Go With What You Know. Part Two: The New Job Title.
Ok, First new comic since getting the new tablet. It’s pretty freakin’ awesome.
This is part two, continued from wednesday, so if you’re new, you might want to read the previous comic first, of course, if you’re reading this, you’ve probably already read the comic, so I don’t know why I added that explanation. In this comic, Adam and Fred Stand Before Grandpa. They’re welcomed into the organization. Four Words: Villainous, Evil, Ruthless sponges. I’m not really clear how those vary from regular sponges. Needless to say, Grandpa uses atmosphere to his advantage and Adam and Fred are in! They have their mission..
It’s typical… I was a little ahead on my deadline, so what did I do? I decided to make a bigger comic with some serious drawing. It’s a constant problem. I only mention it because I’m afraid things might be changing here. I think I’m changing the schedule and the format. I’ll post more details this weekend in the news section.
July 20th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Crit TIme.
You know, at first I thought I could tel the difference between the waycom and cintiq…but you sort of tricked us. The first new comic with cintiq is bigger, with a different layout, so those are the differences that stand out. Very smart, dumb-dumb.
This is a beautiful strip from start to finish. I have nothing to say crit wise as I wouldn’t change a thing. Forget about trying to find an electric font, you have created an electric bubble - JOB DONE.
I would like to bring up something though. Grandpa looks exactly like Darth Vader without his helmet when Luke took off his helmet in the fianl minutes of Return of the Jedi. Am I wrong?
Well done Jim.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:24 am
J,
I have a question and this isn’t a critique or anything…more for my own reading purposes and to catch up. Adam and Fred…are they brothers?
July 20th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Jim is sleeping. Friends I believe.
July 20th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Nice! Great effect in first panel.
Harry Potter-mania is about to descend upon us and I’ve always wondered: Why would anyone sign up for a job called “deatheater.” I mean, it doesn’t sound like a great, long-term career move, the benefits stink, you’ll never be able to put it on your resume.
Villains make lousy people but great salesmen.
July 20th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Thanks Guys.
@Jarrett:I suppose grandpa does, but he also looks like the old guy from Advance Wars DS. He’s an old evil villain… That’s probably how they all look.
@Wit: They’re not brothers, they’re friends. Fred has the “functional family”
@ Worth: Thanks worth. I’m not always that smooth with the lighting effects, but I’m working on it.
July 20th, 2007 at 9:22 am
Wow! Not to wander wildly off-topic, but all my friends & I, back in the day, were Calvin & Hobbes fans, and I just found this comic…it feels like the good old days again…before them Internets and “teh suxxorz” and all that.
(I know it’s drawn electronically and online…but it’s not Chinese toothpaste…it’s what you’re making that counts!)
This is the type of comic that newspapers should have, but will never, ever (sad to say) publish…because of everything that’s wrong with newsprint today. And because JP&TM is too smart.
The way Adam and Fred are drawn in the garden rawks! Reminds me of every suburban gardener I’ve ever known/seen.
PLEASE PLEASE don’t give up drawing this comic, unless you have a brain fart that flattens your skull or something…your work will keep this cubicle crop duster sane…and I buy books/t-shirts/bumperstickers. (wink wink, nudge nudge)
Thanks!
July 20th, 2007 at 9:32 am
That first panel is just beautiful. “Villainous, evil, ruthless sponges” cracked me up. Great work. Is the text a font of your handwriting or did you buy it?
July 20th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Thank for the feedback Christopher!
Don’t worry, I’m not planning on stopping any time soon. To be perfectly fair to newspapers, they couldn’t really publish this comic because I draw it too big and they shrink the comics down too small. My comic isn’t quite suited to the newspaper environment, which seems to favor a more minimalist artistic style.
July 20th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Thanks Scott, I made the font. It’s a font of my handwriting with a vector brush using a tablet. I don’t know as much about the font program as I should though, so the spacing on some of the letters is off. After I made the first set of lowercase letters, I tweaked the letter-forms for the uppercase versions, that’s why it throws people off a bit, because when two letters are next to each other, I can use the different versions.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I hope the larger comic is here to stay (and isn’t too much work for you) becuase, quite honestly, my 36 year old eyes really enjoyed it!!!
By the way, I love the way Fred’s face looks in panel 2. And the flowery glove in the last panel. Being able to see those details really adds alot to my appreciation of what is already a good comic.
July 20th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Thanks! The big comic… well, I’ll mention it a bit here, but I’m going to post more detail later…
The comic is going to get bigger. What I’m thinking is that I’m going to start creating it at 4:3 ratio, so that if I want, I can enter some into the DC web comic thing (more on that in the weekend news post). Making the bigger comic will be more work though, so I’m going to only post big comics on tuesdays and thursdays. Mondays, wednesdays, and fridays I’m going to post smaller single panel comics or drawings down below in the blog section. At least, that’s my plan at this point. The M, W, F, comics won’t always be standard comics, sometimes they’ll just be snapshots into the world of JP&TM, because that will help me flesh things out more without having to worry about canning ideas that I can’t immediately write into full script jokes. Hopefully this will serve to deepen the world of JP&TM and sooth the loss of that third weekly comic strip.
We’ll see how it goes. Thanks for reading!
July 20th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
“Villainous, evil, ruthless sponges.” Brilliant.
This is by far my favorite so far. Really excellent work! I’m especially liking the way you handled Grandpa’s speech bubbles this time around. Can’t wait to read more!
July 20th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Thanks Justin! Don’t worry, there will be plenty more.
and yeah, when I wrote that line, I laughed, so I knew it was here to stay.
July 21st, 2007 at 7:09 am
Villainous, evil, ruthless sponges? Aren’t they from an old Dr Who episode? Grandpa sorta reminds me of Davros, too.
I agree that the “electronic” speech bubbles are working just fine, so the font isn’t an issue for me. Of course, it’s not my strip.
Keep up the terrific work.
July 21st, 2007 at 11:28 am
Thanks Doug! Hopefully the strip will only continue to get better.
Doctor who? (sorry) Um, I’ve never actually seen an episode, so I wouldn’t know… but It’s still entirely possible that some time I heard someone quoting it, and the line lodged itself in my subconscious, only to be dredged up while I was writing