Radiant Comics

Some days I have no idea what I want to do creatively so I go with a whim. A whim is an idea without much depth or thought to it. It crosses my mind for a moment and captures my imagination and motivation. There is usually not much more to to it that “Hey, what if I were to do this simple thing?”. Simple in terms of concept but not necessarily in terms of execution.

Two things I’ve been working on a lot in the recent few weeks are my cartoon art cards and my big ink drawings. The cartoon are cards are small 2.5×3.5 inch drawings of a cartoon face with a word balloon above his or her head with a saying in the balloon. My big ink drawings are 22×30 inch drawings done in black ink an usually of a scene with a face or figure (or two) in it done in a design-ie style. Lots of black shapes that make no sense in reality. This week my whim was to think “What if I made one of my cartoon art cards at my big ink drawing size?”. Then I decided to do it.

The first thing I did was pull out my binder full of art cards that I’ve drawn. I have over 2000 of them. I look through a binder to try and find one that I might blow up. But they were really too small to make me think they would blow up well. So I started from scratch. I pulled out a 5×7 inch piece of paper and started drawing a face on it. I decided to go with a super-hero face so I could have her saying something super-heroic.

It took about an hour and a half to draw the face. For some reason I struggled to make the face symmetrical. I measured out the distance between eyes, erased a lot, and even used s piece of tracing paper and flopped the drawing of the left side of the face. Still something wasn’t quite right about it. That’s because in going from 5×7 inches to 22×30 inches I knew my small mistakes would be magnified. In the end, after I scanned the drawing in, I digitally duplicated and then flopped the left side go the face so it was identical to the right side. That did the trick.

After scanning in the drawing I blew up the drawing to 20×28 inches (I leave a one inch border on the paper) and printed it out on eight 8.5×11 inch pieces of paper. After taping the paper together I use that and graphite paper to transfer the drawing onto my big sheet of watercolor paper. This is how I make all my big ink drawings.

As I was drawing the face I was thinking about what the word balloon should say. I ended up with, “I’m not a superhero but I play one on TV. Just kidding. Make one wrong move an I’ll blast you into oblivion.” That’s how this drawing got named “Oblivion Blast.” I didn’t letter any of that on the little sketch but typed in onto the scanned in drawing and them traced over the letter as I transferred the drawing with graphic paper.

Once the drawing and lettering were in graphite on the big paper I decided to do the lettering first. I thought about doing it with a marker but wasn’t sure if that could get what I was going for. I decided to use a brush. I have a number 6 Windsor Newton Series 7 watercolor brush that I use for ink. I thought I’d try that out. After a few practice letters on a scrap piece of paper I knew that was what I wanted. I set about inking with the brush over my penciled letters. It went fairly quickly and ended up looking okay. It looks like hand lettering on a comic book only bigger.

After the lettering was done I went about inking the piece. That was straight forward as always. I used a ship’s curve and marker for a few of the long curves but then did the rest with a #3 watercolor brush. I even thickened up those long curves with a brush. After the inking was done I took a photo of the piece with my iPad and then used Procreate and that photo to make a color sketch. But first I had to make a new color palette in Procreate.

I’ve bought about twenty new bottles of color ink this year. After I get the ink I make a swatch of the color on a sheet of paper. That’s so I can refer to the swatches to see what to color looks like in real life. In order to make a digital color palette in Procreate I took a photo of my swatch sheet and then sampled each color. That way as I made my color sketch I would have a near approximation of my ink choices.

Coloring this piece took a long time. Maybe five to six hours. It turns out that using ink to color in big flat areas is harder than it seems. I had to take my time and evenly spread the ink on the paper with no dripping. Ink doesn’t dry particularly flat over large areas so I had to use two coats to try to even things out. After putting all the color in I hade to go back in with black ink to strengthen up some of the lines that color leaked into.

The final color I put in are the red and blue streaks in the background. In the small ones I often put in solid backgrounds but I didn’t think they would look good this big. In some 5×7 inch cartoon art cards I’ve use backgrounds such as this so I was sure they would look good. I even ended up putting a big “JOSBORN” signature in the bottom right as I do with my small art cards.

