Okay, I’m a dick… actually my late sister-in-law referred to me as a prick, and she was correct. I have my moments. BTW, Carol and I got along great, she just knew my personality and called it what it was.
So, as I was doing this comic, I thought I should just apply my penciling “state-of-mind” to my inking process. This comic did not seem hard (it wasn’t and drawing Lorraine of late has become a favorite thing of mine to do… duh…) so I skipped the penciling I’ve been doing and started up the inking mode. First few strokes went great then I started in nit-picking as I want the inking to be “just right”. I gotta loosen up. I’ll get there. In the meantime you’ll have to put up with an old fart artist who’s trying new things out. I’ll try to keep it as consistent as possible.
Oh, for you Robyn fans, I will this weekend re-do Monday’s comic in color with a little special “extra” for those of us who want just a wee bit more. And one more thing… come back Friday. I’ll have another comic ready by then… yes, in color.
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Ah, poor Gary. That’s what you get for mixing icing with sex. And with Lorraine’s water balloons one could imagine just going “weeee!” and right on off the bed. Hope he had good insurance. And what is Robyn doing with her right hand in the third panel? Wang dang doodle indeed…
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Ah, man, I love today’s comic title song. Just a ton of fun. The moment I thought of this song title, the comic became just that more fun to do. Most of us know Dave Edmunds from “I Hear You Knocking'” his #9 Billboard hit from 1970, which sneaks this 1980s song into the comic title list.
It was produced by Jeff Lynne too, which is another reason I like it. Now, I know a number of you readers barf at the mention of his name or ELO, and whatever, but he also produced the Travelin’ Willburys album which I love just about every track on that album. Even the Dylan tracks…
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Crikey! Colour! And black and white! And colour! It’s like all our Christmases at once 😀
Dave Edmunds is teh awsum *in spite of* Jeff Lynne 😛
Hmmm…. Did someone say “some” folks didn’t like Jeff Lynne? No… say it ain’t so…
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“I Hear You Knocking” still gets me going when it comes on the radio today. I always crank it up!
I’m not going to get into a Jeff Lynne shooting war 😛 But just for the record, I did eventually figure out what it is about him that presses my DO NOT WANT button. Hard to put into words, but the closest I can get is ‘vanilla hearted’. He certainly has talent, but deep down there something – a drive, a depth of soul, a basic heart-and-groin kick – that just isn’t there and never has been. That pretty much sums up my objections to ELO, too. In Randy Newman’s affectionate send-up song from many years ago, he describes them as Nice English Boys…and yeah. Too nice. So I stand by my snark 😀
Your snark is welcomed by all means.
I see music as business. It’s always been called the music business or the recording industry. Songs are referred to as product by record executives. There’s no heart or soul in business, as you know first hand.
So when I say certain groups or individuals appeal to me, it is because of how they handle the business side of their music. Lynne is a good example. Cranks out successful, popular songs/albums. Did he pay his dues in a dank, blues bar in New Orleans? I don’t know, but I do understand your comment about his music lacking soul. But, he makes money. Does that make him a successful musician? Depends on your point of view. To me, yes. To you, no. And I fully understand and respect your opinions as always.
Unfortunately, the *real* music out there does not do well in terms of business. It doesn’t make any significant money and thus gets ignored. Maybe that will help you understand why some music gets ranked higher by me than others more deserving. It’s mostly business for me.
Which is why I left the music industry. I saw it was not talent, but how you sold yourself. How else can you explain someone like Brittney Spears ending up with a recording contract? Point made all around!
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Funny stuff..
Wow, Matthew Sweet could cover that song and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrzvOEcizRo and I have only one thing to say about the crack at Jeff Lynne : “a Lynne composition, “Slipping Away”, became Edmunds’s only other U.S. Top 40 hit” but charts aren’t everything… I like the song too though, I’ll have to look into him more, thanks for sharing the song!.
Don’t misunderstand, I’m a *huge* Jeff Lynne fan. I think he has a trademark sound and can turn things into pop hits. This pisses off some folks, but not me. And truly he brought Dave Edmunds back into the limelight with that hit. And the Travelin’ Wilburys and George Harrison’s “Cloud 9” album would have never happened had it not been for Jeff’s input.
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Byron, if you’re calling yourself a dick (at this moment) because you’re experimenting with your comic and its style, you’re being WAY too hard on yourself. There’s nothing wrong with trying out new stuff – and thanks to you being so public about it, we get to see your evolution too. Plus, you’re keeping the storylines going. In short: It’s all good.
