My Bendis-inspired comic

[Sam Little]

Posted these over on the Oeming board, but wanted aany interested folks over here to check it out too.

I was reading Bendis' TOTAL SELL-OUT a month or so back and it inspired me to take a swipe at a little comic story of my own. Been poking around with it for a weeks and just now finished it.

Lemme know what you guys think.


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[Philip J Eaves]

But what happened to the sandwich?

(It's good. Very Bendisy.)

[Dingo]

That's really good.

[ClintP]

That's really good and really entertaining. However, if I saw that guy ranting and raving on the street, I would go out of my way to avoid his ass.

[Mellon]

dude, that's fuckin' good.

your consistency on the face from panel to panel is amazing.

it doesn't scream bendis to me (in a good way), and i'd sure as shit read anything with art that good.

-mellon

[Sam Little]

Thanks for looking, guys!


your consistency on the face from panel to panel is amazing.

-mellon

I got a model that's real easy to work with. :)

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e189/flerksam/Photos/Sam.jpg

[RebootedCorpse]

That's great!

[/(. . )/]

Okay, this is easily one of my favorite comics ever posted on this board. Love voice, the story, the angles, the style, the bricks. The only thing not working is the font.

Anyway, I didn't know you could do this. Amazing.

[Mellon]

i wasn't going to mention the font, but yeah...

at least play with the spaces between the letters and the spaces between lines.

i like how you added hair to yourself so seemlessly.

-mellon

also, are you a michael zulli fan? i forgot to mention that looking at these pages makes me have to go dig up my puma blues issues.

[Schroedingers Cat]

Well done all around. Very entertaining.

Art was excellent. Well written. Made me laugh out loud.

I would buy a book of stuff like that.

Jim

[Sam Little]

Thanks again for the kind words, guys.

P. Guy and Mellon: Would you mind being more specific about the font problem? Is it the lower case letters that bug you or the size or placement in the balloons or what? Thanks!

p.s. Not a particularly big Zulli fan (I've really only seen his Sandman stuff), but I can see what you're getting at.

[Matt O'Keefe]

Did you draw that? Love the line work.

[Shannon Chenoweth]

That's pretty damn cool man. Good stuff! :)

[Mellon]

dunno about guy, but my problem with it is that it's straight out of the box, so to speak.

adjusting the space between the letters and the lines of dialogue (kerning) makes it look closer to hand lettering (which should be the goal of all lettering).

if you're using illustrator to letter, then just mess with the type dialogue box, adjusting the spaces up, down, left, right. some of the same options are available in photoshop as well.

i'm not a fan of that font, per se, but it works so i can't really complain about it because my not liking it is a personal preference. it kills me to read any of the ultimate line cuz they use that font.

this is nitpicky, but cleaning up your balloon tales so that they don't overlap into the balloon itself is something that would help too.

lettering is such a touchy thing nowadays, cuz most people never actually learned to hand letter. i spent 3 years at school doing it, while that doesn't make me an expert, it does make me cringe at all the bad computer lettering that goes on in most indy books and some mainstream books.

yours is fine, it's just that it could be tweaked. your art is so nice, it'd be great if the lettering worked with it completely.

-mellon

[Icaruss]

Very good. You can tell it's Bendis-inspired, but you've got your own voice, and what-not. Freaking awesome.

[Artie Pink]

Amazing art. I work in a metropolitan Library, so hooo-boy, have I heard that story before.

[Shepherd]

That's excellent stuff. I'd buy the crap out of that comic.

R

[Adam Witt]

You never cease to amaze me, man. Great stuff.

[Icaruss]

Oh, and also, your art is very close to Tony Harris'. Me likey.

[BENDIS!]

hey man. great job. my inspiration aside its very well made all aroun d.

[FredC]

Gotta say that was pretty great man.

[joespam]

Great to read and look at. Nice work, do more!

[Travis M. Bierwagen]

That was a damn fine read.

My only thing with the font was that it seemed to "wimpy" for the character but that's a very tiny critique.

A font has never stopped me from buying a book before! :thumb:

[Mellon]

A font has never stopped me from buying a book before! :thumb:

i sometimes wish i wasn't so stuck on fonts...

i refuse to read mouse guard because of the font. effin' drives me insane.

i only marginally like the lettering in my own book.

-mellon

[Caley Tibbittz]

Fantastic. Great art, engaging script. I'd buy it.

[/(. . )/]

Is it the lower case letters that bug you or the size or placement in the balloons or what? Thanks!

Both. The font is too dull for your story. I actually think this would work better hand lettered. The balloons look great. However, you broke a basic rule of lettering, always keep a healthy white space between your words and the wall of the balloon. Sometimes, your words get too close the edge of the balloon which makes it look amatuerish.

Your voice in the story is very engaging. But the font is flat. It doesn't mesh well.

[t00lverine]

I really enjoyed the story.

[/(. . )/]

Actually, now I agree with Mellon about the balloons, fix them. To be honest, when I read your comic, I tried not to look at the words while I was reading them. Because I sounded like a critic (I'm not criticing, just helping because your work floors me), I checked out your comic again. Definitely needs to be relettered with something with more of a vibe congruent to the character's voice. You can do it!!

Oh, and by the way, I used the same lettering in my old comics. People told it didn&r look good, but I'm lazy with lettering. But in hindsight, I made some poor looking comics.

[Sam Little]

Wow. Thanks a ton, everyone for all the positive feedback. Now I'm even more inspired to crank out some more of this stuff.

P. Guy and Mellon: I really appreciate your input about font usage and balloons. I'm going to go back through and make some adjustments. Not sure if I'll change the actual font or not, but I'll mess around and see if I can find something I think is a better fit. Thanks again!

[LenNWallace]

Damn... That's some art right there.

[Hate_Prime]

Just when I thought I had my fill of Bendis-y comics for a while (I've been (re)reading nothing but Bendis' graphic novels for the past couple days from Fire up 'til Torso), here you come with this delightful dessert. Awesome homage. Awesome comic period.

[Sam Little]

Thanks, Hate Prime!

Anyway, I went ahead and re-lettered the first page. What do you guys think? Does the new font work better, worse or no difference?

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e189/flerksam/Sequential%20art/Incident%2032/Incident32newfontpg1.gif

[/(. . )/]

Thanks, Hate Prime!

Anyway, I went ahead and re-lettered the first page. What do you guys think? Does the new font work better, worse or no difference?

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e189/flerksam/Sequential%20art/Incident32newfontpg1.gif

that's much better

[Crov]

Thanks, Hate Prime!

Anyway, I went ahead and re-lettered the first page. What do you guys think? Does the new font work better, worse or no difference?

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e189/flerksam/Sequential%20art/Incident32newfontpg1.gif
Hey, sir, maybe you could upload it somewhere else, because I'd really like to see it, but something is wrong with those pretty pictures.

[Sam Little]

Hey, sir, maybe you could upload it somewhere else, because I'd really like to see it, but something is wrong with those pretty pictures.

Fixed the links. This thread is kinda elderly...

Welcome to the board, though!

[Crov]

Thanks!

Great! I love good dialogues (or in this case: monologue). In my opinion it's not that "Bendisy", I can see inspiration, but it's different. "Bendis style" I'm used to is repeating same panels couple of times, and repeating lines. :P Anyway, I had fun reading this! Good stuff!

Oh, and by the way - good art, especially facial expressions.


Welcome to the board, though!
Thank you very much, sir.

So, I guess... Hey, hey, kids! :)