Rumble!

Today's Webcomic:

SDF.  Issue 5.  Page 12.  www.torcpress.com

If you're an Artist/Writer, and you make comics for long enough, you start to create your own personal Artistic Lexicon.  Little bits and pieces of stuff that are "yours".  Artists that don't have their own Visual Vocabulary are what I like to call Draw Monkeys, and we should all feel sorry for them, even if they do work for Marvel and make tons of money and are better known than I will ever be.

This page contains a veritable schmorgasborg of Josephisms.  Let's check em out.

1) Panel One- Sound effects used as part of the art to accentuate the art.
2) Panel One-  Comically large dust cloud used to accentuate impact and motion.
3) Panel Three/Four- Flat, single color background to emphasize the emotion of the moment.  The light yellow background is typical of action panels, while the red background emphasizes Death Moth's Rage and the imminent danger that Dr. Strangler is in.
4) Panel Three-  Blorpy Blood.  I draw Blood Blorpy.
5) Panel Five- The "RUMBLE!" Panel.  One of my most favorite tools in my weird little arsenal, the Rumble panel is where I draw the entire panel like it's vibrating in order to convey an earthquake like scenario.  I usually put the Camera overhead and pull back to a long shot for these shots, although sometimes I put the Camera on a Worm's Eye View.  Either way, it's a cool effect that implies that something very bad is about to come exploding up out of the ground.  Which seems to happen a lot in my comics.

I Bet that Tastes Nasty

Today's Webcomic:

Not a lot to say, and no time to say it.  Skull Mob.  Issue 1.  Page 5.

Even Death Moth's Antennae are deadly.

All Ya Do Is Talk, Talk

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club.  Issue 18.  Page 7.  www.torcpress.com

Fun Stuff About This Page: 

1) Obviously, the Clown just decided to call the group "The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club", and everyone else just went with it.  Their official title is "The Servants of Omnichronus".

2) Darkwatcher obviously does not like the name "The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club".

3) Pengy Penguin's Fourth Eye (the one on his belly) can be used as a hologram projector.

4) While Darkwatcher holds Omnichronus in Lordly Reverence and refers to him as "Master", the Clown considers Omnichronus to be his friend, and therefore refers to him by the casual nickname "Big O".  This difference in the way they view their relationship with the Judge of Worlds is one of the major reasons why the Clown and Darkwatcher do not get along.

5) SuperNova Chile.  Only in a TORC Press comic.

First Full Week

Aaaaaand here's the last strip for the week:

So, I've made it through my first full week with my new webcomix schedule.  And I gotta say, I kinda like it.  I like the routine of it all in a way.  I get up at 5am every day anyway and screw around on the computer.  With this set up I get up, bumble into the living room, kick on the computer, Update my Deviant Art page, Update my Tumblr, Update my Blog, and Update my stupid Facebook, and I'm good to go.  Then at night, around 9pm, I Update the Main Site at www.torcpress.com with the next day's strip, and I'm good to go.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  I used good to go twice there.  Bwa!

As far as production goes, my current schedule is actually a little easier for me.  At one point I tried to produce 8 pages every week.  Now I just do 5.  Easy.  So, yeah, feeling good right now.

Hot Fudge Fashion

First off, today's Webcomic.

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club, Issue 18, Page 6.  www.torcpress.com.  The big blue guy is Omnichronus.  We'll talk more about him in another blog on another day.

Instead, let's talk fashion.

When I came up with the Roster for the new HFSAC, I knew I wanted the group to be colorful.  I also wanted each individual to have their own personal color scheme, but I wanted a handful of unifying factors that would link my new crew together visually.

Generally, in terms of color schemes, there's not a lot of overlap.  Everybody's got their own particular look, which I'm happy about.  There's some exceptions, of course, cause there's only so many colors to work with.  Run-No-No-Run and Electric Cherry both have yellow skin, and Turquoise is the color of Pengy's feathers as well as Eyemo's costume and Electric Cherry's armor.  Red pops up a lot, but primarily as a secondary color.  The only character whose costume is primarily Red is Run-No-No-Run.

