Details details...

There is more than a large part of me that has been completely obsessed with my "success" through this blog, and by and large that part has been disappointed with the number of followers I get.  It's funny, every professor you'll talk to in college with recollect the days when outside of school they learned (quickly) that they wouldn't see any immediate prosperity.

And I looked at them, braced myself for it, and disagreed.

There's been another part of me that has been wanting to churn out comics every day in preparation for when I re-draw my graphic novel.  I realize though that this kind of detachment isn't very rewarding for those who are actually interested enough to check up often.

The biggest let down of one of my favorite cartoonists was not that he stopped doing work, but that he never took the time to explain why, or what else he'd be doing.

And so, I shall try to make this more of a comic blog than simply...comics comics comics!

•••

My biggest compliments and criticisms have always been linked to my sense of detail.  The common "don't draw types" are amazed with it, the common "drawing is so 1970s" types could give a damn,  and everyone in between wants more than my laziness is willing to produce.

I love detail, there's nothing I like more than being immersed in something that's well realized, visually.  At the same time I have a fancy for flat, semi-abstract, cartoon-like minimalism.  That's what happens when you grow up liking...

Myst and The NES

Bill Waterson and Edward Gorey

Will Vinton and Matt Groening

Jan Svankmajer and George Dunning

B. Kliban and Robert Crumb

etc etc etc...

It's funny because all these listed influences were capable (in contrast to their popular work) with extraordinary detail and surprising simplicity.

So I've always been involved in what you might call "representational art" but I've never been tied down by a "reality" of representation.  I find that when I enter spaces I've created, there are levels of detail that become necessary, and many that become unnecessary.

Despite this, many people scream for as much detail as they can lick up.  Looking at the contemporary comic market, just looking at the backgrounds, there's so much detail that I find it hard to focus on the characters.

But that's just me, and there are tons of people that love that.

My girlfriend and I both gripe about art critiques and how people complain that our work looks "flat" when we've both spent hours making sure that it does.  You can't convince people that flatness is a style.  Not us, anyway.

You can't please everyone.

Since this entry is more blog than comic (as opposed to a desired(?) balance) I'll include a strip that I didn't dare finish.