We
uploaded a new strip this week on Tuesday about the PC online game,
Guns ofIcarus. In the accompanying blog, my brother mentions that we've been working on for a while... more so
planning than working, I would say. I've never played the game but
I've seen my brother play it, and now our oldest brother has joined
in to battle other players in the virtual sky. I think it's a cool
game, I just play a lot of other games at the moment instead.
With
our most recent strip, I found it very challenging to draw. I was
even beginning to start hating the damn strip. Once I began to work
on the backgrounds and special effects, watching it all come and
string together, I began to to really appreciate and enjoy drawing
it. I realise now the only thing that really bothered me about
drawing this strip were the ships, because they have very intricate,
complex designs... but they do look cool.
When
I showed my brother the near completed strip, he sat down to watch me
finish the rest off. He was very happy with it and said that it's the
best strip I've drawn so far. I'm not sure if I can agree with that,
it's a tricky question to ask myself since I like most of my strips.
I do like this one a lot myself and I really do appreciate it a lot
more when I look at it. Despite how challenging it was, it seriously
only took me about three, maybe four hours to draw which is good for
me... this isn't including the sketch time though.
Not
to sound like an arrogant douche, but after finishing this strip in
particular, it's made me realise just how far I've actually come as
an artist and in particular, as a cartoonist. There won't be a new strip
tonight, instead what I've done is collected old comic strips I have
drawn back in 2008 and 2009. It's hard to believe that these things
are four to five years old, but it's nice to look at. These old
strips make me remember why I want to be a web cartoonist and well, I
think it shows in my new work just how bad I'm chasing this.
Step into my Delorean and let's go, back in time...
1. "I disagree" - 2008
Step into my Delorean and let's go, back in time...
1. "I disagree" - 2008
This
one was kind of having a go at both Break.com and deviantART.
Break.com got a new layout ages ago and a lot of people didn't like
it and at the same time, so did deviantART. It looks okay now, but
deviantART's new layout when it first came out was horrible. Both of 'em look okay now, or maybe I've just gotten used to them.
2. "Defying physics" - 2008
This
is just immature. I look back on it now and I'm laughing in an "Oh this is awkward" kind of way, which isn't a good funny. It was a comic to try and introduce the four
characters all at once. With the other two characters, I've yet to
use them in my new comics, but I would like to soon.
3. "The unspeakable" - 2008
This
one was back when Blu-Ray and HD-DVD were kinda battling it out, but
HD-DVD was clearly losing. A mate of mine kept claiming that HD-DVD was going to win and at the time, it was a very good and realistic argument but in the end, Blu-Ray won. I have no idea what the hell the difference is.
4. "Waterworks" - 2008
And
my immaturity continues to show. The most retarded thing about this
strip? I got the idea when I was drunk, taking a piss. Yeah, I know.
5. "Genetic projection" - 2008
You
know, for a hopeful comic that was about geek culture like video
games and stuff, this was my first comic that I drew that was
actually about a game. I really liked how this one came out too,
despite being drawn in low resolution like all of my comics back in
the day (tip: draw high resolution, seriously). I always found the
character creation in Fallout 3 really dumb, in a funny kind of way.
6. "Dark side" - 2008
This
wasn't a very funny strip at all. Seriously. But I always wanted to
draw a conversation taking place over Skype or something while
they're gaming.
7. "Get it?" - 2008
Wow. I feel terrible about this one, but I still laugh at it, which makes me even more terrible. This
one was a parody strip having a go at the infamous and very
controversial "Loss" miscarriage storyline of the gaming webcomic
Ctrl+Alt+Del. Since it's a parody, I tried to replicate Tim Buckley's
art style at the time.
I'm
not sure why I used an alien chest burster. I was even thinking about
making that chest burster a reoccuring character somehow, back in the
day.
8. "Still alive" - 2008
Hah!
I finally came up with a name for my comic which I've dismissed,
nowadays. "n3rdc0r3"
On
a serious note, I had no idea at the time that "nerdcore"
was actually a genre of music. I was stuck without a name for a long
time, but my brother suggested "Reckless Abandon". At
first, I didn't really like it but over time it grew on me and I
adored the damn name.
This
strip is about the 2008 release of Mirror's Edge. It wasn't a great
game and it wasn't a bad game either. It had good new, fresh ideas
but unfortunately it wasn't well executed. I remember having so much
fun drawing this strip. I tried to replicate the style of Mirror's
Edge, first drawn from a first person perspective, then using bright,
clean colours similar to that of the actual game. The title of the
strip itself comes from the theme song of Mirror's Edge, "StillAlive"... not Portal. Absolutely beautiful song, by the way.
I
swear I could have come up with a better title for the strip than "I
love me some A.I". It's bloody terrible.