It’s a little bit funny but when I show off a big drawing like this over social media it can look a little underwhelming. The audience can’t see that it’s a big drawing. On Instagram it’s the same size as a 2.5×3.5 inch drawing. Without another drawing to compare it to the size is lost. So I decided to ink and color the 5×7 version.

When I inked the 5×7 version I didn’t flop half the drawing like I did the big one. That’s because the differences in the left and right sides of the face aren’t as noticeable at the smaller size. So I inked it, erased the pencil lines (which greyed out some of the black ink), inked it a little more, and then colored it with marker. It was only after that was all done that I did the lettering. But first I decided to write something different. I didn’t want both drawings saying the same thing. “I’m not really going to blast you into oblivion. I’ll probably just break a bone or two.” The new one says. A bit of a continuation.

In the end I like the two drawings. Not the greatest things ever but kind of cool. Not bad for a whim.

Winter 2020-2021 TV Watching. I haven’t written down which TV shows I’ve been watching in a while. I think the last one was in the Spring of 2020. Some of these could even be the same ones with new seasons. I put the years the shows started on this list just for my own amusement. Some I’ve been watching for a long time.

Barry (2018) – I started this one this year. It’s Bill Hader as a hitman who is trying to go straight after joining an acting class in Los Angeles. It’s sort of a fish out of water story with dark humor and violence thrown in. There is a couple of short seasons of it.

Big Sky (2020) – This one is a drama about a couple of female private eyes working in Montana and trying to track down some missing girls caught up in a human trafficking ring. It’s solid if not spectacular.

The Black List (2013) – We’re in season eight of this one and I don’t like it as much as I once did. It’s an FBI procedural that has gotten a little stale to me. It’s still good enough to watch but I don’t rush to check it out. I’m a few episodes behind right now but I’ll catch up eventually.

Cobra Kai (2018) – Now on Netflix with it’s third season everybody binge watched this show last year but I’ve been taking my time with it. As a continuation (decades later) of the “Karate Kid” movie. It’s fun and a little goofy. I’ve got one more episode of it that I’ll probably watch soon.

Community – (2009) – This is a rewatch for me as I watched it live when it first ran. Six seasons (three long and three short) about the goofy goings on at a Community College. A lot of fun irreverent comedy that has a lot of imagination and pop culture spoofs in it. I’m enjoying it the second time around.

Cougar Town (2009) – This is another rewatch. An ensemble comedy with Courtney Cox in it as a forty something (more of a high schooler) looking for love in the second act of her life. At least that was the plot of the first season. Then if became about the everyday lives of the ensemble cast having fun, drinking wine, and doing goofy stuff. An enjoyable show.

Death in Paradise (2011) – I discovered this one only a couple of years ago but we got a new season this January. It’s a British cop show so there are only eight episodes a season. It’s a light hearted cop show that take place in the Caribbean. It’s full of beaches, sunshine, and warmth. I like to watch it in the winter to forget about the cold. Other than that it’s a pleasant and easy going detective show. We get a murder a week and that murder gets solved.

The Equalizer (2021) – A new show based the 1980s show of the same name with Queen Latifa as the Equalizer. It’s fun. She’s a super ex-CIA agent with lots of training and connections who helps innocent people out of jams when they get caught up with criminals. Solid.

FBI (2018) – The NYC field office of the FBI takes on all the big cases of the day. Bad guys do something bad and then the FBI tracks them down. You know the drill.

Flack (2019) – Here is one it took me all year to watch six episodes of. It’s a show that takes place in London that’s about the women who work in a PR firm putting out the public relations fires that their clients start. Our main character is an American played by Anna Paquin and she’s almost as out of control as her clients. I guess this one is a dramedy.

The Flight Attendant (2020) – Kaley Couco stars as an international’s flight attendant who gets caught up in a murder and conspiracy. I found this one a lot of fun mostly because of Couco. She was charming and interesting. I’d call this one a thriller with a lot of humor in it. Humor that Couco pulled off well.

Ground Floor (2013) – Another rewatch from years ago. It only had two short seasons. About 24 episodes total but I remember them fondly so I wanted to check them out again. It’s a sort of Romeo and Juliet sitcom with the female character working on the ground floor in the IT department and the male character working on the top floor as a hedge fund guy. Will their romance be successful or doomed? Either way there are laughs along the way.

