.benzilla.com/?p=3607 Drawing mythological creatures is going to be a nice change from the type of stuff I usually draw in this comic and it will probably be a little challenging for me.

- Warren Ellis is always worth listening to when talking about things like technology or the future of comics. He described this blog post entitled “The Broadcast of Comics” as “vast and unreadable” on Twitter but with his almost stream of conscious thinking here he’s hitting on a number of big and interesting points about webcomics, digital comics and longform, graphic novel storytelling on the web. All subjects that interest me dearly. If I can gather my own thoughts into anything half as coherent I might post something about it over on Google+ which is a nice way for me to say if you’re on Google+ we should connect… or circle or whatever? Lots of interesting discussions tend to go on over there.