As I said in my last post, I’m trying to write a comics story by first designing the characters, which is totally backwards and wrong. But why not? Every story is different and gestates differently.

I’ve been working so hard on Mielikki the Ice Maiden that my other protagonist was getting a short shrift. Red-Eye is basically a thinly-veiled Green Lantern ripoff. That’s no secret. Check out this panel from Neon Girl #0:

Not terribly original. I thought the guy deserved to be fleshed out, so I started with a redesign that pays a more subtle homage to GL while still being its own thing. I came up with seven costume designs. Here are my four favorites. I’m leaning towards the last one. What do you think?

I’m trying to come up with a story for Casey Bohn’s upcoming superhero anthology. The first thing I did was look through my old sketchbooks for any unused ideas or characters I had floating around. And I found one: Mielikki the Ice Maiden. A character that has a story, I’m sure—I just don’t know what that story is yet.

Next step was to finalize a character design, since this character only ever got as far as a couple of rough sketches. I realize I’m working backwards here by designing a character before I even have a story, in the hopes that a story will present itself out of all the drawing. But what the hell. You have to start somewhere.

Here she is wearing a traditional (ish) viking helmet and a cape with fur-lined hood, and wielding a combination halberd and cudgel.

Here she’s wearing an outfit suggested by Robyn. You can see she’s more sylvan here, slender, with fur-lined hood, cape, and boots, chain mail skirt, and boobs popping out of the top of a corsety thing. She even has elf ears.

Here, she’s tall, lean, and muscular, and her outfit suggests medieval armor. (I think it does, anyway.)

Since Mielikki is a Nordic goddess, I originally had in mind a sort of larger than life, busty, muscular warrior woman. A female Thor, basically. Here’s my attempt.

MoCCA Fest 2010 is a week away as of this writing and I’m happy to announce I’ll be debuting a new book: Tag Team #1. It’s a collaborative anthology featuring the work of Pat Barrett, Robyn Chapman, Colleen Frakes, Morgan Pielli, Sam Carbaugh, and me, Dennis Pacheco.

We break the comics-making process into six steps. Six cartoonists gather in a circle, and we start the clock. At the end of each step, you pass the comic you’re working on to the next person in the circle. At each step, you’re encouraged to develop the story, improve it, and put your own stamp on it—a process that in animation is called “plussing.” By the time you see the finished story, you might not even recognize it. Each person does every step once. And every person works on every story.

Want to learn more? Visit our website, tagteamcomics.wordpress.com.

I drew another sketch on my iPod the other day while Jesse was helping me out with something on my netbook. He lost me at some point, what with all the digital programming whatchamawhoozits, so I sat back and let him do his thing while I sketched him:

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The last week of 2009 was Independent Comic Book Week at comic book stores across the country. This was because, as I understand it, Diamond decided they wouldn’t be shipping any books that week. Except “Blackest Night” (yeah, I don’t get how that works either). My biggest order was from Midtown Comics, so you’ll be excited to know Neon Girl #0 is available from these guys (although why wouldn’t you just mosey on over to my Etsy store and buy direct from me? What do you mean “I have my reasons”??).

Anyway, the important thing is my books are out there, getting bought and sold and distributed, loaned to friends, and left to molder in dingy bathrooms. Since Tony Shenton is distributing my comic, too, chances are your local comic book store has copies, too. And if not, raise a fuss! Or don’t.

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I got a fairly positive review recently from the good folks at Third Eye Comics, coming out of this whole ICBW thing. I reprint it in its entirety below:

NEON GIRL is a fun, tongue-in-cheek superheroine comic that offers a fun, irreverent take on the superhero genre. Neon Girl’s sort of an everywoman superheroine who’s strong, and confident, but has to deal with the lameness of every day life. It’s humorous, it’s fun, and the art is neat. A cool liittle mini-comic!

Thanks, Third Eye!

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My ladyfriend Robyn Chapman, she of spectacles renown, has a new blog post you should check out over at the Schulz Library blog (the blog of the library of the Center for Cartoon Studies). It’s a great little roundup of a few outstanding minicomics of 2009. I don’t have much to add, except “ditto.”

Yep, I finally broke down and got myself an iPod Touch. And the first thing I did was buy an app called SketchBook Mobile for $1.99 and start sketching with it. You can actually get pretty precise, considering you’re drawing with your finger.

So here it is. Robyn as Mr. Spock:

A possible Claire.

Because why not.

Here are a few of the sketch cards I did for DC Comics and Rittenhouse Archives. They’re these promotional things that are given away when you buy a box of Justice League of America Archives trading cards. I did 200 of these motherfuckers. They nearly broke my brain.

The awesome thing about working for DC Comics is that they do pay you. Here’s me depositing my well-earned check.

I finished scripting the first 22 or so pages of Bolt last night. I didn’t get started until late because we went to Gusanoz last night as part of a surprise party package for Denis St. John, who turned 28 yesterday. The food was decent and Denis was genuinely surprised. He had a huge smile on his face and it warmed my heart. There was a party after but we didn’t go.

We had to clear out the living room and our bedroom over the weekend so they could work on our ceiling. It’s been cracking and blistering for a good year while we waited for them to figure out when and how to fix it. It leaks whenever we have a heavy, sustained rain, so we needed to do something about it. And we did. The cats didn’t really like being confined in the studio together all day, but they’re getting along better these days. That’s a really big deal. They hated each other when we first got them.

I registered for an online course with the Community College of Vermont yesterday. It’s an intro to website design. The class is a prerequisite for the more advance programming classes I’m looking to take in the future. I figured it’s time I learned a useful skill I could take with me wherever I go.