Urban Underbrush Chapter Twelve Retrospective

Well, dear readers, we've just wrapped up Urban Underbrush Chapter Twelve: House Inspection. Some of you may be curious about the changes to the comic world, and I'd like to tell you a little more about them.

If you haven't read Chapter Twelve yet, this is going to get pretty spoiler-heavy, so I suggest you go to the beginning and do the reading first. 

If you have finished the chapter, or don't care about spoilers, then let's get to it.

The most recent plot line has brought about the following changes:

1.) Dynamite and Detonator are temporarily done working for the rabbit family business.

2.) Dynamite and Detonator are now working for the landlord.

3.) Dynamite and Detonator will focus on building fireworks and novelties instead of knocking down buildings.

These are small but important modifications to the Urban Underbrush rules. 

I actually started writing the "House Inspection" story almost a year ago. Originally, it was going to be a silly, light-hearted escapade to follow the rather emotional Christmas Story. The original script involved Vincent tragically giving up his night off to assist with the inspection. Blair puts a hole in the floor by playing with Dynamite and Detonator's equipment, then runs off leaving Vincent to deal with the problem. Maxwell would cover the hole with a carpet scrap. Then Blair was supposed to fall through the afore mentioned hole right after the landlord went home ("Hey, how did you guys fix the hole so quickly - WhoOOAA!"). 

Then everything would return to normal.

It was a pretty good story. So, why did I change it?

Once I started to break this storyline down into comic strips, I found that none of the individual strips were interesting or funny. Whenever I have trouble turning a joke into a strip, I usually discover that the joke wasn't very funny to start with. But this was the first time that none of the strips seemed to work, no matter how I changed, tweaked, or rewrote them. If I can't get a single joke to work, there's probably something wrong with the joke. But if I can't get any jokes to work…is there something wrong with the comic?

In all honesty, this wasn't the first time Urban Underbrush had felt a little rickety to me. It was as if I was building on a cracked foundation and my once-steady walls were starting to shift and bend. If I ignored this problem and kept building, it was only going to get worse. I needed to stop and study the premise (the foundation) of Urban Underbrush. But I couldn't examine my work objectively while still writing new episodes. I needed to take a hiatus, hence the break over the spring and summer. During this time, I had two goals: 1.) Think about the kind of comic I want to write. 2.) Figure out what parts of the current comic are getting in the way of goal #1.

So, what kind of comic did I want to write…

I always wanted Urban Underbrush to focus on a large cast of both human and animal characters, with Dynamite and Detonator either driving each plot or acting as a catalyst to other people's problems. On examination, I realized that the jackrabbit family business was getting in the way of this. You may be thinking, "But, the rabbit family business was such a cool idea, how could it get in the way?" For one thing, it made the story kind of lop-sided. The rabbit family business was a huge plot point. Someone could easily write a whole series on just that one aspect. But it wouldn't be the story I wanted to write. Instead, the rabbit business was a competing "main idea" that was syphoning attention away from the Grass Roots House and splitting my story into pieces. 

So that's why the March Hare Demolition Company has stopped operating. I didn't want to disband it permanently - I just wanted to downplay its role enough to keep all my story elements in balance.

Making Dynamite and Detonator work for Claude the landlord seemed like another good idea. The other problem with rabbit business was that only Dynamite and Detonator got to interact with it. In many ways, this cut them off from the rest of the cast. It made my characters feel like boring realistic neighbors with their own separate lives instead of hilarious sitcom neighbors, always caught up in each other's business. Having Dynamite and Detonator work from the house seemed like the obvious solution to that problem.

The last big thing that bothered me about past Urban Underbrush was that there were never enough explosions. I think you can figure out why. Dynamite and Detonator knock down buildings. I can't have them smashing a different part of the crowded city in every episode, especially when they themselves live and a cherished historic building. In order to make the explosions occur more often, I just had to introduce smaller, less destructive explosions. Now that Dynamite and Detonator are building "safe" fireworks, an explosion can comically result in smoke and annoyance, instead of the loss of property, limbs, lives and such. Rest assured, there will still be large explosions when needed.

So, there's you breakdown of what's changed and the reasons why. I think the comic world will be better for them. Stick around. The best is yet to come.

-Marj

www.lepusstudios.com

Comic Creators for Freedom 2013

December is upon us and the holiday season is beginning. This is the time of year where many of us are at our most charitable. If any of you are considering making donations to any worthy causes, I'd like to bring this one to your attention. Comic Creators for Freedom is holding another drive to help victims of modern day slavery.

From December 2 to December 14, Comic Creators for Freedom will be accepting donations for Love 146, a treatment facility for victims of slavery, kidnapping, and exploitation.

