School St. 17 & 18

Here they are, the latest School St. strips, a bit later than usual. These have actually been done for over a week, but I'm only just getting around to posting them because of work-related insanity. These are slightly more complex than usual, so I went with a four-panel layout, which was a nice change of pace.

Martin says I've started to channel Peanuts, which is about as big a compliment as I can imagine. My two giants of strip cartooning — and especially cartoons about childhood — are Peanuts' Charles Schultz and Bill Watterson, of Calvin and Hobbes fame. Love those guys!

Also, I've noticed I do a thing where I draw Martin — the teacher, the adult, the guy I know — fairly realistically, and the kids tend to be more stylized. I attribute this partly to the fact that I know Martin and he is a specific person who I know to look a certain way, whereas the kids are purely imagined and so I let my imagination run a bit with them. I think it also fits in with the idea that adults are generally more well-defined, too.

School St. 15 & 16

The first time I inked these strips I guess I was in a hurry because I'd left out most of the ear details and all of the glasses stems. Adding these minor details later made a huge difference in the overall look of strips and added meaning in some respects as well. In particular, the kid's glasses in "Bologna" originally just looked like giant, buggy eyes.

I guess when you're making fairly small, simple drawing, the tiniest details can make huge differences.

This is one of the rare cases in which I've reworked an inked drawing in a significant way. It was a good experience and is a great tool to have in the toolbox.

A Couple of Zombies

I believe I mentioned recently that you just can't go wrong drawing zombies. Well, I stand by that assertion.

There's something intensely satisfying about drawing these creatures. Perhaps it's the joy of drawing something repulsive yet fascinating, perhaps it's the fact that you get to be creative with human anatomy, or maybe it's just fun to draw a face so messed up it looks good, at least in a gruesome sort of way.

I don't know what it is exactly, but boy is it fun.