Welcome to the Kicking with Cactus blog. I'll be featuring the original strip art, discussing the reasoning behind some of the creative choices, as well as exclusive behind the scenes content and strips here. Let us jump in then!
Where did Kicking with Cactus start?
I've been working as a storyboard artist on various things ranging from commercials to TV and video games for a few years off and on. Storyboards need to be quick, and are often very simple and unrefined. Meanwhile, on the comic book end, it is not uncommon for me to spend several days working on a page. Kicking with Cactus was a way to meet in the middle of those aesthetics, as well as expand the ISIT universe without getting in the way of my initial narrative. The initial plan was that the KwC strips would be artistic warm up and cool downs that I'd do as I worked on actual comic pages, and while that still holds true, things like scheduling, computer breakdowns, and having a new addition to the family have shifted the priorities a bit. In short, it was mainly meant to be an exercise, that I infused with a narrative. The end result was, and is, variable.
How/Why Bleeding Cool as the sole content distributor.
The short answer, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I've been a longtime reader of Rich's Lying in the Gutters column, and Bleeding Cool gets an extensive amount of hits as far as the comic industry goes. It wasn't my initial plan, but really I didn't want to have to deal with all of the other stuff. I just wanted to do the work, and let someone else put it out in the world. After I had the first bunch of strips drawn up, and a couple of drinks one evening, I shot them off to Rich, he liked the idea, and that was that. I don't get ANY payment from Bleeding Cool, and their exclusive expires on Father's Day of 2013. Rich has first print option. Meaning he can shop it to a publisher, and I would certainly get a cut of that. It will certainly be published one way or another.
Now, lets jump into the first set, Strips 1-3! (Colored and lettered versions here.)
Strip #1. This first panel will connect directly to "Last Call at Saturn's Tempest," the first chapter of ISIT's Telefated saga. The mission is that you don't have to read both LCAST and Kicking with Cactus, but if you do, it will enrich both stories all the more. KwC was also an opportunity for me to get an audience hip to the idea of original songs and soundscapes to go with the comic, as all of the ISIT comics will also have a musical companion. "Shishunya" which means "dream tunnel" in Hopi culture was the track I kicked things off with, and can be downloaded here. This track was performed mostly with an old Casio keyboard and guitar. Sometimes some shielding comes loose somewhere, and I get radio interference in the keyboard, and I decided to use that to my advantage with this track. I have no idea what station, or what's being said. The idea was that ISIT's reality at this point is behaving much the way radio waves do.
Strip #2. I don't have a whole lot to offer here. I played with the color of the scarf for a week before finally settling on orange, because the interplay of the green and orange always triggers David Carson's fantastic work on Nine Inch Nails the Fragile album artwork. Those who know me, know the Fragile significantly altered my path in life, so it was a bit of a subconscious homage.
Strip #3. The Newton Wax. This didn't come out quite the way it was meant to. There's an Austin based photographer that I'd come across, whose work I was incredibly taken in by, Mr. Jeremiah Newton. You can check out some of that here. To make a long story longer, he started dabbling in the mustache wax business, and as it turns out, he makes some of the greatest stuff you can get. When it goes to print, there will be an AR app for things like this so when you wave your phone over that last panel it will take you here. There was supposed to be a link in the Bleeding Cool post, but such is one of the downsides of not doing things yourself. Jeremiah and I have become friends, and you can expect to see some collaborative work from us in the future. Also of note, is that I thought I was being super clever with the mustache word balloon in the final version. I hadn't yet read Brandon Graham's superb Cat Master opus, King City. In fact, I still hadn't read it when I met him recently (and bought said opus,) and am more than a little embarrassed. In hindsight, it was an unknown homage ;)
New strips at Bleeding Cool every Sunday, and updates here on Wednesday! Cheers!
No comments:
Post a Comment