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