Apocalyptico

As ever, I persist in my efforts to finish this gargantuan task of making a 120-odd page book of Quarter Life Crisis. (A first volume of an envisioned several.) I think this is the most ambitious project I've attempted to date. And so far, I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. While overwhelmed, I am encouraged by positive feedback from Stripmalling and the continued interest from friends and other comic bookers (who all want to know when this stupid book is going to be done!) I've posted some newer pencils below.



I'm finding myself struggling with a few things:

1) When I began the book, I was consciously trying to work more simply (and with less detail) than usual. This was both in order to save myself some time and to try to emulate illustration work I'm more drawn to. (I really love simple clean lines with few details, but in my own work, I get caught up in all the little unnecessary lines.)




2) I'm having difficulty making the call between composing things based on look or based on realism. Since it's all set in real Toronto locations, I don't know whether to alter the real look of an intersection or building for the purposes of storytelling or not. I just realized I placed an elevator in an impossible spot in the OCAD building, but I'm keeping it there, because it looks nicer.




3) My drawings are getting bigger! I make thumbnails and sketches at a certain size, but by the final product, all the figures end up much larger. I can't figure out what I'm doing. Anyone else have this problem?

Anyway, I'm toiling away at this at almost every free moment I have. And also listening to this new Metric song obsessively, as I feel it fits the atmosphere of the Quarter Life Crisis book so well.

Some more stripmalling

A few final things done for Stripmalling (out this coming spring). The first two are freeze frames following protagonist Jonny's parents and his brother after the events of the novel. (They worship different gods.)




And then, an illustration for an excerpt of the book for Broken Pencil. The excerpt was much more graphic than this image.

Stripmalling Cover Draft

I made up this quick cover mockup for the book Stripmalling. The final will be in colour and have nicer fonts, but this is the basic concept. And the illustrations of all the characters are going to be used as finals (or that's the plan, at least). If you see anything horrible with any of the sketches, let me know so I can fix them before I continue.

Freeze Frame! (NSFW)

Some of the final images for that book, Stripmalling. The end is a series of 'where are they now' type freeze frames, as one might see in a hilarious teen comedy.







The first features the protagonist, now an assistant professor, but still dealing drugs to students. The second is his ex-girlfriend, now a rocket scientist.

The third is their child, who is growing up vegan. The fourth is a character in the book, 'Evan Munday' (no relation), who is now a male escort in Montreal who is working on his own underwear fashion line.

The final one is the boss at the Shill Station. Who still owns a Shill Station and is pretty happy about it.

Stripmall for me, baby

More pages from Jon Paul Fiorentino's forthcoming epic novel, Stripmalling. This series of pages has fewer beatings and more capitalist critique. Enjoy!

Stripmalling finals

Long time, no blog. Here are the first half of the pages I've done for Jon Paul Fiorentino's upcoming novel, Stripmalling. I'll post the others soon. Some solid beatings and face-sewing in this set.

More Stripmalling

Another page from Stripmalling, the book by my author friend, Jonny. Hopefully it's not too low res.



Riddle me this -- last two panels: snow or stars?

Dora the Explorer

Character sketches for Dora in my friend Jonny's novel / graphic novel, Stripmalling. I wasn't given much in the way of instructions. Mostly, 'She should look sort of like Enid from Ghost World.'