Magnum P.I. (2018) – The new version of Magnum is a straight up action show. It moves fast and has plenty of conflict. It’s fun popcorn TV.

Mr. Mayor (2021) – A new comedy staring Ted Danson as the Mayor of Los Angeles. I really didn’t have a lot of hope for this one but it surprised me. The first couple of episodes were okay but after that it really picked up. It’s a fast paced and clever sitcom where the jokes keep flying. I enjoy this one now.

PEN15 (2019) – This one stars two adult actresses playing their early teen counterparts. All there other kids in school are actual kids so it’s a weird concept. There is a lot of dark and awkward teenage girl humor but it’s well done. You’d better be okay with uncomfortable moments watching this one.

Resident Alien (2021) – I read some of the comic books that this one is based on and like the comics better. The show is okay but there is a lot more comedy in the show. The comic is more of a detective story. The plot involves a space alien who crashed on Earth and now has to blend in until he is rescued.

The Rookie (2018) – A Nathan Fillion police procedural that I’ve been watching for three seasons now. I don’t have much more to say about it other than I like it.

Seal Team (2017) – You could call this a Seal Team procedural. It’s a military action oriented show with lots of behind the scenes drama too midway season four and I’m still watching.

The Simpsons (1989) – Yes, it’s season 32 of the Simpsons and I’m still watching it. I was around for season one and I don’t see any reason to stop watching now.

The Stand (2020) – A new adaptation of the epic Stephen King book. I like the way they told the story a little bit out of order. They showed some of the beginning of the book, then got into the middle of the book, and then flashed back to the beginning as needed. It was a decent adaptation.

Superstore (2015) – In it’s sixth and last season I think this one is a little underrated. At least I never see it mentioned online as anyone’s favorite but I really like it. I’ll be sad to see it go.

The Unicorn (2019) – We’re in the second season of this sitcom staring the guy who played the main villain in “Justified.” He’s a recent widower back on the dating scene. Somehow that makes him a unicorn. I find it amusing but not hilarious.

Utopia (2013) – I started watching the 2020 Amazon Prime version of this show but then bailed on it. After that I found out that this original British show existed and it has much better reviews. I watched the first six episode season and liked it. It’s a show about some people who get caught up in a vast and deadly conspiracy. It’s pretty violent and scary. Fun stuff.

Woke (2020) – A show about a cartoonist in San Francisco. Sometimes his art supplies talk to him. I think the main concept is supposed to be that he is a black man making a generic middle of the road popular cartoon when he get’s “Woke” and then wants to make a more socially relevant cartoon. That derails his career. To me it seems to be about the struggles of a cartoonist or creative person in general and the woke part is a bit of a sideline. Either way I enjoyed it.

Young Sheldon (2017) – The Big Bang Theory prequel continues and it continues to be a well done family sitcom.

Your Honor (2020) – A Brian Cranston vehicle where he plays a judge who’s son gets in trouble with the law and a gangster. The judge tries to protect his sone but it doesn’t go well. I still have a couple more episodes to watch but, though well done, this show is no pick-me-up. It can be a tough watch.

I don’t have many free flat surfaces in my studio. I have a lot of counters and tables with things on them. My drawing table is mostly free but that’s where I work on my drawings and paintings. I have a big counter on the left of my studio that holds my computer, monitor, scanners, and printer. The only free spot there is on top of my printer. It’s a 13×19 inch tabloid printer so it has a pretty big flat surface on top. So I put things on top of it. Comic books mostly.

Actually I don’t put the comic books right on top. A few years ago the fella who runs my local comic shop asked me if I wanted a free Monopoly game. It was the Jay and Silent Bob Edition. I’m not much of a Monopoly player but I thought it looked cool. When I got it home I noticed it was about the same size as the top of my printer. So that’s where it has sat for years.

Why the Monopoly game sits there is a matter of practicality. Shortly before I got the game I started keeping a few comics on top of the printer. My “To be read” pile of comics is in a magazine holder atop a end table to the right of my chair. They sit there until I read them but they’re tucked away and unseen. But I wanted to keep a few comics where I could see them and admire them on a whim. That is the top of the printer.

