Bullfinch.

This image, my friends, is the new Wacom Intuos Tablet which is my new artistic ally. Going digital is something I’ve thought about for a long time but I always put it off in favor of blue pencil and micron pens. Over the last year and a half since I started Bullfinch I had hit a nice stride with sketching in traditional non-repro blue pencil ( an anachronistic tool which was used by comic artists before the digital age because the blue wouldn’t show up under the inks during the print process) and inking with pens and the occasional brush. They were portable and comfortable, but tablets and pressure sensitive gadgetry always flitted in my peripheral vision.
Webcomics Weekend, an event for comic artists to fraternize together in person held in Massachusetts, brought me into close physical contact with one Dawn Griffin . . . . ’s (hee hee) laptop tablet. Dawn does the amazing comic Zorphbert and Fred. Check out Dawn’s comic here! To try one out in person was quite intoxicating. When no one was looking I would research these things on amazon for prices and product reviews. This went on for months until this Christmas when I saw the sale I had been looking for online. Due to my procrastination, I missed it. So two weeks ago I bought the same item at a slightly less spectacular sale price. ( I suck.)
As with my people my initial interactions with the tablet, my computer screen, and the stylus were disorienting. It took a couple of hours to adjust to not looking directly at the area where I was drawing. With a little practice I’ve managed to squeak out some reasonable sketches. Here is example A:
This is the digital sketch I did in blue to simulate my usual hand drawn stuff. It seemed to help my brain realize what I was doing. Example B is the “inks” over the pencil marks:
To be compared with a similiar drawing of a barbarian which was done in my sketchbook by hand:
Having all of this already in a digital file made it a cinch to color:
The last two updates of my comic have been done completely digitally. It’s been a learning process but it’s going really well and I’m excited to try my hand at some more complicated comic rendering like full perspective backgrounds and larger page sizes. I also believe I can up the ante on my coloring skills as well with the stylus instead of the mouse. I will keep you informed!

This is part 3 of the jam piece completed with the help of Carlisle and STC and Dawn at Z&F!  Hope everyone has a great holiday!

The first ever print version of Bullfinch is now available via the Th3rdworld studios web store!  The Bullfinch comic is a collection of most of my favorite strips and stories created so far.  It is 28 pages and is black and white interior with a full color cover.  The book will be 5$ and a special artist edition will be priced at 10$ and will include a sketch card done by me.  The sketch cards will be original artwork and not prints. Faaaaaaantastic!

Friday and Saturday I attended the Philadelphia comic-con with the guys from Th3rdworld studios and Shocker Toys. Despite the show being a tad smaller (DC and Marvel went to Hero-Con in Carolina) than usual we still had some good traffic, especially on a rainy Saturday.
I drove down from Syracuse with the world famous comic book writer, and Th3rdworld tent pole, Mike Raicht. Anyone who follows my Twitter feed knows how difficult that can be at times (an Ipod with Asia, and the Kiss disco album?! Really?!). We met up with the CEO of Th3rdworld, Mike Devito, in Philly and set up early on Friday. We shared booth space with the guys from Shocker Toys who are a lot of fun to hang with. I had the print version of Bullfinch on hand as well as the offerings from Th3rdworld, especially the newest volume of Superfogeys featuring the (now fake) death of Doctor Rocket. Most of my days were spent doing sketches and selling people on our various offerings, like The Stuff of Legend which is available next month from Raicht and the fantastic artist Charles Paul Wilson III who was with us on Saturday, as well as his actual pages from the book. His pencils are some of the most fantastic I’ve seen in person and his full color covers up close are unbelievable!
Dawn from the wonderful comic Zorphbert and Fred met me at the con as well. We both grilled Brad Guigar from Evil Inc. about web-comics and printing information. He’s a great guy to talk to about those things, he’s always very open about discussing those things. Unless he’s the greatest actor I’ve ever met.
Friday night after the con was filled with the usual odd moments. A 40 of Coors light, Lou Ferrigno, random stealth bottle attack shattering on the lobby floor, Settlers of Catan, Orioles vs. the Phillies, a band called Saga; you know the usual crap.

Us at the convention! Charles Wilson, Mike Raicht, Keith Dallas, Mike Devito, and TL.

I will be at the Philadelphia comic-con this weekend on Friday and Saturday only.  I am at the Th3rdworld/Shocker Toys booth with Mike Devito and Mike Raicht.  I will be doing sketches for people and with any luck I may have a physical version of Bullfinch comics in my hands!  If the shipping gods will it, then let it be done.