Tales from the Scratch Pad: Pages Pages Pages!

Hey sports fans, Al here with the latest!

COMICS!

In all my time in writing over the last couple of years on this blog one of the biggest things that I had personally said was that I was going to be stepping back from the comic books and focusing on more of the fine art aspect of my work with commissions and gallery shows around town.

BUT THEN SOMETHING HAPPENED!

Over the last month and half to two months I have been turning out is a small comic illustration a day featuring Robot Monster in a number of skits each day. Some of this illustration one a day is based upon the idea of inktober where you you illustrate one black and white illustration a day to see if you can crank out an image once a day. The other part was presenting something comical about Robot Monster and taken out of his normal presented environment.

,This allowed me to really go and have fun with the character. And this is and has been part of the problem I have had doing comics the fun of working. Yes, there is really no way to make a living off of making comic books these days especially if your being realistic about your work. BUT DO YOU LOVE DOING IT?

If the answer is “YES!” then keep at it. People who are looking at your work know and they see that; this guy really likes doing this and looks like he is having fun doing it. This is an issue that I brought to the Eugene Comic Guild years ago back in 1999 at a comic book shop that we were meeting up at. If you. It was also a topic of conversation with my friend Jason Z. Pott of NeoTrash Comix. A lot of independents don't make their money off this kind of work and drop out. I found myself chasing the same kind of carrot that a friend of mine was doing with the comics and the sale that he was having of his work. Needless to say he hasn't turned out a comic book in a very long time. And I guess that is why it has taken a long time to get Corpse Cop back out there. I was having fun with making comics but because I wasn't making any money off of them I had to rethink how to make and support the artwork that I had been doing for over a decade.

And now I have (I think) found a way to have my cake and eat it too. Commissions and gallery shows help spread my work out there. The small comic illustrations that I have been working on keep me well practiced on turning out work quickly once a day. The comics are just fun to work on and it's really just for me to enjoy! I don't care how other people look at “Oh, that's just stupid.” OR “You know that really isn't his origin.” OR “Hey man, this is really cool. Can you do an image of (blank character's name here.)"

I don't care about any of that. This work is for me. BUT I am willing to share it with you.

10 comic book pages layouts for Robot Monster story. Because I could and having fun doing it. Fun stuff. ‪#‎comicbooks‬ ‪#‎illustration‬ ‪#‎penandink‬ ‪#‎robotmonster‬ ‪#‎visualartist‬ ‪#‎pdxart‬

I love comics and they will forever change the way I illustrate. And I'm fine with that.

I GUESS THIS ASKS A QUESTION-
Will I return to doing comic books full time? The answer to that is no. As much fun as I am doing this project doing it full time comic book just takes too much out of me and the pocket book to make it worth while.

ANOTHER QUESTION SHOULD BE-
Will there be a return of Johnny Vega

, Corrax the Seeker, Corpse Cop? Hard to say. Of all these characters I think Corpse Cop would be the easiest to return to. The super complex story line that I came up with for Johnny Vega/ Corrax the Seeker would in fact take up an Omnibus book to make sense of it all. I would have to find a way of slowing or stopping time to completely flush out that story. I think that it would be similar to a writer coming onto a character and story that has already been out there for decades.

Though there has been conversations thrown around the Condo of Concepts about revisiting the Vegaverse and putting a more of a "modern tone" to the work - whatever that means.
That idea kinda made me think about really bringing this character back and telling the story from the beginning and cutting out some of the extra stuff that would only need to be hinted at in flashbacks and such. Just to keep the story going and not get bogged down and slowing down the action adventure that makes Johnny Vega such a fun character to work with.

Corrax the Seeker would end up getting a major overhaul and moving the character into a much more singular mission of vengeance against the A.I. Wars that decimated his homeworld.

And Corpse Cop? Well he's Corpse Cop.

I will say that he has a limited run for the story lines I want to run with him. But has been brought over to a few other worlds and independent comics with other companies.

For me that has been pretty cool.
Anyway so there you go with the comic books. I still love 'em and I'm still making them - just not as frequently as I was .

There is that plus these comics from at indyplanet.com
There you will find that both my work and my former collaborator Dan Barton from the Pandora's Garage day showcasing his comic book "Big Ass Sword".
And as always there are places for you to check out as well.
Etsy

Big Cartel

Storenvy