Once a week I take a comic out of my collection and set it on top of the printer. I call it “My museum spot” because I can pick up and look at that comic book cover as I go by. Besides that museum comic I sometimes have another four or five comics on top of the printer for various reasons. The Monopoly game makes them easy to move. I use my printer a lot. If not at least once a day then five days out of the week. It’s easier to pick up the Monopoly box with the comics on top of it than it is to pick up six individual comics.

Only one of the comic books on top of the printer has been there for over a year. I can’t seem to put it away because of nostalgia. That comic, well it’s not actually a comic book, is Marvel Age #111. Marvel Age was Marvel Comics’ publication about Marvel Comics. These days it’s the equivalent of Marvel’s web page. It has all sorts of news, art, and articles about Marvel Comics. This issue came out in 1992 when I was working in the Marvel Comics’ Bullpen. There is the nostalgia angle.

It’s the cover that I really enjoy. The cover was drawn by Spider-Man artist and Marvel Art Director at the time John Romita. Also appearing on the cover is John’s wife Virginia Romita who also worked at Marvel Comics back then. She was the Traffic Manager as well as being in charge of the Bullpen and my boss.

On the cover Virginia is opening the door to John’s office and in her role as Traffic Manager asking John where the cover to Marvel Age is. As that is happening we see a self portrait of John with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head in a daydreaming pose. Surrounding John are eight different women he has drawn for Marvel. We have: Crystal the Inhuman, a Femizon, Medusa the Inhuman, Aunt May Parker, Betty Brant, the Black Widow, Gwen Stacy, and Mary Jane Watson. It’s a cute gag.

There is one other woman in the drawing. On the door that Virginia is opening is a poster of a woman in a cape and smoking a cigarette in a holder. This is the Dragon Lady for Milton Caniff’s “Terry and the Pirates.” That comic strip was a favorite of John’s from his youth and Milton Caniff’s art was a big influence on John’s own art. So he was paying tribute to Caniff by putting the Dragon Lady in this drawing.

Not only is this a nice cover but there is a lot of nostalgia in it for me. Double nostalgia even. First of all I grew up reading Marvel comics in the 1970s so I was very familiar with John Romita art. From a young age I enjoyed his work and knew all the women he drew on this cover well before I ever met and worked with him. Then of course there is the fact that I was working at Marvel when this issue of Marvel Age come out. You can even find my name on the inside front cover in the “Production” section. Just seeing the drawings of John and Virginia make me nostalgic.

Just writing this was making me so nostalgic that I decided to look up how much a copy goes for on eBay right now. For a brief moment I was thinking about buying another copy for no reason but the fact that this copy makes me happy. A copy is only about ten bucks with shipping and tax but I really don’t need another copy. But then I ran across a $500 copy.

That super expensive copy is a slabbed CBG 9.6 Marvel Age 111 autographed by both John and Virginia Romita. There is absolutely no way I would ever pay that much for it but for a nanosecond it tempted me. Lots of nostalgia can do that. I don’t own any slabbed comic books nor am I interested in autographs but I still think that one is pretty cool.

The top of the printer has about six comics on it but only two fit on it side by side. That means that sometimes this cover is not on top and is out of sight. The rest of the comics in those two small piles have rotated off the printer and back into their usual place in my collection to be replaced by other comics but not Marvel Age 111. I have at times contemplated putting it away somewhere (since it’s been sitting there since I bought it a year ago it never actually found its “Away spot”) but have always elected to instead put it at the bottom of the pile. That way I could rediscover it in a week or two. It can make me happy all over again.

The art that is write in front of me. That’s what I’m going to write about this morning. It’s Monday the eighth of February, 2021 as I write this and I feel like writing but don’t have a subject in mind. That’s why I’m going to write about the art that’s in front of me. Or whatever else comes to mind. Like fatigue.