This
strip is based off an actual situation that happened to me in Fallout
3, which I am willing to bet has happened to other people as well.
With Star Paladin Cross of the Brotherhood of Steel, she loves to run
around with her damn power hammer. I ordered her to use a gun instead
for ranged combat. So we find that giant behemoth super mutant that's
trapped in the cage. After disabling the power, Star Paladin Cross
decides it's a good idea to put her gun away, get out her hammer,
then charge inside the cage at the behemoth.
I can still feel the rage dwelling within me.
10. "If only" - 2008
This one wasn't very funny either. It was more or less an experiment to draw a comic strip with a different panel layout and also experiment with lighting and shadow.
The
idea came to me while I was in a lecture back in one of my classes at
university. Don't ask.
I
have no idea why the second panel has changed text... What a n00b.
11. "Stop and stare" - 2008
I
used to work in retail years ago at JB Hi-Fi (like Australia's
version of Best Buy) as a video game salesman... fitting right?
While
at work, the song Stop and Stare came on over the shop. I heard this
guy walk past and say to his mate "Ugh! I fucking hate this
stupid song so much!"
I
just thought it'd be funny if someone heard him, got offended and
decided to do something about it.
12. "Bring in the guns" - 2009
This is one of my favourite strips I've ever done, which I am considering redoing in high definition. I found it strange that a lot of web comics out there made a strip about Resident Evil 5, but they all dived into the controversy the game caused with its apparent racism. I thought it'd be a good idea to make fun of Chris' newly acquired gigantic arms instead because seriously, that's hilariously awesome. He's so awesome that he punches boulders! He really does it!
When
I drew this strip, I got in touch with Roger Craig Smith via e-mail,
the actual voice actor of Chris Redfield for Resident Evil 5. I
sent him this comic strip in my e-mail and he thought it was hilarious.
That felt awesome.
13. "Results may vary" - 2009
I
was a massive fan of DragonBall Z as a kid. Hell I still like it,
that Battle of the Gods animated movie coming soon? I so want to see
that.
The
DragonBall live action movie that was released a few years ago? What
the hell were they thinking?
The
idea of this comic seriously came to me when I woke up at 4 AM one
night, the first thing I did was grab my art book, scribbled down
this idea then threw the book back down on the floor and went back to
sleep. I
woke up, saw the idea and thought to myself,
"The fuck?"
14. "Gentleman's midnight critique" - 2009
This
one was inspired by Penny Arcade, how Gabe and Tycho are often
suddenly the hosts of their own show, like Tycho's "It's toodamn late".
I
tried to watch this movie at my friend's house. I couldn't do it. It
was just that bad. I had to stop otherwise someone would have died,
and it wouldn't have been me.
15. "Budokai" - 2009
Yup.
It's a fart joke.
Yup.
It's about DragonBall Z again.
Doesn't
get much better than that, does it?
With
this one, I tried to hand draw the speech bubbles but... my god they
look fucking terrible.
16. "In your dreams" - 2009
Again
this was another strip to kind of introduce all the characters
together. Not at the same time, but in the strip, just suggesting
what they dream about. With the girl, I wanted her to be a sort of...
goth/emo wannabe character who harbours a secret obsession for the
Pokemon games. I wanted to explore that and I may do so again in the
future.
But
this strip is really creepy.
17. "Payback" - 2009
Yup.
This strip is just plain weird... My maturity level embarrasses me sometimes. Sometimes.
18. "Detection" - 2011
Whoops!
I lied. Turns out we have one comic strip from 2011. Wow. What a way
to make a comeback Craig. This one is of L.A. Noire and how a lot of
NPCs really do lack a poker face when they're trying to lie.
I lied again. One more drawing! This was drawn back in 2009 as a sort of promotional art for my comic, featuring the four main characters. I call this piece "The circle of friendship".
So
that's it... eighteen comic strips from 2008 and 2009, with one from
2011 as well as one promotional drawing from 2009. My style is relatively the same for the most part, but the
style at the very least has improved over time, as has the quality of
the work. I used to work at low resolution and purely digital,
meaning I used my old Wacom Intuous3 graphics tablet and just draw
straight into Photoshop. I used to draw low resolution because it was
a bit quicker and easier but also, I didn't even consider the idea of
printing nor did I know about the benefits of high resolution.
Nowadays
I sketch the strips onto pre-made A4 panel print outs first before
scanning it up onto my computer in Photoshop where I use my Wacom
Cintiq graphics tablet to digitally ink and colour the strip. Strips
today are drawn at high resolution, just in case I want to print them
but also they just end up looking a lot nicer than low res drawings.
It's
kinda nice to look back at all these old strips.. I hope you got a
chuckle or two checking out some of my old works. We'll have a new
strip up next week.
Have
a great weekend everyone!
-Cr33g (Craig)