Unca Jeffy's Sketchbook 12-18-14!

Sketchbook while I think.  TBT?

I really did used to just sit at that table and draw,

It was awesome.

Talk to you soon.

Daylight Saving Time Rebellion! - Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook

Our semi annual participation in yet ANOTHER out-moded and archaic concept/tradition!

Celebrating an early 20th century law (which actually made more sense in the 18th and 19th) that has NO bearing on the time I'm living in at all.

I didn't plant any soy beans today.

My electric bill remained the same.

Happy stuck in the mud day everyone.  :)

Talk to you soon.

Irish as a Rainbow

Jest checking to see if I can still color.

Or colour.

:)

Talk to you soon.

Early Leprechaun - Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook

A leprechaun as surprised as I was to see him almost 3 weeks early.  He was still kind enough to pose for this sketch.

I call it "Relaxed Leprechaun sans Hat" or "He probably hasn't got a pot of gold or a window to throw it out, anyway!"

Talk to you soon!

Uncle Jeffy's Sketchbook - Like Lazarus!!

Hiya Kids!

Doodling a little yesterday.  Character sketches for the story of "My Christmas Sabbatical!"?

:)

Talk to you soon!

Unca Jeffy is NOT dead...just a little MIA!

I know what you must be thinking..."Has our man Jeff fallen off the face of the Earth?"...no loyal followers, I have not.

I am alive, well, happy and uncertain of the future.  The 4 major signs of a perfect life, and I am still breathing, too.

I took advantage of my unemployed status and took a 6 week vacation to go visit my sister and her family in my home state of Montana from the beginning of December through the middle of January and found happiness, confusion, romance (yes, and Jeffy's happy for this, too) and all those things that you should find on a vacation/sabbatical/retreat/adventure!  

I do hope to tell you all a little about my time there over the next little while, but for now I wanted to say, "Hi!", "How've you been?", "I missed y'all!" and "What'd I miss?".

And just to let you all see physical evidence, here's my excursion to Missoula's own Sean Kelly's Irish Pub "Open Mic Night" where I was seen serenading the locals.  I may not sound like I'm livin', but I really was while I was there!

See?  Jeffy's not dead!

I WILL hang around as long as you will let me, too!

Talk to you soon!

Cartoon Tools - and Their Mis-use!

Finishing up work on my 24 Hour Comic Book (that's 7 day comic book to YOU, mister!) and struck by the crutches cartoonists fall on in order to get what they're saying across.  Some good, some so archaic and dated, that they're near indecipherable for the modern reader.  Putting this thought into "strip form" even made the "set-up + set-up = punchline rhythm of a strip stuck out like a sore thumb for me.

What have we learned from this examination?  Only what we've always known.  Charles Schulz was a genius and Jim Davis is STILL a worthless piece of shit.

The experiment proves the science.  All is right in the world.

Talk to you soon.

17 complete pages of 24 hour comic book day!

I headed on over to Kinko's to have my completed 17 pages scanned so you folks could actually read them if you wanted to.  INCLUDING 2 pages I didn't take pics of last night that YOU haven't seen yet!!

I am bound to finish the comic, I'm aiming for this week.

The concept for this is an old school children's comic a la Archie, Harvey (Casper, Richie Rich) and especially any number of Dell or Gold Key titles, which would have a main story interspersed with little 1 and 2 page unrelated black outs and even some activity/puzzle pages thrown in.  These types of things were originally done by comics companies as fillers, to have little mini 1 and 2 and 3 page items with which they could fill out a page count.  They always felt like bonuses to me as a kid, and they added to the personality of the comic.

Anyway, thank you all for rooting me on in my failed attempt.  I will be back and the experience is something I am soooooooooooo glad I took part in.

Until I add the extra 7 pages, finish the story and add a cover (and maybe some color), here's what all y'all were waving big "Team Jeffy" foam rubber fingers in the air about.

"Western Civilization Comics & Stories" issue #1

Main feature - "The Rise and Fall of Western Civilization" part 1: "The Seed"!

Time out for "Fun with the Development of Language" - from alpha to omega - " Behind the Scenes of Why Things Get Named the Way They Do!"

this one fell a bit flat when I was drawing it, but earlier when writing, it had me in stitches..hmmmmmm.  AT any rate, it adds a lot of running gags and cal-backs that get used a lot in the main story.  No one loves a "call-back" more than I!

"The Rise and Fall of Western Civilization" part 2 - "The Rise"!

"Western Civilization Comics & Stories Activity Page"! - Which of these Galilean drawings of the moons of Jupiter is NOT like the other three.  Answer upside down at the bottom of the page.  :)

This was an impromptu page I did while drawing.  It made me laugh really hard at 2 in the morning or so.

"The Rise and Fall of Western Civilization" part 3 "The Crest"!

"Western Civilization Activity Page" - Connect the dots and reveal Charles Darwin's eyebrows.

Another improvisation during the drawing process which made me laugh.  Another clue that the way to go with this is to NOT script ahead, just let the creative juices flow!

"The Rise and Fall of Western Civilization" part 4 - "The Fall"

Chapter the last!  After this was an epilogue and a 2 page letter from the editor (me...in cartoon form of course) I WILL complete these!!  Come back soon!

And that's when I approached the speed of sound in my dive and passed out.

I really did feel like I could feel a build up of carbon monoxide and nitrogen in my blood.  It was telling me, "Go to sleep you fucking idiot"!

So I did.

Talk to you soon.

24 Hour Comic Day FAIL!

OOOOOOooooooooh defeat.  Oooooooooooooh de AGONY!