I’ve had to clear the driveway of a lot of snow he other day so I’m a little tired. A week ago on Monday February the first I had to clear sixteen inches of snow. Even with my John Deere riding mower, which has a plow on the front, that was a lot of work. The next day I had to clear another four inches. The day after that another two inches. That made yesterday’s five inches seem rather easy. Five inches is a normal snowstorm for the lower Hudson Valley. Twenty inches is not.

Besides being physically tired lately yesterday was the Super Bowl. Being a football fan I enjoy the big game but it also makes me a bit pensive after it’s over. It’s the culmination of the football season and also the end of it. It’s almost like another New Year’s Day to me. A time to reflect on the year that has gone by. That’s a tough thing in this Covid year. So I’ll contemplate the art that’s in front of me.

I made a new big in drawing this Super Bowl weekend. I haven’t made one of those in a couple of months. I actually had a drawing picked out to blow up and do that size but the drawing has just been sitting there for over a month. I finally decided to make it this past weekend. But that’s not even the art that’s in front of me.

Like everyone else I don’t have as much room as I’d like to have. I make my big ink drawings on an easel in my studio. But when I finish a big ink drawing I really don’t have any place to put it. I have to scan it in before I tuck it away in a box or portfolio case somewhere but it’s a pain to scan in a 22×30 inch drawing. So I let them pile up. When I’m not working on my easel I put the pile of drawings there. When I am working on my easel I move the drawings onto my bed. When it’s bedtime I put them back on the easel.

As a consequence of all that I have a pile of drawings on my easel right now. I’m going to go over to my easel and count them for you. Twenty six. Including the one I just made I’ve got twenty six 22×30 inch drawings on my easel. I’m going to have to scan those all in sometime soon because that number is getting to be real high and any higher and the amount of work it will take to scan them in will be too much.

Out of the twenty six drawings only one of them can be in front on my easel or on the top of the pile when they’re on my bed. I change that one every once in a while. I get tired of the one on top even if I only see it as I move the pile from my easel to the bed and back. For those brief seconds I want to see another one in the pile. That’s why when I looked up at my easel this morning I was a little bit startled by the drawing I saw on my easel. I must have just put that one on top without thinking about it since it seemed a little new to me.

Yes, there are times my own work can seem new to me. As I said there are twenty six drawings in that pile which I made in the last year. Sometimes I did a drawing a week for a month. So a drawing I made eight months ago could get put in the pile after being on my easel for only a few days to a week and not been seen by me for months after that. I only lived with it for a short time. Plus I’m usually thinking about the next piece and not the last one.

“Pyramid Room” from March 22, 2020 is the piece that’s in front of me. That’s from the very beginning of Covid. Back when it seemed like it couldn’t possibly last this long. It’s one of my drawings with a large face in it and lots of geometric patterns. I think it has more patterns in it than the drawings I’ve done lately so it looks fresh to me. Somehow looking at something I did a while ago looks more fresh than what I made yesterday. That probably has to do with burnout. Sometimes I have to put something away for a while and come back to look at it with fresh eyes to appreciate it. I can get tired of a piece after working on it for days on end.

I really like the giant face on the left in this one. It speaks to me. It seems like a real face that’s looking out at me with a presence. It seems to have a sense of strength to it. The patterns are like armor and it’s well prepared to defend itself against all comers. I use the pronoun “It” because, thought the face seems masculine to me, there is an objectless to the face that demands an “It” from me. I draw many androgynous faces and figures and often assign them a “He” or “She” in my mind but not with this one.

The small face in the upper right looks scary. I think it’s the angle of the eye and lack of mouth but there is more emotion coming off this face than the stoic large head. It’s also floating like a magic talisman. I’m wary of it.

Speaking of floating that’s exactly what that giant eye is doing. Its a purely magical creature that exists in the atmosphere of the picture. It’s part of the great pattern of life. I think that eye is trying to communicate with us more than the other two faces. I can really get lost in the patterns in and around that eye.

I’m glad this picture ended up on top of the pile this morning. I don’t think I’ve looked at it since March and I’m enjoying seeing it now. It’s the art that’s in front of me.

Fonts and computers. What a waste of my morning. Some days are like that. I was planning on spending my morning sitting down, relaxing, and reading. That sounded like a good idea to me. It was February first. The day of the big snow storm. So it wan’t like I was running out to do anything that morning.