In return for a donation of any amount, you will receive an impressive gift. 167 different webcartoonists have each contributed a different character drawing, and all of these drawings have been combined into a desktop wallpaper. This high-res image is not available anywhere else. The only way to get one is to be contributor.

This year, the webcomic wallpaper has an extra special theme: awkward school photos! Yes, you can see 167 of your favorite characters as they would have looked in elementary school or high school. (I've seen the preview image - you can tell who went to school in the 80's and 90's.)

For my contribution, I drew Urban Underbrush's Leslie McGrath as an eleven-year-old grade schooler. As a reward for reading this far, I'm going to post a clip from my contribution:

If you want to see the whole thing, you have to go make a donation. Here's that link again: Comic Creators for Freedom

Again, I am honored to be able to take part in this. My deepest thanks to anyone who donates, or even passes the word along.


-Marj

www.lepusstudios.com

My First Webcomic - A Guide for Beginners

Lately, some of my art students have been talking about starting their own webcomics. Good for you, kids. I'd like to give you beginners some advice, but then I've only been in the game for three years myself. I still feel like I'm new to this. On the other hand, maybe that's exactly why I should be giving advice. I'm close enough to the start to remember what beginners need. There are many men and women more talented and experienced than I who can tell you the important stuff. I'm just telling you what you need to know to take those first steps. Please don't stop learning about comics after reading this blog.

Be warned: This advice is intended for serious contenders. If your plan is to draw some scribbly little sketch comics without a lot of care or plans for the future, not everything here is going to help you. But if you actually want to take a crack at drawing real stories with your own characters and posting on a regular/semi-regular basis for as long as you can keep up with it, then you've come to the right place.

1.) Start right now. 

There will never be a perfect time to start, so you might as well start ASAP and start making progress.

2.) "Start right now" doesn't have to mean "post comics right now." 

There's lots of work to be done before you start sharing with the world (see items 3 through 8 for examples of pre-comic work). Finish as much ground work as you can before you need to make comics on a tight schedule.

3.) Draw your characters often. 

The more you know your subjects, the easier it will be to draw them repeatedly. This goes for props and settings too.

4.) Don't just draw characters, draw mock comics. 

Drawing characters in backgrounds is harder than just drawing characters alone.
Drawing characters in sequential story-telling panels is harder than just drawing them in backgrounds. Drawing characters with words balloons in the panels is harder than just drawing sequential story-telling panels.

Mock comics don't need to tell jokes, or even a proper story. But they'll help you understand how your different elements come together before the real deal begins.

5.) Invent a style that you can recreate. 

Your comic should have its own distinctive art style. This style needs to be something you are capable of drawing over and over for each strip. Ideally, it should take you 1 to 3 hours to draw a strip or page (it may take longer in the beginning.) If you invent a style which you can only draw once, or something that takes days to recreate, that style may not be right for a frequently updating comic.

6.) Create character model sheets and hang them near your drawing area. 

You may know your characters inside-out, but when you're putting them in action, and trying to meet a deadline, you'll be grateful for a quick reference to help you remember if a character wears his hair parted on the left or the right.

7.) Draw reusable art. 

I'm not suggesting you make a comic with copy/paste panels, but you'll want to make a few really good drawings of your characters that can be used in multiple places, such as on your "meet the cast" page, your future advertisements, your desktop wallpapers, etc. Just look at how many big name studios keep high-quality reusable character clip-art around for such occasions. P.S. be prepared to update these images as your work improves.

8.) Create a logo. 

Your title and how it looks are big factors in snaring new readers. I suggest you design a logo in a vector program so it can be reproduced at any size. If you don't have access to a vector program, at least start with a big, high-res image.

9.) Set a deadline for when you want to start posting your comic. 

It's easy to busy yourself with pre-comic work forever. Remember, no amount of preparing will train you like actually making work for an audience does. Many of you will never start unless you assign yourself a deadline. Think about what obstacles you need to clear before you can begin and take a guess at how long it will take you to do so. I also suggest you pick a date with some significance, like a birthday, anniversary, or holiday. This will make it harder for you to change your own deadline when the work seems too hard. For example, I promised to start my comic on New Year's Day, which was two weeks after I completed my first web design class. I combined a date with significance with a very real task I need to achieve before I could launch my comic site.

10.) Work in high-resolution and save all your work. 

