THE END IS NEAR!

It's been a fun couple of years on Blogger, and it's time to shut down this blog and complete my move to Wordpress. Thanks for your comments and support. You can count on seeing more of the same comics, illustrations, music and process posts at http://www.jesssmartsmiley.wordpress.com.

If you'd like to join my monthly e-newsletter, just message me at jess.smiley@gmail.com, with 'SUBSCRIBE' as the subject heading.

THE CHAIN GANG

(reposted from my new blog)

THE CHAIN GANG is a hilarious 1,000-page ultra comic about a group of unwanted and forgotten bicycles led by Poppa Wheelie that band together to wreak havoc on the world, one neighborhood at a time!

Instead of waiting years for me to draw all 1,000 pages, I’m going to be releasing The Chain Gang in 24-page monthly issues. Each month will welcome a new limited-edition (only 100 copies) issue of The Chain Gang’s ongoing, sprawling epic as they battle in junkyards, wrestle dogs, avoid the police, jump over people’s houses, and ride inside whale skeletons. They’re breaking all the rules and will stop at nothing in their quest to spread their trouble!

I’m launching the first issue on Kickstarter, where I’ll be selling the first issue until the end of September, and working on issue #2. Money raised from Kickstarter will be used for printing & shipping costs, distribution to get The Chain Gang in comic and bookstores across the globe, as well as advertising on websites and in comics & magazines. It’s the real deal, folks!

I’ll be posting more about The Chain Gang in the next few weeks, but for now you can check out the project on Kickstarter, or watch this video I made with my boy last night, describing the project:

Free Comic Book Day!

Friends: I have some great news! I know how bummed you've been about this weekend. It's been such a tough week and you've been losing sleep thinking about how you could possibly make up for the week's terrors, but I have just the thing...

SNAKE OIL! It'll cure what ails you and send your rheumatism down the drain!

Also: I'll be drawing pictures and selling things at Dragon's Keep this Saturday at 10am as part of Free Comic Book Day! More info here.

"A Map In The Dirt" For Sale!

You can buy your very own copy of A Map in the Dirt here for just $15!

This project has been a long time coming and it's finally wearing skin :)

"A Map In The Dirt" Reviews!

The fine people at Avoid the Future shared this great review of my short comic A Map in the Dirt:

http://avoidthefuture.blogspot.com/2010/03/preview-map-in-dirt-by-jess-smart.html

Rachel Dukes (comics artist and owner of Poseur Ink) shared this kind review:

http://poisonrational.livejournal.com/232898.html

In other news, I got to share my thoughts on plagiarism in Pikaland 7.

A Map in the Dirt

This is the cover to a 15 page short story in comics form I just finished. The story is called A Map in the Dirt and follows a group of animals fleeing from a common threat. It's been selected for publication within the next couple of months by the always friendly Grimalkin Press, which should give me just enough time to finish some other things...

" love the foot prints! (although I dont like the little indian guy as much...sorry) other than that looks cool"---Rachael

"your straight from smoke signals. "---Eliza

CHAIN GANG 4

CHAIN GANG 3

CHAIN GANG 2

Here is page 2 of the riveting "Chain Gang." You can click on the pic to make it big enough to print and that would rock.

CHAIN GANG 1

Happy 2010! Last year was really great for picture-making and I learned a lot. Thank you so much to all of you that participated in the Human Drawing Dispenser, the Music Coloring Book, the Weather Outside is Frightful! coloring poster, and the Digital Portraits.

As for the year 2010? You can expect some big news in the next few months. In the meantime, check out this first page of the Chain Gang! It's meant to be printed out and read (click the image to make it grow)---it's not at all enjoyable to read on the computer screen. Trust me---I've tried.

I'll be posting a free printable page of the Chain Gang every week, so check back next Monday for page 2!

Dear Summer

I've been toying around with this Bamboo tablet from Wacom---something I thought I'd never do---and I'm having a good time. This is my first comic made entirely with a tablet, for Snippets magazine.

Graphic Novel, Page 30

Quick update: I've been working on a graphic novel for the last month or so, and I've just finished the rough draft for the first 30 pages. This is great news! 

