Inking On Paper Again

Since my experience with GBS I've been inking almost exclusively on my iPad. I've gotten quite adept at it and the process I've developed offers some advantages even beyond aiding my recently damaged nerves. But there's still something about inking on paper that I just love, and I've missed it dearly. So I've started relearning and reshaping my process so that I might again ink on paper, at least when I want to.

The main thing that's facilitated this has been using the Kuretake brush pen recommended by Ryan Andrews. This pen is great, and it's just much easier to use for me than a brush. I still have some problems controlling the brush, and I'm still prone to dropping it, for some reason. But the brush pen's fat form has stayed firmly in my grip through much experimenting, and so I decided to try making a finished work with it.

This piece was a zombie portrait I did for some friends of mine. I originally pencilled it on 11"x17" bristol. Then scanned it into my iPad for inking. The iPad inks look like this:

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Once I was done and my friends were happy, I decided to take a stab at inking the actual pencils on paper. I think it came out pretty well:

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While there are things I really like about the iPad version, for the most part I really prefer the hand-inked one. I'm partial, of course; I just love original comic work, it's something I just love looking at.

It's also something I can give to people. So now I can actually give my friends this original drawing, which I expect will look much nicer than a digital print.

At any rate, I'm psyched to be inking on paper again, and pretty pleased at all the drawing options I've developed since getting sick. My illness, while a total drag, has at least pushed me in some new directions. And that's not the worst thing ever.

Zombies, Y'all

I've been obsessed with zombies lately. More specifically, I've been obsessed with drawing zombies. It is the funnest thing ever. I have so many and am cranking them out so fast that I made a Tumblr for them. It's called Zombies, Y'all, and it's just drawings of zombies — scary ones, funny ones, weird ones — all day and all night long.

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If you enjoy zombies like I do, check out Zombies, Y'all.

Recently Frightening Reads

I've recently finished two terrific books. Well, I finished one and sort of finished the other. My Friend Dahmer is Derf Backderf's amazing true account of growing up in the same town as, and briefly being friends with, the famed serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer. It's a quick but chilling read that starts in high school and ends with Backderf's reaction to the astounding discovery when the news of Dahmer's ghastly crimes reached the press.

Backderf's background is in journalism, so, while it is a personal account, the book is well sourced and researched. Backderf's drawing style is deceptively simple but effective and compliments the material well. Backderf does a great job portraying high school from the eyes of high schoolers, a horror in and of itself. But what I love most about this book is that it gives us a glimpse into the horror not just of the mind of Jeffrey Dahmer, but also the environs that helped create him: 1970s suburban America.

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I've also finished — for all intents and purposes — Robert Kirkman's landmark The Walking Dead. The truth is, I read the first half of that thousand plus page tome and then skimmed the latter half. I took this approach both because I was so horrified by the story, and yet because I was so immensely compelled to find out what happens. It's not pretty.

My reaction to the book was surprisingly visceral. While the writing can be uneven at times, the art, the storytelling and the story itself are intensely compelling. You want to keep reading all the while wanting the book to end. As a friend described it, it's brutal.

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I admire The Walking Dead immensely, and I've been a big fan of the show. But The Walking Dead is a horror story in the most primal sense. This is a book not so much about zombies, but about what happens when people are completely dehumanized by the total collapse of a structured society. It's painful to read.

Kirkman masterfully weaves his fable around carefully crafted characters that perfectly express his thesis. It's brilliant, but stay away if you don't really like horror. It's truly disturbing.