How to be a cartoonist without really trying

[India Ink]

I have a dedicated space for drawing and inking, and a large bottle of India Ink, and pens and brushes. But to get to that space I have to clear away the comic boxes, take all the books and papers off the table, clean my brushes and pens, wash my hands (so I don't get schmutz on the paper), do my inking, wait for it to dry...Then when I'm finished, clean the brushes and pens, make sure I put all the caps on the bottles of ink, make sure I haven't spilt ink all over the place and maybe on my comics, wash my hands...

With the brush pen, I can me impulsive and pick up a piece of paper any time and do something. I don't have to be in a special dedicated place, I don't have to wait for the ink to dry (since the ink dries immediately and doesn't schmutz), I don't have to worry about the heel of my hand resting on the paper, I don't have to wash my hands. I can ink anything anywhere anytime.

For the PPB, I've tried to be as basic as possible and not rely too much on technology. I have used some WORD lettering (Times Roman, Palatino Linotype) in places, but for the captions it's always hand lettered. And I use the PAINT program to fill in large areas of black. And I've done things like reversing the black and white. Plus special projects like the coloured "poster" pic. But I try to avoid doing too much drawing and inking on the computer--since the whole point of the exercise to get back to an aesthetic of old comics and cartoons.

However, even just using PAINT I can see how tempting it is to create everything on the computer. If I had a sophisticated programs plus all the bells and whistle, it would probably be just too easy to use that and give up on pen and paper.

[India Ink]

In doing research for a possible meeting between Superman and PPB, I went looking through Eddy Zeno's book Curt Swan: A Life in Comics and found (to my surprise) some Polar Bear images by Curt...

One is from the eighties, inked by Dave Hunt, although I don't know where this was printed (Zeno, p.115):



Then there's this page that Swan did that was unpublished, about Superman marrying Lois Lane--Curt did all the work on it (pencils, inks, letters--Zeno, p.190):



(copyright DC Comics)

Sorry for the substandard quality of the peg. I can't seem to get my computer to scan and save good quality images.

[India Ink]

Those images inspired me to do an alternate universe version (ahem--a series of Swan swipes), for a PPB panel sequence.

I also drew inspiration from Swan and Klein's cover for World's Finest Comics no. 172 (December 1967) for the third panel "punchline" (not to mention Leo Tolstoy, so I won't):

http://comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=21503&zoom=2

And I came up with this gag--

[India Ink]

Meanwhile, the long forgotten meeting between Superman and PPB revealed itself (and two Caped Crimefighters snuck into the act)...

[India Ink]

(Copyright held by the respective copyright holders)

Here's some variant pics I did for that meeting...

[India Ink]

Meanwhile, here's a special colour (for the web only) issue no. 7 of The Pantomime Polar Bear, featuring that "Summer of Love" panel (go to my website for more), ...





(copyright 2007 Jimmm Kelly--aka India Ink)

[India Ink]

Um, any opinions, responses, helpful tips would be nice, folks.

[MatterEaterLad]

I do like them, I'm just trying to get a sense of the characters a bit more.