May 2009

The Process

Friday, May 29, 2009

For anyone who is curious, I thought I would share a little about the process I use to create my comic strips. You've seen the comics... now learn about the boring stuff behind the magic! I think, at this point, and probably from now on, the most challenging aspect of creating the comic strip is the writing. I have some plot ideas in my head, such as, "Wouldn't it be neat if Bob had a terrible scar from the accident? His character would become far more interesting..." Thus, the idea is born. But what to do with it?

Generally I'll imagine two of my characters and the conversation that might ensue upon the discovery of something like the scar. Since I can't pull a joke out of thin air, I just start writing potential dialogue. Hopefully the dialogue leading up to the punchline will be funny, but even if it's not, I have to force myself to write something. I find that, as I'm writing out a conversation between characters, a joke will often present itself in the exchange. This is my most common joke-finding technique. In this storyline, the basic joke I stumbled upon was Bob's reaction to his new scar. Once I decided he LIKED the scar, I had a direction to take my next four or five strips.

After spending some time writing out dialogue ideas, which in itself may have taken 20-30 minutes for a single strip, I then must begin laying out the strip. I look at all of my dialogue and screen directions and plan how I will separate them into panels, trying to distribute the majority of the dialogue evenly over the first 2 or 3 panels and reserving the final panel for the punchline. This process only takes about 5-10 minutes.

Then I finally begin drawing. With a pencil. This is the part where I doubt my artistic abilities to pull it off. I approach the drawing witih some trepidation, but I just have to force myself to start making strokes. If they are good strokes, I keep them. If they're bad, I erase t hem and start over. Unfortunately sometimes I don't know how bad they are until I've completely drawn a character - standing in the wrong place. This light pencil sketching phase usually takes about 45 minutes.

Then on to inking - also a scary process, because I know that any mistake I make will either need to be photoshopped out or will just have to stay in the strip. I always ink my dialogue balloons and panel frames first - a technical, careful process. Then I can enjoy the rest of the inking of the characters and their surroundings. Inking takes me about an hour, unless the drawing is particularly clever.

Then: erasing the pencil marks. This takes about one minute.

Finally - the digital aspect of the process. I scan the drawing at 600 dpi, which is probably higher than necessary, but it makes me feel better. Then in photoshop I clean up any stray spots and I use the Levels command to fix the contrast between the blacks and whites. Finally, I resize the image and save it 800 pixels wide at 72 dpi for the web. At which point I still need to insert it into the webpage, the RSS and the email which I send to all my adoring fans. The digital portion of this process takes about 20 minutes, if I'm moving really fast. Another 20 if I decide to write a goofy blog like this one.

All in all, it's around a 3 hour process for one remarkable, delightful comic strip for your viewing enjoyment.

~Jeff

150 Comic Strips

Friday, May 22, 2009

One-hundred fifty seems like a big milestone to me. Although I'm sure it's a lot like the first year of a marriage. The wife keeps saying, "It's our three month anniversary!... It's our four month anniversary!" To a lot of people, it's no big deal. When you hit the one year anniversary, or better yet, the five year anniversary, then other people celebrate with you. When I reach 500 comic strips, that will be a big deal - maybe I'll have a self-congratulatory party. But for now, this is MY big deal. Maybe I'll make myself some pancakes.

Thanks to all of you for reading my silly cartoons.

~Jeff

The Real Game Master

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

I'd like to make mention of my wife's cousin's new website. His name is Luke and, for the last couple of years, he's been doing video game reviews and posting them online. He was just sticking his reviews up on Youtube for fun at first, but he quickly gained an audience - often in the tens of thousands - watching his reviews. Somebody started taking notice, because he recently started making actual money doing it.

What does this have to do with the commandos? Absolutely nothing. Except for the fact that he has a prominent link on his website to SmileyFaceCommandos.com. I was able to get this link because I'm the one who designed his website. It still needs a lot of work, but it is up and running. If you like video games, including some of the classic nintendo games (like Metroid and the Legend of Zelda), you may find his reviews amusing. You'll need to follow the links on his website (like the Youtube link) to see most of his reviews.

So if you have some time to kill, go check it out at www.theRealGameMaster.com.

~Jeff

Linus Has Arrived

Friday, May 15, 2009

Our new little boy is finally here. He's been outside of the womb for just under a week now. He is beautiful and awesome and amazing. I don't know how God manages to make one human grow inside of another and then come out and be a real person just like the rest of us, but He does it. I count myself blessed and lucky and fortunate to be a father.

Due to the birth of our second son, I took off a couple of regular comic strip update days. But I'm back now for your amusement and viewing pleasure. We're coming up on comic #150!

~Jeff

Baby Is Coming!

Friday, May 8, 2009

I'm posting this comic strip one day early because tonight at midnight Kristin and I will be arriving at the hospital for her to be induced. We should have our second little baby boy tomorrow! There's a good chance I'll miss a couple of my usual update days next week - Monday and Wednesday, to be specific. But we'll see what happens. It's exciting. Hope you all have a great weekend, even though you're not having babies.

~Jeff

The Comic Redo

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Two days ago, when I finished drawing today's strip, I wasn't very confident about my final gagline. But it seemed funny before I started drawing it, so I wasn't sure. Then I showed it to my wife. She said, "I don't get it." That's not something I wanted to hear. So for a while yesterday I thought it over and tried to create some alternate dialogue which would work within the dialogue balloons I had already drawn. But no luck. When I finally DID come up with a funnier idea, I realized I would have to redraw part of the strip. This is the first time I've decided to do this with the commandos, as far as I can remember. But definitely not the first time I SHOULD I have done it.

If you'd like to see the original strip that just didn't work, click here. Maybe you'll find it amusing, but probably not.

~Jeff

Simplicity of Sketches

Monday, May 4, 2009

Sometimes I think that my comic strip drawings are overly complex. Part of that stems from the fact that I sometimes have so many characters in a single drawing. But it is also a result of my tendency to add in lots of little details and shading which may not be necessary. When I look at the level of detail in a typical Sheldon comic strip, I admire his ability to create a great drawing with so few lines. The drawings still look great, but somehow Dave Kellett has taught himself to draw only the lines that are necessary. I always want to keep adding shading until I feel it looks just right. I haven't been doing this long enough to feel completely comfortable with my style.

Anyway, short version of last paragraph: Dave Kellett is my hero.

~Jeff

Twitter & Facebook

Friday, May 1, 2009

Though I don't think of myself as a socially inclined person, I've decided to join both Twitter and Facebook. I'm hoping it will help me to increase "Commandos Awareness" in our society. I've found it interesting how Facebook can reconnect you with tons of people you haven't seen in years. Now I can let all of my old friends that I'm doing something really important with my life - drawing cartoons.

If you'd like to follow me on Twitter, click on the Twitter button on my homepage or just go to www.Twitter.com/jeffreyframe. As far as Facebook... I'm pretty sure I'm listed as "jeffreyframe" on there as well. If you are the type who'd like to get my random thoughts throughout the day, then definitely follow me on Twitter. Facebook I'm not doing quite as much with just yet, but I'm trying to fix that.

~Jeff

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