Max Riffner

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How I Tricked Myself Into Cartooning Again

In July of 2008, I finally felt like getting back into cartooning again, and had settled on trying my hand at an online comic strip. There are many self-imposed obstacles that I see cartoonists put in their path to creating anything (that way they never have to put work out in the public eye), and I am no stranger to those delusions. Here are some of my stumbling blocks and how I got around them:

Character Sheets
I have seen a lot of cartoonists do millions of character designs and never do one single panel. I read once that Erik Larsen designs the characters on the page as he draws them, so I started doing that. The one drawback to this is consistency; I’ve drawn my characters wrong before once or twice. But more than likely, no one will notice, and this is easily solved by creating one master sheet in between updates. I did a master sheet for Lydia before I started at Kevin Church’s request, and I have to admit that has helped. When I was getting started on Drunk Elephant Comics, I skipped it so it wouldn’t slow me down.

Comic Strip versus Graphic Novel
It’s no secret that I like telling complete stories. I like movies over television shows, for example.¹ But crafting another longform graphic novel just filled me with dread, not only because of the work involved, but because of the fact that longform isn’t that popular online. So I decided to do something completely different and try my hand at a humorous webcomic strip. I doubted my ability at comedy, so I did 4 test strips and sent them to a close group of friends and peers. Obviously since we are closing in at strip #100 on Drunk Elephant, they said I should keep it up. And a strip update is a lot less daunting than a whole comic page as an artist.

The Website
I build websites for a living, so getting wrapped up in the design and CMS and development was an obvious stumbling block. I really did a good job of telling myself “what does the site matter if there is nothing to put on it?” The “comic” is the important part of “webcomic,” and the “web” is just the method of delivery. So my first few months of strips were done on Webcomics Nation. It’s dead easy to set up (it’s designed for cartoonists who are not technology savvy) and start posting immediately. It also has a large community of cartoonists that you are networked with just by being a member. Did I mention also that it’s free?

No Buffer
Many webcartoonists tell you to build a buffer of strips, in case you get sick or need a break. To start though, I threw the idea out the window. If I had told myself I needed a buffer, I’d start thinking about how it wasn’t quite ready yet, or I’d find some other way to stall. Those 4 test strips I did? I put them up immediately after I had my feedback. The rush of immediate publishing is so thrilling. It’s flying without a net. It reminds me of when I did a comic strip for my high school paper — waiting patiently for the first copies to come back after barely making a deadline. I still don’t have a buffer on either strip. I should probably start, but I’m addicted to deadlines and the rush. Literally, I have little to no idea what the next Drunk Elephant strip will be until the night before. This is probably not sustainable, but for now, it works.

Drawing Analog
After drawing an entire graphic novel with a Wacom tablet, I found it hard to get used to the visual disconnect with so much time off. By disconnect I mean, you have to train your eyes/brain to look at the screen and not your hand. It takes some getting used to (it actually made me sick if I did it too long when I was getting started). This is why the first few strips of Drunk Elephant might seem rough; I went back to using a pencil and brushed ink on bristol board. Simple tools, sure, but they make comics just as well as a fancy electronic tablet. I found that once I started drawing by hand again, I picked up the digital drawing again quite easily.

These were my basic faults that I knew I would have to overcome, and could easily get over with the right thinking. Hopefully putting this out there will help some other folks get over their blocks. If there are any cartoonists out there reading this, leave a comment regarding one of your blocks and how you overcame it? Might be an interesting tip in it for the rest of us!

¹ I need to write more on this — I’ve been studying television and comic strips a great deal to move past this particular hump.

Wednesday June 17, 2009    

Greg Denyes
Jun 25, 06:56 AM

# 1

Max,
A long time ago, I was a poet. I wrote the words that carried my feelings to all who would listen, as easily as I would breath. Pain was by far the simplest to convey. I haven’t written like that, or even very much in almost 10 years.

I’m currently picking myself up after my wife separated from our marriage. I was struck with the realization why one day on the drive home and the old poet in me, who was thought long dead, heaved the poem from inside me and laid it out in the open. Now that something has slipped through, I can see the blocks and the reasons why I was not able to write when I wanted to, and why I was able to write to begin with. I can say it was a strong fear of feeling not good enough on both counts.

My marriage has not completely fallen apart yet, partially because of my realization of fear, and I believe that by dissolving my blocks without losing the spark will also in turn give my marriage a whole new life.

I have no skill in graphic art, I probably never will. This poem just seemed to be incomplete without a visual, so I formated it as a stick-figure comic. Let me know what you think. I have enjoyed your work, and appreciate this opportunity to share something back.

—
Friar Greg

Max
Jun 26, 05:30 AM

# 2

I’ve been through a separation before, and I think the best thing you can do at this stage is to keep a journal. Write everything down – include this strip in it. It will help you gain some perspective on what to do next and how to process everything you are feeling.

Good luck!

You can also browse through the Parlor archives.

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