Good Bye.

Hi everyone,

I've recently decided to simplify my blogging. Over the past year I've experimented with a couple of new blogs, this one included, and have decided that I don't need multiple ones to try to keep up to date, and basically do it all in one spot. This puts less pressure on me to follow a set publishing schedule, and frees up more time to focus on the new comic I've been working on (some of which I've blogged about here).

So... If you'd like to keep following my creative endeavors, comic and otherwise, you can come on over to RobinWhiteOnline.com. For comics-related stuff, I'll be re-re-running the SkitZo strips, talking about my next project, and continuing to post stuff from my sketchbook.

I'll leave this site up for the time being as an archive, but may eventually just re-direct the URL over to the new site.

Okay, hope to see you there.

- robin

Some Kind of Holiday Greeting and Stuff

Hey everyone. It's been a quiet week here on the SMDC blog, and I thought I'd better at least sign in and give a little site update for you all. With the holidays fast approaching, and me skipping town for a week, I won't be updating until at least after Christmas and maybe not until the new year. But by that time I should have lots to show and tell, so please do come back.

Of course the best way to find out as soon as the blog's been updated is to subscribe via RSS. Or if you're a Facebooker, click on the link in the sidebar to join the group, and I'll try to let you all know when I'm back to regular blogging.

It's been fun re-launching SMDC in this format, and I'm looking forward to a new year of sharing ideas, tips, tricks and questions with you all. So have a happy holiday season, and see you in the new year.

RSS: Subscribe Here!

SkitZo MaN - by Robin White & Geoff Hooper

Commentary: It seems to me, as I recall, this gag was an idea I was sitting on for a long time before using. I seem to remember it being one of the captions Geoff sent me really early on, and I put off using it, thinking that since it was based on the idiom "You can't judge a book by its cover", it would be a good piece of cover art for an eventual book. Well, after sitting on it like a year or whatever, I finally did it up and posted it in early 2005. I'm not sure which came first -- "rare bird poaching" or naming the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" but for some reason it seemed hilarious at the time. I think Geoff had another crime in mind, but I don't remember what it was.

A note on the art: One thing I started to do somewhere along the way was use the same colours from SkitZo's eyes in other parts of the drawing in order to give it a sort of colour pallet and some consistency. In this one it's obvious. Maybe too obvious, since that orange is so butt-ugly. I'm pretty sure the background was based on the same ugly orange, too, only faded out so it's hardly recognizable, but still coordinates well.

All that to say, if you're going to colour your webcomic or toon, there is a lot of thought that goes into that part of the process as well, as it can affect mood/tone, and it can either aid in the story telling or take away from it. The main effect it had in SkitZo MaN was to make what could be visually boring or confusing and make it easier on the eyes, and hopefully more interesting than your average stick man shtick.

RSS: Subscribe Here!

Webcomic of the Week : "Minims"

Some people might argue that this week's pick is not really a comic at all. But one might argue that my own SkiZo MaN is not a comic either. Whatever you want to call it -- cartoon, illustrated gag, comic strip, whatever -- Minims is worth checking out and good for several laughs.

Written and Illustrated by Tom Weller, Minims features, well, minims. A minim can be described as "a statement expressed in proverbial or sentential form but having no general application or practical use whatever." As opposed to a maxim. Get it?

It shouldn't surprise you that I like Minims, given the type of humour we used to do in SkitZo MaN. But whether you like my toon or not, you should definitely check out Minims, our Webcomic of the Week.

RSS: Subscribe Here!

SkitZo MaN - by Robin White & Geoff Hooper : Of Moutains and Mole Hills

Commentary: This brings us up to the beginning of 2005 in our re-runs, and also the first strip I remember putting the copyright info on -- a big "duh" that I should have been doing all along in the original run. What I still wasn't yet doing was putting the name and credits right in the artwork itself. I would have added it before this re-post, but it's Sunday night, I'm getting tired, and I have class in the AM. Maybe I'll come back and add it later...

Anyway, not too much to say about this strip in and of itself. I do quite like the colouring job I did on it, though. By this time I definitely had gotten into a good groove with that. The art/design was getting pretty clean and crisp. Looking back at my stuff, I can see what other webcomics creators mean when they talk about it taking 20-30 strips at least to find your style, all the stuff leading up to it being a "warm up" or whatever. The way I drew SkitZo changed a lot over the first 20-30 strips, in a cleaner, clearer, easier-to-colour kind of way.

I like this one. I mean, I'm not saying I'm awesome or anything (though I might be) but I think it turned out well. Sometimes you look back and think "ugh" and wish you could change it; this one came out OK. I like SkitZo's facial expression and the fact that we only get a hint of what's coming out of that mountain.

And let that be a lesson to you: whether it's webcomics creation and the mistakes we make along the way, or a literal mountain like SkitZo's, don't make a mountain of a mole hill. Or else.

Wow, I had more to say than I thought...

RSS: Subscribe Here!

More Sketches

Here are some more of my recent sketches featuring those little dudes I don't know what to call yet. I actually started drawing some sequentials last night, so I may have a full-fledged comic to show you sometime. It's just a fun little sketchbook experiment featuring some of these dudes. Stay tuned.

RSS: Subscribe Here!

Scott Kurtz PVP Comics-Making Video: Breaking Bad Habits

A little behind-the-scenes action from Scott Kurtz of PVP:

And in case you don't know who Scott Kurtz is...