I'm afraid I didn't make it to the end of the 24 Hour Comics Day challenge.

5 am hit, the 20 hour mark.  I posted here and stood back and looked at where I was.  17 pages done and 4 hours to go.  THAT was not discouraging to me.

I was ready to perseveir and push on.  Whatever got done, got done and I was going to make the 24 hour mark.

If I ever hear of anyone making fun of Jerry Lewis again, I'll kick their ass.  Say what you want about his comedic sensibilities...but staying awake all night is HARD!!!!

I will finish my comic though...not today of course, today I'm sleeping.

But this week.

And I'll be back next year.

I met a lot of great folks on Twitter and through the 24 HCD blog and I want to enjoy going back and looking at what they accomplished in the challenge.

All in all it was a good way to spend a Saturday.

More details on my comic, legible scans that you can read and details on my crash and burn this week.

Thanks for rooting me on.  I may not have finished the race, but at least I didn't juice.

NO ROIDS!

Talk to you soon.

20 Hours down...24 Hour Comic Book Day!

I seem to be a tad off on my page count...and my story boarding at the end is a little rough (not what I would have said 16 hours ago)...I just have to push through and see what miracle I can pull out of m butt!

This first page of chapter 4 sounds a little like I'm about to take a right wing stance on things...trust me, quite the opposite...I'm a bare-footin', pot-smokin', porn-watchin' hippy from WAY back.

Stick with me, you'll see.

4 hours to go...so much work to be done.

I'm still havin' a bast.  This is the most creative adrenaline I've had goin' in a loooooooooooong time!

Talk to you soon.

18 hours DOWN! 24 Hour Comic Book Day!

Starting to get a little shaky, work is getting fuzzy.  So close and yet so far.

Quit being a baby, Jeffy...you're only drawing funny pitchers!  Other people do real work for longer than this!

Going to take a shower, change shirts and maek some coffee...I'll be damned if I go down before the 24 is up.  I may not finish on time, but it won't be because I didn't try!

Talk to you soon.

8 Hours to Go! 2/3 of the Way Home - 24 Hour Comic Book Day!

Wow...I got 4 done in 2 hours...of course 2 were fairly simple...but I'm gonna TAKE IT!

This takes it up to page 11 which means 13 more to go in 8 hours.  I've done 11 in 8 and I still want to get to Kinkos to scan these within the allotted time...it's gonna be a squeeze.

Stick with me!

I'll talk to you soon!

14 Hours In - Only 10 Left! - 24 Hour Comic Book Day!

This time I got 3 pages done in 2 hours and a fourth laid out!  Could I be gaining super powers?

I'm not sure, but I was GOING to take a power nap at 11...now I've got such a head of steam up, I'm not going to!!

If I crash and burn at least it will be at the safety of my drawing table!

Talk to you soon.

12 Hours In! 24 Hour Comic Day!

Things are going wayyyyyyyyyyy too slow for my liking, but I'm too deep now!

This is what I said earlier, that my comic will have a main story interrupted by featurettes like in Archie or Harvey or Disney or Dell comics of olden times.  Here's the third page of the feature...

Followed by the first of a two page featurette.  One that was funnier when I wrote it than when I drew it.  No time to go now though...and there are some running gags that work with the main story in it, so I'm leaving it be!

Kind of what Paul McArtney said.

Still 20 pages and 12 hours to go.  Getting nervous, but why look back now?

Talk to you soon!

10 Down, 14 To Go! 24 Hour Comic Book Day!

OK...hour 10 down and only 2 pages done!!!!!!

NOT panic time, but surely "gittin' down to BIDNESS" time!

Lost 1/2 hour because I wanted a different kind of pen...NOT something you do on 24 hour comic day!

I've just got to get some momentum going...like I said...no panic yet!

Talk to you soon!

Cartooning Begins at Hour 8! 24 Hour Comic Book Day!

Ink finally hits the page!!

I can't be that tired yet, perhaps the adrenaline rush hit me, but you can see I've already made a typo which I'll have to fix.  "The Rise and Fall of WESTEN Civilization!"....ugh!

You can also see my excuse of why it took so long to script...that's a pretty hefty topic to tangle all at once.

Cartoonists are brave!

Talk to you soon.

Hour 6 Comes to a Close - 24 Hour Comic Book Day!

Hour 6 has come to a close and STILL scripting and blocking.

annnnnnnnnnd being distracted by Twitter and Facebook about the progress of others.

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd whatever shiny object I see.

Never fear though...I am feeling more and more confident on the way the comic is going.  For me writing is half (if not more of) the work...drawing comes easy.

In the meantime...Colonel Bleep roots be on from the TV.

The TV is behind me...keeps the distractions down.

slightly.

Talk to you soon.

Hour 4 Coming to a Close!

Hour 4 coming to a close and STILL no drawing getting done!

Storyboarding and script are about 1/2 way there physically though.  The concept is locked in and SOLID, something I would have doubted 4 1/2 hours ago!  This won't be a solid 24 page story, but rather multiple stories on the same theme.  A Walt Disney's Comics & Stories anthology but with a subject line of more gravity.  But funny!  Hard to explain, but the pages will show you when I get them going in a couple of hours.

Like I said before...I am a quick drawer and I'm not sweating having not put pen to paper yet.  In 2 more hours I may change my tune, but for now I am feeling good and feeling (probably) on schedule but more importantly, feeling good about the story!!!

And that's the toughest spot for me.

Oh, and Richard Greene in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" is keeping me company now.

Talk to you soon.