Hey! I’m trying to draw 90 sketches in 90 days and I’m posting everything over at http://fixmedia.tv http://notoriouslb3.tumblr.com/
Check it out. Comment. Offer to buy a print. Just go take a look and send encouragement cause it’s not easy drawing some of these. Peace out.
So here it is, the Zombie March for Brains piece I worked on most of Friday. I have the black & white original inked over red pencil that I sketched it with. It’s 22.5″W x 5″H on a light Arches watercolor paper.
For now, prints are through Zazzle so click here to get one.
If you want the original, shoot me an email at lenwood [at] fixmedia [dot] com
with a reasonable offer.
Some of you know that I am a firefighter and EMT when I’m not wearing my freelance graphic designer hat. Well, I volunteer with the Milford Ambulance Service and we are trying to raise some money for the Milford Volunteer Ambulance Service. If you happen to want a 1 in 1,000 chance to win an iPad2 and support a terrific organization, then please buy a raffle ticket.
It’s $5 for one ticket and $20 for five tickets. Using Paypal, I’ve added a few extra cents to cover transaction fees. ($5 + $.50 and $20 + $.90)
Please include your email address so I can email a photo of your ticket with your raffle number. My deadline is May 31, 2011 and the drawing will be held on June 15, 2011. The iPad2 is a 16GB in black (Part# MC769LL/A). Here’s the flyer (click it for a larger version):
UPDATE: So after getting a nasty-gram from Paypal I had to remove the donation buttons that would give you a ticket to enter the raffle. Apparently it is against their Acceptable Use Policy per this from the email:
Under the Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used to send or receive payments for activities that involve an entry fee and a prize, such as raffles, drawings or lotteries. Due to applicable laws and industry regulations, we do not offer approval for these types of transactions.
The complete Acceptable Use Policy can be found at the following URL:
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/AcceptableUse_full&locale.x=en_US
Also, after a little research, it is illegal in the United States to hold online raffles. You learn something new everyday.
If you are still interested, just email me and we’ll figure something out. lenwood at fixmedia dot tv
It’s been over a month now and I’ve started to find my way with Jakes, a webcomic about firefighters. I pull from my time as a firefighter to write the strip which seems to provide an endless supply of jokes, funny situations and moments of reflection. How this translates to a webcomic is something I’m exploring.
It’s tricky though… I mean how much of what I am doing is “insider baseball”? I want the comic to appeal to everyone but part of me says that maybe it’s only funny cause I’ve been there and experienced these situations. On the flip side, lots of what’s funny isn’t always something I want to promote as part of a firefighter’s personality. Like how do you laugh at things when someone dies in a car accident.
A few years back I was a a once in a career car accident. It was horrific. The Medical Examiner came down to do his thing with the accident and my crew was helping and making jokes to sort of help deflect the severity of the situation. The Medical Examiner also had over 20 years as a firefighter under his belt and he laughed with us, but also talked warned us about the “Gallows Humor”.
So some of us deal with these situations with humor but a news camera, the public or whoever might see our behavior as insensitive, rude and inappropriate. But what people forget is that firefighters and EMT’s thrive on the misfortune of the public. The worse off they are, the more we get off on doing our job. It’s sick, but step in my shoes…
Your house is on fire and we show up, there is a tiny bit of smoke and we put the fire out with minimal water. We’re happy, but no big deal. There’s hardly any damage, you are thankful and we leave saying, “another 10 minutes and that woulda’ been a fun fire”. So take you fire and we pull up with flames shooting out the window and you say that someone is trapped inside. Our adrenaline goes crazy, we make the save and put the fire out which requires a 2nd or 3rd alarm. Your house is standing my between smoke, fire and water damage, you basically have to tear it down and rebuild.
Maybe one of the worst days of your life, but perhaps one of the best days of our life. We all go home, no one is hurt, fire is out and rescue was made. It’s what we live for and it’s sick. So in doing the comic, where is the line? Perhaps this is why there have so few attempts at making a gag comic devoted to firefighters.
So in some upcoming strips I’ll be exploring the inner feelings and dialogue of Jake. What is he thinking on the way to a call? There will certainly be time for some gags, but I think exploring the things aren’t always funny time worth spending. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
Took some time this morning and read through a Webcomics.com thread about a strip being 4-panel horizontal, vertical square or whatever. I don’t know what attracted me to a 4-panel square. I guess I think it’s sexy or something because even in art school, I was always trying to work inside the box.
That was until my senior thesis came about and one of my mentors was like, “Dude, why the crap are you trying to create work in the most difficult to compose and least dynamic of spaces?”
My response? “Uhhhh… I dunno.”
So the time comes to draw Jakes and what do I do? Back to the square. WTF me? I had been thinking about a 4-panel horizontal since day one and you know what? I write with the thought of a 4-panel horizontal. So in my ever indecisive/non-committal attitude with my art, I shall be changing formats and likely redrawing all the strips to this point in a 4-panel horizontal format.
I think a couple things will come of this:
Bottom line, I need to draw more and write more and post more. I am new to producing a comic and I’m not in a position to push the medium. As Brad Guigar says in the public forums, “For me, the horizontal strip is so much more powerful and flexible, I don’t know why anyone would do a square, multi-panel strip. That’s not to say that there aren’t some truly awesome square comics out there (like Real Life), but the horizontal strip has so much more flexibility. I can do four equal panels… I can do one, long, horizontal panel… I can have small panels that get placed between two larger panels. As a storytelling medium, it’s just an amazing framework.”
That said, I’m off to draw.
Stay Safe.
Yeah, a little premature but I feel like I’ve made a few steps in defining who Jake is and what the comic is. I’ve been on hiatus from drawing Jake the last few weeks and really working on my writing. I was that kid in school who was like, “Dude, I’m in art school to be an animator, not an English major. Pssshhh.” I’m a dumbass. All you English majors got the last laugh as I try to play catchup. On top of that, storytelling isn’t all that easy and even if I want to just tell a 3 or panel gag, it requires more than what I’ve presented thus far. More comics coming soon.
Until then, here is the design for shirts. They are up on Zazzle so maybe buy one if you like what’s going on here.
