Well guys, from here on out updates are going to be floating around until I finish the book I’m working on – in early April, hopefully. Until then, pages could be pretty infrequent – regardless of how much I loooove making Billy (and it drives my artistic betterment in a BIG way, which makes it valuable despite the lack of income it brings in), I gotta pay the bills. And it’s amazing that I can currently do that with my brush. Right now, I have NO idea how often I’ll be able to get an entire page done – they happen to be a decent amount of work. Like, 2-3 days every week. Mainly because they are HUGE.

That's a fifteen inch ruler.

And they are huge because I am STUBBORN. My comic is damn well going to look like what I want it to. If that means I have to to be on the lookout for new tools constantly, or mix up my own ink formulas, or incessantly berate myself so that I try harder to make the writing or the art better and more appropriate for the world the characters live in, then so be it. Making good comics is more important to me than being comfortable, or feeling good about myself. If I didn’t have such amazing, understanding, and supportive people in my life, I’d probably have some serious relationship issues as well. Thankfully, I’m married to a teacher who happens to be as insane about her career as I am.

Aaaanyway, I think I’m finally going to get around to experimenting with releasing the pages panel by panel while I’m under this deadline crunch. They certainly contain enough information (and work) in each one to warrant it, and it might just be fun. Plus, I think it will help me to still prioritize Billy, and not lose the thread of this storyline. And I’ll be able to update more often. If you follow me on Twitter, or are fan of the comic on Facebook, I’ll be giving updates whenever a new tier drops.

And if it doesn’t work…well, I’ll stop. No biggie.

                                      

I’m tired, I’m sick, and I still am pretty happy with this page. So…yay. I really, really love drawing this underwater stuff. It’s a blast.

Need to go to bed now- it’s 2:30 am and I feel like a racoon’s butt. But first, google Gary Friedrich, read a bit, and then give him money. I did. Screw Marvel.

Later.

J.

ps. sorry it’s terse. I’ve done this twice already, so I don’t have the energy to write a tome. But I’ll be in the comments.

                                      

Anyway, moving on, I’m doing this for CLYW now, if you have a hankering for another webcomic by yours truly.

Yes, it’s a comic for a yoyo company, and yes it’s about yoyos. However, I have put a grade A whackadoo level of thought into this thing, and I believe it’s going to be nothing if not grandiose and bizarre. I mean, I came up with a concept tying together a Yeti, a Narwhal, a Puffin, and Sasquatch and Yoyo Maker. Seriously. It’s pretty awesome.

Look at that! I said something nice about something I’m making!

Later,

J.

ps: My fingers were crossed.

pps: Sorry for all the ps’s lately.

                                      

Now that’s how a comic page oughtta look.

Or, rather: I got my holy-grail-crazy-expensive japanese brush pen to work right. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but to reitierate – the inimitable Ms. Flyky (to whom I’m married) bought me a lavish gift for Christmas 2010. One of these:

And it’s been sitting in a drawer because it just didn’t feel right. Too much ink flow. Turns out it made a big difference when I tried using the ink cartridges that came with it. Yesterday. Over a year later. So, duh, now I have an INCREDIBLE brush. Like, a forged-from-the-bones-of-a-frost-giant-and-handed-down-by-the-gods-to-fend-off-ragnarok +1 pen. It’s like inking with a living thing. I’m probably going to start talking to it. Heck, I should probably give it a name, then.

Anyway, in case you didn’t realize this about me – I’m pretty sure that I’m only as good of an artist as my tools will allow. So expect big things from me and Percy. Percy the pen.

See, I’m a good writer because I’m alliterative.

Later,

J.

ps: I’m sure it’ll turn into dust tomorrow. In that case, disregard any expectations this post has created in you.

                                      

Well, I tried really hard to get this thing out last night, but as you can see the rocks disagreed with me. Cripes, that’s a lot of ink. Maybe next time I can try and actually figure out that particular technique before I apply it to an entire page. My process is ridiculous. Comics are ridiculous. It’s amazing to me that anybody can bully their way through the mire that is making a page of this stuff. Especially with any kind of time constraints. My appreciation for guys like Jack Kirby, Jack Davis, Kurtzman, Eisner, Ditko – any of the old sweatshoppers – has only gone up as I’ve made more comics, as has my humility level (however unwillingly). I need to work way harder if I ever want to become a true comics artist.