Example: Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content… I thought he’d evolved into his “final” style 500 strips into his work. Turns out it’s somewhere around 1,450 – he just keeps on trying out new things.
At least you’re putting in the effort, unlike some people I could mention *glares into the mirror*
Well, I’m hard on myself with tongue slightly in cheek, but I also believe in being consistent and I don’t like to change my mind, but it happens and you move on.
Over the weekend I was really digging the pencil versions, but by today I was tired of them, so… color has come back.
I will always try new things and will communicate it here clearly as 1977 is a team effort. If I don’t have readers involved, then I’m just amusing myself and Cinemax soft porn does that just as well….
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I think expressing your frustrations and desires to challenge yourself and try new things is an excellent way of showing readers your dedication to improvement. By vocalizing it, you can actually get feedback from the very people who take this ride with you every day and they can help lead you to new discoveries!
I, for example, stopped inking digitally to shave a few hours off of my overall time per comic. I just was not improving in the speed dept. with a paperless drawing environment. These comics take hours upon hours to create and it’s hard to know what tasks to revamp (back end or front end) while not lessening the quality of the final product.
Precisely. I want to give the best product in a reasonable amount of time. Then I want to push myself as a comic artist and stretch out a bit, but that takes time. So it’s a constant battle.
You know as well as anyone you have to write the comic (and that takes hours in of itself), then you have to layout the dialog in the comic strip, then rough sketch the characters in place to determine where to break the panels. Then, you have to refine those roughs into something you can then finalize by inking. What I was trying to do was just clean up that final pencil sketch into something presentable. As much as I like it, it’s just not what I want to present to viewing public.
BUT… I have a story to tell and 3 strips per week takes a long time to tell a story, which wears me out (I’m easily bored). So, it is a constant battle.
I spend about 4 to 6 hours drawing/inking/coloring each comic. I try to spread it out over a 2-day period, but that doesn’t always work. I were working full-time on drawing, then the comic would fit right in and I’m sure I’d streamline my work-flow. That’s the real rub… how to get more art business so I’m here full-time not only for the comic but commissions, etc. Sigh…
Weeeee! I’m getting dizzy from the changeovers between styles! It’s a Good Thing. Worry about the content. You’re pretty much nailing that down. The style(s) will sort themselves out, and the variation is wonderful to watch.
The look on Lorraine’s face @bottom panel 2 is perfect. I’ve seen that look on a girlfriend’s face before … unbuckle yer belts, boys, the ride’s about to get notched up a wild! 😀
Man, that’d be like skiing down some killer Aspen peaks. On icing. Delicious icing …
Somehow I knew Robyn was in it for the cake. Cake rules the universe. Just ask Vexxarr. 😉
Ah, the style’s will settle down here in a bit… I was just experimenting… Heh, and we know what “experimenting” with certain things can do to one’s brain!
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New eyes again? What is that, Lorraine Eyes take 3? And unless I’ve been standing too near the photocopier’s toner tank again, I’m detecting the creeping influence of Anime in this version. Don’t they make for rather a lot of work? Nice, but they must push up the production time considerably.
Dave Edmunds’ singles were great stuff indeed, and far too few of ’em on the ground.
The ELO was great from the opening bars of The 10538 Overture through most of their stage life. If “most people here” barf at the mention of their name it is more a reflection of the readership than the band in question, and anyone who can’t acknowledge Jeff Lynn’s chops without carping is a total shirthead.
If Bob Dylan, Dave Edmunds, George Harrison and Tom Petty can not only work with him as a producer but also as a musician it should tell anyone something about the man’s cross-genre talent.
Lynn produced Harrison’s breakout album “Cloud 9” and gave the guy two charting singles after years of being a niche artist for Christ sake. I own a number of Harrison albums, but “Cloud 9” is the only one that gets played these days.
Think about that for a moment. George Harrison thought Lynn was talented enough not only to have the guy produce his recordings, but to work with as a musician in a group after years of soloing. The guy who made Monty Python and the Holy Grail happen (by mortgaging his house to fund it when all other producers had sniffed and said “no thanks”) thought Lynn had what it takes.
And so do I.
Hmmm… I’m not trying to do “new” eyes, but perhaps I’m just not in a groove with these eyes. The eyes do add a bit of work, but I really wanted my female characters to stand out (besides their boobs) and the eyes seem to be the best way. I am *not* going anime and will be careful to stay away from that trapping.
