When time permits, tinkering on a short ROCKET RABBIT comics story continues.
In the stories I’ve already published years ago, Rocket & Professor were popular heroes in a city called SAN FIASCO. What I’m working on now is the first in a series of prequel adventures showing them living by their wits in The WEIRDLANDS, a wild area inhabited by an assortment of humans, animals, aliens & robots.
As a child I loved the kooky logic of cartoons & fairy tales, with sassy anthropomorphic animals and screwy humans all bantering & squabbling together. Where the charismatic stranger met on the road might be a swashbuckling critter just as easily as a human being.
The Muppet Show was another fave with that same energy. I wanted Rocket & Professor’s world to have this anarchic dream logic too, mixed with a smidge of cartoon sci-fi (another genre that I enjoy). So It’s been a great deal of fun playing around in this world as I’ve slowly regained some drawing dexterity over the past few years.
So far, I’ve been thumbnailing these comics stories and designing the characters & environments. Such tinkering & experimentation is one of the fun things about comics (animation too for that matter). I enjoy it so much that I sometimes have trouble moving ahead. That was probably always the case, but much moreso now that my finished art skills are so shaky. However, I’m resolved to actually finalise at least one of the many tales I’ve roughed out. There’s still a fair bit left to lock down, but I’m far enough along on the early chapters to begin tidying it all up.
Even though my drawing skill is still not yet where I want it to be, it is high time to cleanup these comics thumbnails and move to the next phase. I hope to get a short 6-page black & white story finished by the end of the year (or soon thereafter).
YES! This is looking AWESOME Jamie!!!
This all particular project began in a sketchbook you gave me when I got sick years ago. So thank you, John.
The mighty Rabbit riseth! Hail the bunny king…
Ha, Yes!
Good to see the Eruca Leporidae again!
An AI Lagomorph no less!
Can’t wait to read their next adventures, far, far away from BIG SUIT!
Yes! Those two skalliwags are living a hand to mouth existence running capers & scams prior to accepting a job as upright citizens from BS!
Lefty or not, these pages rock Jamie!
Love the poses and layout composition.
Don’t stop, I wanna see moooooore.
thank you, Arthur. That means a lot to me, and especially when coming from a cartoon MASTER such as yourself.
James! Even in this preliminary sketchy state the energy and visual wit totally comes across! I’ve always been a fan of your layout — the way the word balloons and panels just all fit together in a stylin’ comicbook page design. That’s no mean feat. Bravo, sir!
Oh thank you, George! Yes, getting all the elements to ‘fit‘ together on a page – character poses, dialog balloons, backgrounds, panel sequence, and page layout itself – is one of the fun & unique aspects of comics. I spend a lot of time planning the eye-flow across the pages, and I’m happy to hear that you like it.