Virtually all of the members of HFSAC have a few traits that link the team together visually.  They are:

1) Most of the characters have a circle with a dot in the middle on the backs of their hands.  This is a simple "Eye" symbol, and is a Symbol of Omnichronus.  The eye symbol indicates that the members of HFSAC serve the Judge of Worlds.  The only members without this are Pengy, Platomega, and Dark Watcher.  Pengy doesn't have the Eye because there isn't enough room on his flipper to squeeze it on.  Platomega has the "Red Eye" symbol on both of his forearms.  The "Red Eye" is the more formal symbol for Omnichronus.  Dark Watcher, of course, has actual eyeballs on the backs of both of his hands.  In addition, he has the Red Eye on his loincloth, as well as the brooch holding his cloak together.

2) Most of the characters have an "H" badge on their Right Shoulder, and an "F" badge on their Left Shoulder.  Obviously, this stands for "Hot" and "Fudge".  This is designed to show solidarity among the group.  The only exception to this is Darkwatcher, who despises the name, "The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club".

3) Most of the characters have a Butterfly type design on their backs.  Omnichronus is the King of All Butterflies, so having the butterfly on their backs is another indicator of HFSACs allegiance to Omnichronus.  Again, the only exception is Dark Watcher, although it's possible he has a butterfly tattooed to his back under his cloak.  I'm honestly not sure about that one.

So there you go, a quick look behind the scenes of HFSAC.

Slamacow

Today's Webcomic:

I remember an issue of Grant Morrison's "New X-Men" where Cyclops kept waiting for his "moment", but he never quite found it.  Octopus Jones doesn't have that problem.  You give him a Moment, he'll break alla your ribs.

SDF.  Issue 5.  Page 11.  www.torcpress.com

Don't Mess with the Death Moth

Today's Page:

You might recognize the Scapelmen that our heroes are fighting from SDF.  They're kinda the generic, drone soldiers of the Clinic organization.  I had trouble trying to "find" the right colors for these guys.  When the Scapelmen showed up in SDF, I was using Photoshop to color them, so I just picked my traditional "Jaundiced Yellow" that I use for certain undead characters.  For Skull Mob, though, I am using hand coloring, so I basically just had to experiment with various Yellows in a variety of ways until I found something that works.  Other than that, I like how the one doctor in the foreground of the bottom panel is perfectly content to hide, and let the Scapelmen do the fighting.

Also, according to the interweb, Dolphins have names for each other.

Skull Mob.  Issue 1.  Page 3.  www.torcpress.com

My Terrible, Terrible Idea

Damn you Robert Kirkman.

It all started when Robert Kirkman brought two of his comics to 100 issues.  Kirkman's "Walking Dead" and "Invincible" have both passed the 100 issue mark.  This is no small feat.  A single creator doing a 100 issue run on a comic nowadays is virtually unheard of in its own right, but on top of that, both of Kirkman's books are non-Marvel, non-DC comics.  And he brought both comics to 100 around the same time, which means that Kirkman has been writing at least two monthly comics consistently for quite some time.  And anybody who knows anything about Kirkman knows that he was writing a bunch of other comics at the same time.  Some of those books haven't had the same longevity, but the point I'm trying to make is that I admire Kirkman's ambition and consistency.  Even if I'm not a Kirkman fan (just could never get into his work).

Of course, after being wowed by Kirkman's impressive accomplishment, my second thought was, quite simply this:

I WANT TO DO THAT.

One of the biggest mistakes I've made as a creator is my tendency to jump from book to book to book.  I just have too many ideas, and it makes it difficult for me to stay focused on a single title.  New ideas always burn brighter than old ones, and I just get so excited for whatever that's new in my mind, I just move on to the next thing.  I sometimes wonder if I just stuck to a title for more than a year then maybe I would start to develop more of a fanbase.  Maybe not.  Who knows?  What I do know is this:  I've made 100 comics, and yet the longest I have went on a series is 16 issues.

