Meat Party

Ladies and gentlemen, "Swiney Todd" (c) 2011, Chrissy Spallone

I wrote this "rap" (read it again with rap in mind in case the foot and meter was throwing you off) in the shower a couple weeks ago. It gets boring in there sometimes...not much else to do once I'm finished reading the riddles on my shampoo bottles. Showering is one of my least favorite things to do, but I try to make the best of it.

The gym is another common place where ideas are born. I wrote "Bun Home" on a rowing machine...

I hope you enjoyed "Swiney Todd". The medium is all pencils of varying hardnesses. I used a kneaded eraser to highlight areas where light would hit. One of my favorite techniques.

Don't Come Around Here No More

Yesterday I received a nasty letter from this guy regarding his likeness appearing in some of my comics.:

Surely I'm not the only cartoonist who bases characters off of real-life human beings. The strange thing is, I actually talked to this guy about 3/4 of the comics that feature him, and got the green light before completing and "publishing" them. This is why I think he wrote me a nasty letter to impress an audience.

Three Cool Cats

So this weekend I did something different for once. I dressed up like a "hipster" to be an extra in my friend Karl's brother's senior film, Creative Types. From what I've seen of the film so far, I assume it's a comic burlesque satirizing today's awful, devolving culture and what is trendy with college students. The antagonist is the author of a comic called Newt York, one of those slick, no-detail, probably made for the web four-panel witty (but lame) gag comics popular with the college crowd. The strip drawn for the movie is a pretty clever parody of such comics; I was impressed. The protagonist is a serious, tortured writer ignored by these Newt York worshipers. I haven't read the script, but I'm looking forward to the finished product -- seems consonant with some of the themes I've explored in recent years.

Anticipating downtime, I came to the shoot prepared with a Moleskine notebook to draw in (it doubled as a prop for my character). Other extras were dressed as hipsters, too, of course.

In college, I went to a few events with my fellow art students. Having nothing better to do at these parties, I sometimes sat and did nothing but draw people. So, this post includes drawings of REAL art students, as well as drawings of actors dressed up as stereotypical "creative types."

CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE?

I'm A One Man Guy

Bibliowhining celebrates the end of the Comics Code Authority.

Not to thumb my nose at standards, however; for example, Family Guy Sucks.

"Family Guy Get Off the Air" (c) 2011, Chrissy Spallone

American Dad sucks, too. And Cleveland Brown sucks as well.

Puttin' the dogg in doggerel, Chrissy Spallone.

Here's to the Atom Bomb

"2012 Skidoo" (c) 2011 Chrissy Spallone

It's good to be back! Those of you who "follow" me on the face may have noticed my complaints about Strathmore's new school of Bristol board. I ran out of my old batch a year or so ago, and when I restocked I noticed that inking on Strathmore board had a similar effect as inking on a roll of toilet paper. The Bristol board quite literally sucked!! -- My ink feathered and was absorbed until my once-dense black India ink faded to a dull light gray tone. To make it darker, I had to trace over some of my lines which as you might expect didn't look too pretty.

It still wasn't black, though. I was able to correct this problem somewhat by scanning my comics in, then tweaking the contrast and curves in Photoshop. Still, I was less than thrilled with the finished product, annoyed, and thought I was going crazy. I've since learned that Strathmore Bristol board now comes in "series." The 300-series board sold as the only option in many art supply stores is of horrible quality, but the two-ply 400-series I recently discovered works MUCH better for my needs as you can see.

My old PC, which had Photoshop on it, crashed, leaving me Photoshop-less. I scanned the above comic into my new MacBook with whatever scanning program comes with the computer, and what you see is an untweaked original! It's pretty good even without my usual adjustments, I think. Compared to my other stuff, I mean.

Hold up, let me get a little more excited about this, because this is truly a milestone...

I SCANNED A BLACK AND WHITE COMIC AND IT DIDN'T TURN OUT LOOKING LIKE CRAP!!! WAHOO!!!

I mean, if anyone would like to hook me up with Photoshop, though, I'd surely appreciate it. I like playing with it from time to time.