When You Study History…
JP&TM: Adam talks history.
The Rundown: First line of panels - Adam and Fred walk out of town, and Adam makes small talk. Fred, being somewhat nerdy and overly logical, is basically hardwired to hate small talk (and he probably sucks at it too.) Fred has a problem with Adam mocking the past. This sets him off on a linguistically logical nerd rant (which I illustrated by using the old “crooked boxes on a black background” device. This might not have been the best device for this. Perhaps I should have only made the last frame crooked. Any view opinion on this?) In the last row, I used a silent panel to try to illustrate the tension you could cut with some sort of futuristic plasma cutter. Luckily, Adam can float through that sort of thing, and so he walks by Fred, and the conversation begins again. If you can’t tell by the last panel, I have some sort of preoccupation with old school joke set-ups.
On a side note, I have changed the posting schedule. I now post these larger comics on tuesdays and thursdays, and smaller drawings and illustrations on a monday, wednesday, friday schedule down below in the secondary blog section that I’m not sure if anyone scrolls down to check out. Does anyone scroll down there?
July 24th, 2007 at 3:28 am
I’m not sure if anyone has said this yet as I stopped reading all the comments after a handfull of strips (it’s getting late and I wanted to read all the comics before I passed out) but your strip has a very “Calvin and Hobbes” feel to it. Different subject matter, obviously, but I get the same feeling when I read it. Definitely bookmarked, I love it.
July 24th, 2007 at 5:30 am
Thomas, let’s put it this way, nobody has said it today. You are the first…today.
July 24th, 2007 at 5:38 am
I’m terribly sorry…I know it’s horrible of me…but I simply can’t help myself.
It’s “primitive”.
Please don’t vaporize me.
July 24th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Crit Time.
Wow….so that’s what 800 x 600 looks like. Zuda comics, here you come. This is the first comic in awhile where you are, at least in my opinion, showing a tighter sense of control bachground wise. Everything from placement to shading to quantity…the back grounds for me are spot on.
This is also the first comic where Adam is never drawn in your standard profile, here we see him directly on the side 3 times, shaded twice and from the back once. No standard view of Adam and that struck me strange because Adam looks different to me. I mean he should, you drew him in all the non-regular views…but it’s the first thing I noticed when I finished reading…huh?…Adam looks different.
All the slanted middle panels look great to me. Not sure about the 3rd last one. Adam walking is throwing me off. I think a stronger panel would maybe be a zoomed view of either of their faces, a bewildered, awkward look or something. Or, myabe the panel works and I’m the minority as usual.
Art work is at its best as usual. Writing is also up there, getting better every day (or twice a week)
*On a side note - 700+ unique yesterday with well over 100 returning fans…and Scott and I are the only ones who saw your beautiful illustration. Just email it to us next time.
July 24th, 2007 at 8:01 am
@ Thomas: Thanks Thomas, and as Jarrett pointed out, yeah, a couple of people have drawn comparisons in the past. Obviously Calvin and Hobbes was quite an influence on me, much the same way that Peanuts seemed to be an influence on Watterson himself. Hopefully, just as Bill drew much of his early inspiration from Peanuts and then went his own way with it, I’d like to do the same.
@Gwen: Oh geez. You’re excused this time… THIS TIME! (shakes fist)
@Jarrett (TPOM Creator): Other people might have seen yesterdays illustration!
July 24th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Man, this is excellent! The third and sixth panels are my favorites. If you keep this stuff up, you’re on your way to a contract with Zuda. I can see why people make the comparison to Calvin and Hobbes. Very similar look and energy to the art, although your writing has more of an edge. (which I like)
I have the same reaction as Jarrett to Adam walking in the seventh panel. I would like to see them both just standing looking at each other.
I’m still getting to know the characters. It’s clear that Fred is intelligent and sarcastic. I had assumed that Adam was, um, “special,” but this strip makes it seem like he’s smarter than I had previously thought.
Great stuff, Jim.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Yeah, Adam is not actually an idiot, he’s just not particularly perceptive and tends toward daydreaming. It’s hard for his train of thought to switch tracks, so to speak.
Hm… maybe I’ll do a re-draw with Adam facing Fred. What I was going for there, is that fred goes on a tirade in the second row of panels, then stops and faces adam down, and adam just walks by him, and continues doing what he was doing. I could have him turn in that last panel though. (I drew his ears too far back on his head too)
July 24th, 2007 at 9:24 am
For the record, I want it known one of my comments has actually made Jim consider re-drawing!….lol…young pups.
JESUS NO….don’t touch the last panel. That panel is fine. Another way to fix the 3rd last is keep the pose of adam, but hve him passing fred, bring adam over to the right, and have fred turning his head past his shoulder.
I never thought of Adam as special. Having known Jim for 2 years now, I can say that he is as impatient and logical as Fred but with Adam’s I don’t give a rat’s arse attitude. Basically…it’s better to Read Jim’s comic than it is to actually know him.
July 24th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Wow! You must be really having fun with that Cintiq. I love the linework you get out of it. Nice use of black and white space. The backgrounds, while intricately drawn, don’t compete with the characters in each panel.
Yeah, nothing will snap someone out of the realm you’ve created like a misspelled word. I speak from experience.
July 24th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Thanks Worth… the cintiq is pretty freakin’ sweet. It really complements the digital work I was already doing but adds a level of control that was lacking with the old tablet. Speed is also a factor… but I can’t really tell how much faster it makes me because I’m also getting faster at these comics as I make more of them and get a better feel for what I’m trying to accomplish.
Don’t even mention spelling, I get nervous when I hear the ’s’ word…
July 25th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I love reading the ramblings back and forth critiquing every nuance of the strip. Jim, your artistic styling is amazing, why don’t you quit worrying about the art side, and concentrate more on moving the story line or character developement. I have read and reread every strip on this web site, but I still don’t feel like I know the characters yet. This one did a nice job of fleshing out these two a bit, but the strip in whole went in one direction with both characters. Mabe a few smaller strips, or a large strip that reaches the broader expanses of the individuals would make the characters personalities match the quality of the art.
July 25th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Thanks for the feedback kevin, what are you trying to say? You sayin’ my writing sucks? HUH?!?
Just messing with you. As far as the writing goes, I’ve been considering the same thing recently (just last night actually). I’m going to try to write more for sure. I won’t lie, character development is definitely my weakness.
In defense of the critique though, it’s not the art side I worry about (other than drawing faster)… what the goal of the critique is supposed to be, is focusing on the narrative aspects of the art (although we do get sidetracked sometimes). Part of character development in a visual media such as comics, involves figuring out how to draw those characters expressing emotions, or how to express things visually. I’m still working on it.