TWO MORE SETS I JUST ADDED:

Again, any of these sketch cards can be purchased for $5.00 a piece by making a donation to my PayPal account. All the cards will be in full color - The black and white ones are being colored right now.

-Chris

This one is for all the people who wish I would sometimes write less dialog.  You know who you are. 

Just kidding. I have actually been playing around with ideas of doing an almost silent strip when this idea suddenly hit me. I don’t know if I can write less dialog than this but I’ll see what I can do in the future.

In the mean time, I want to thank everyone who has sent me a Twitter, Facebook and e-mail response about the sketch cards I recently posted. Remember, they are all available for $5 via my Paypal account. If you have a favorite character and would like to see my rendition of that character, send me an e-mail and I will add it to my Sketch Card list.

-Chris

…it’s the years!

To be honest, I kind of feel for Roy in this strip. He was in a “no win” situation… If he low balls “his number”, than it makes Roni look like, well, “loose” - even IF Roni IS over 400 years old. Guys, let’s face it, vampire or not, we just can’t win in a situation like this at all!

Do you want your comic strip reviewed?

Tonight on the Lightbox - Illuminating Webcomics, Matt Stout and I decided to have an open call for anyone that would like to have their comic strip reviewed. If you’re interested in this, write an e-mail or send us a Twitter DM here:

My e-mail address: capesnbabes [at] gmail.com
My Twitter feed: http://www.twitter.com/capesnbabes
Matt Stout’s Twitter feed: http://www.twitter.com/mattstout

Matt and I record the Lightbox Podcast every Thursday night and then Matt posts it on Talkshoe and iTunes on Friday afternoon. So if you’re interested, please let us know.

-Chris

-Chris

Now, if THAT title doesn’t bring me some traffic, I don’t know what will! 

On a serious note though, if you could take a few moments to read the “Pin-ups & Sketch Card” blog post, I would be very appreciative - even more so if you took me up on one of those offers…

But that’s not really what I wanted to write about tonight. Instead, I wanted to give everyone a head’s up to let you know that in the very near future, I am planning on running some of my favorite “CMX Suite” strips that I do for Community MX. I’m doing that for a variety of reasons…

1) I REALLY need to take the time to build up a buffer for Capes & Babes. I see this almost on a daily basis and I’m beginning to feel the pinch (and pressure) of not having a big enough buffer…

2) I also REALLY, REALLY need to get back to working on my Capes & Babes website re-design. I haven’t been able to do that yet due to so many other prior commitments - including the consistent posting of this strip. But something has to give way… the new design is no longer a luxury - it’s a necessity and I need to make it that.

Hmmm… okay, so I guess there’s really only TWO reasons but they are really BIG reasons.

Hopefully though, you all will enjoy my “CMX Suite” cartoons - at least those of you that haven’t read or know about them. 

-Chris

Hey everybody, with summer fast approaching, that means Convention Season is here! This year, I really want to expand my convention presence and try to get as many interested parties to learn about Capes & Babes as possible but I need YOUR help.

Why do I need your help?
Well, I need help with table purchases, travel & hotel expenses and all that good stuff it takes in order to go to these conventions.

How can you help?
Well, by purchasing original art from me in the form of pin-ups and/or sketch cards.

Here’s the deal:

- I will draw 9×12″ commissions of your favorite characters (comic book or otherwise) for the low, low price of $30.
These drawings will be full-color (with Prismacolor markers), and inked with archival inks on 2-ply bristol board. Shipping in the U.S. is included in the price. I will do either a humorous version (with dialog) or I will do a traditional “silent” pin-up without any dialog or humorous slant - whichever one you want!

- For $60 I will draw a black-and-white caricatures on 9 x 12 bristol board with archival inks.
You must provide a decent close-up of the person being caricaturized. For just $20 more, I will make the caricature full color. Shipping in the U.S. is also included in the price.

The commissions and caricatures, both will include a white mat as well. The size might change once I measure the window of the mat so both the commissions and caricatures could wind up being slightly larger that 9×12″!

- For $5 a piece, I will do full color trading cards of any character you want.
Trading cards measure 2.5×3.5″ and are inked and colored on bristol board. They will be signed and dated as well. The cards will also come with a protective sleeve. Again, shipping in the U.S. is also included in the price.

If you’d like to purchase any of the above, just shoot me an email at capesnbabes (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll send you an invoice from PayPal!

I think this is a much better way to ask for your help then simply popping a Donation button on the site… this way, you get original art AND you help me finance my convention trips this year!

Also, thanks again for reading Capes & Babes. I truly appreciate all of your support!

-Chris

If you’re a Star Trek fan and you’re upset about this strip, I apologize. I have no idea where these ideas come from. They just appear & I draw them.

But I still think the Male Gorn in a wife beater holding a Budweiser is hysterical though!