All webcartoonists should save two copies of their comics - a low-res web version to post on the site, and a high-res version suitable for printing - just in case you ever get to print a book. And don't tell me "I'm just a kid/teen/student/hobbyist. I'll never put this stuff in a book." You never know what people will be interested in printing. Wouldn't you buy a book of cartoons that Walt Disney or Charles Schultz drew back when they were kids/teens/students/hobbyists? Also, don't tell me, "But my early work is awful. I don't want it to go in a book." You can never guarantee that future-you will feel the same way. Having something you never need is usually not as bad as needing something you never have.

11.) You don't need an expensive website to start. 

A custom website is great if you can get one, but many beginners do okay posting on DeviantArt, Tumblr, or other social media sites. This is also a good way to start if you're not sure you can write comics forever and you aren't ready to put down money yet.

12.) Be both harsh and generous with yourself. 

Don't be so proud of your work that you never want to let it grow and evolve. Look for flaws so you can improve on them. But don't be so hard on yourself that you can't also enjoy what you've made. Keeping your enthusiasm up is often an overlooked part of the process, but it is essential if you plan on doing comics for the long haul.

13.) Love your work. 

Love your characters, your stories, and your ideas. It is rare, if not impossible, to make a likable work without loving it yourself.

That's the best advice I can give you. Any successful artists want to add to the list (or any unsuccessful artists - I ain't picky) feel free to add a comment.

Best of luck to all aspiring artists. Go make me proud.

-Marj

www.lepusstudios.com

A Tribute to Lou Scheimer: Why She-Ra was Awesome

Cartoon Producer Lou Scheimer passed away recently. If you don't remember Lou, he was one of the key players behind the creation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. (You should read his Wikipedia page. There's a neat little story there about how his dad may have punched out Hitler.)

I was just a little too young to remember much of the original He-Man, but I remember watching a few episodes of the spin-off She-Ra: Princess of Power. I caught up on She-Ra in my adult years, which was probably even better than watching the show as a kid. There are things about She-Ra that adult me finds awesome but young me would have taken these details for granted.

I've put together a list of my top 5 favorite things about She-Ra. Please note that this list is based on my memories of watching the 80's cartoons, plus about 15 minutes on wikipedia. I don't remember much of the movie and I haven't read the comics or watched any of the 2002 series. Many of you readers probably have He-Man knowledge that would put mine to shame. Please be kind to a causal viewer.

1.) She-Ra's Powers were Mostly the Same as He-Man's Powers

Before She-Ra was created, Flimation already had a hit with He-Man. He was super strong, super tough and could kick everyone's butt. When they decided to create a female version of this popular character, they decided that her powers should be… super strength, super toughness and the ability to kick everyone's butt. In short, they didn't try to give her the "female version" powers, like only making her super fast, or agile, or magical. She pretty much got the same powers as her male counterpart.

2.) …And They Played it Straight.

These days, female warriors in fiction tend to overplay their roles. Their stories are forever trying to evoke reactions like, "What's this?! The beautiful lady is also strong and good at fighting?! How Unexpected!" The obvious problem with these stories is that they disempower average women by overreacting to how extraordinary it is when women are tough. In She-Ra's world, neither the heroes nor the villains acted like a female warrior was an anomaly.

3.) She-Ra had Both Men and Women on her Team

A common complaint with princess stories is, while they are designed to appeal to little girls, the lead character is the only significant female character. Any other girls in the story are either third-tier characters or villains. The concern is that these tales might accidentally be teaching little girls that A.) If you're not the lead girl, you're not important or B.) girls don't need to cooperate with other girls. She-Ra, meanwhile, had a nice mix of competent males and females on her team.

4.) Masculine Women and Effeminate Men

Every thing in He-Man's world had a manly quality to it. Even the women. Don't get me wrong, they were still female and had many feminine qualities. They just had a little machismo as well. Conversely, in She-Ra's world most of the men had a feminine side. When I was a child, I remember thinking that She-Ra's friend, Bow, was rather dashing. As an adult, I think he looks like a super hero-themed chippendale waiter, or a chippendale waiter-themed super hero (hang on, I just thought of the best idea for a new comic book). Looking back, I think the writers and artists did a fair job of designing female characters that a male audience can be comfortable with, and male characters that a female audience can be comfortable with. Plus, it sends a nice message to kids about not letting your gender limit your friendships.