Like I mentioned in an earlier blog, things are really starting to Click with me.  I've got three great lead characters in Cactus Joe the Clown, Bad Jack the Death Moth, and Octopus Jones.  I'm starting to develop a great supporting cast of characters to back them up.  I've got two great villains in the Ortex Corporation and The Clinic.  And the three books form a perfect cross section of the TORCverse:  HFSAC is about the Heavens/Space and about Gods and Angels and Demons.  Skull Mob is about the depths of Hell and the horrible things lurking under the sidewalk.  SDF is about all the stuff between those two extremes.

So, I've come to a decision.  I am gonna take "The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club", "Skull Mob", and "SDF" to 100 issues each.

Yeah.

I want to openly state that this is a terrible, stupid, completely impossible idea.  There is absolutely no way I can pull this off.  Even if I have the ability to actually stick with all three books for that long (and I probably don't), I am essentially making a decade long commitment.  10 YEARS (actually, more than that, but let's say 10 just for the hell of it).  That's a long time, and lots and lots of stuff can happen in that time (go Team MeJo!).  So, this is impossible and there's absolutely no way this will work.

Of course, I didn't really think I could actually make a comic in the first place.  I didn't think I'd sell a comic to anyone that wasn't a friend or family member.  I didn't think I could finish a 24 hour comic.  I didn't think I could make 24 comics in a year.  I didn't think I would make it to 100 comics.  But I did all that jazz.  Turns out I'm pretty kick ass.

So, we'll see.  I mean, a guy's gotta have goals, right?

HFSAC before Cereal

About to run out of time.  Here's today's page.

Again, I really regret using a Grey Ink Wash for the background on this page.  Poor Eyemo completely vanishes over on Panel 1.  Also, the tornado effect woulda looked better if the background wasn't the same color.  Oh well, live and learn.  Still, I like the action and motion on this page, so there's that.  The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club.  Issue 18.  Page 5.  www.torcpress.com

Gotta get to work now.

Fudge & Skulls & SDF

I always think I've got it figured out, but I never really do, do I?  Oh well, life is a continuous string of experiments.  The longer you stay in the game, the more you learn.

Two years ago I started "SDF", "Clown & Penguin", and "Death Moth".

"Clown & Penguin" was a killer book.  It was a little unfocused, sure, but what TORC Press comic isn't, right?  The art was great.  The story was cool.  But man oh man, a 32 page comic takes forever.  1 issue a year?  It was like torture.  I had dozens and dozens of stories in my brain, and all they could do was sit there and ferment and rot while I plodded through each of these 32 page behemoths.

"Death Moth" may have been even better.  I had found my Mickey Mouse in Cactus Joe the Clown way back in 1997, but I had never found my Donald Duck.  I had tried, Lord knows I had tried.  I had created close to a half dozen characters with the sole intention of being my "Second" guy.  But no one ever quite worked.  I had created Bad Jack in "SDF: Pulp" a few years ago, but that oddball zombie in a goofy helmet just never quite clicked.  One time I asked Bro what he thought of Bad Jack, and he replied, "I like his world, but I'm not sure I like him that much."  That was a pretty good assessment.  The Bad Jack story had given me the opportunity to flesh out a really great Villain in the nefarious Dr. Dendull, though.  Dendull quickly became one of my most favorite antagonists, popping up in the Clown's comics, and generally making trouble in the TORCverse.  In Ortex I had my Lex Luther.  In Dr. Dendull I had my Joker.  Now all I needed was a Batman.  Turns out all Bad Jack needed was to die again and get a face lift.

"Death Moth" worked.  The main character was now visually dynamic.  He had an entire history I could work off of.  I had a great villain in Dr. Dendull.  And just for kicks, I decided to completely let loose and create a true Adults Only comic.  It was good.  Nasty.  Dirty.  F****d up. 

And that was the problem with it.  It not only had the same problem as "Clown & Penguin" (1 issue a year is too slow!  Too SLOW!), but my heart wasn't into creating something so... nasty.  It sold well at conventions, but I always felt guilty selling it.  More often than not, I spent most of my time apologizing about the book to my potential customers before and after I sold it to them.  I did two issues and even though I had more story ideas, I decided to call it good at 2, since Issue 2 wrapped up the story arc. 

