I suck at talking about myself. Never blogged before. Assumed if I did, no one would care.
I'm giving it a try now, though, since you, the at-this-point-hypothetical ACTION, OHIO reader, did care enough to click over here. Forcing myself to try new things is the main reason I signed on for this. I've never had the confidence to follow through and put my work out there in a big way, to let go of it and let it be what it is, to make the mistakes you need to make to learn and grow as an artist. But I am now because I promised Neil I would.
When I approached Neil about drawing a superhero story he mentioned on
Panel and Pixel, I knew him from interviews, columns, message boards. I knew him as a man whose name I knew, which meant he was accomplishing things that I want to accomplish. I hoped that by working with him, some of that would rub off on me. And since I now have a webcomic and production blog and at least one production blog reader to my name, I guess a little of it has.
I warned Neil that I'd never done any proper panel-to-panel comics work before, but promised that if he took a chance on me I'd do my damnedest. And he did. And I did. And here we are.
All right, let's can the mushy stuff. On to hardcore production blog action!
I lucked out after committing to the project, when the story I agreed to draw turned out to be good. ACTION, OHIO is like things I like. It has elements that remind me of pulps and serials, good old-fashioned stories about men who punch other men in the face.
Reading the initial pitch I pictured the heroes of the story, imperfect and burdened by reality, as resembling something out of the cliffhanger era. I saw them in cheap wool uniforms that tend to bunch and packing heat like the Republic version of Captain America, the notion of the gunless hero having proved too romantic for their world. Then the Kirby influence the story called for layered over that, just a little Jack creeping into their reality so I can get away with not making myself look even worse by attempting to ape his style.
Among the first drawings I sent to Neil was this generic male, an indicator of the sort of build and costume style an ACTION, OHIO character might have.
Then I tried one of the main characters, the Scarlet Wasp.
Neil informed that the Wasp was a dude. (I got confused.) I like to think I made up for my dumbness with:
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