Radiant Comics

“Drifting and Dreaming”. That’s the name of this new comic strip that I have come up with. As with many of the things I have to come up with names for I have no idea what this name means (besides being an old song title). Plus the strip isn’t really a strip. Kind of weird, I know, but my work is normally kind of weird. Here is how it came about.

For the last two months or so I’ve been trying to develop another comic strip. A totally different one from “Drifting and Dreaming”. I have gotten virtually nowhere with it and working on that strip was clogging up my creative process. I was running in circles and getting nowhere. It’s frustrating getting nothing done and going nowhere.

The only thing I seemed able to get do was some art cards. Those are little baseball card size drawings or paintings. I think it was because of their very “Unfinished” nature that I was able to complete them. There is little pressure when making something so casual. Then I made some more.

Somewhere in my making of these art cards I stared making some “Cartoon cards”. They are pretty much the same thing except they have a word balloon above a cartoon character’s head. Each character is saying something. The cartoon cards talk to you.

The character’s faces are all drawn in ink right off of the top of my head. Whatever crazy thing comes to mind. No erasing and no real thinking about them before hand. I just see what comes out as I’m drawing. This makes for some odd characters.

After I draw the cards I figure out what the characters are saying. I haven’t always been sure why they are saying what they are. I was just trying to make them say something interesting. I like short form writing and how it can be so clear yet mysterious. The things I make can be a mystery to me too. That keeps me interested.

So this is how I make a “Drifting and Dreaming” strip. I pick three of my art cards. Two of the cartoon card ones for either end and one of the art only ones for the middle. I’m not sure how they are all going to relate and fit together as a cohesive whole but that is what interests me. The fitting together.

I then write “The Middle Story” which is another short piece of text. I look at the middle card as I write the Middle Story and see what strikes my mind. Once again it can be a mystery to me too.

This is a once a week strip since “Four Talking Boxes” will continue to run on weekdays.