"SDF" never quite worked at all.  My girlfriend likes it, which is something, but it's never sold well at conventions, and it doesn't sell online at all (well, nothing really sells online... another problem I'm trying to figure out).    The problems with it are rather obvious to me now.  I'll admit, the art is rather slap dash, and the Photoshopped colors don't really work because I don't really know how to use Photoshop.  The whole idea of creating a 16 page comic online, and including an 8 page bonus strip in the print version seemed like a good idea, but it never really worked out.  Plus, the 8 page bonus strip was just more work for me to do, which slowed me down.  Also, the pacing of the stories were glacial.  I mean, over two or three years, I've produced five issues, all of which take place over the same 24 hour time period.  It felt like a Robert Kirkman story after awhile.  Without, y'know, the millions of fans.

"SDF" gave me two very, very important things though.  The first thing is that SDF kept me on task.  Compare the numbers.  Two issues each of "Clown & Penguin" and "Death Moth", compared to 4-5 issues of "SDF" in the same time frame.  The weekly webcomic schedule kept me on task, kept the story moving.  I liked that.

The other thing "SDF" gave me was Octopus Jones.  Rarely have I had a character that clicked as quickly and easily as Octopus Jones.  He looks cool, he's fun to draw, and he's really developed into an interesting character that I enjoy writing. 

So, I had my Mickey, my Donald, and purely by accident my Goofy.  Now I just needed to figure out what to do with them.  Then I got an idea.

See here's the thing.  I don't really like webcomics that much.  I know they're the wave of the future and alla that, but I'm old school.  I like my print comics.  But, I've been making webcomics for years now, and what I do like about webcomics is the work schedule.  If I say "New Webomic Page on Monday," then I gotta have a new webcomic page on Monday.  Simple as that.  Keeps me focused.  Keeps me on task.  I like that.  I've got too many stories to tell to just be like, "I'll finish a page whenever."  Too slow.

So I thought, let's just turn everything into webcomics.  Two pages a week, sixteen pages an issue, and no bonus material in the print edition to slow me down.  When the pages are all online, all I gotta do is get the pages arranged for print, and do the covers, and I'm done.  Next issue.

I decided to tone down the material a bit, partially to make it more consumable online, and partially because I was tired of feeling uncomfortable at Cons trying to sell comics with so much messed up stuff in them. 

I decided to revive "The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club".  I always liked that comic, even if I never finished that one issue.  With the Clown serving the god-like Omnichronus, it made sense that the Judge of Worlds would have a small army of servants, right?  And with the Clown "in charge", I could send these oddball characters into all sorts of bizarre, crazy adventures all across Space and between Dimensions.  The possibilities were endless.

The problem with the Death Moth was that he didn't have much of a personality.  He's all about Revenge, which is cool for a movie or whatever, but doesn't make for much of a comic series.  In "Truth or Consequences 100" I started to show that there might be some humanity under all of that Rage.  With the Clown I learned long ago that you need to give your character some supporting characters to work off of, so I decided to give Death Moth his own team.  If the Clown had HFSAC, then Death Moth would have the "Skull Mob".  I always liked that name, and it was good to revive it.  "Skull Mob" would serve as the antithesis of HFSAC.  If HFSAC was silly and colorful and cosmic, then SM would be dark and ugly and deadly serious (well, as serious as any comic I make).

After issue 5 of "SDF" wraps up, I'm gonna put that comic on break for a month or two.  In the meantime, I'm gonna finish up the print editions of Issues 4 & 5, along with the print editions of Pulp Horrorshow 3 & 4.  Once that's done, I'm gonna bring back SDF with faster stories, and I'm gonna try to up the ante on the art.

So, there you go.  That's my ideas for now.  We'll see how it works.

Robo Brawl

Hey Ho, Let's Go!

Fighty-Fight-Fight!  I love these kind of, "Everyone fights, let's demonstrate our powers!" type of pages.  The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club.  Issue 18.  Page 4.  www.torcpress.com

Buzzsaw

Right.

His first name is Hermin.  Heh.  Anyway, it's SDF, Issue 5, Page 10.  That is all.

Skull Mob pt. 2

Uhhhhh.... Brain dead.

Right.

