The Traveling Comic

Page 9

2009-09-03T19:12:00.001-07:00

Oliver Tull is a man of many talents. He co-host Fanboy Radio, is a member of the Texas based comedy troupeFour Day Weekend, has been in movies, and is an excellent comic artist, and I know he's put some things on the internet, but I can't find it so I guess we're all very lucky that Oliver agreed to draw a page in the traveling sketchbook.

At this point in the comic we still have some cohesiveness to the story, and Oliver did an awesome job carrying over from David's page while furthering the story along. He also added a sense of urgency for the next artist, with the squirrel character potentially about to die. Will the next artist pick up on this? Let's just say not too soon after this things really begin to spiral out of control.

Page 8

2009-01-10T10:35:00.001-08:00

Page 8 comes to us from David Hopkins comic book writer extraordinaire. David is responsible for such comics as Emily Edison, Karma Incorporated, and Souvenir of Dallas. While not typically an artist David shows off on this page that he's very capable of drawing.

I have the great fortune of being friends with David. We had begun an email correspondence after I visited his website and saw he had provided a link to Matt Leong and mine now defunct comic, Exit 126. He's been kind enough to host me twice on my journeys to Texas. I also hosted him here in St.Louis once, during that visit I got the funniest David Hopkins moment I have ever seen. We had taken David to eat at Lemongrass off South Grand. David was unaware that in St.Louis the pedestrian NEVER has the right of way, even when they have the cross signal, so he had stepped out into traffic and almost got pummeled by a car. David's reaction? He punched the car's trunk and yelled, "That's how we do it in Dallas!" For those of you not from St.Louis, South Grand is where many shooting, stabbings, rapes and other acts of violence occur. Needless to say when the car put on its breaks we got David out of there.

Page 7

2008-10-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

T.M. Mackiwicz is another person who I have no information on. I'm not even quite sure of how he came into possession of the sketchbook. Regardless, I do enjoy his art. Searches on litterboxcomics.com came up short.

The quick change at the end of this page would be the first derailment for the storyline. Up until this point the pages have been moving pretty fluidly, but as you'll find out it is often difficult for a comic jam to get back on track once an abnormal story element is put into place.

I also can't shake the feeling that the line, "and the graphics are kinda lame." is a knock on the art previous to this page.

Page 6

2008-10-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

The book took a quick trip to Alabama, where it ran into Jason Sims. Jason is a really nice guy. He's another old member of the Fanboy Radio message boards. He also helped contribute to The Bullet Angelica as both an artist and a writer. I hadn't spoken with Jason in several years until I was able to track him down when I decided to create this blog. It was really nice to hear from him and know that he's doing great.

This page is so eerie with its heavy black boarders, and the huge eyes in the center of the page. I'm a bit worried for the turtle, squirrel and rabbeaver (what is that thing anyway? A rabbit, beaver, gopher?) I'm worried, even though I know what happens next.

Page 5

2008-10-05T08:24:00.001-07:00

Cheryl Rose and I worked together on the Fanboy Radio Newsletters, back when they were still being produced. She had a talent for writing really interesting and personal articles about comics. I would provide the supporting illustrations. Unfortunalty I've looked all over for Cheryl's contact, the old Newsletters, or anything to link to on this page, but nothing seems to exist. If anyone happens upon this and knows Cheryl, let her know her page is up for viewing. The sketchbook traveled to Washington, D.C. for this page to be drawn.

Cheryl turned out to be a pretty good artist, as well. This is one of my personal favorites in the sketchbook. It adds a touch of old fables, dark themes, and realism while also propelling the story forward.

Page 4

2008-09-28T06:34:00.000-07:00

Gian Cruz is another guy from the old Fanboy Radio message boards. Gian is a talented artist, and his mini-comic Day Passing By, which deals with the loss of a brother, is still one of the most touching comics I've ever read. He's also a talented musician, and has a few videos posted on Youtube. All of this can be seen at his blog oh, sir.

Page 4 picks up right where page 3 left off, which is often rare in a jam comic. The two pages fit together perfectly. Ideally this is how it would always work, but usually doesn't. By the end of the page the murderous forest animals are on a hyper charged ride into insanity. The jam also takes a hyper charged road into insanity, as you will find out in the weeks to come.

Page 3

2008-09-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

When the sketchbook finally hit the road it headed to Nicholasville, KY, and into the waiting hands of Justin Stewart. I had met Justin through the old Fanboy Radio message boards, and we became quick friends. Justin is an old hand at wecomics. He's created some of the funniest mixes of pop culture I have ever seen. First through his Crap Rares comics, which became Popped Culture, and now is known as Popstew Comics. Justin is also an amazing colorist, and currently colors just about everything Jim Mahfood draws.

What I love about this page is that the characters have finally hit the road, just like the sketchbook.

Lujan and the Sketchbook

2008-09-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

Jim Lujan concentrates hard to create Page 18 of The Traveling Comic. I guess you guys will get to see Page 18 in 18 weeks. I've seen it, and it's amazing!

Page 2

2008-09-13T22:17:00.001-07:00

Page 2 didn't have to travel far. Matt Leong also lives in St.Louis, and the two of us had worked together to create the anthology mini-comic Exit 126. So he was the perfect choice to continue after the page I had drawn. (note: Matt was also the first person to break a rule of the Traveling Comic by creating his word balloons on the computer and gluing them onto the book. But, he's so good looking I forgave him.)

Matt does a great little podcast called Doubledorkmeter where he talks about everything on his mind, focusing on the geek culture. He also has some pretty neat videos with his Atomicclockwork Media production house. Check out Node 666_D2M and his vlog for 6/16/08, they're two of my favorites.

Page 1

2008-09-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

This is the first page, drawn by me. I consider myself to have many limitation in my art style, and thought others who may want to participate may also feel they could not contribute to something too realistic. Mulling it over came to the idea that cartoon animals are easy and fun to draw, and would also be fun to see drawn in various styles. So the comic opens with some cute, fuzzy animals...who have murdered someone. Ah, yes, I also have a difficult time being traditional.

This page also highlights what a horrible speller I am. Since all art is to be done on the page, forest is forrest in this story.

Welcome!

2008-09-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to The Traveling Comic. Let me give you a brief history.

Years ago members of the Fanboy Radio message boards created an online comic that was built panel by panel, with a new artist for each panel. This is known as a jam. The comic eventually was called The Bullet Angelica and had over 25 artist contributing to it before it ended. The Bullet Angelica can be confusing to read, frustrating to follow, but amazing to look at. For me, the creative energy and amazement at others' talent overrides the flaws in storytelling.

It was around this time that I also became very interested in the potentials of the comics medium. I began finding many experimental comics, as well as attempting a few of my own. One of these ideas took the jam idea, with the concerns of the storytelling problems, and said, "What if artists had a full page to tell their portion of a comic?" And so I purchased a sketchbook with this idea in mind. I drew the first page. Then, because I thought it would be fun, I decided to mail the sketchbook to a friend, and have them mail it to someone else, and so on.

The sketchbook eventually made its way back to St.Louis, where it stayed for a few years due to various time constraints and other duties I had. However, the sketchbook has made its way back in to the Postal System and is enroute to California as I type this. To date the sketchbook has met 17 artists, been to 6 States, and its cover fell off somewhere in the mail.

Before sending the book back out on its mission, I decided to scan all of the pages, to preserve them if anything happens. I will be posting the pages I have scanned on a regular basis, with hopefully some commentary on the artist that drew that page.

If you're interested in receiving the sketchbook by mail, and drawing a page, check the side bar for details.