Let me be straight, I *love* Jeff Lynne. I think his later ELO works are simply brilliant. Their “Time” album, a time-travel concept album, is one of their best works. A couple hits, but a strong album over all, and one that was totally ignored by most. Lynne has earned his rights as a musician and producer. Regardless of anyone’s thoughts on ELO as a whole, I’d pay anything to sit in a studio and watch him work his magic. BTW, in my opinion, early ELO was too rough around the edges and it wasn’t until “Out Of The Blue” that the ELO sound formed up nicely.
looks great to me, Byron ;0)
I was wondering how you were gonna “get away” with drawing Robyn topless.. but then the icing idea fixes that problem. If that’s a really a “problem”.
Who says I’m gonna hide her boobs when she pops out of a cake? (Now there’s a teaser if there ever was one…) But, be sure it will not just be your average “Hey, look at me!” situation either. It is me, you know…
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ELO was great from the opening bars of 10538 Overture until Roy Wood left. Which was about halfway through the album. Why he started ELO when he already had the next project in mind I have no idea, but maybe it just didn’t turn out the way he wanted. Either way, Jeff Lynne did an Airplane to Starship on ELO and while it was well produced stuff afterwards, it wasn’t that good.
No question Jeff Lynne is a superb producer, however. Brilliant producer, one of the very best. I’m not going to argue about his musicianship either. I just think he turned ELO in a direction that kinda sucked. You can have well produced music with great musicians and still make albums that are less than the sum of their parts.
As for Roy Wood’s next project… well, either you like Wizzard or hate them, but it was certainly a courageous move. I happen to love them, but there’s definite echoes of Skip Spence-like musical “experimentation” in Wizzard Brew.
I was never clear on what happened with Roy Wood and leaving ELO. I’m not familiar with Wizzard at all, which should tell you something as I’m up on most popular rock and roll music. Now, if it was big in the UK and not here, then I’m not up on it… that being on the wrong side of the pond thing.
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The beauty of music is there’s enough of it around that if ELO is not your thing, then there’s certainly something else down the road for sure.
I don’t think anyone is clear on what happened with Roy Wood and leaving ELO, including Roy Wood. I guess I’m biased about Jeff Lynne’s ELO because I’m a big Roy Wood fan — I adored The Move more than the Kinks, Stones, and Beatles — and while Jeff Lynne’s ELO style is a thing, it’s not my thing. I’m no fan of Alan Parsons Project either, who I kind of lump into the same category. You can admire the production and assembly of their music without actually liking it that much.
Wizzard has probably the most famous Christmas song ever in the UK. It probably still charts to this day. On Top Of The Pops they’d satirise the show, sometimes not even bothering to lip-sync but just wandering around the stage in gorilla suits while their recording played. Their Christmas song appearances were pure tongue-in-cheek production numbers.
Wizzard Brew is to Roy Wood what Oar was to Skip Spence. It’s a “I wonder what would happen if we…” kind of thing. The first track sounds like horrible production, for example, until you find out he’s deliberately oversaturated the tape during the recording to take Spector’s Wall Of Sound concept to another level. Then you can look at it in the same light as Skip Spence’s virtually inaudible recording level on Oar (because Skip wanted the music of the tape itself to come through). Crazy stuff like that. As wiki puts it, “Critical and popular reaction was mixed.” I had to listen to it a few times to get it — or maybe Roy Wood is laughing his ass off somewhere because there’s nothing to get. Who knows? It’s that kind of record.
Wizzard’s singles were danceable, popular, wall of sound kind of stuff. “See My Baby Jive” “Angel Fingers”, and the never-dying “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day”. But like The Move, I guess Wizzard was just a UK thing.
Holy frak! Seeing the name Skip Spence took me back 40 years faster than you could say ‘hey Rufus, may I borrow your phone box?’ Thx 😀
Put me down as an ardent ELO fan, dammit. Sure, not every piece was a work of art, but they certainly broke all sorts of new sonic ground, and as several people here have pointed out, Jeff Lynne is an amazing producer. The concept album “Time” will always hold a special place for me…does anyone put out story albums anymore?
See, we were brothers separated at birth. Just posted about ELO’s “Time” album and you’re right, concept albums have gone the way of the T-Rex (the dinosaur, not the band).
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Oh man. I’d love to get paid $100 to pop out of a cake naked. The only problem would be I would be afraid I’d try to sleep with one of the guys. I admit I can be a little slutty. lol
You’d get along with Lorraine it seems…
As with any job, once you have done it few times, it becomes work and the “sexy” part goes away. Ask most strippers…
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You are a dick. First you say no more color…then you color.
And I know I’ll have you there to back up my opinions! Hey, wait… 😛
Robyn had better take it easy on the cake — the cake may be a lie, but the weight she puts on won’t be…
Icing on that wang-dang doodle, ALL NIGHT LONG!