5.) She-Ra was a Bit More Hardcore than He-Man

Despite what I said before, He-Man and She-Ra didn't have exactly the same powers. He-Man was a little stronger and She-Ra's sword could do that transforming thing. But She-Ra definitely had a tougher back story. For those of you who don't remember, Adam (A.K.A. He-Man) was a prince on the planet Eternia. He-Man's job was to keep the bad guys from conquering Castle Grayskull. When the writers decided to give him a sister, they had to come up with a reason why we had never seen her before, even though many of the adventures began with Adam and his parents living in the family castle. So it turns out that She-Ra was kidnapped by the evil Horde and raised to be one of their elite warriors. She-Ra was taken to the planet Etheria, a place which was just about completely enslaved by the bad guys. He-Man eventually finds his sister and tells her who she really is and they escape to their home planet. BUT THEN She-Ra decides to return to Etheria and leads a revolution against The Horde. Okay, clearly He-Man and She-Ra had to go where they were needed. But you can't ignore the fact that one of them gets to stay at home with his parents in a castle, while the other has volunteered to live with outcasts and rebels in hostile territory.

It's funny. I tend to think that cartoon writing have evolved in the last 30 years, especially when it comes to writing for women. But I wouldn't mind seeing more contemporary cartoons take a few pages from She-Ra's playbook. Who would have thought that a cartoon about a barbarian action figure could be so enlightened?

-Marj

www.lepusstudios.com

Urban Underbrush Returns Soon

You waited. You checked the site for updates. You scanned Facebook and Twitter for any news. You reread the archives, wrote your own fan fiction and held candle light vigils. Now your wait is almost over. Urban Underbrush will return with new comics on September 19, 2013.

Stopping a comic is hard. Starting it up again is even harder. It took longer than I thought for Urban Underbrush to find itself, and even longer to fit it back into my schedule again. But your patience will be rewarded. I think you’ll like the new comics even more than the earlier ones.

I can’t talk about all the changes yet. You’ll have to watch most of them unfold on their own. But here are a few of the things you’ll have to look forward to.

1. New clothes. 
As you can see from the promo art, Dynamite and Detonator have been given new outfits. I always liked their old clothes, but they never really fit the webcomic. Back in the 90’s, when I first drew Dynamite and Detonator, I wanted to give them the best clothes, the best kinds of hats, jackets, and sneakers to make them look like the ultimate cool yet classic cartoon characters. And it worked for an adventure story. But the clothes don’t quite suit the situational/character driven comic strip that the rabbits now inhabit. Why not? The first thing comic readers need to know about Dynamite and Detonator is that they are rabbits who love building bombs. Having them dress it a way that suggests neither rabbit being nor bomb building is just confusing. Comic strips are better when they can be understood quickly. Any element that does not help tell the story should probably be replaced with one that does. So Dynamite and Detonator now look a little more like technicians so that their roles in the story are easier to read.

And it doesn’t hurt that these new outfits are much faster for me to color.

2. Returning Characters
Breathe a sigh of relief because no one is leaving. Many webcomics start with a large cast of characters, then the authors make adjustments by whittling it down to the few characters whom they like best. I’ve thought about removing one or two people, but I’ve decided that everyone is still necessary. Fear not, your favorite character is safe…for now.

However, I do think a few of them are a little stifled. A few of them even seem redundant. I think this is because I haven’t let you get to know all of them well enough. One of my goals is to let the characters be a little more vibrant. They will still be themselves, just more so.

That’s all you get for now. I expect to see you all for the grand unveiling on September 19.

See you soon.

-Marj
www.lepusstudios.com

National Cartoonist Society Weekend, Part Three

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had drawn a comic in honor of the 2013 Reuben Awards, the National Cartoonist Society's award for outstanding cartoonists. This year's awards were held in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

I'm not an NCS member, but The Pittsburgh Toonseum hosted some NCS events and sold some VIP passes to the general public as well. I bought my ticket before they were even advertised.

My VIP pass entitled me to attend three different events on three different days: The opening of the Reuben Winner's Comic Exhibit on Thursday, Cartoonist Karaoke on Friday, and the Comic Arts Festival on Sunday (The Saturday events and award ceremony were for members only.)

As there were three separate events, I will be writing about my experiences in three separate blog entries.

I'd like to thank the Pittsburgh Toonseum for hosting the event. I have never purchased a VIP pass to anything before, but the Toonseum gave me every penny's worth and treated me like royalty.

Sunday, May 25 - The Comic Arts Festival

This one was not exactly a VIP event. The Comic Arts Festival was a free street festival that took over the Toonseums's block for most of a day. However, my VIP pass covered my admission to the museum gallery, saved me a seat at the panels and got me a place in line for cartoonist autographs.

But I'll get to that.

The festival itself was spectacular. Artist and vendor booths lined the street. Balloon sculptures of popular characters stood on tall balloon pedestals. And the whole street was quickly covered in chalk drawings, as the Toonseum staff passed out sidewalk chalk and invited guests to add to the scenery.

I drew Saber.

