Monday, April 20, 2015

Old Salt

Here's a wordless WaynoVision comic for your amusement.
This cartoonist is always pleased to come up with a gag that's purely visual. Although the idea is as simple as it can be, I of course agonized over the details. 

First, I had to decide which of the nautical nonagenarian's legs would be wooden. That was a relatively easy decision—it had to be in the foreground or else it would have been hidden.

Placing the boot on the walker presented more choices. Should it be on the same side as his peg, for balance? Should there be two boots so the walker and the pirate were both fifty percent peg? Should it match the boot he's wearing?

Ultimately, I fell back on some advice I took from one of many nerdly discussions on technique and process that I've had with Bizarro mastermind Dan Piraro. Dan once told me that he assumes the reader's eye usually travels from the upper left corner of a panel to the lower right, the way we in the Western world normally read text. Following that logic, I placed the walker's boot as close to the lower right corner as possible.

I wish I'd remembered that before I produced and discarded so many sketches.

Friday, April 03, 2015

The Man

Exactly six years ago, unsuspecting Bizarro readers encountered my first published collaboration with the amazing cartoonist Dan Piraro.
I was lucky enough to work with him as a regular gag writer for more than five years, and spent three of them assisting as Bizarro's colorist. I also had the distinct honor of occupying Dan's space as guest cartoonist for two week-long stints. All told, we did over 150 comics together.

During our collaboration, Dan was always very generous with his time. I spent a few days in his home observing and learning his painterly coloring technique, and we often had detailed discussions on editing, pacing, and staging in cartoon panels. I learned a lot from him, and feel that my work improved significantly as a direct result of working with him.

Another aspect of Dan's generosity (one could even call it bravery) is that I was acknowledged and credited as a writer for Bizarro. Many people who contribute to the comics you read every day do it anonymously. Quite a few comics are truly one-person shows, but many feature the work of multiple collaborators who remain hidden behind the name of a single creator.

Having the Bizarro byline certainly helped open up other cartooning opportunities, and gave my writing and art a much wider mainstream audience.

Bizarro is my favorite comic, and I continue to learn by studying Dan's work every day.

To Dan I say: Thanks, buddy! You've been, and continue to be, an esteemed colleague, mentor, drinking buddy, and dear friend.