The new Skull Mob comic I'm doing is gonna run on Tuesdays and Fridays.  There won't be a new strip this Friday though.  We'll start the full schedule next week.  I know, it doesn't make any sense.  Nothing I do ever does.

Speaking of things that don't make sense, as you know, I can't just do one book.  I can't do it.  It's completely insane, but that's the way I've always operated.  Now, I know what you're saying, "Waitaminute Joseph, you're already got "SDF" and now you're doing the new "Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club", so that's two books.  Why do "Skull Mob"?"  Well, that's a good question, invisible person who's not actually talking to me.  And the answer is quite simple, I'm nuts.

Cactus Joe & his Gang are always on top.  The Clown is my main character, always has been, always will be.  The Clown's adventures have smashed headlong into space.  They've gone Cosmic and Epic and Crazy.  We're bouncing from world to world and dimension to dimension.  And I love it.

Over in SDF we've got poor Octopus Jones.  He's the down on his luck hero perpetually dumped from one horrible situation to another.  The ground level guy just trying to survive in a world gone mad while trying to protect the people he cares about.  He's on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club.

Then we've got the scumbags down in the depths.  The horrible monsters that crawl through sewage, living beneath the sidewalk.  Expendable nobodies who may or may not survive to see another day.  The heroes that ain't that much different from the villains they maliciously slaughter.  The Inglorious Basterds of the TORCverse.  This is where the Death Moth lives.  If you're gonna soar through the Heavens and walk the Earth, it only makes sense that you've gotta go to Hell to round out the experience.

And that's the Skull Mob.

Next week our full schedule will start, which is:
Monday- HFSAC
Tuesday- Skull Mob
Wednesday- SDF
Thursday- HFSAC
Friday- Skull Mob

I'm sleepy.

Skull Mob!

Our latest webcomic page:

The new strip is called "Skull Mob".  It features the Death Moth.  It'll be a lot darker in tone than my other main strip, "The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club".  I'll talk more about it later tonight.  I've gotta eat some breakfast right now and get to work.

The New Halfsac Gang

First off, the latest page of The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club:

Issue 18, Page 3.  Enjoy it, baby.

So, we've got a new Halfsac.  They're the servants of Omnichronus, a god-like being that we'll see a little more of later on. We've got lots of new characters, and some old characters, and all sorts of cool stuff, so let's just do a good old fashioned Roster.  Cause I like rosters.

The Darkwatcher- Rank:  Prophet of Omnichronus.  Powers:  Psychic, Elemental Control, Cosmic Energy Control.  First Appearance:  Cosmic Love #2 (I think...).  What's his Deal:  The Darkwatcher has been a servant of Omnichronus for longer than anybody, so he's the highest ranked member of the Club.  He's also kind of a stick in the mud, and doesn't really like the name "The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club", because he thinks it's undignified.  He refers to the group as the Servants of Omnichronus, which is way less cool.  Darkwatcher can communicate with Omnichronus directly, across space and dimensions.  He can also combine his powers to generate a miniature sun around himself. 

Tei Harlequin- Rank:  Priestess of Omnichronus.  Powers:  Psychic, Elemental Control.  First Appearance: The Clown & Tea Cup Show #3 (I think...I really should keep better track).  What's her Deal:  Tei Harlequin originally debuted as Cactus Jill the Harlequin, but she transformed into Tei Harlequin in "Truth or Consequences 100".  She was Darkwatcher's apprentice before the new HFSAC was formed, so she's ranked higher than everybody but him.  She's got a big heart.

Cactus Joe the Clown- Rank: Vassal of Omnichronus.  Powers:  Cosmic Energy Control.  First Appearance: Pulp Horrorshow (vol.1) #1.  What's his Deal:  If you've been reading "Clown & Penguin", "TORC Zer0", or "TORC 100", you know that Cactus Joe has evolved into a Cosmic Being and is now the servant of Omnichronus.  He's got the rank of Vassal, which I kind of think of like being a Sheriff or a Police or Military Captain.  The Clown's got a really, really big Hammer named Mr. Happy that is made of solidified cosmic energy.  It's like a cosmic bazooka really.  CJ has the best trump card of the entire team, namely the Karmic Bullet, which is a bullet with butterfly wings that's cosmic vibrations can liquidate anything evil.  And stuff.