Then some kid drew an animal that looked kind of like Saber.

(But, clearly, his name was Spike)

But this was not just a day of drawing on the road. I also met a slew of cartoon celebrities, many of whom gave me sketches. All of whom gave me stories.

First, I met Mutts cartoonist Patrick McDonnell, who drew Mooch and a turtle for me.

This sketch was made in honor of my own pets.

("Oh, that sketch is an easy scene to renact. Ajax and Noko Noko can do that in five seconds," said no one, ever.)

Patrick must be sick of people telling him stories about their pets, but he was very polite and took the time to ask a few questions about Noko Noko (Noko's so interesting.)

Then I met Brian Walker, the son of Beetle Bailey's creator, Mort Walker. Brian takes the lead on the Hi and Lois comic, but I asked him to draw Beetle anyway.

I didn't want to miss Jan Eliot, creator of Stone Soup. We talked a bit about imaginations and she said I was "an absolute joy to talk to." <3

I got a sketch from John Rose, who currently draws Snuffy Smith. (This sketch was partly for my dad, who once knew most of the Barney Google theme song.)

Next, I met Brian Crane, who draws Pickles.

I also snapped a nice photo of Brian next to the Pickles-themed balloon sculpture. Apparently, he didn't know that he was stationed next to his sculpture until I mentioned it.

(The light was a little uncooperative, but that's a balloon sculpture of Opal and Earl dancing a waltz.)

Greg Evans, who draws Luann, asked me if I had a favorite character from his strip. I chose Bernice. I mentioned that Bernice probably has quite a following of fans who like geeky girls (like the guys who think Velma is cuter than Daphne.) Greg acted like he had never thought about that, but I can't imagine that I'm the first person to bring up that idea.

(For the sisterhood of girl geeks!)

Finally, I met the man himself. The president of the National Cartoonist Society - Jeff Keane (AKA Little Jeffy)

(That's right. He's the president)

Jeff asked me if I drew comics, then personally assured me that there has no longer any bad blood between syndicated newspaper cartoonists and web cartoonists. Those days are ancient history. You heard it straight from the top, folks.

After the signings, it was time for the panels. At this point, my cousin and habitual partner in crime, Kristine, joined up with me so I have at least one eye witness for the things that happened next.

We attended the first panel "Women in Comics." Lynn Johnson (For Better or for Worse) Cathy Guisewite (Cathy) and Hillary Price (Rhymes with Orange) told some amazing stories about starting their careers and which of their comics were based on personal experiences. If you ever get the chance to hear any of these people talk, I suggest you take it.

"Women in Comics" was well-organized, thoughtful and heartfelt. Then we attended Dan Piraro's panel... which was different.

(There are no words for what, exactly, happened here.)

Dan Piraro (Bizarro) talked about his comic, what it means, and what people think it means. He also talked about whatever was running through his head at the moment. Kristine and I ran into Dan afterwards and we got to tell him how much we liked his act. I didn't get a sketch, but it was one of the most fun conversations of the day. This was one of those rare cases where words are worth a thousand pictures.

So, that concludes my review of the NCS weekend and the Pittsburgh Comic Arts Festival. I hope to see all of your there next year.

-Marj

www.lepusstudios.com

National Cartoonist Society Weekend, Part Two

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had drawn a comic in honor of the 2013 Reuben Awards. For those of you who don't follow comic strip culture, The Reuben Awards are the National Cartoonist Society's annual awards for outstanding cartoonists. This year's awards were held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My town. Naturally, I had to get in on it.

I'm not an NCS member, but I figured that there would be a few events open to the public. As luck should have it, The Pittsburgh Toonseum (that's "Cartoon Museum" in case you haven't figured that out) announced that they would be holding some NCS events and they would be selling some VIP passes to the general public as well. I bought my ticket before they were even advertised.

My VIP pass entitled me to attend three different events on three different days: The opening of the Reuben Winner's comic exhibit on Thursday, Cartoonist Karaoke on Friday, and the Comic Arts Festival on Sunday (The Saturday events and award ceremony were for members only.)

As there were three separate events, I will be writing about my experiences in three separate blog entries.

I'd like to thank the Pittsburgh Toonseum for hosting the event. I have never purchased a VIP pass to anything before, but the Toonseum gave me every penny's worth and treated me like royalty.

Friday, May 24 - Cartoonist Karaoke

The second event I attended was a private karaoke party at the Tilden Lounge, a little place near the Toonseum. The NCS members had attended a full day of panels and meetings to prepare for Saturday's big award show. The Karaoke party was their chance to unwind.

