I thought I would do something a bit different… and possibly turn it into a semi-regular thing… I call it: Review Your Old Stuff: Self-critique that can be objective because of the passing of time.
Please let me know if you dig this sort of thing. I’m in the midst of a user-friendly re-vamp of the site and content.
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So, way, WAY back in 2002, this is what Bob looked like. This is what I looked like too. This strip in particular was first published on December 22, 2002.
Where do I begin? Obviously, I was growing a full beard. Obviously, I hadn’t had my hair cut in a while. Obviously, I was still wearing the t-shirts I had printed up with my head on them… merchandise remnant of a failed comic strip I did called “Spare Parts”. When I have the stomach for it, I’ll dig some of those out and post them.
Bob the Squirrel was a once a week panel back then. I had just created the character some ten months before this. Obviously I was still feeling the dynamic out. The killer pizza box… yeah, just riffing with the panels I suppose. I do like the playfulness I had with the panel construction; eliminating borders on the first and second lines to create a feeling of more space. There’s not a lot of contrast though, so the whole story (with the exception of the reverse shadow on line two) is visually bland.
All in all, I re-read this and I go through the whole gamut of emotions. The same type of feelings one would get if they were thumbing through an old photo album. I can see the excitement I felt with this character and format. I can also see the loneliness… me in my pajamas, sitting on a couch in an apartment I still wasn’t all that familiar with. I see a bit of frustration as well. The killer pizza box- a manifestation of my confusion. What else can I do with this dynamic? Oh, I know, (as his averted gaze falls upon a pizza box from last night’s dinner) what if the leftover cheese in the box mutated and turned the cardboard into a killer? That might work! I’ll draw that!
Next we see my face in the comic and the face on the shirt I’m wearing in the comic – this tells me that I wasn’t sure who I was as a cartoonist. I’ve drawn myself virtually the same way on both. (Spare Parts was done between 1997 and 2000). So I’m clinging onto my past while trying to move past the past. You can’t logically do that while gripping the past so tight. Having those two faces together, one on top of the other, I think I’m moving on, but I’m not.
I was in a relationship that was little over a year old. No overt reference to that can be seen here. This is the same relationship that, 4 years later would lead to marriage and nine months after that to divorce. If I didn’t mention that, the reader wouldn’t even have a clue. Is that a sign that I wasn’t happy? If you’re passionate and happy about something, one would think that even a vague reference would be made. Not here.
What happened to the lamp that Bob took the lampshade from? Did the killer pizza box eat it?
I loved the killer pizza box, it made me smile.
thanks Connie…
Dude I love the break down of how you see things as an artist! the comment about the visual blandness of the strip. And I like the insight into your feelings about the drawing on a personal level. I don’t know you as a personal friend, However through the years of reading your stuff I have always felt you needed to step back and give your self a break! Your a great artist and passionate comic artist! It’s a comic world talking peanuts and killer pizza box = cool
Like I mentioned in the beginning, I’m in the midst of tweaking the content of the site. I want it to be more than just a place to read the strip and go. I want people to stick around a bit and kick their feet back. (virtually speaking of course).
I realize I should give myself a break… believe me I do. But being a one man show means if I break, it all just grinds to a halt. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… are there 12 step programs for workaholics? 🙂