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The fall of Emo-Spider

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:09:18 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-07-13 18:10:12

And we can finally strike "Marvel Zombies" off our list of parodies that we simply had to do during this arc. I know those of you who were excited to see Emo-Spider return may be disappointed that his appearance was so short, but this arc isn't about Emo-Spider, so he had to remain a minor part of the story. At least he finally got to throw a punch. I can't recall him ever doing anything that actually resembled real fighting in CC. So then, is this the end of Emo-Spider? Only time will tell. We've still got a lot in store for this arc, and the more we work on it, the more we keep adding to it.

Edit: Sorry guys, but the comic isn't finished yet. What's more, I'm moving, so for at least the next two weeks almost all of my free time is going to be taken up. The comic is about halfway finished, so we'll see if I can finish it anytime soon. If you want to subscribe to the RSS feed, the button is just over to the right, beneath the Bomb Shelter banner.

I did manage to get the media page finished last week, though, due to a request for a wallpaper of the above strip. Enjoy.

See you back here soon, if all goes well.

The fall of Emo-Spider

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:00:23 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-06-29 19:16:22

The return of Emo-Spider

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:12:06 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-06-22 19:11:32

Technically, the "every other week" schedule is still in effect, but I managed to get this page done on time, so you guys get a weekly update for now. Lex wrote the scripts for this page and the next at the same time, which means I've already started work on page 15. That means there's a good chance I'll get 15 done in time for next Monday.

Every time we use Emo-Spider after giving him an extended break, we hear from readers that they're surprised to see him return, thinking we were done making fun of Spider-Man 3. Well, we are done making fun of Spider-Man 3, but we'll never be done making fun of Spider-Man. Emo-Spider was inspired by the promotional image released to let fans know about the black suit in SM3, but the character itself is an exaggeration of Peter's entire personality, both in the comics and the films. In the comics, Peter's thoughts often serve as narration for the stories. This provides a peek into the hero's head that has made Spider-Man my favorite superhero. However, given that Peter is one of the most stressed and unluckiest superheroes of all time, it has also served to make the audience Peter's shoulder to cry on. As a result, turning Peter into an emo kid with a blogging habit was sort of a natural fit, which is why Emo-Spider lives on despite no longer having much connection to Spider-Man 3. Hope you enjoy what we have in store.

Oh yeah, and apparently Yirmumah is back from the dead! And better than ever!

The end of the beginning of the end

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:20:51 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-06-15 17:36:51

And we're finally back! Sorry about the three-week hiatus, but it was unavoidable. Thanks to those of you who wrote in asking about the next comic. It's good to know there are people out there anxious to see where this story is going. As of this strip, we've finally brought all three branches of this storyline up to speed, and we're ready to start getting to the good stuff.

This comic was pretty fun to draw. I've been keeping on with my anatomy research, and I think I'm finally starting to find a nice balance between the simple cartoonish designs from the first few strips and the more detailed style I've been using lately. When will I finally stop tweaking the comic's style? When I finally know what I'm doing! (Not anytime soon!)

See you guys next time! I'll get to finishing that media page soon. Some people have been asking for wallpapers and avatars, so if there's any art in particular you'd like to see used, let us know!

Oh yeah, and before I forget; if you're an artist looking to start up a new comic, you might want to check out BitArtist, brought to you by Bomb Shelter Comics and Way of the Geek!

Running out of time

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 13:36:38 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-05-25 14:53:32

I never got that fan art page done this week. It seems I've yet to install web-design software on this computer, and I've just been to lazy to do it as of yet. I'll get it done soon.

As for the comic though, we're going to be updating less frequently for a while. It's only temporary, but there's a lot going on in my offline life that's leaving me little time to draw, so you'll probably see updates coming about once every two weeks. Again, this is only temporary. This is a busy year for Lex and myself, and it won't be until at least fall or winter before we really get back to being as dependable with our updates as we were with CC.

Edit: As you can see, no comic this week. A coworker of mine had to go out of state for a family emergency, and I had to cover his shift. That, in addition to injuring my drawing hand, plus Lex's birthday yesterday all added up to make finishing the comic on time impossible. We'll get back on track next week. See you then!

Running out of time

Mon, 26 May 2008 00:08:06 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-05-25 14:53:32

Oh look, Ashley got topless

Thu, 22 May 2008 12:31:43 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-05-18 18:54:06

Sorry about the above horrible pun. I couldn't resist. Anyway, I'm kind of happy to see we've finally gotten all three of our main characters into one strip. It's been quite a while since we've seen that. I'd make some kind of promise that we'll actually get them in the same room sometime soon, but I honestly don't know that Lex has that in store for this arc. We'll see.

In other news, my friend Erick (I posted some of his work last week) drew some fan art for us! Check it out:

Here's a few more of his drawings while I'm at it.

So anyway, this means I need to finally get around to finishing the "media" page so we can put a fan art gallery in it. I'll get it up later this week. If any of you want to send in some fan art to be featured, feel free to send it in.

