awcomix

Image care of pentel.ca I first bought this pen a few years back out of curiosity, after talking with Nikki Greenberg about her drawing process and some tools she was using at the time. It is for these reasons that I am often on the lookout for a drawing pen that can give me a nice variable line, something that instantly has a bit of character to it. Tombow brush pens come close, but they are disposable and drain quickly. I have a similar feelings about Faber Castell Pitt pens, although I know of many people like Lucy Knisely and Adam Koford who use the Pitt pens with great skill. I have recently revisited Pentel's GFKP brush pen. It has a flexible brush tip and can be refilled with specially made ink cartridges which are relatively cheap and seem to last for ages. The pen gives a nice lush line with an easy variability. The ink is dark and waterproof and can handle watercolour and ink washes over the top. On some types of paper the ink can take slightly longer to dry wh

view full image "Testing some comics on a Kobo Aura HD eReader"

Part 1 of my comic response to Chris Downes and how I upset him three years ago at a comic workshop. We also have a collaboration comic on the same topic which we should be able to share soon. Two facts to keep in mind, 1- I think wordless comics are indeed comics (and have value like any other comic), 2- Chris Downes and I are friends.

After creating and self publishing a few collections of my own comics in between 1998-2003 I decided to go to art school. I started a drawing zine that same year, after discovering a free photocopier. The zine was called ‘7 Pages’. It was an A4 page folder into quarters and contained 7 pages of sketchbook drawing, plus a cover. It was distributed around in local cafes for free and became quite popular, at least in the local area. It was around this time I started blogging as well. This formative period shaped most of the work I would produce over the next few years. As I went through art school and struggled to find my place, trying to somehow reconcile my love of comics and my new understanding of ‘fine art’. Although this was a frustrating process, it did eventually deepen my art practice and I was able to find a nice balance between my comic work and other experiments with mixed media and collage work. In addition to this I also developed an interest in collaborative and mail art

I have always loved to draw however I started drawing more seriously in my late teens and subsequently began making comics after seeing the excellent Terry Zwigoff documentary Crumb. I had read Crumb’s comics before, however discovering Crumb’s art and his passion for drawing sparked something in me. Since then I have discovered many talents working in the alternative comics scene like, Daniel Clowes , Julie Doucet , David Collier , and Marc Bell to name a few. In my 20’s I decided to go to art school. I already had a strong drawing practice and I knew what I wanted to get out of the experience. I quickly discovered that my interest in comics was not necessarily an advantage and it caused conflicts with my lecturers. Looking back and can see how it must have been hard to understand where I was coming from, and admittedly fine art and comics do not mix well. In saying this I am not implying a value judgment of either creative endevour, and I think this is the common mistake people

3 months ago I set myself the challenge to draw 12 consecutive comic pages for a mini comic. I knew it might be a folly and I knew there was a high possibility of failure. I set the challenge for myself partly inspired by the mini comic of the month project and also I was sick of thinking about making my own comic and needed to just F'n do it! I created a Facebook group to see if anyone else was interested in in me and encouraging each other, I got a huge response and 40 people joined the group from all around the world. Final Tally 9 Pages fully inked,  1 page fully pencilled 2 pages to come (to be drawn in a different style and won't take too long) Final Thoughts It was great to have a definite time to get something finished, it was also good to have a group of other people to hold you to the project. There was a lot of time I wasted with procrastination and too much TV, the project could definitely be done in a shorter time with a better working method and b