Pengy Penguin- Rank: Vassal of Omnichronus.  Powers:  Psychic.  First Appearance:  The Bunnyville Experiment.  What's his Deal:  Again, if you've been reading the new stuff, you know that Pengy is no longer the defenseless waterfowl he used to be.  He's a cosmic being with high grade psychic powers, most notably a level of Pyrokinesis that allows him to create a Phoenix-like sheath of energy around himself, even in the vacuum of space, cause it's COMIX, and I can do that.   Other than that, Pengy's best traits are his brain and his heart.  He also has an interesting trump card, in that he can send messages to Omnichronus across space (check out TORC 100 to see that particular trick in action). 

Tea Cup-  Rank: Hammer of Omnichronus.  Powers:  Bad @$$ Robot, Sonic Powers.  First Appearance:  Watchdogs #1.  What's his Deal:  Tea Cup is Cactus Joe's little brother.  He's also a robot.  You might be wondering why he no longer looks like a weird, constantly changing robot thing.  Well, once again, you need to read TORC 100.  Anyway, he's a walking War Machine now.  He still likes beer and music.

PlatOmega- Rank: Anvil of Omnichronus.  Powers:  Killer Robot.  First Appearance: I don't wanna give it away yet.  What's his Deal:  PlatOmega is a robot platypus.  He's a pre-existing TORCverse character, but I'm not gonna say who yet (long time readers should be able to guess).  He was designed to hang with the other servants of Omnichronus, so he's very powerful.

Electric Cherry- Rank: Bailiff of Omnichronus.  Powers: Lightning Elemental.  First Appearance:  Clown & Penguin #1.  What's her Deal:  Electric Cherry has popped up a few times in several different books (look for her especially in "SDF" #3 and "TORC Zer0").  She volunteered to serve Omnichronus, and was given the rank of Bailiff (get it? Cause Omnichronus is the Judge of Worlds.  Get it?), which I think of as being like a Deputy, or maybe a Sergeant.  She is upbeat and playful.

@byss- Rank: Bailiff of Omnichronus.  Powers:  ?  First Appearance: HFSAC #18.  What's his Deal:  I have no idea.  I don't know what he is or what he does.  He just volunteered for the job, much like Electric Cherry.

Run-No-No-Run & Stop-Go-Go-Stop- Rank: Arch-Harbingers.  Powers: Fire Elemental/Ice Elemental.  First Appearance:  Anarchy Bootleg.  What's their Deal:  The last time we saw the Hip Brothers was all the way back in "Monster King" #6, where the Hip Bros quit the Skull Mob and left for outer space in their Space Whale Watoosi.  Something happened to them, and now they've been reborn as cosmic beings and servants of Omnichronus.  I like having these guys back.  They're fun.  Plus, they were members of the original HFSAC.  Dance Party!

Eyemo & Eyemii- Rank:  Arch-Harbingers.  Powers:  Earth Elemental/Air Elemental.  First Appearance:  HFSAC #18.  What's their Deal:  So, Omnichronus has these servants called Harbingers.  You can see them in action in TORC Zer0.  Their bodies are covered with eyes, they lack sexual identities... or any identities for that matter.  They are basically drones created solely to serve the Judge of Worlds.  Eyemo & Eyemii are Harbingers who have been upgraded by Omnichronus for the specific purpose of giving the Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club extra muscle.  They now have identities, names, and personalities, but they are also kinda like newborns, so they're both learning how to be themselves.

Anyway, that's the basics on the New Crew.  They're a Fun, Colorful bunch, and I look forward to creating their new Adventures.  There's a new Strip on Thursday, and you can check out the new Archive section at:  http://www.torcpress.com/hfsacweb.html.  Game On!

