An Easter Egg Full of Dick

So it occurred to me recently that I never posted the last two Dick Generic comics. Even though that initial idea kind of fizzled out, I should still probably go ahead and put them out here.

This is the last one for now, kind of ending the whole thing on a cliffhanger. Which is better than nothing I suppose.

By the by, I've been slacking off just a bit lately. Too much of the day job combined with a minor art slump. Ideas have been coming, though, so hopefully something to post soon. Thanks for putting up with it, those of you who read this thing regularly.

impasse (IM-pass), noun

So today is my dad's birthday. That has no bearing on the post, I just felt like sharing. Here are a couple of pages of the usual John K model sheet stuff.

 As you can tell by Frankie (of Eric Powell's awesome series, The Goon) and the other little doodles popping up here and there, getting a little burned out on model sheets. So as I'm powering on through the lessons, you'll see more of that stuff popping in and out.

 I am a fan of the Mountain Goats, and the line just felt appropriate here, I dunno

 This is based off a photo by a friend of mine, Daniel DeLuca, a rather talented photographer. This was a shoot for another friend who is an aspiring model and this doesn't do her justice by a longshot in my opinion. But she liked it, so it's going up.

I'm a big fan of superhero comics and the idea of superheroes in general, but I try to limit how much of it I draw because I feel like there's a certain style that goes with that genre and drawing too much of it can really be confining and no fun at all.  Manhunter here is one of those tragic characters who, although made incredibly interesting and deep by other media, has very lackluster comic exposure if any. There are a ton of characters like this, and if I feel inspired again I might do a few more. You all know how fickle I am. This take on J'onny-boy is based off those Easter Island heads, because I feel like that's such a perfect alien design and he's usually halfway there anyhow.

(OSS-uh-late), verb

Um...

Hi.

Yeah, I haven't been posting in the manner I said I would. Which doesn't mean I've been dicking around or anything, it's just that I took a second look at the “Dick Generic” comics and really REALLY thought I could do better. Then I looked at the other stuff I've been putting out lately and kind of concreted that idea. Then I got into a rut. So I headed over to John K's blog (johnkstuff.blogspot.com) and finally decided to tackle his animation principles course. Not that I intend on doing any actual animation any time soon, it's just that the basics of cartooning apply to the paper stuff as well. I've browsed the blog before, but given that I'd had nothing but time on my hands until recently, I decided now was as good a time as any to try and get serious about this stuff. For as many good things as I can do, there's an infinite amount more that I could stand to be better versed in. 

The majority of this course seems to be copying and understanding model sheets and the deconstruction of actual scenes, and as such this update (and probably a few after) will be full of my attempts to draw/construct these characters and use techniques that I have been up until now unfamiliar with. Though a doodle or two of my own will sneak by here and there. This is about a third of the actual pages I've been working on, because some are less presentable than others (i.e., shit)

         So there we go. Working on becoming a better cartoonist and a better artist over all. I'm not even halfway through this course yet, so expect more of this sort of thing as the weeks go by...at indeterminable intervals. Also hoping to get some HUMAN model sessions in here again soon, because if I don't I'm going to forget how to draw real people ._.

Getting comfortable with your Dick

"Gargantua"

 

Other than just fun silly comics to doodle away at while I slowly go mad, these Dick Generic comics are exercises in sequential art for me. I've never been a big fan of using panels, I usually end up filling them with random images like some kind of series of bizarre television monitors. Might post some of those later, now that I'm thinking about it. Anywho, these comics are me essentially dividing the page up into sections and sort of bleeding the lines here and there, seeing what happens. I've been working on a series of them, so you might notice more odd or experimental stuff as I post them. Which should be every Friday, as I'm doing quite a few in advance. The first few follow this same kind of question-and-answer format, but the ones I'm currently working on involve some kind of narrative. So, let me know what you think.

That horrifying moment when you've realized that the only jellybeans left in the bag are the gross ones.

Seriously, who thought "Buttered Popcorn" was an acceptable flavor?

And on to the update.

I'm having kind of a rough day, starting with last night. Insomnia persisted and so I finished the MPA/Z follow up drawing. But the longer I look at it the more I hate it. It just feels so petty and stupid now, because I'm not a politician, I'm an artist. And a bad one at that. Still, going to post it anyway, just to see if it gets a reaction.

As I was settling into an unsettled sleep last night, an idea for a character and a strip entered my head. His name is Dick Generic, and he can only speak in dictionary definitions. I was feeling down this afternoon, so I scrawled this illustration out on some scrap board I had lying around from when I made the Chudly American logo. 

That sassy spurting Loch Ness thing was part of a doodle that had been on the page for weeks, and I couldn't bring myself to erase him. Maybe he's a representation of how Dick views the rest of humanity, because of his awkwardness we all appear as judgmental monsters or something. Depth.

Better Late Than Pregnant!

No actual update today, my weekend got away from me for longer than I had planned. On the plus side, I did get to help some friends with a photoshoot, so there's that. Still in the middle of working on the follow up to the last entry, so until that's ready I'll be sure to share any doodles/warm up drawings that happen. Sorry guys!!!

MOON EMPEROR??? I HARDLY KNEW HER!!

Another quick little doodle. A few weeks back, a friend and I were joking on ol' Newt and his grand glorious moonbase plan, and the idea of him as a little chubby thing in a space suit pretending to be the President of Moon-America stuck itself in my head. And so I present to you:
MOON PRESIDENT ALPHA/ZAPPA

It's not very good, but then again neither is he.Personally I think it best when viewed while listening to the Flash Gordon soundtrack, but that's really my answer to improving most things. Depending on the response to this I may do the whole team, if not more. Let me know what you think!

RJ



p.s., you may have to click to view the actual size of the picture to read some of the dialogue. I didn't think that through and I'm sorry. I'll make a note to write larger for the future!