CosMick

Today's blog is brought to you by the letter C. That's for CosMick actually, and my inspiration comes directly from a friend of mine, John. You see, together we have created a comic book....well, at least the first five pages of a comic book. The idea came from our friend, Nick, who happens to be the writer for a few different comics under his self created label, Crash 'n Klein. In any case, Nick and John already created a comic under the name of The Denim Avenger. Issue one can be found here. http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Denim_Avenger/index.php?p=223720


So if you like comics and local art, I suggest you check it out. Now. Back to my story. In any case, Nick approached me about six months ago and asked me to join his crusade for witty, in your face comics. He pitched an idea for a comic set in the far reaches of space in which the hero (a normal every day guy named Mick) would receive powers to help restore the balance of the universe. Kind of far out there, but I asked him why he would need me. I didn't draw people, let alone people in all sorts of crazy poses and scenes! He then told me it wasn't that he was after, but my keen sense of color and immaculate backgrounds. Apparently John would be handling all the action with the characters. After very little convincing, I joined in and Nick went to writing the script. Not long after, John and I had a lengthy script to storyboard (which turned out to be almost 32 pages laid out) and he presented me with the cover to finish and color.

Here, John did the work on the face and the hand, while I pretty much did the rest of the background and all of the coloring, plus designed the lettering. In these other panels, John did all the work, as you can see they're all characters' action poses. And it's these photos that are the most inspiring in my work.

Actually, watching John in general is very inspiring. He's not afraid to take risks and put it all out there. When you watch him draw, he props up a little mirror so he can make faces and and draw them. Rarely does he ever hesitate, he's always sketching and going for it. His work (and I apologize for the blurry pictures, it's hard to take a decent picture of a page without the flash and my lighting here is horrible) is immaculate, as you can see with the close-up of these two monkeys (appearing in the narrative sequence). His attention to detail isn't arbitrary and it's always very expressive. Don't those monkeys look pissed?! Hah! But seriously, I think one of the most important things about working with someone is that they can teach you and inspire your art to new heights. This certainly inspired me to take more risks and just draw. Usually I have a tendency to map out and think a lot of my designs through too much. I also stop and stare at the page for a good fifteen minutes before I decide on a color. I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes it pays to just go with your instinct. We were so inspired the day we created these pages we ended up getting five penciled in and one and a half colored. And apparently I was so inspired, I finished an entire page, all by myself! My first EVER full comic book page, and I owe that accomplishment strictly to John =D