I was the second person to arrive. It turns out that the guests of honor were still finishing their last panel. They all showed up about twenty minutes after the doors opened. I was more than a little star-struck, but when the place was packed, I couldn't recognize anyone. To be fair, everyone was wearing a name tag (many of the artist had sketched their own characters on their tags) but in a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd under night club lighting, reading name tags was not a possibility. And not everyone there was a cartoonist. There were relatives, publicists, significant others, and anyone else you would want to take to a night on the town.

For the first hour or so, I didn't talk much. I just watched. It was enough just for me to be there. But through out the night, an odd thing kept happening to me. I was wearing my VIP pass (as per instructions) but none of the real guests seemed to know how one obtains a VIP pass. So every one assumed that the VIP's were local prestige artists or museum contributors. No one knew that I had just saved my pennies and bought my way in. There was only one thing to do. I scribbled some of my characters on my VIP pass, and started acting like a real cartoonist.

And I had a few good conversations with some notable folks. I met Ryan Pagelow, who I think I annoyed by declaring my love for his discontinued projects while saying very little about his current ones. I met the man behind GoComics, who voiced some interest in running my comics (I'll think about it.) I even toasted the event with Sandra Boyton's son, Keith, a playwright and an absolute pleasure to talk to.

The evening grew late and I was pretty sure I had wrung every bit of fun out of the experience. Many of the artists had already gone back to their hotels to rest up for the big day tomorrow. Some of them had probably just moved on to quieter venues. But there was still enough of a crowd for a party. All night, people kept asking each other "Are you going to sing tonight?" It was sort of a running gag. Obviously, the outgoing artists needed no encouragement, while the shyer ones never had any intention of going anywhere never that stage. I was in that second category. Or so I thought until an unexpected thought entered my mind: "If you were to sing karaoke in front of the National Cartoonist Society, you would never be intimidated by anyone else ever again."

Then I had to do it.

I picked out a song I knew and… I wasn't great or good or even forgivable. In fact, I probably ruined music and for that I apologize. But sounding good and being impressive was not the point (actually, I think I did get a bit better the more a sang, but still not the point.) I set a new high bar for my extrovert self.

Okay, I don't really believe that I'll never be intimidated ever again, and I know I kind of cheated by waiting until the end of the evening when everyone had left or was distracted, but it was still a pretty bold move, so you be quiet and let me have this.

Plus signing in front of famous strangers did make it seem like less of a big deal to ask for their autographs the following Sunday.

Please return for the third and final installment of my NCS blog, which will run on Friday.

-Marj
www.lepusstudios.com

National Cartoonist Society Weekend, Part One

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I had drawn a comic in honor of the 2013 Reuben Awards. For those of you who don't follow comic strip culture, The Reuben Awards are the National Cartoonist Society's annual awards for outstanding cartoonists. This year's awards were held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My town. Naturally, I had to get in on it.

I'm not an NCS member, but I figured that there would be a few events open to the public. As luck should have it, The Pittsburgh Toonseum (that's "Cartoon Museum" in case you haven't figured that out) announced that they would be holding some NCS events and they would be selling some VIP passes to the general public as well. I bought my ticket before they were even advertised.

My VIP pass entitled me to attend three different events on three different days: The opening of the Reuben Winner's comic exhibit on Thursday, Cartoonist Karaoke on Friday, and the Comic Arts Festival on Sunday (The Saturday events and award ceremony were for members only.)

As there were three separate events, I will be writing about my experiences in three separate blog entries.

I'd like to thank the Pittsburgh Toonseum for hosting the event. I have never purchased a VIP pass to anything before, but the Toonseum gave me every penny's worth and treated me like royalty.

Thursday, May 23 - The Preview Gallery

The Toonseum announced that they had put together a comic strip gallery, featuring the big winners of past Reuben Awards. Keep in mind that there have been Reuben Awards for the past 67 years, so the exhibit had a lot of great comics to choose from. As I understand, the Toonseum moved heaven and earth to round up a fair sample of comics from all the great cartoonists and arranged them by era, with each artist's NCS biography card alongside his or her work. The gallery would be open to the public the following Sunday, but a preview gallery and reception was held that Thursday for the visiting NCS members, museum contributors, and VIP's. 

I arrived early, but there were already a few people walking around and admiring the art. In less than an hour, the galleries were packed. That night, I saw the greatest collection of comic art I had ever seen. The pieces and their curation would not look out of place in the Smithsonian. Seeing them in the local museum was mind blowing. The first room held mostly early works. The walls held classic versions of Beetle Bailey, Prince Valiant (by original artist, Hal Foster, of course) Dick Tracy, and Lil Abner - just to name a few. Right in the middle of this room, there was an original peanuts comic, which was almost twice the size of the other strips on display. I had heard that Charles Schultz liked to use a larger illustration board than most of his peers, but seeing this large Peanuts comic, dwarfing all the other little strips around it gave the work a sense of majesty. 

