New for 2010...not really.

As I was lettering the original series of Dorks, I got a bit caught up at looking at the panels. With each page I kept looking at the art and just thinking to myself, "What the hell was I trying to do in that panel?". With each page I got more and more of an itch to redraw the whole darn book. I had even started redrawing panels here and there on whatever scratch paper I had available. One day I finally had it and I just took all the pages, popped them in a box and picked one at random. Issue 2 page 8 is what came out and that's the page I redrew to get over my itch. I don't think it helped since I feel like redrawing the whole series again but at least I got something out of the way. Check out these before and after shots. You'll know exactly what I mean.

Scripting/ Thumbnails

As many comic book artist do, I did a thumbnail version of the Dorks issues before actually drawing it. Looking back, I'd love to get into this habit since I can look back at these notes and know exactly what was going on. I have some later stuff of Dorks where I just drew the book as I went along but there are missing pages here and there and missing dialogue and I can't make heads or tails of what was supposed to happen or what was to be said. I did this type of scripting for Bride of the Wolfman but it was all loosely done. I was able to work nicely off of it though and having an actual script helped out tons. Here's a look a the first issues script and thumbnails. Apparently once I finished the book I signed the script and dated it and wrote whatever song was playing on the radio when I drew it. Odd times I tell ya.

Collector's Image

Back in the day my first outsource for comics was a local shop called Collectors Image. That store was what I still believe comic book shops should be. It really was a hangout and the environment was great. The decor was top notch memorabilia and there were just rows upon rows of comic books. This is actually the first comic book store that fed and fueled my every indy need. I was opened up to fantastic worlds of Usagi Yojimbo, The Tick, ZOT!, The Crow, Tales of the Beanworld, Scud the Disposable Assassin and on and on. I can just keep on name dropping all the hot indy books that the world later discovered and fell in love with.
The store owner was kind enough to allow me to set up a little stand on his counter and display and sell my comic book, Dorks. This was really a time where I felt I was part of the business. I was even featured in their newsletter and did an in store signing.

I had the opportunity to have that similar experience recently at Alternate Reality (www.myalternatereality.com) and it's something that I don't think I'd ever get tired of. When there are comic shop owners out there that care that much about the industry it puts a smile on my face.

Guest pinup artist

I just wanted to post this pinup that Stan Tanaka has done for the tenth anniversary edition of the Dorks collected. Just as a bit of a story here, it seems he "borrowed" the scene from Dorks issue 3. Since I never got very far with the series or the stories I'll just let you know what was going on here. Back in the day it was "cool" and "hip" to have mysteries upon mysteries in your stories. That's what sold. Just throwing a bunch of meaningless crap out there and having some huge origin behind it later on. In this case, the passing between Latitude and this lady was a minor encounter between mother and son. It was to be later revealed that she had abandoned him because of how he turned out.

...I'm really glad those days are over of pointless origin crap.

Jumping Ahead - Bride of the Wolfman

It's been ages since I've completed an actual full comic. In 2002 and 2003 I did two short Dorks stories that were 4 pages each. Other then that, not much had happened. In 2004 Dave Gruba asked me to partner up with him on a project of his. Bride of the Wolfman. We've never worked together on a project despite the long history we've had together in publishing. Even on Grubbmaster Pieces I did my own stuff, which was funny cause I remember a guy that Dave tapped to contribute to the book but he wanted him to draw White Knife. That guy complained to me how he wanted to do his own stuff like I was doing. Old times...
Getting back on track I just wanted to point out that I have done something new. It feels good but now that the work is done, I feel like I was let go from a job. I just don't know what to do with myself. I had all these plans of course to work on Dorks and other things but coming rite off Wolfman I just feel drained and energized at the same time. Everything that I had held back on working on so that this project was done is now trying to find its way out and I can't focus on what to do first. I'm shure though by the end of the week I'll have an idea. :p

Here's a look at the cover and I'll post some sketches and pages later on.
Thanks everybody and thank you Dave. It was fun and a great project to work on. It helped me focus more on the task at hand and gave me some new experience on how to work.

-Rene

Skipping Dorks

When Dave approached me about doing a comic for his zine I agreed. At the same time, I was a bit afraid that he would steal Dorks from me. Instead, I "gave" him my other characters that I had been working on. Imp, Karloff and Razor would be the three rulers of Razura. These guys were the bad guys to the galaxy known as the Killiverse. It wasn't very thought out and I was just working off the old comics that I used to draw on notebook paper. To my surprise, everybody seemed to like them and an even bigger surprise to me was actually seeing them in print with other creators/ characters. There they were. My highschool (yes I was still in highschool at this point) characters come to life in print and being distributed across town. I was postive that the only way to go from here was up.

The Letter

Just a short update. This is the actual letter Dave sent me when Grubbmaster was going thru its hardships. This has to be one of the most professional letters I've ever received in the comic book community still to this day. I've modeled most of my practices in the biz after the guidance of Dave in his zine days.