Thursday, November 7, 2013

Skull Mob 2-16

Last Page of Issue 2 of Skull Mob:

Skull Mob.  Issue 2.  Page 16.  www.torcpress.com

That wraps up Issue 2 of Skull Mob.  We'll be taking next Wednesday off from the Death Moth & Co,, but they'll be back a week from today, next Thursday to be exact, with the start of Skull Mob #3.  We'll be running a page of "Sol" in next week's Wednesday slot.  Tune in tomorrow (if you could Tune your computers... this makes no sense now that I think about it) for new SDF featuring a showdown between the ad hoc Mango-Habenero group and Death Moth's Archnemesis, the nefarious Dr. Dendull.  Bum-bum-bum!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Skull Mob 2-15

Today's Webcomic:

Skull Mob.  Issue 2.  Page 15.  www.torcpress.com

I'm having one of those "I've got nuthin'" mornings, which happens when you update your blog every single day.  So, yeah, gonna go eat some cereal.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

HFSAC 20-4

Today's Webcomic:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club.  Issue 20.  Page 4.  www.torcpress.com

The main thing I feel like commenting on about today's page is that it is a Dreaded 9 Panel Page.  I've been doing the 9 panel page for a long, long time.  It's my go-to page when I've gotta do a lotta dialogue and/or plot exposition in a small amount of space.  The 9 panel page was a given in a lot of older comics, as well as comics from the fondly remembered 80s.  Watchmen excessively used the 9 panel structure, as did the Dark Knight Returns.  The 9 panel has a more cinematic feel to it, and, again, you can cover a lot of ground narrative-wise with this structure.

It's also a boring pain in the butt to draw.

As I do every six months or so, I was perusing my copy of Jack Kirby's 4th World Omnibus, and I noticed something:  No 9 Panel Pages!  I think there's some pages in Mr. Miracle that are 7 panels, but the bulk of the Panel count is 6 or less.  It got me thinking that, if I'm trying to build this big, epic, cosmicrazy book, I need to cut back on my panel count.  Give it that big feel, instead of this tiny, intimate 9 panel nonsense.

Now, the script for this issue has at least 3 more pages like this (Groooooooan), but after this issue, I'm gonna see if I can avoid the 9 panel page for all future issues of HFSAC.  See how that goes.

Monday, November 4, 2013

HFSAC 20-3

Today's Webcomic:

The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club.  Issue 20.  Page 3.  www.torcpress.com.

Thanks to the time change, I'm up earlier than I should be.  On the one hand, it gives me more time to update all of my stuff (my completely ineffective Webblitz strategy involves Tumblr, Deviantart, Facebook (Groan), and this Blog.  Every single morning.  It's like aerobics, except I'm not getting in shape).  On the other, I have nothing important to say.

The Soda Shoppe is the new headquarters of the Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club and a blatant homage to my King, Jack Kirby.  I had a lot of fun drawing it.  Also, note how it's hanging out near Jupiter.  Very 2001, right?  I didn't even mean to do that.

Also, this is apparently my 400th Blog Post.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Pulp Horrorshow v.4-1-2 (The Oddball Origin of Bigg Wulf)

Today's Bloody Webcomic:

Pulp Horrorshow.  Volume 4.  Issue 1.  Page 2.  www.torcpress.com

So, here we have the introduction of our newest character, Bigg Wulf.  Or, conversely, you could view him in a manner similar to Death Moth or Doom Eagle, where I took an old character I wasn't satisfied with, and transformed him into something new.  Either way, you might be wondering where Mr. Wulf came from.  Here's the odd little story.

I'll talk about this more in a later post, but I have finally found my "Trio" in the TORCverse.  My Mickey/Donald/Goofy group.  That group is, of course, Cactus Joe, Death Moth, and Octopus Jones.  I shoulda been content with that, but I'm me, and you never know when a new idea is gonna be sparked.  So, one day, I'm working on the computer and watching the Disney Channel (Shut up.  "Phineas and Ferb" and "Gravity Falls" are really good shows.  Also, they've got new "Mickey Mouse" shorts on.  Shut up!), and they occasionally have Old School Disney shorts on, between shows.  Anyway, this one short that I had never seen before called "Mickey's Polo Team" came on.  Curious, I stopped working and paid attention to the TV.  The very old, very odd cartoon features Mickey's team playing polo against a team of what were famous comedic actors at the time, namely Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and Harpo Marx.  Mickey's team obviously consisted of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, but the fourth member of the team turned out to be, surprisingly, The Big Bad Wolf from the Three Little Pigs shorts.  For some reason, this seemed shocking to me, having the cute, heroic Disney characters teamed up with this villainous, grinning, Wolf.  It just seemed creepy and wrong, despite the silly nature of the cartoon.

A weird obsession set in.  I couldn't stop thinking about this new, never seen before, never seen again, Quartet of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the Wolf.  What would my version of that look like?  And so, Bigg Wulf began to take shape inside my overactive imagination.  In my mind, I wanted to keep the Big Bad Wolf's jagged teeth and long, lolling tongue, so those went into the visual mix immediately, then I threw in bits of my previous character, Kanabub Abul, a character I didn't get to use that much, and a little bit of a simplistic, Venom-esque approach to the rest of the head, and Voila!  A new character is born.

The name Bigg Wulf is an old joke that only I get.  Here's that story:  Way, way back in... High School maybe, we had an assembly.  It was less of an assembly and more of a half hour long commercial for a guy trying to sell us Class Rings.  Anyway, our school's mascot was the Wolves, and we had a very, very odd looking cartoon wolf as our school mascot.  It looked a little like something out of a Tex Avery cartoon, or maybe a little like Disney's version of the Big Bad Wolf.  Also, our Cartoon Wolf was Blue for some reason.  Annnnyway, the guy trying to sell us class rings told us that we could get our unique cartoon wolf mascot engraved on our Class Rings.  Except, the Salesman was from further South somewhere, and he pronounced Wolf as "Wol-uf".  He somehow managed to turn a simple one syllable word into a two syllable word.  For some reason that stuck with me, so now, over 15 years later, I have a character called Bigg Wulf as something of an homage to that Salesman who couldn't say Wolf right.

Never bought a Class Ring either.  Screw remembering High School.

Anyway, next Sunday, we'll see what kinda abilities this Monsterman has, and the Next Sunday after that, we'll see why he only has one arm.  Mwa-ha-ha!

Saturday, November 2, 2013

SDF 6-12

Today's Webcomic:

SDF.  Issue 6.  Page 12.  www.torcpress.com

You never know when the Puzzelor is going to show up.

Friday, November 1, 2013

SDF 6-11

Musta had a Brain Fart and forgot to post this morning...

SDF.  Issue 6.  Page 11.

Man, I would hate to have to run into Dr. Dendull.