RSS: Subscribe Here!

SkitZo MaN's Silver Lining

Commentary: This toon brings us to the end of the 2004 SkitZo strips in our re-runs with commentary. And it seems like an appropriate one to end on, too, whether or not it was actually the last one of 2004 originally (of which, as I mentioned before, I can't be certain because of poor file-naming), though I do think it was. Why is it appropriate? Because it's also (I believe) the last time I re-did an old strip from high school. The original had SkitZo parachuting down rather than rocketing up, and was much messier. I like this one, even though SkiZo's face looks a little "off" and I'm not sure why he's trying to mine for silver in the clouds with a golden pot. I do enjoy the rocket boots, though.

By the way, if you're new here, and if you like this toon, you can find more by following the SkitZo MaN category here on the blog, or you can buy the book HERE.

Thanks for reading.

RSS: Subscribe Here!

Stuff Comics Artists and Fans Should Check Out NOW

I have several things to share, most of which involve linking elsewhere, so I thought I'd put 'em all in one post for your convenience. And my laziness. Anyway, here are several comic-centric links for your enjoyment.

1. This week, my Webcomic of the Week winner is Copper, by Kazu Kibuishi. The downside is it's updated only monthly and there's no RSS feed. But the upside is that it's big, beautiful, full of wonder, and makes me want to go and buy all anything Kibuishi puts out in print. Hmm... maybe that's not a good thing.

2. I'm currently counting down to the live broadcast of this weeks' Sequential Artists' Pub. I've never listened/participated live, but I've been enjoying the podcast for a while now. Fortunately they go live on Friday nights, which is Saturday around noon where I'm at. And I'm free! Anyway, check it out live or pre-recorded; it's worth a listen, and you might here my name in episode 14.

3. For our American friends, a belated happy Thanksgiving to you! Check out these videos and commentary for some Marvel-Comic-Macy's-Parade-Cheesy-Funny-Goodness. Found via the always-informative and entertaining Fleen.

4. Here's an article on an up-and-coming Japanese cartoonist, who's chronicling his sad but funny life as a salary man in comic form. Think Dilbert, but Japanese. I'd like to check this one out myself.

5. Here's a resource for cartoonists that have to draw real-world mechanical stuff: the-blueprints.com.

6. If you're a fan of Bruce Timm, or even if you're not but you're a comics creator looking for some inspiration, check out the Bruce Timm Gallery. Nice.

7. Lastly, I'm sad to report that Batman is dead. *Yawn...* This might make for some interesting story lines, but I predict this lasts about as long as Bruce's broken back, or the death of Superman. And then, because it's mainstream comics, everything will be magically reset back to the status quo.

That's it for this week. Hope you enjoy some of these comicy links, and come back next week for more!

RSS: Subscribe Here!

The Grass is Always Greener...

Commentary: In our SkitZo MaN re-runs we're coming up to the end of 2004. But as I said before, they're not being re-posted in the original order, because of my bad file-naming at the time of original creation. Remember, kids: name your files in an easy-to-keep-in-order-and-remember fashion. Don't be like me.

This is one of SkitZo's more sinister moments, where even his best friend is fare game for fit of jealous mayhem-making. The jokes's kind-of funny, I guess, but I think what makes the toon for me is Sketchy's pitiful shrieking in desperation "It just keeps spreading!" Also notice his ever-present coffee cup.

I think I tried to render the color a bit too detailed in the foreground. Generally going "painterly" on something so cartoony is a bad idea, I think. But on the other hand, I don't know how else I would have shown that SkiZo has a lawn, yes, but it's in pretty rough shape.

Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned for more pretentious artist self-examination, as well as thoughts, tips, techniques, tricks -- and lots of questions! -- on the art of cartooning.

RSS: Subscribe Here!

How Kris Straub Creates Starslip Crisis

Hey all. No Webcomic of the Week this week... No new discoveries worth reporting, I guess, or maybe I'm too lazy to look... but I am open to suggestions! In the meantime, here's that Kris Straub guy showing us how he makes Starslip Crisis... which I haven't read recently enough to make the Webcomic of the Week, and besides, Straub already won once for his other strip. Anyway, Kris is completely digital on this so it's an interesting look at another method for making comics.

RSS: Subscribe Here!

The Changing Face of Comics Publication

Keith Drury, a writer I follow, who usually writes about more overtly spiritual issues, has an interesting piece HERE this week on The Changing Face of Publication. He has some good insights, and interestingly enough a lot of what he describes is already happening to comics.

There are tons of newspapers going out of business, so an up-and-coming cartoonist doesn't have much chance of getting picked up by a syndicate and if he does he won't make as much money as the old boys did. Meanwhile, there are lots of cartoonists making money on the web -- by giving away their comics for free! Money is made by advertising and self-published print editions of their comics.

I think there will always be a place for print -- it will be for the stuff you really love and want to collect. But the future of books and comics may be more and more digital; I can see serialized fiction and even non-fiction subsequently being collected for publication -- if it's popular enough. Even now, publishers and picking up bloggers. The big change for the comics industry will come when DC and Marvel start publishing new, exclusive content online (and making money off of it) instead of putting out monthly floppies. And with the economy going the way it is, I could see why that would be appealing to them.

So what do you think?

RSS: Subscribe Here!