R.A.T.S. Street Art
My local subway stop here in Brooklyn is the 79th Street Station off the D Line in the neighborhood of Bensonhurst. It’s an elevated subway line that runs along New Utrecht Avenue before winding on down into Coney Island. If you’ve seen that famous John Travolta scene that opens Saturday Night Fever (credits rolling on his feet) then you’ve literally seen my neighborhood and the elevated trains I’m talking about.
In 2009 the MTA began construction on the stands that hold the subway tracks up. This consists of digging out the area around the stands and reinforcing them. A good thing of course, but after the holes were dug around the stands, they were never filled back in. Since 2009 there have been gaping holes in the ground. In addition to this, all the garbage cans along the street were removed. With no place to throw things out, people started to throw their garbage into these holes. As a result, rats have taken over New Utrecht Ave.
The rat problem has gotten so bad that people have reported that 30-40 rats can be seen walking down the street at night like a rat version of Saturday Night Fever. Local businesses and personal residences are suffering due to the MTA’s lack of ability to finish a job promptly. The city has contacted the MTA to fix the problem, but as with most corporations these days, they won’t take responsibility for the problem.
What they did do was put netting around the columns in an effort to stop people from throwing trash into the holes, this, of course, did nothing at all, and at the time of this writing the holes, garbage and rats remain.
You can read more about it here.
Seemed like a good opportunity for some Street Art.
Viral Process: Part 6
I’m realizing that my “Process Blog” is more of a “Progress Blog”… either way it is what it is and at the end of the day my continual struggle with this site is have to provide as much good content as possible while still making comix.
I’ve got some idea rattling around in my head and I’m going to see if it’s something really feasible or just another idea that falls apart upon further investigation.
Nevertheless, progress on Viral is going pretty well. What I tend to forget about is that while I’m working on Viral I’m also working on NYComix. The 27th of this month will mark the beginning of the 2nd year of NYComix Dailies and I decided that I needed to kick it up a notch and I think I’ve added something to the mix with NYComix that’ll be a welcome addition. Stay tuned, because honestly, you won’t see these changes until the web comic gets to January…. Which will be a while, but it’s not going anywhere.
Thanks for reading and follow me on Twitter.
COMPLETED MARCH 2011-JAN 2012
*Script
*Thumbnails Pages 1-16
*Pencils Pages 1-16
*Inks Pages 1-16
TO DO AS OF JAN. 17, 2012
Thumbnail 17-21
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Lazy New Year’s Resolutions
I’m about the cheapest bastard you’ll ever meet. I friggin’ hate spending money. I think I got it from my Grandfather who was the exact opposite of “You Can’t Take It With You”. I was at his former home over the holiday and it’s packed with more shit than you can shake a stick at. 99% of which is completely useless. I think he pulled nails out of Noah’s Ark just in case he needed to make a shed to store more of his useless crap in.
Anyway, this trip, coupled with the New Year has got me thinking about a lot of things. Besides springing for that can of Diet Coke during lunch I’m going to really force myself to respect my art and the process of doing it. Yeah, I’m not the best comic artist you’ll ever see, but I care a ton about the comics I make and while the single most important thing and artist can do to become a better artist is to simply “do the work”, another thing an artist can do to become a better artist is to respect and value that work.
There are a lot of ways to value your work. I put some corkboards up in my studio that right now are full of other people’s work I admire. Paul Pope pages and Jack Kirby Kamandi pages I cut out of an old copy of The Jack Kirby Collector… things along those lines. Well, I’m going start sticking stuff that I did up there. Things that work mostly but things that I did that don’t work. A Wally Wood drawing for sure can inspire me, but I can be inspired by something I did as well. (But damn, Wally Wood was awesome.)
Another thing I did was to couple my cheapness with my newfound desire to respect my work more by purchasing this awesome antique inkwell. I found it on eBay for a decent chunk of change but it’s one of those things I’ll have forever and while it may be psychological, dipping my brush in some Higgins Black Magic just feels cool with this thing.
I’ve got a lot of New Year’s Resolutions floating around in my head this year most pertaining to my art and usually I’m not a Resolution kinda guy. I think I should listen to them this year. I’ll keep you posted if I drop them like most people drop those gym memberships.
Finally, thank you to everyone that has come by the site this year. I hope you come back and most importantly, that you like what you’ve seen… a lot more to come in 2012.
Happy New Year.
–Randolph
Share on FacebookViral Process: Part 5
Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve updated the process blog but with the holidays and all that jazz what can I say? Anyway, I have been working on Viral as much as possible.
While this story is a Slasher Comic, at the end of the day I’m still telling a story and not every page can be a 80s movie bloodbath. Page 14 was one of those pages and I struggled with every panel. I took me about a week to finish penciling the page, but I learned a lot.
When it comes to drawing straight story with no action pages, clear storytelling is of the utmost importance. As you read that (and as I type it) you’re probably saying to yourself “Duh”… but really, every panel builds on the next. I recently read an artist interview where he said: “there are no bad panels, only bad surrounding panels.” This makes a lot of sense. If you’ve established where your characters are in the first panel on the page you have to build on that as you go along, and as you do, you can play more. (like omitting backgrounds, silhouette characters, etc.) These panels also give you a nice opportunity for character building that make those action pages/panels later on work even better.
Who knew a talking page would teach me more about making comics than a big fight scene?
COMPLETED MARCH 2011-DECEMBER 2011
*Script
*Thumbnails Pages 1-16
*Pencils Pages 1-11, 14-15
*Inks Pages 1-11
TO DO AS OF DEC. 17, 2011
*Pencil Pages 12-13, 16
*Inks Page 12-16
Don’t forget to follow me on the Twitter.