There's something strange about seeing original comics. When comics are published, you can only see the clean lines, but when you see the originals, you see every bit of white-out, every place where a new bit of art or dialogue was pasted in later, and every unerased pencil line. These early artists in the pre-Photoshop days used every trick at their disposal to finish their comics. In spite of this the quality of the art was undeniable.

The next room contained more modern comics from the 80's and 90's. As exciting as comic history was, these strips were more familiar friends. A hand painted "Calvin and Hobbes" stood in a display case, attracting many onlookers. I looked at original "Garfield" on the wall - it's lines so smooth and perfectly shaped that they could have been drawn by a computer. Why isn't Garfield drawn digitally? For whatever reason, it's a point of pride with the Paws staff that each comic still gets drawn and inked by hand. A Reuben Award-themed Fox Trot (obviously chosen for the occasion) showed such detail, you could almost see what pen Bill Amend used for each line. At the end of the row (a little overlooked, as it was right next to the bar) there was a Cul-De-Sac strip. I did not expect this one to strike me as it did. Cul-De-Sac cartoonist, Richard Thompson was forced to retire last year, due to the severity of his Parkinson's Disease. When I looked at that comic, I realized that every Cul-De-Sac strip that would ever exist in the world ever had already been made and the one I was looking at was part of a finite supply. The card below it said nothing of Thompson's retirement or his illness. It only wrote about how proud he was to have won the Rueben in 2010. I could not stop looking at that comic. I rather hoped the people around me couldn't see my eyes tearing up.

Later on, I found myself at the back of the gallery, contemplating wether I should get a soda or call it a night, when I noticed Joe Wos, the Museum Director, standing a few feet away from me. Suddenly, Joe was calling for everyone's attention. I felt like I should get out of the way and let the important people get closer to the event, but it was too late. The dense crowd was already gathering behind me. I had a front row seat for what happened next. Joe announced that he wanted to present a special award to a contributor. Apparently, the Toonseum has it's own local award, known as the Nemo Award, which is only given to people who make a great contribution to the advancement or preservation of the cartoon arts. I watched as the Nemo Award was presented to Jean Scultz - the wife of the late Charles M. Schultz - for her contributions to cartoon museums across the country. I watched as Jean worked her way through the crowd, which parted for her as best as it could, and she graciously accepted her award. It was during this magic moment when I realized that I had left my camera in the car.

So that was my visit to the gallery. Fun, inspiring, touching, and completely unforgettable.

I'll be posting Part Two of my NCS Weekend blog on Wednesday and Part Three on Friday, so don't miss it.

-Marj

www.lepusstudios.com

Comic Phases and the Secret of the Grass Roots House

This is a very special week for me. This weekend, The National Cartoonist Society is coming to Pittsburgh.

To celebrate the occasion, I’ve drawn up a new Urban Underbrush strip with a classic comic theme. (Regular strips will return soon!)

But that doesn’t feel like enough. I want to do something more to show my love and admiration for the comic strip medium. Then I remembered. I have a comic-related secret about Urban Underbrush that I’ve wanted to share with you. Now seems like the time to do it.

This is the secret meaning of the Grass Roots Boarding House.

As readers of my webcomic may have noticed, Urban Underbrush  is a story about balance. It’s about preservation and destruction, courage and caution and (most importantly) civilization and nature. The Grass Roots House, the main setting of this story, clearly embodies that balance between civilization and nature.

Thoughtful readers may have figured out that the house represents balance, but its second meaning is known only to me (until now).

The timeline and history of the Grass Roots House represents comic strips themselves.

It’s like this:

Before there was a Grass Roots House, there was a neighborhood. This represents the early years of comics. Newspapers had just begun to carry comic strips, but there were no rules or conventions yet. Familiar patterns, punchlines, and writing styles had yet to emerge. Jokes were heavy-handed and over explained. No one knew how to draw a speech balloon.

The Grass Roots House was built in the 1940’s and served as a family home throughout the 50’s and early 60’s. During this time, comic strips now had rules, structure and snappy jokes that hit on correct comedy beats. They were also largely about families and kids.

In the 60’s and 70’s the Grass Roots house was transformed into an “Urban Commune” for a group of kindly, but somewhat clueless hippies. In the 1960’s many young adults were living on college campuses and in commune homes. Comic strips like Doonesbury and Bloom County recognized the comedic potential for putting a lot of diverse, unrelated characters together and making them live like a family. Roommate comedies about wacky friends living in close quarters has been a staple of the comic world ever since.

