Tag: comics

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I’ve Got News For You…

Oh man, I want to share ALL OF THE THINGS with you, but we gotta’ do this one step at a time.

First, The Superhero Ladies Sketchbook is finally online!

I listed it for $1.99 on Gumroad, and you can download a copy by clicking the cover image below:

Screenshot 2015-02-05 11.02.36

Why Gumroad?

Because they’re nicer, cleaner, and more direct than Amazon. And you don’t have to have a super-long checkout experience. I’ve used Gumroad before and it’s smooth and fast. I wanted your shopping to be as nice as possible, and Gumroad fit the bill!

Ok, second, I’m working on a new email newsletter!

It’ll be free, and hopefully (if I can configure everything correctly) people who first sign up will get a free downloadable image for a desktop/phone background. Pretty sweet!

The newsletter will highlight comic updates, blog posts, new product news, and even bonus sketches and cartoons you can’t get anywhere else. Because INCENTIVE.

Third, I finished a new illustration, shown below:

claire and tracy encounter the lion illustration
“Claire and Tracy Encounter the Lion.”

Click it to get a better view, because I am SO proud of how this turned out.

I really pushed myself with the colors, shadows, and gestures. There’s still a few spots I could fix, but I could work on it forever. I won’t. It’s too good right now for me to fiddle with it any further.

(If you don’t know who the two ladies are, they’re Claire and Tracy, from a story I’m scripting about road-tripping through post-apocalyptic zombie America. You can read more about it here.)

And fourth, the blog will no longer update on Mondays…at least for now.

I’ve been working hard this past month to update every weekday, but it’s starting to take away time from making comics and art. Plus, with an upcoming newsletter to make, I need some time to make that awesome.

So, yeah, I’m going to make some changes to the blog, starting with no Monday updates. It’ll give me the time I need to keep making great art and comics for you to enjoy.

The other change I want to make to the blog is that the posts are going to get more personal – except for Review Day Tuesday and Featured Artist Friday. Those are features I want to keep.

I’ve discovered that, while people occasionally like my tutorials, you seem to like when I just blether on about something personal to me. Which is cool! I’m happy to make more stuff like that.

That, and there’s just some personal stuff I want to talk about that I can’t fit in a sufficient amount of space on Twitter.

But I want to keep Review Day Tuesday and Featured Artist Friday. Those are features that I hope will show you new work and new artists to geek out for and support. Like Ark Revner, or Jeff Laclede, or Shadowbinders, or Bartez.

Thank you so much for reading! I’ll see you tomorrow with a new review – and it’s for a webcomic!

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A 5-Part Update

This post is coming to you in 5 Parts, so let’s get right to it!

Part 1. If you did not see it yet, I finally posted something on the Women Warriors Project. You can check that out here.

Part 2. My awesome friend Chloe sent me volumes 1 and 2 of The Heroic Legend of Arslan and I am SUPER EXCITED, because we both mutually love Hiromu Arakawa and it’s great to see her work on other manga.

the heroic legend of arslan manga volumes 1 and 2 and jak and elsa fanart
Chloe also sent me some fanart a classmate of hers made, which also looks fabulous.

I’m going to write and post a review of volume 1 this upcoming Tuesday, reviving a feature I introduced last year, “Review Day Tuesday.”

Speaking of recurring segments on the blog, that brings me to,

Part 3. Favorite Artist Friday!

I’m going to rename this feature “Featured Artist Friday,” so it’s not just my favorite artists being featured.

Featured Artist Friday is going to feature lots of different types of artists. So expect to see comics artists, painters, mixed media artists, sculptors, or just people I find while I flip through my stack of business cards I’ve accumulated over the years from conventions.

Speaking of art, though,

Part 4. New Mini-Comics!

I made and finished a new mini-comic recently called “Duck for Dinner.” It’s a short little autobiographical story.

duck for dinner mini comic
Duck for Dinner… the mini-comic!

It’ll be up for sale on Storenvy soon.

If you would like a digital copy of the comic for, say, $0.99 (US Currency) please leave a note in the comments. I’ve been thinking of offering short 99 cent digital comics for sale through Gumroad, but let me know what you think?

Speaking of Storenvy, though, that leads me to,

Part 5: Crafting Stuff!

So I had a ton of excess paper and decide to bind some new books (because bookbinding is one of my new hobbies). I used a new technique I found the other day called the Slot-&-Tab method, which requires no thread or gluing.

bookbinding handmade books slot and tab method
Hand Made Books!

The thing is, I don’t have a use for these (although I’m keeping the grid paper book), so I’m thinking of selling them as filler notebooks or something on Storenvy. If you’re interested in getting one of these, drop a comment below.

And if you would like to see a tutorial, let me know about that, too, in the comments.

So what other things am I crafting?

Well, I have some T-shirts I don’t wear anymore…

t shirts
These shirts either don’t fit me or are just too bland.

