5 – A fixer-upper at best

Got back from the Long Beach Comic Con yesterday and was overall very impressed with the con, given that it was its very first outing. Saw lots of people who really shouldn’t have been in costume and a few who looked pretty good. Heard Berke Breathed talk, whch was awesome, as the man was a huge influence on my decision to become a comic strip cartoonist (or stripper, as he calls it). Found it endearing that he named his own son Milo, which was one the main characters in his comic strip, Bloom County. Also got to see some CGI animation test footage for an Opus movie that never got off the ground, but were great nonetheless.  Also met Dave Kellett, who is just about as nice a guy as you’d imagine from looking at his webcomic, Sheldon. The lucky so-and-so got his copy of Bloom County Library autographed by Breathed with an Opus sketch in it. *sigh* Oh well, I got to see the CGI Opus and  he didn’t, nyahh! 😉

I also got to try out a Cintiq for the first time. For those that don’t know, a Cintiq (pronounced sin-TEEK) is made by Wacom, which produces graphic tablets that allow you to draw on them with a pen-like stylus, reproducing the strokes and designs on your computer screen, which requires you to NOT look at where you are drawing, but instead watch the screen. It’s kinda tricky. A Cintiq cuts out the middle man and allows you to draw directly on the screen. It was beyond amazing, almost effortless and I would have bought one right then and there except for two things:

  1. They didn’t have any for sale at the con; they were just demonstrating them, and
  2. They cost roughly around $2000. *cough*

In other news, I’ll be experimenting with a different font for the strip, hoping to increase legibility. I have tried lettering by hand in the past and it just leaves me very frustrated. An interesting tidbit for you: when I’m putting these strips together, I am doing them the old-fashioned way, on paper with pen, brush and ink, including the lettering. Then, when I scan them in, I see that my lettering isn’t up to snuff and re-do the lettering in the computer. Probably a very ineffective use of time, but there you go. Until I become more comfortable hand-lettering, I’ll be trying out various fonts to see which one “fits” the strip.

Thanks again for reading and for the great comments!

Take care,

Rob Chambers