I'm supposed to not be doing unpaid/exposure jobs anymore. It gets me in big trouble with my girlfriend. I'm a hopeless addict, seized by a furtive need to put pictures to other peoples' scripts. She's seen me do dozens of these things over the last ten years, and heard me wheeling out the same (increasingly hollow) justifications: "it'll be good experience...", "You never know, someone might see it and offer me some paid work..." etc etc. I'm aware that I have a problem. Truly I am. Although the fear of my beloved's withering gaze is enough to keep me on the straight and narrow most of the time, when I do crumble, and crumble I always do, it's mainly down to my absurd inability to remember just how long it takes me to actually do the damn things.
Anyway, so there's this 'fairytales in the future' comics anthology that's been in the works for a year or so, marshalled by Chris Stevens over on Digital Webbing. That's right: fairytales in the future. Straight away you sense that the abstinence/participation battle in Nelson's poor brain was only ever going to go one way. And then Chris (evil pusherman that he is) delivered the killer blow: an invitation to illustrate the update of 1001 Nights, pencilled in as the opening strip in the book.
My resistance went majorly kaput due to Tara Alexander's lovely script, which is an out and out love letter to the joys of comics (and by extension the timeless clout of good storytelling in general). Especially appealing was the sweet, subtle human love story running throughout; I knew I was going to relish trying to nail something of the weird, delirious awkwardness that ripples through your head, heart and gut when Crush at First Sight occurs.
If the script wasn't enough, Farel Dalrymple, one of my favourite (and no doubt everyone else's favourite) comic artists is doing the cover.
I even got to go a bit mental in the middle:
It sounds like it's going to be a pretty massive affair: 300+ pages, loaded with strips and pin-ups, all massively varied in style and tone. One to watch? Absolutely. Is this the very last unpaid/exposure comic I ever do, straight up, no messing, honest to god..?
Absolutely. I'm finally CLEAN!
6 comments:
looks wonderful work :-) what a great concept
Cheers Jon! The finished book should be a lot of fun for sure.
I'd echo Jon's comments - really lovely looking job and the 60's feel to the line and color work is very tasty too!
Yup I reckon it was worth risking the wrath of your better half for.
Cheers Peter, and you're right, it is kind of 60's isn't it? I'm guessing my idea of what a (for want of a better description) feminine/romantic comic strip looks like owes much to the 60's and 70's, when there seemed to be lots more of them about...
Really excellent work, great blog. I especially love your Tom Thumb!
You'll prove your partner wrong pretty soon I'm sure! What you need to remind her is that this kind of work only adds to your artistic experience and ability.
This is invaluable. If she wants you to be successful then she should trust your instinct as an artist. But I was always advised to stay out of boy girl fights so I should shut up!
Heh heh, thanks Dave. She'll come round once I'm getting enough work in for her to leave her shitty job and be my colourist instead.
Post a Comment