A Waste of Time

And another sketchbook page. I plan to start page one of a new multi-page storyline on Friday, so stay tuned for that. As for this drawing, I did it kind of quickly in Golden Gate Park, I think out near Hippie Hill, with Kristin very kindly enduring sunlight in her eyes because we were losing day fast and there were limited ways that she could sit which would allow me to see her well. The one she did of me was later on at a bar in Castro, I think The Mix, ’cause she’s an awesome friend and doesn’t mind always going to gay bars with me. Not that she doesn’t get plenty of women coming after her when we do. Considering that it’s the Castro, it’s actually pretty impressive how many women there are interested in her. Kristin’s just got like that. Yep. Even though you might not know it from this picture, because it’s not a very flattering one. This style of drawing I’ve been trying to develop probably looks more flattering on guys than on girls, since I like to draw all the details and shapes and shadows in people’s faces, and pretty girls aren’t supposed to have that, I guess. Kristin claimed she liked the picture, though, and she said the same thing the last time I drew her, too:

although maybe she was just being polite. Most people have said they’ve liked it when I’ve drawn them, but then again I’ve also got some reactions decidedly in the other end of the spectrum, so I guess people don’t always feel the need to be polite. Then yet again, most of the ones with the really unexcited reactions were guys with ego issues and with whom I had somewhat complicated relationships that might have biased their taste in those instances, but I could go on about those stories in a whole other post some time.

I’ve been waiting for a long time to draw this.

At this point, I’d mention very gently that, with a religious fundamentalist character, a robot character, a Capitalism-obsessed character, and an artist that happens to be myself involved in a drama involving xenobohobia, Pandemic panic, and drug trafficking, I might be trying to say something about something more than just a few cartoon animals. Of course I wouldn’t venture to say what exactly I”ve been trying to say, how successfully it’s been said, or anything like that, because none of that’s my place. I just want to kind of nod in that direction in case some people are wondering if they’re right to be reading all of this at a particular level.

It’s fun for me to finally get to this stuff, because I’ve known for a while now what was going to happen to Capitalist Pig when they cracked him open. I’ve also had an idea for a while what those two characters would do with the money, and what the fallout of the might be, so stay tuned. I actually have the vague outlines of a pretty epic long-term storyline for these characters, as well as knowing quite a bit about their history before these current comics, so it’s fun for me to finally see some of that coming out. Yep. I don’t plan to abandon the one-off strips, either, though, so this storyline stuff will hopefully be threaded throughout and who knows how long it’ll take to finish, but enjoy the ride.

I’m planning to post the colored cover for issue two tomorrow, and I figured that it might be interesting to post the line drawing first, since the black and white look is what I usually draw for. When I drew this I wasn’t really sure how I was going to color it, and I kind of like how it looks without any color at all. I’m surprisingly happy, though, with how the colored version looks.