Hey people! Chad Diaz is back!

Edit: In other news, Slackerz is awesome as always.

Oh look, Ashley got topless

Wed, 21 May 2008 08:49:05 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-05-18 18:54:06

Oh look, Ashley got topless

Mon, 19 May 2008 05:44:37 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-05-18 18:54:06

Hell

Mon, 12 May 2008 22:46:56 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-05-11 19:09:34

This was the comic from hell. Seriously, nothing with this comic wanted to go right. I don't like much how it came out, but I'm just happy to be done with it at this point. It wouldn't have been so bad if my first, much better first attempt hadn't been destroyed by a computer crash, forcing me to hastily re-draw it almost from scratch to make the update schedule. Ugh.

Anyway, I have a friend named Erick Gilera whose art I want to show you all this week. He's been drawing on and off since I first met him about three years ago, and I'm constantly bugging him to keep practicing, because he's been getting better and better over time. Anyway, he finally wants to get his art in front of some eyes, so click below to see some of his stuff:

Here's some more, too.

Well, see you guys next week. Probably.

Edit: Hey punks, guess who just turned two this week? Yeah, that's who. Get over there and show ol' Krudman some love.

Hell

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:04:51 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-05-11 19:09:34

Filler

Sun, 04 May 2008 22:21:24 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-05-04 19:27:22

Sorry guys, as the above filler says, between my sister's graduation, work, and seeing Iron Man, there just wasn't enough time to finish the comic. It's about 75% done, but I've needed a week off anyway to get our buffer back, so this is the week for it.

The filler will come down next week. Sorry about how crappy it looks. It's way harder drawing an image when you have to step back a few feet to actually look at the whole thing, and the awkward angle from which the picture was taken only seems to magnify the parts I screwed up. Ah well. At any rate, I'm improving. The anatomy research is really paying off.

See you next week with a real comic.

So much to live for

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:55:04 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-04-27 18:34:05

Well, I'm starting to get the hang of the new art style a bit more. I still have a long way to go, but I'm starting to get it down to the point where I can slip into a more cartoonish style when a panel calls for extreme expressions.

Also, since there's elements in the background that need to be ignored for a page or two (like where Ashley and the other zombie are) I experimented with some ways of downplaying the enviornments. I think panel one came out pretty good, but for some reason panel two still bugs me a little. Oh well.

Next week's comic might wind up late or skipped, I don't know for sure. We'll see how this week goes. See you then!

She loves him for his brains

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:10:10 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-04-20 18:17:10

Well as you can see, I've been making a lot more changes to the art in my time off. Why the change? Several reasons. First of all, as I mentioned in a previous blog post, I've been reading a lot of Evan Dorkin's comics lately, and love his art style. He does a lot of exaggerated facial expressions, and yet his approach is nothing like that of John K, whose art I've been studying for quite some time. Don't get me wrong, I love John K's style, especially his exaggeration of expressions, but he has a tendency to behave as though every cartoon on earth should look like Looney Toons cartoons from the 1950s. Dorkin's style is much more versatile, and since he usually draws humans (when he's not drawing talking wedges of cheese and cartons of milk, anyway) he has a much stronger grasp on anatomy than John K, who usually draws cartoon animals. Anyway, I decided that if I ever want to become anywhere near as good as Dorkin, I need to first get my anatomy down. I've gotten my hands on some extremely helpful resources, and I've been studying like mad. The above comic reflects some of that progress, though it's going to take a few weeks before the research really pays off, since I'm still getting used to the new style. Much thanks to Bomb Shelter bro Sean C for the tips on inking, as well.

Anyway, I've spent a lot of time that would have been spent drawing comics on learning how to draw comics better, so I've worn my buffer down to nothing. That means I'm probably going to take another week off soon. Maybe next week or the week after, we'll see. Anyway the comic will be much better for it. See you next week.

Oblivious

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:28:03 -0500

Posted by Chris on 2008-04-13 19:09:32

So now we once again delve into our story. I'd like to promise this is the last update we'll miss, but life is pretty busy for Lex and myself right now, and it's forcing the comic to fall pretty low on our list of priorities. Still, we're excited to bring you new updates whenever possible.

This is one of the strips that was recovered from my old hard drive, and I'm very thankful that I didn't need to re-draw it from scratch. As much as I feel I could improve on the art with a second try, I just want to get each page done so I can make the next page even better. Keep moving forward.

By the way, those of you who have been reading long enough should know I'm a big Jamie Hewlett fan, so it should come as no surprise to you that I was thrilled to discover the live action TV show Phoo Action (based on Jamie Hewlett's comic) was posted online. It's pretty low budget as far as special effects go, but I absolutely love the way Hewlett's art style and sense of humor were brought to life. I can't wait to see more episodes.

That's all for now. Check back next week to see what I've been up to in the time since the above comic was drawn. See you then.