Sidewalks #3
Another comic from the past.
This is the third comic I did in 2012 for a local newspaper called Columbus Alive! as part of their Sketch in the City series, where local cartoonists took turns creating a comic for six weeks. You can find links to the others down below.
One of the fun things about doign this strip was inlcuding local spots and doing the research to draw them accurately. Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams sells fantastic, unique flavors, and it is fiendishly located within walking distance of my house. You won’t find regular chocolate or vanilla without some twist – and you’re likely to find some flavor that will make you say, “there’s WHAT in it?” Fortunately you can sample everything, and you’ll find that even the stranger flavors can be pretty good. I wish they’d bring back Chocolate Thai Chili.
I took some photos of the store for reference, but instead of tracing the background for the cartoon like I had done with previous strips, I drew it by hand. It’s not exact, because I had to change the proportions of the store to frame the characters properly, but it definitely captures the store, which looks almost identical today. (Although yikes—the perspective!) The two workers are the people that were in there when I went to take pictures. Who knows where they are today?
Speaking of that, there were people in the store that were buying ice cream while I was in there snapping away. I told them what I was doing because I thought they might wonder what I was doing with pictures featuring them in it, but no one seemed to care. I guess that’s how things are in the age of social media.
At any rate, with the previous comic about doing exercise in the park I complained about how I overcooked the background—there wasn’t enough variation in the weight of the background to set the characters in the foreground. I fixed it with this one. Part of the solution was to switch to inking the background with a brush instead of a pen, which allowed much more line control. Most people would think the opposite, but I use a brush for virtually everything I do, so I’m much more comfortable with it. It looks livelier. And yes, this was back before I inked digitally.
The basis of this strip was this article in the New York Times about irony. I don’t have much use for irony and appreciate sincerity much more.
By the way, I am on cloud nine because this week I started an awesome new collaboration for a graphic novel that will keep me busy for a couple of years. I can’t see anything about it just yet, but I’m excited to share the process—how we collaborate, how we develop ideas, and much more that we haven’t even thought about yet.
And hey—if you like what I have going on here, I’d love it if you would consider a monthly or yearly subscription. I put out a lot of tips for creating comics and running comics classes, and if it’s at all valuable, why not consider supporting me? I would love it!
And here are links to the previous comics from Sketch in the City.
And here’s a dog pic. Bennet is waiting for my daughter to come home, and this spot at the stairs leaves a clear view out the front door.