In the early 80’s, The Grass Roots House was bought by a shifty businessman, who rented its rooms to a string of yuppie types. If you remember comics in the 80’s and most of the 90’s then this phase should come as no surprise. This was when successful comics became big businesses. Newspapers were at their highest circulation, which meant that newspaper comics had their largest audience and were earning their biggest profits. Comics branched out into new media, such as TV cartoons, plush toys, T-shirts, and every other imaginable kind of merchandise.The 80's were like that.

In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, normal people were losing interest in The Grass Roots House, as it fell into disrepair. In the real world, newspaper sales were beginning to decline, due to the papers' inability to adapt and compete with the internet and electronic media. Comics were losing their audience.

Which brings us to the present. Cassidy and her friends and acquaintances have moved in to The Grass Roots House and fixed it up. Each of them has his or her own reason to live in the house and to keep it going. Care to guess what phase of comics this represents? (This one is easy.) That’s right, it represents webcomics! We webcomic cartoonists have found what others have left for us, and have used whatever skills, talents, and devotion we have to make comics a home for us. Can we keep it up? How long will webcomics last? Who knows? But for now, the comic tradition is ours. And we intend to make this chapter a good one.

So now you know.

-Marj

www.lepusstudios.com

It's Back! Easter Eggs 2013

If you've been visiting this site for more than a year, then you probably know what's coming. I have finished the Fourth Annual Lepus Studios Easter Egg Gallery. See the eggs here in all their glorious colors and proteins!

http://www.lepusstudios.com/eastereggs2013.html

 We've picked a new crop of webcomics to honor, and I think you'll be quite pleased with the array of new faces.

 Meanwhile, I have been working a lot of odd jobs lately and even the regular ones have been needing a little extra attention. So it's been quite a task getting these suckers drawn, colored, photographed and posted on time. Sure, I could have finished them tomorrow when I'd have a little more time on my hands, but then you probably wouldn't hear about them before the weekend and less people will be online on a holiday... Anyway, the earlier I can get them up, the better, because no one likes stale eggs.

 Seriously, I wanted to finish before Thursday, not just because I implied that I would on various social media, but because this is one of my site's oldest traditions and I want to make these things a priority no matter how busy the rest of my life gets. Also, even when I'm finishing up the last of the gallery pages at close-to-midnight after working for 8 1/2 hours (not counting drive time) it's still pretty fun.

 But if any of my blog writing seems choppy or disconnected tonight, please see above.

 -Marj
  www.lepusstudios.com

Urban Underbrush Report #1: Pubic Outcry

About a week ago, I made the announcement that Urban Underbrush would be taking a break. Here’s my announcement from the comic notes:


“Urban Underbrush is closed for story maintenance. Expect it to return sometime this spring.

Some of you webcomic readers must be thinking: "I've been burned by this one before. A comic 'takes a break,' then the artist moves on to other things, while I'm still waiting for their return like an abandoned puppy."

I promise that will not happen. I love Urban Underbrush and I know that its best stories are still ahead of it. But there are a few plot elements that aren't working the way I want them to. I can't make proper adjustments to the writing while still putting out new content. It's like I'm running a machine with a broken part. If I keep running it, I'll wear down the gears. But if I stop and fix what's broken, everything will work better when I start up again. Things last longer if they are properly maintained and I want Urban Underbrush to last forever.

In the meantime, I will try to give you some extras to ease the waiting, such as some non-canon comics and extra updates of Draconis Wicked (which will continue to run on schedule).

You can check back here for the return, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter (so you won't miss any news.)

Management appreciates your patience and understanding.”


Since then, I’ve been getting more of a reaction than I expected. No one has written to complain or anything, but my advertising revenue has dipped and, according to my site tracker tools, my number of visitors is dropping.

Up until last week, I had thought that Draconis Wicked was the more popular comic. If Urban Underbrush bowed out for a while, Draconis could carry the weight until it returned. After all, my reader numbers are always the highest on Monday (when Draconis updates) and the majority of visitors enter my site from the Draconis page (not the Urban Underbrush page or even the Home page.)

In spite of this evidence, it seems that most of my followers show up for Urban Underbrush. (I’m sure Draconis Wicked has its fans too, they’re just a bit fewer in number right now.) But I’m not worried. I whole-heartedly believe that the improvements I’m making will do more than make up for lost time. I wouldn’t have taken this break if I didn’t believe that.

-Marj
www.lepusstudios.com