I have been sitting at my desk all day, save for an hour that I went out to run some errands. Even when I'm only going up to the corner to get some lunch and pick up a couple of things from Shopper's Drug Mart, I still need to put on a tie. I was thinking that I was going to go to the gym tonight but I'm too in the groove to stop. I've been twice this week already, so I'll be OK to go tomorrow and Thursday.
I had other work that I should have been doing today, and I've chipped away at it in momentary spurts, but basically I woke up today and got started on inking a page and couldn't stop. And then started on the next page and couldn't stop. I am starting to put too much effort into the drawing, this book is supposed to be in my 'bad art' style.
The next couple of pages after this one are going to be a fun challenge because I'm going back to ones I have not laid out. As I've said before, I want this book to have the feel that it was made up as I went along so I have only laid out key, complicated sequences. I don't even know what the page count is going to be on this book, that will reveal itself to me.
I remember an interview with Chris Ware I once read in which he was talking about how when he draws comics pages, he turns off radios and TVs, and does his best to block out all stimuli so that the drawings are purely what's in his head. I go the other way. I've got music playing, movies on the go, and frequent breaks to play Wii Tennis. I want all of that stimuli to find it's way into the work. My whole thing is to take the world around me as I see it, and twist & mangle it and that's what the work is made out of.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
As the world awaits B.B.O.W.
It's crazy how the streets are fiending for this new comic book. I think I've already blogged about how as soon as I started feeling like I had a story I needed to tell in the comic book form, people started to stop me in the streets to ask when I was going to put a new comic book out. I even go into the Silver Snail and the clerk is telling me that people come in and ask them when a new Sean Ward book is coming out. Today I went to the gym and as I'm opening a locker, a voice behind me asks if I'm still making comics. I turn around and it's some guy who used to buy comics on the street from me. He recognized me, even though he hasn't seen me in years and hasn't followed my exploits in other media. We chatted a bit and I gave him the run-down of what I've been up to. And with any luck, I got him hype for Benny Bunny On Wheels. Then when I got home, I found a Facebook add from a girl who used to be one of my biggest supporters all through when I was putting out new comics, but who also hasn't been around since then. And now she's asking me about it. This goes on constantly, almost daily. It would almost be eerie if it wasn't so cool!
It's funny, the weird cycles that things go in. I haven't made a new comic book in over two years because of how burned out I was on the whole thing. I grew to dislike the qualities that trying to compete in the comic book scene was bringing out of me. But now, the more I get back into putting out a new comic book, the more I feel like the real me is flourishing for the first time in ages. I think that's because I am reconnecting with the spirit in which I was creating comics when I first started doing it seriously. In the beginning, I wasn't concerned about getting mentioned on the comics websites. I didn't care about attending the conventions. I was just making something I thought was cool and trying to show it to people. And that's how I feel now about this new one. For a long time, my output was too much about trying to prove something. That's when the motivation is coming from an egocentric place. And nothing that comes from an egocentric place ever works out well in the long run.
It's funny, the weird cycles that things go in. I haven't made a new comic book in over two years because of how burned out I was on the whole thing. I grew to dislike the qualities that trying to compete in the comic book scene was bringing out of me. But now, the more I get back into putting out a new comic book, the more I feel like the real me is flourishing for the first time in ages. I think that's because I am reconnecting with the spirit in which I was creating comics when I first started doing it seriously. In the beginning, I wasn't concerned about getting mentioned on the comics websites. I didn't care about attending the conventions. I was just making something I thought was cool and trying to show it to people. And that's how I feel now about this new one. For a long time, my output was too much about trying to prove something. That's when the motivation is coming from an egocentric place. And nothing that comes from an egocentric place ever works out well in the long run.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Finished the Benny Bunny script
Today I finished the Benny Bunny script. I actually finished it last night, but formatted it and edited it today. It feels like a milestone. This is going to be the first comic book work that I have released since November of 2005.
I've already got nine pages drawn, that's how I started the thing. It was going to be in the same style as my last Benny Bunny book, how I just made it up as I went along with no underdrawing or pre-planning of any kind. It started like that, but then I got so into the story that I wanted to present it in a slightly more polished form. By that point I was nine pages in on the first go, so I re-drew those pages. Then I needed to finish the story so I put those pages away and started on a real script. And that's all the pre-planning that's going into this thing. The page layouts are all in my head. The under-drawing is very light, and even then only for figures.
