Toren Atkinson’s Absolute Blog

I have now made a blog category for the comic, so you can see all the comic entries by clicking http://www.thickets.net/toren/category/comicbook/

I was in such a crap mood on Wednesday. I got a flat tire on my bikey bike on Sunday night and broke my hand pump trying to fix it. How crap is that? A flat tire and a useless pump. So anyway I took it in to the Bike Doctor (did you know that most bike shops aren’t open on Monday - and did you know that all of my bike repair needs have been on Mondays?) and decided to get a tune up as well. The guys there decided I needed new brakes for both tires and a new rear tire (not just the tube) as well. So my flat tire turned into a $120 bill. I’m sure all that stuff was needed as I take about as much care of my bike as I did my automobiles back in the day (did I tell you the story of how I left my Reliant K car on the side of the road with its engine on fire?), but it still sucked. Add to that the stress of getting my passport and some relationship hiccups and I was stressed out. But - the bike is fixed and rides much better, the passport is on its way in 4 weeks, and things are splendiferous with Joyce again, so all is well.

After dealing with the crud, I spent most of my time on Wednesday working on the comic. This turned out to be just like doing D&D illos over the past few years. I spent almost no time drawing and almost all of the time looking for photo references on the interweb - helicopters, snow cats, even parkas and mountains. I am trying to keep as much “freehand” as possible, i.e. no photo reference, because I find that the more I rely on photo reference, the less personal style I put into the drawing, and that’s a habit I’m trying to get out of (this is something that Mike commented on from my recent drawings). But I have never drawn a helicopter before so cut me some slack here.

Other good news is that I put the cash down for an 11×17″ scanner so I will be able to scan in the full comic pages in fewer fell swoops than otherwise possible. After being unable to get it through local computer stores (they’re made in California and don’t have a Canadian distributor), I found an eBay store in Richmond that is going to ship it to me. Came to about $225 including shipping, methinks. Much better than the $1500-2000 models sold in Canada, and Kevin* from Outnumbered ( http://criticalhitcomics.com/ ) sings its praises as he has the same model. I’ve been doing the pencils in non-photo blue so I can’t really give you my progress so far (yet), but page 1 is indeed coming along. Steve brought along a copy of his PERSPECTIVE FOR COMIC BOOK ARTISTS to the last class which looks good, and plainly explained for dunces like myself, but upon looking it up on amazon.ca I see it is not available. So I’ll have to hunt for it on eBay.

(*I also bought some Blue Line comic book paper from The Comicshop so I am in a better position to finish the wererat splash that I promised Kevin for issue 5)

Stewie is going to be helping (read: doing) with the layout for the album, which is a relief because I know he is a crack shot and reliable, not to mention close at hand for the beatings. Jordan had the idea of doing the cover as a photo of the pocketbook parody, which is a good one. Taylor will be the official photographer for the project, and Mike Jackson is going to be taking on the role of Dr. Timothy Vess - the protagonist in the narrative for the album, for the purposes of liner photo. I got the mixes from Brodie finally last night, and I have been listening to them in the living room, on the computer, & at Stephane’s. There are a couple things that bug me but I think I may just be over critical of my pitch. Hopefully! If Brodie is happy with it then I must trust his professional opinion. Regardless I think it will be a kickass album of ROCK.