I’m going to repurpose these into tote bags. Because tote bags are awesome, and you can totes (HA) use them in lieu of plastic bags when you shop, which is my favorite thing to do.

I’m not confident enough in my sewing skills to consider selling the finished totes, though, so it may be a while before I offer any for sale.

That’s all for today, but come back tomorrow, when I talk about a new artist for Feature Artist Friday!

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Writing Claire’s Story

claire comic post apocalyptic zombie fighter
(Click to enlarge)

So one of my New Years Goals was to write 1000 words a day. Which sounds pretty lofty, but really I can accomplish that in about an hour. Sometimes less.

In writing 1000 words a day, I’m actually getting a LOT of writing done.

It’s not just blog posts either.

Thanks to my 1000 words written a day goal, I’ve revisited an old script of mine, and am now in the process of writing it and continuing off of it.

I’m talking about my post apocalyptic lesbian love story with zombie-killing, starring Claire and Tracy.

claire and tracy in work in progress

I finished editing Chapter 1, and I powered through Chapter 2. It’s a GREAT feeling knowing there’s progress finally being made on a project that’s been on hold for months.

I’ve been revisiting this project in my sketchbook, as well.

claire and tracy comic work in progress art sketch
A Work in Progress (click to enlarge)
claire and tracy comic work in progress art sketch of environment
Sketching out an idea of the world they explore. (Click to enlarge).

And I’ve been doing some sketching to flesh out their world bit by bit.

I’ve also been looking at this list of post-apocalyptic tropes to avoid and what hasn’t been done yet. I’m hoping to add elements of things rarely done in post-apocalyptic stories, pulling inspiration from this list.

Like bike-riding. Oh my shit there need to be more bike riders after cars become useless hunks of metal.

What are some tropes of the post apocalyptic genre you can think of? What hasn’t been done in a zombie story yet that you can think of? Leave them in the comments below. I would love to hear about them!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

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Goals for 2015

It’s not yet New Years, but I wanted to talk about this early. That way I’m not too lost in the flood of New Years’ Goals posts that are sure to flood across the internet.

Sure, I have goals for 2015. There are personal ones like walk everyday, send more cards, that kind of thing.

But this blog post is being made to share the goals for my comics in 2015.

Why am I sharing them?

Because I want you to hold me accountable.

In sharing my goals with you, I hope that you can keep me on the right track, so I don’t lose my way, so I can succeed, and not back out of promises I made to you.

In return, I hope to hear about your New Years resolutions in the comments. So that way, I can help you do the same!

So, for 2015, I have a list. A list of things I wanted to accomplish. These things are…

Of course, a lot of those goals are not specific. So I broke them down into do-able chunks and came up with…

  • Write every day,
  • Publish 1 new eBook a month,
  • Finish 1 new painting a month,
  • Post 4 items on Storenvy every month,

Breaking it down even further, I have goals for every week and even every day! They are…

  • Write 1000 words a day,
  • Draw 2 Sketchbook pages a day,
  • Finish 1 new mini-comic a week,
  • Post 1 new item on Storenvy a week,
  • Update this blog Monday through Friday

To help me keep track of my daily goals, I borrowed from Karen Kavett and Charlie McDonnell (and Jerry Seinfeld) by printing up copies of the Don’t Break the Chain calendar.

The idea of this calendar is that you have a goal to accomplish everyday. Every day you do the thing, you check off the day on the calendar. Do it everyday and you start a chain of check marks, so don’t break the chain!

One of my big goals is to update this blog Monday through Friday. That will start January 1, 2015, this Thursday.

I actually tied a few goals together for 2015: I intend on reviving the Women Warriors Project by making one new painting every month for it. By finishing 1 new mini-comic every week, I’m making one new item to sell on Storenvy every week. By sketching 2 pages everyday, I’m making content for eBooks I’m publishing every month. When I finish a sketchbook, I’ll make a video and upload it to YouTube.

I like combining goals. It makes accomplishing them more fulfilling.

What are your goals for 2015? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you on Thursday.

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Merry Christmas Eve!

johnson and sir frozen elsa dress comedic print
Johnson’s getting into the holiday spirit!

The previous blog post was a bit of an angst-fest, and I thought to myself, “That’s no way to leave off a blog before Christmas!”

So I want to talk about some things I’m grateful for this past year, and mention some plans I have for next year.

Let’s start with gratitude. I am grateful for…

Seriously, you, dear reader, are awesome. Thanks. :D

I have a lot of plans in store for next year, including more comics, more art, and more blog posts. Expect more mini-comics! Expect the return of Seeing Him!

And sometime, at some point, one of my comics will come to a close. I don’t want to say which one yet, because it’s a surprise.

I’ll talk more about my goals for next year soon.

Until then, have a Merry Christmas!

Also Happy Hannukah, Kickin’ Kwanzaa, Merry Winter Solstice, and have a Festivus for the rest of us.

So what are you grateful for? What did you get for Christmas? Let me know in comments!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you on Friday.