I am very excited to get this story out. It's going to have "based on several true stories" under the title on the inside of the cover. The comic book scene in Toronto is bogged down by a strange triangle of political B.S. This comic book is based on many such things I've seen go on in this city between stores, events, and people.
Now that the script is finished, I can get back to the fun job: finish drawing the pages. I'm aiming to release this thing in April so I'd better get motoring.
I've already got nine pages drawn, that's how I started the thing. It was going to be in the same style as my last Benny Bunny book, how I just made it up as I went along with no underdrawing or pre-planning of any kind. It started like that, but then I got so into the story that I wanted to present it in a slightly more polished form. By that point I was nine pages in on the first go, so I re-drew those pages. Then I needed to finish the story so I put those pages away and started on a real script. And that's all the pre-planning that's going into this thing. The page layouts are all in my head. The under-drawing is very light, and even then only for figures.
I am very excited to get this story out. It's going to have "based on several true stories" under the title on the inside of the cover. The comic book scene in Toronto is bogged down by a strange triangle of political B.S. This comic book is based on many such things I've seen go on in this city between stores, events, and people.
Now that the script is finished, I can get back to the fun job: finish drawing the pages. I'm aiming to release this thing in April so I'd better get motoring.
Monday, February 4, 2008
A messy adventure in time for a meeting
A few days ago, I had a meeting at one of the cable networks. I took the subway out to their offices, way out in the eastern-most part of the city. I arrived to the destination station (in a mall) with 40 minutes before I had to be at the meeting so I had some time to kill. I got a bagel and a coffee, and decided that instead of getting on a bus to go maybe two stops, I would just walk across the bridge over the highway.
I exited the mall through the north-east exit and walked across the parking lot. By the time I ran out of parking lot, I had a small patch of grass to cross to get to the sidewalk. I took a step onto the grass. With my second step, my feet flew out from under me and I landed on my ass. It was a mild day and the grass was wet and slick from the melting snow so I slid down a little hill like a water slide and landed in a puddle at the bottom, spilling my coffee all over myself - and my favorite t-shirt - as I went. I climbed up out of the puddle with my entire right side covered in mud, and my pants and shoes soaking wet.
I crossed the bridge, arrived to the building, and got an interesting look from the security guard who let me through. I checked in at the front desk and asked to use the restroom to clean myself up before my meeting as "I took a terrible tumble." The receptionist, bless her, stood up with concern and made sure I was OK. I explained that it was more funny than anything else, and she gave me the key to the restroom where I scraped the mud and grass off of my coat and pants as best I could. Actually cleaning myself would prove impossible. I got the mud off and dried myself as best as I could, and then checked in for my meeting. When the TV executive I was meeting with arrived, she asked how I was doing. I told her to take a look at me to see how I was doing.
The happy news is that my favorite t-shirt, the retro-looking Spider-Man one with "Amazing" written in Japanese, survived. the coffee came out after soaking it in a sink full of hot water and dish soap.
I exited the mall through the north-east exit and walked across the parking lot. By the time I ran out of parking lot, I had a small patch of grass to cross to get to the sidewalk. I took a step onto the grass. With my second step, my feet flew out from under me and I landed on my ass. It was a mild day and the grass was wet and slick from the melting snow so I slid down a little hill like a water slide and landed in a puddle at the bottom, spilling my coffee all over myself - and my favorite t-shirt - as I went. I climbed up out of the puddle with my entire right side covered in mud, and my pants and shoes soaking wet.
I crossed the bridge, arrived to the building, and got an interesting look from the security guard who let me through. I checked in at the front desk and asked to use the restroom to clean myself up before my meeting as "I took a terrible tumble." The receptionist, bless her, stood up with concern and made sure I was OK. I explained that it was more funny than anything else, and she gave me the key to the restroom where I scraped the mud and grass off of my coat and pants as best I could. Actually cleaning myself would prove impossible. I got the mud off and dried myself as best as I could, and then checked in for my meeting. When the TV executive I was meeting with arrived, she asked how I was doing. I told her to take a look at me to see how I was doing.
The happy news is that my favorite t-shirt, the retro-looking Spider-Man one with "Amazing" written in Japanese, survived. the coffee came out after soaking it in a sink full of hot water and dish soap.
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