Ah well, tomorrow is another page. Or rather, next week. Not counting other stuff I’m doing. I guess it’d be like, one-and-a-half pages a week. Plus illustrations.

Whatever. I love this song right now:

Later,

J.

Postscript: I like this comic a lot better now that it’s all put together. I still think it’s a hot mess, but it reads well, and the hatching looks far less random than it felt while I was doing it. Still, I’ve got to bone up on my Bernie Wrightson and Jack Davis and get some control over that. Cuz if I could…oh man. Sky’s the limit.

                                      

I don’t think i’ve mentioned it here yet, but pretty soon I’m going to be starting up a new webcomic for the incredible CLYW – otherewise known as Caribou Lodge Yoyo Works.

It’ll be bringing together a bunch of the CLYW stable of characters (which is surprisingly deep for a yoyo company. Heck, it’s pretty deep for an animation company) in the most over-thought and pseudo-philosophical manner I can manage. Which will rock.

And speaking of Caribou Lodge, the man himself Chris Mikulin and a big chunk of his team are in Prague right now for the European Yoyo Chamapionship. So, GOOD LUCK. Chris sponsors some really amazing guys that absolutely live up to his incredible yoyos. Seriously though, I’m not biased.

Next week the comic should be back to normal schedule – meaning it goes up midnight Thursday, because I actually finish it before wednesday.

Thanks for being awesome and patient you guys!

Later,

J.

                                      

Tonight I try and write the next comic. Hooray for that. Excited to get back to routine.

Later,

J.

                                      

Yay for skull teeth!

Later,

J.

                                      

Sketches for the book are going swimmingly, and rather fast (thankfully. I’d prefer to not be drawing the whole time I’m visiting with my Army Bro and his family this weekend), so I took a little time to play with the Billy crew outside of the comic. This is what came out:

If you click on it, it gets much bigger.

Look, a picnic!

It’s been a loooong time since I went nuts on an image and just filled it up completely. And even better, I can make some wallpapers and prints using it. It’ll probably be a little while before it’s completed, but I’ll post at least once more this week with an updated image. Probably just cleaned up a bit.

And to think I was originally thinking of drawing Been as Batman. This is way more fun (and more original, too).

Later,

J.

                                      

Hooray! It’s up! Sorry for the delay, but I had a very important project that I had to do.

We did ten pages of these in one day. Thankfully the kids didn't riot when she read the book to them.

Now Ky’s preschoolers (hopefully) understand what peace is a little bit better. It’s not such an easy concept to get across.

Also on the mixed blessing newsfront – I’ve got to take next week off from Billy. I know, I know – there’s bound to be some sort of riot. But it must be risked. Turns out I’ve got oodles of work that actually pays money right now, and one of those gigs is an honest to goodness book. Like, with a real publisher and whatnot. BUT, I’ve got about 40 sketches to get done by the 15th. Which is compounded by the fact that my brother is back from Iraq and visiting my hometown pretty much the exact same weekend. Rock and a hard place, you know? I’ll try and make it up to you by posting something in the blog area (below the comic post. I know it’s been a while.) a time or two next week, so check back or look on twitter and facebook.

Lately I’ve actually been picking up a decent number of gigs – more than I’ve ever had. Problem is, as I get more paying work, the time I have for Billy is going to get harder and harder to find. The only way I can take that time back, is for Billy to start bringing in some actual, y’know, money. So I stuck a donate button up in the sidebar. I don’t like it, but after doing this for two and a half years, I figure I’ve earned a respite from my neverending self-imposed rules. So do your thing with the paypal if you’re feeling it. Just like Radiohead, man.

Thing is, that’s only going to go so far. I LOVE Billy. This comic is my life’s work. I mean, I’ve been with these characters since I was nineteen, and they haven’t given up one centimeter of real estate in my imagination since the day I created them. They aren’t going anywhere. But to keep doing it as often as I do now (or more often, if that would ever be possible), I need to get more people to the comic. So if you enjoy this comic, tell somebody. Or, if you know of a website that does webcomic reviews or plugs, tell them about Billy. Cuz’ I need you guys.

Aaaaaanyway, I’ll talk to you guys next week – seriously, check back even the comic is off. I’ll have some fun sketches of the kids up or something in the blog. I’ll need to blow off some steam on some funtime drawings for sure.

Later, and thanks -

J.