The Color Thing

Like most kids, I liked crayons.  I drew my own superheroes, and I colored em in with my Crayolas, and it was fun.  Eventually, I got older, and coloring stuff just seemed like a waste.  I just drew with pencil.  And I drew and I drew.  Occasionally, I would get a ball point pen and "ink" my drawings, but it was pretty rare I would use color.  If I did, by this point, I had "graduated" to the more refined colored pencil.  I took art classes when I could, and I would learn to work with pastels and watercolors and acrylics.  I learned enough to get by with this stuff, but I never concentrated on color.  Because I drew and I drew and I drew.

I started making comics.  The first TORC Press comic, "Pulp Horrorshow" vol. 1 #1, is pure black and white.  Not even a color cover.  It was made on a Xerox machine (oh, how I have strangely come full circle...).  I did start making feeble attempts at creating color covers for some of the later issues, but they looked like crap, so I eventually abandoned color, yet again. 

When I started getting my comics professionally printed, the print shop I worked with told me I could get my comics printed a lot cheaper if I just kept the cover black and white.  At first I balked at the idea, after all, if I was gonna get my comics printed for realsies, then I needed a for realsie color cover, right?  Then I realized the money differential, and I decided I could live without color (interesting side note, the original, hand painted in acrylic, cover for SDF: Crumpled Planet is still in my studio...it looks like crap).

When I switched over to a digital, Print on Demand, printer, color covers were part of the package, and didn't jack up the price.  Full color interiors were also an option, and were actually affordable (not cheap, but affordable).  So, now I could experiment again.  The cover to Pulp Horrorshow vol. 2 #1 (again, full circle) utilized watercolor, acrylic, and I think some markers.  Other covers from the time used similar experiments.  I quickly discovered that colored pencils didn't translate over to print very well (I recently relearned that lesson when I tried to use colored pencils to color the Chupacabra in "Truth or Consequences Zer0").

Eventually, I started using Photoshop for my colors.  I didn't really know what I was doing (still don't...), I just picked out loud, crazy colors, and paint bucketed em onto the image (which, again, you're not supposed to do).  I occasionally experimented with using Photoshop properly, but I found that boring and slow.  I decided to do a comic in color, so I started "Monster King".  It was neat, and the color interiors stood out quite a bit.   I still love Issue 3.  I really think I killed it with that one.

Then I bought my own printer.  I could control my output, and I was free to experiment with... well, everything.  At one time, all of my comics were pure black and white.  Now, I've practically abandoned black and white for color.  With every book I've produced in the last couple of years I've tried all sorts of new stuff.  SDF was my "safe" book, produced the same way as my previous color books.  With Clown and Penguin, I used a mixture of acrylic, colored inks, and Photoshop colors to create what I feel like were some interesting effects.  With Death Moth I kept my pencils in with the inks, creating an oddball shade of grey that gave the images a strange look that I kinda liked.  When I did TORC Zer0, I used colored inks to color in the foreground characters, and Photoshop for the backgrounds.  It was just an experiment, but I really liked it.  The colored inks gave the characters a unique look, and a unique texture.  I felt like I was on to something. 

I took what I had learned into TORC 100, and the results were pretty cool.  I used pencils for shading (from Death Moth), Acrylics for "Special Effects" (from Clown and Penguin), colored inks for the characters (from TORC Zer0), and Photoshopped backgrounds.  I like how it turned out, and I felt like I had created something interesting.

So, now I'm making a couple of new webcomics, and I wanted to go full tilt with both books.  So I'm doing full hand colors on both new books.  It's crazy, and it takes a lot of work, but now that I've been working with it for awhile (I'm past page 9 on both books), I'm starting to really get the hang of the process.  And it's surprisingly fun (albeit, a bit nerve wracking).

I'm trying to give each book it's own look, to hopefully make it easy to visually differentiate between the two.  The new Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club will use brighter colors (the grey backgrounds on the first few pages were an early mistake...), while the other strip (which we'll reveal on Tuesday) will be darker, so I'm using Ink Washes for the backgrounds, and using colors sparingly.  I've decided I don't really like the look of the pencil shading anymore (it was a neat experiment), so I didn't do that with the new stuff. 

Um... anyway, I'm having fun with color.  Who knew?

Dr. Strangler has a Moth Problem

New SDF:

SDF.  Issue 5.  Page 9.  www.torcpress.com

It's Wednesday.  I have nothing clever to say, and I'm about to go off to work in a Sawmill where the Heat Index will be sorta like working on the Surface of the Sun.  Have a good one.