Longer blog post coming tomorrow. It’s late & I’m tired (long weekend). See ya’ll tomorrow.

-Chris

First up is Phantom Lady
9×12″ done in markers and pen & ink

And some sketch cards I’m currently working on:

From top left to bottom:
Batgirl, Bruce Campbell,
The Disney version of The Punisher (Puny-sher),
Roy, Joey and then Marc

]]> http://www.capesnbabes.com/2010/03/06/stuff-im-working-on-right-now/feed/ http://www.capesnbabes.com/2010/03/06/stuff-im-working-on-right-now/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/capesandbabes/~3/FnbSeqonUJw/ http://www.capesnbabes.com/2010/03/05/zorphbert-fred-by-dawn-griffin/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:31:28 +0000 cflick http://www.capesnbabes.com/?p=449

So, two aliens walk in to a bar disguised as aliens…
No, that’s actually not the set-up of a really bad and tasteless joke, but it COULD almost be the premise behind “Zorphbert & Fred” – a webcomic by Dawn Griffin.

In actuality, “Zorphbert & Fred” is a webcomic about two aliens that just happen to LOOK like dogs – and they look like dogs in order to perfectly blend in to our society and study us from the inside – out. No, seriously.

Even without reading Dawn’s bio on her website, it’s very clear that she’s a dog owner herself. Although I’m sure one could imagine how dogs might react in certain situations, fellow dog (and cat) owners will feel a kinship when they read Dawn’s strips and see the antics the aliens go through in order to perfectly blend in and not give away their “secret”.

Dawn comes from an illustration and design background and you can tell that from the expertly chosen color schemes she chooses in the color versions of her strip. But even when she decides to go “all grayscale”, you can still see her graphic design skills shine through.

I also mentioned Dawn’s strip tonight during the Lightbox Podcast I record with Matt Stout (www.bigsandygilmore.com) in which I mentioned Dawn’s style kind of reminds me of a little bit of Disney, mixed with old style Warner Brothers with a hefty dose of Ren & Stimpy sprinkled in to the mix. Her style is loose but clean, graphic-y but sketchy and she really spends a lot of time with her colors and shading. For an example of what I’m talking about, check out the Christmas tree in the first panel of this strip: http://www.zfcomics.com/comics/the-aftermath/http://www.zfcomics.com/comics/the-aftermath/

With two “dogs” in the strip, it would be real easy to fall into a dog version of Garfield but Dawn doesn’t do that. Instead, “Zorphbert & Fred” reminds me of something more along the lines of Heathcliff on Red Bull but with a touch of heart. Heathcliff could sometimes be a bit too snarky for me but that’s not the case with“Zorphbert & Fred”. “Zorphbert & Fred” is cute but has also has some edge to it – but not in a nasty, snarky way. It’s way more zany than anything else.

I also want to mention Dawn’s website as well since there are some things I like about her site too. For example, I love the outer space background and the custom buttons she has made for the main navigation of the site in addition to the comic strip navigation buttons below the strip as well. This is anything but your “typical” comicpress-generated website. I also like the “Book-o-meter” graphic she has on her left side bar too.

Almost everything fits really well together in terms of website, art, writing and design. However, if there could be two things I would change about her strip it would be her choice of the dialog font she uses and the decision to include blinking Project Wonderful ads right before her blog post. I think the blinking ads are a bit much and can sometimes distract from her beautifully arranged and designed art of the strip. I would much rather her turn off the ability to accept animated banner ads here, but just the animated ones. The static ones are fine and don’t distract from the site at all.

When one talks about dialog fonts, that can always be a bit tricky. Some people prefer digital fonts while others prefer hand-lettering. Likewise, the choice to use a particular digital font can be extremely important as well. Although Dawn’s strip is very easy to read, I think, after long sittings, the use of Tekton as a dialog font can become difficult to read over time.

In fact, given the loose style she shows towards Zorphbert & Fred, I actually wouldn’t mind seeing Dawn try her hand at hand lettering the strip every now and then – just to see what that might produce. Or, in the very least, perhaps experiment with a slightly more traditional comic book lettering style or font. One might argue though, given the fact that the “dogs” are alien, having a more mechanical looking font suits their characters. Still though, seeing what she is capable of doing with sound effects, it would be very interesting to see a hand-drawn styled version of  “Zorphbert and Fred”.

In any case, the choice of dialog fonts is, honestly, a nit-picky one based more on personal style than anything else. It’s certainly nothing that should keep you from enjoying a great little zany strip by Dawn Griffin called… Zorphbert & Fred.

-Chris

Why such a strange title? Well, let’s just say that if you come back here on Monday and I’m writing about my impending divorce, it’s because of THIS strip. See? THESE are the sacrifices I’m willing to make for you all…

-Chris