I usually get up just after 6AM. I get in the shower, eat breakfast, write my comic strips, and get dressed all before 7AM. Then I usually sit down, read, surf the web, play a short video game, or maybe get a few things done that need to be done before I start working at 8AM. I’d like to say I get to spend that hour relaxing and reading but often I have to spend half of it performing some menial task.

That morning I had planned to relax and read a pile of comics I had. After I buy my new comics for the week I read them twice before filing them away. Once within a couple of days of buying them and then for a second time a week or so later. This was my second read through. Or it was supposed to be.

Before I eat my bowl of cereal for breakfast in the morning I get out my laptop, put it on my drawing table, and write one of my comic strips as I stand there. I’m not always standing still as I get dressed and go through my morning routine as I write. This usually takes about 15 minutes and then I get my morning bowl of cereal.

I used to eat Cheerios or Wheaties for breakfast. But now I haven’t had any Wheaties in about a decade. They changed the recipe for them an I no longer like them. After that I started mixing my cereals. Right now my current mixture is about half Cheerios, a third Rice Chex, and a small bit of Lucky Charms on top. Sometimes I swap out the Lucky Charms for some other sugary cereal like Apple Jacks.

As with writing my comic strip I eat my cereal standing at my drawing table with my computer in front of me. This is when I read my morning comic strips. I have a couple of them bookmarked and a bunch more in my RSS reader. I also have some blogs in my RSS feed so I check them all out as I eat breakfast. This usually takes me until 7AM or slightly after.

The snow was falling outside my window as I ate breakfast this morning and I knew it was going to be a bear to clean it all up. But it was supposed to snow all day and into the night so I couldn’t do anything about the clean up then. Instead I was looking forward to sitting for a while and reading. I knew I would need some relaxation because that snow cleanup was going to take a lot out of me.

That’s when I ran into a computer problem. I often run into computer problems in the morning because that’s when I turn the machines on. I wake up, turn on my desktop computer, and then hit the shower. Occasionally after I get out of the shower my computer hasn’t turned on correctly and then I have to figure out why. This time it was my laptop.

Though I turn off my desktop computer every night I usually just close the laptop. This put it to sleep but doesn’t really turn it off. It’s quicker and more convenient that way. So every morning I put my laptop on my drawing table, open it up, put in my password, and I’m ready to go. Except the mornings when things go wrong.

That morning I happened to have written my comic strip the night before. I do that on occasion. So after dressing and such I got right to reading my RSS feed and eating breakfast. After that I decided to glance over at the comic strip I had written.

I use two fonts in my webcomic. One is a custom font a friend made, that’s for the words in the word balloons, and the other is the font at the bottom of the strip that has my name and the title of the strip. As I switched over to Adobe Illustrator, which is what I do my comic strip in, the program told me that my fonts were missing. This is unusual since they’re always there.

I opened up the program that manages fonts, Font Book, to see if the fonts somehow got turned off and if I could turn them on again. Font Book didn’t even acknowledge that the fonts existed. I found the original font files on my laptop and tried to put them into Font Book again. Font Book didn’t even acknowledge that the fonts existed. This was getting annoying so a restart was called for.

I restarted my laptop because that often fixes any problems I might have. This time it didn’t. I did all the same stuff again with all the same results. My fonts wouldn’t activate. I decided to restart again but this time with a Safe Boot. Safe Boot is when you hold down the Shift key as you restart and it fixes even more stuff. Then you restart again regular. This also did nothing.

I tried running Disk Utility. This is a program that fixes things on your Mac. It did nothing. After that I figured maybe the fonts got corrupted somehow. I had a copy of the fonts on my desktop computer so I copied them over to my laptop. Font Book wouldn’t read those either. I was at my wit’s end.

With nothing left to try I performed another Safe Boot and restarted the laptop. Guess what? After that everything went back to normal. My fonts were there, fine, and would open. I have no idea why. I worked for 45 minutes trying to get the laptop and fonts to run correctly. I have no idea why it wasn’t working and no idea how it got to working correctly again. I do know that it ruined my plan to sit down and read for the morning. Oh well, computers can be crazy.