I really want to post some details, but I want to get started on the final draft first. That way we both know this book is for realsies. I've spent the last few weeks structuring my story on notecards, then fine-tuning it, then typing the dialogue and actions in script-form, then fine-tuning that...now I'm drawing the book, panel-for-panel, in a really rough form, so I know what things will look like and which panels I should put on each page, etc. Right now I'm about a quarter of the way through the book, so it'll be around 120 pages.

Color Time With Noah

A Thing for the Future

Comic Book in the Works, III

Last night I finished the rough draft of the script for the second act. (Phew! That was a mouthful!) I'm really surprised at how many details I've had to work through, then re-work and work again to make it what it needs to be.

The middle was a lot more difficult to structure than the beginning. Even though I know what's happening and how it happens, the mechanics of the whole thing are really challenging. I have my work cut out for me when the time comes to revise and polish the second act!

Comic Book in the Works, II

Right now the book is divided into three really basic parts: the beginning, middle, and end.

I just finished writing the script for the beginning and I'm so excited. It really is torture to sleep, and know that I can't just plow through the middle and end and get that much closer to seeing the finished book.

It's a lot of fun, though, just focusing on the writing. I get to think of the whole story in terms of which characters and parts of the story get the most attention, and if that attention is positive or negative, and making the story interesting by showing the contrast between characters and situations they are in, and concentrating on dialogue and the dynamics of actions and responses...oh man. 

One of my mistakes in story-making in the past has been to build the world I want to show. Then keep building it and building it and building it. It's easy to get excited about and sucked into the world, but if I don't structure it and turn it into something I can share with people, the world only exists for myself, and that's pretty depressing. With this story, I'm being really brutal with keeping only the essentials of the story, and cutting out the distractions. This is really tough for me because I'm finding I make lots of distractions and I like 'em! Part of the game of writing this story is seeing how simplifying the story makes it so much better. 

By the end of this week I plan to have finished the first draft of the whole story, and then I'll change pace a little bit. 

Comic Strip in Cut Out and Keep Magazine

The new issue of Snippets features a small comic strip about Spring cleaning by yours truly! Be very careful: it has a hint of cute in it.

Comic Book In the Works

For whatever it's worth, I've just started laying out the structure to a new comic I'm making. I've developed tons of ideas in the past, but none of them have seen a publisher because I never finish. This time I've decided to adopt Doug TenNapel's working method and I feel really great about it. 

I took out three note cards and labeled them "Beginning", "Middle" and "End". I wrote 1-3 sentences summarizing what happens in each part of the story, then turned each card over and made a numbered list from 1-3. Under items 1-3 I listed the beginning, middle and end of each section of the story, giving me a really solid framework to build my story on and it's a relief to have such a simple, straight-forward format (it sure beats all my plot notes in my sketchbook, in-between drawings and notes for other things!).  

Next I'm going to pull out more note cards and plug in more details in each section. Anyway, I thought I'd share my success story so far with using Doug's approach.

Nap Time

(Click to make the picture turn big)

Okay. I'm getting better at keeping a journal, comic-style. 

Pretty soon, when the time is just right, I'll start posting daily comics. Before that happens, I'll need to get a good scanner that will work with my laptop. Right now I'm thinking about getting an Epson Artisan 700. That way I could also make prints of my work. 

Hm. 

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear 'em.

Schlock Mercenary Puzzle

Howard Tayler is Utah's creator of Schlock Mercenary, where it is "the 31st Century! Humans entered the galactic age over 900 years ago, and now do business with all manner of alien folk." 

The online comic has a loyal following, including my dad, who decided to collaborate with Howard and make puzzles with some of Howard's artwork. I never knew just how much time and effort went into cutting a jigsaw until Dad started making 'em and believe you me: these are high-quality puzzles! One puzzle is being auctioned off on Ebay right now and another will be sold at LTUE's auction this Saturday night.

Howard had a few things to say about the puzzles, which you can find here.

Bottom line: if you are a fan of the comic and/or are in need of a rad, high-quality puzzle, this is your chance!