–r
Share on FacebookViral Process Blog Part 4
Well it was a combination of the holiday as well as getting the street art bug that’s gotten me a little bit far behind with Viral. I did manage to finish thumb nailing the next 5 pages as well as to start penciling one of those pages. This week things should pick back up a bit. I am, however going to be adding a Street Art section to the site to chronicle what I’ve been up to on that front. Things are going to be picking up a lot in that department and I’m having an insane blast doing it so stay tuned.
COMPLETED MARCH 2011-DECEMBER 2011
•Script
•Thumbnails Pages 1-16
•Pencils Pages 1-11
•Inks Pages 1-7, 11
TO DO AS OF DEC. 4, 2011
•Pencil Pages 12-16
•Inks Page 12-16
Thx…. hit me up on the twitter.
–r
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I struggle with letting my politics get into my art… but then I remember that the best art is honest art… after that I don’t struggle with it anymore.
Feel free to print these out…. spread ‘em around, post them on your facebook, twitter… whatever strikes your fancy.
–r
Share on FacebookViral Process Blog Part 4
After last week’s bout with sickness things are moving along here at the LazyComix Studio. I’m done inking my last 5 pages and I’m ready to get thumb nailing and penciling pages 12-16. Whenever I’m done inking I always flip through what I’ve finished and see what’s working and what’s not. I’m noticing that the more black I use the better. I consciously shoot for a 50/50 white to black ratio and while it sounds easy, it’s pretty tough to do. I don’t want to just fill in a background in black just because, but I find myself doing that when all else fails. Hopefully by the end of this project I’ll have worked out the use of black fills into more than just negative space solutions.
I’m also considering going back and redrawing a few panels. I know I’m treading on George Lucas territory, and I’ve heard plenty of artist say “don’t go back, move forward”…. But I know I can do a better job on some of these panels… I’ll just have to be careful that 2 or 3 panels don’t become 2 or 3 pages.
With the holiday coming up this week it might be tough to get as much work done as usual but we’ll see…. I’m shooting to get all my thumbnails done and one page ruled out with pencils started.
Wish me luck and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
COMPLETED MARCH 2011-NOVEMBER 2011
•Script
•Thumbnails Pages 1-12
•Pencils Pages 1-11
•Inks Pages 1-11
TO DO AS OF NOV. 13, 2011
•Thumbnail Pages 13-16
–r
Share on FacebookViral Process Blog Part 3
So I haven’t updated this since Halloween… 2 weeks ago and here I am still coming down from the mother of all colds. There’s nothing that’ll put a crimp in some late night comic making than coughing up a lung.
I did manage to ink a page and put a little more time into NYComix Dailies, which I have to be careful about not letting fall behind while I’m focused on other projects. NYComix Dailies will hit 400 strips this week and in all honesty, I’m pretty damn proud about hitting that mark. In reality I’ve got about 600 drawn already giving me that all important web comic buffer.
I also did another Star Wars piece of everyone’s favorite scapegoat: Jar Jar Binks.
Anyway, this week I’ll be back in the saddle and I should have everything inked, enabling me to move onto penciling the next 5 pages.
Stay tuned. Oh, and being that I usually talk about movies, check out Straight Time (1978) a hidden 70’s gem starring Dustin Hoffman (who is amazing in this flick) and possibly the crazies man alive, Gary Busey (who also put in one hell of a performance). If you’re into crime films, you’ll be hard pressed to do better.
Thanks for reading and hit me up on the twitters.
COMPLETED MARCH 2011-NOVEMBER 2011
•Script
•Thumbnails Pages 1-11
•Pencils Pages 1-11
•Inks Pages 1-7, 11
TO DO AS OF NOV. 13, 2011
•Thumbnail Pages 12-16
•Inks Page 8
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Mesa Bombad ®
Viral Process Blog: Part 2
I always try to take in as much inspiration as I can while working and as I mentioned in Part 1 that’s usually coming from film more than comix these days. With it being Halloween season and all, it’s impossible not to find some kind of horror on television lately. AMC has been playing the Halloween films on a loop and while the first Halloween is so great that it still somewhat works edited for television. (And can someone explain to me how Gaddifi’s bloody corpse can play on a loop on network TV but Halloween needs to be edited on cable?) Nevertheless there’s nothing worse than edited for television horror flicks.
Being what I guess can only be explained as starved for some good ol’ fashioned 80’s blood and gore, I popped in my copy of the original Friday the 13th while inking and realized again how well done a flick it really is. What I hadn’t realized until my last watch was how each kill scene builds on the last. By doing so, the director (Sean S. Cunningham) was getting the audience comfortable…making them feel like the worst they’ll see is a little bit of fake blood. The first kill doesn’t have to be edited for television as it happens completely off screen, but before you know it there’s an axe to the face and an arrow is poking through Kevin Bacon’s neck in strikingly realistic fashion. (Once again by makeup effects maestro Tom Savini.)
In all honesty I didn’t take this approach with Viral but at the same time I wonder if that would work in comics? I think it would and I wish I had looking back, but alas, maybe on the next project.
Anyway, last week I needed to finish penciling and inking pages 7-11… here’s where I’m at as of right now. (Most of this being done late at night after the family had gone to bed)
COMPLETED MARCH 2011-OCTOBER 2011
•Script
•Thumbnails Pages 1-11
•Pencils Pages 1-11
•Inks Pages 1-7, 11
TO DO AS OF OCT. 30, 2011
•Thumbnail Pages 12-16
•Inks Pages 8-10
Thanks for reading and follow me on twitter.
–r
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