Webcomic Barrage

So, I'm making a buncha webcomics now.  It's only Tuesday, and I've got another new webcomic up.

It's a Mystery strip, which we will officially announce next week.  As for what's going on this week, if you haven't seen TORC 100 yet, then you need to know that the Ortex Corporation owns the Earth now.  They've covered the planet with factories that belch smoke and smog and whatnot.  That's why Earth now looks like a crappy Jupiter.  Also, Ortex has marked the planet with the Ortex symbol.  I know that should be obvious, but whatever.  It's Tuesday morning.  I'm tired.  Ironically, this story has nothing to do with Ortex.  This is a story about the Death Moth fighting the Clinic.  The Clinic are the Other Bad Guys, an evil organization of evil surgeons who slink in the shadows and back alleys conducting horrible experiments on innocent people all at the behest of their nefarious master, the nightmarish Dr. Dendull.

Anyway, tune in next Tuesday for page two.  Also, we'll name the strip then.  Yay!

Trying to Explain HFSAC 18

Right, if you haven't seen it yet, scroll down below this blog entry and check out the second page of the New "Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club", or just go to:  http://www.torcpress.com/hfsac18-2.html.

So, the Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club is back.  Let's answer the questions no one has asked (or will ask):

1) Why are we starting with Issue 18?  Well, the last issue of The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club was Issue #16.  Issue #17 was supposed to follow it, but  I never published it because it was too much of a bummer for me.  Now that I'm bringing it back, I wanted to pick it up with the old numbering (even if issue 17 hasn't come out yet... I know, I know). 

2) Who are some of these characters?  We'll get to that next week.  Hopefully, you should recognize some of these characters.  Also, this is the first half of a double page spread, so the rest of the New Cast will be revealed in next week's edition.

3)  So, Cactus Joe is wearing clothes now?  Yep, I got over my "nude" phase.  I kinda like the new superhero outfit.

4)  What's up with the colors?  I'm hand coloring everything now.  All the colors were done with colored inks or acrylics, by hand.  I only used Photoshop to make the colors more presentable for online/print.

Anyway, the new HFSAC is rockin' and rollin'.  Page Three goes up next Monday.

HFSAC Returns!

I'll let the image do the initial talking:

Yep, the Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club is back, and has returned in release it on the Web first, release it in print later form.  I have a billion things to say about the new strip (this page alone is loaded with stuff to talk about), but it's Monday and some of us have to spend 9 hours in a Sawmill, instead of sitting around in our underwear waxing philosophical about the imaginary worlds we create.  Maybe later in the week I'll have more time to celebrate the launch of this exciting new comic.  In the meantime, enjoy the new page, which you can view on the main site at http://www.torcpress.com/hfsac18-2.html, or on my tumblr, Oh! and I've got a Deviant Art page now if you're in to that kinda thing.  Just look for TORC Press on that.  I think.

SDF 5/8

The newest page of SDF is up and running at:  http://www.torcpress.com/sdf5-8.html.  Or I'll just tack it on to the blog because I believe in overkill now...

This essentially concludes the very brief tale of the Blade Rebels, which started over in Pulp Horrorshow vol. 3 #1.  Earth is a dangerous place, especially if you're openly rebelling against the Ortex Corporation.  This is one of the few time where I started a story in one place, and it dovetails off to another.  I am very happy I have done this.  It is very COMIX.

New Design, New Webcomic

Alrighty, it's time for all sorts of new stuff.  First off, I have given the main site at www.torcpress.com a redesign.  It's a little more streamlined, and has some new features.  Go there, and check it out, if you want to.

Also, let's see if this works...

Ha!  It does!  Anyway, I've got a new webcomic, but it's kind of a mystery webcomic this week.  Next week is the actual big reveal.  So stay tuned next Monday for a new edition of this lovely new comic.  Oh, and side note, all of the colors on the above page were done by hand using Colored Inks or Acrylics.  No Photoshopping, except to format and tweak the colors a smidge.

Other than that, new SDF on Wednesdays now.