Bradley James Weber

Startling Stories for All Ages

Comics

Noble Failure #9 — An update

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Climb Mount Fuji,
O snail,
but slowly, slowly.

Kobayashi Issa (1763 -1827)

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Some teaser art for the forthcoming NOBLE FAILURE #9.

The pages for the September attempt at a 24-Hour Comic are progressing, but slowly, slowly.

The hang-up has to do with working on the computer. The vector graphic program/drawing tablet combo are getting easier to use, however, I find myself tinkering with individual lines for long, long minutes to get the angle of an arm or just the right bend in a word balloon’s tail. I keep telling myself, It’s a word balloon! Let it go! but the program’s 2000% zoom and the ability to infinitely monkey/un-monkey with lines only feeds my compulsive compulsion to obsessively-compulse over every detail until it’s right. Right? RIGHT?!?

Well, that’s my neurosis, not mine (or mine), and clearly defeats the point of a 24-Hour comic.

But I’m happy with the eight pages done so far. It’s not often I can say that about my own work, so that’s at least something.

The wife and kid are off to Minnesota for a long weekend, leaving me here to work on more comic art and to pound away at a middle grade sci-fi/adventure/comedy I’ve been wrestling with.

I wonder which I’ll finish first.

NOBLE FAILURE #8 (Another 24-Hour Comic)

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NOBLE FAILURE #8 (August 2007)

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(Scroll to the bottom to view the art.)

(This probably should have been posted prior to my September attempt. Ran into some problems trying to layout the pages and get them converted to decent sized PDFs. Problems solved, thanks to the wife. See below.)

The August comic is — surprise, surprise! — another noble failure. I’m not even sure if they can be considered noble any more, just failures.

Don’t get me wrong: the stories are getting better and art is a little more serviceable, but I’m barely paying attention to the time requirements any more.

When I start these things, it’s with the full intent to do all 24 pages in 24 hours. But man, it’s getting rougher, even with all the household/baby wrangling support from the lovely and talented Stephanie. By hour 18, I’m pretty well fried.

I’m glad I’m doing this little project, and pleasantly surprised with most of the results. I’ll tell you what, though. I’m already looking forward to January.

The August issue started great: ten pages in eight hours. How awesome is that? Frickin’ awesome, if you ask me. Then things started to fall apart: Distractions, my perfection obsession — the usual.

I did get all 24 pages penciled in 24 hours, but then went back and did the inks.

Due to layout changes in the two stories, this issue is split into separate files.

Read. Enjoy. Comment.

Thanks.

 

“Where’s the Beef?”

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JMS pal and Fine Arts Guild brother, Mystic Mark wants to know, “Brad where is the update?”

Good question. Here’s the long answer:

This past weekend was set aside for my monthly attempt at a 24-Hour comic. As this issue was going to be done virtually — totally rendered in the computer — one would have expected 24 staggering pages of storytelling genius posted today for your reading pleasure.

Whoops.

Don’t get me wrong: the September edition is indeed a great comic, or will be when it’s done.

Stay with me here.
[Read more…] about “Where’s the Beef?”

San Diego Comic-Con 2007: A Report (sort of)

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The original title of this post was, “Where In The World Is Fosdick Bruingate?”

Immediately following his heralded (though somewhat stilted) debut on this site, Mr. Bruingate vanished. He became suddenly unreachable. No response from his cellphone, pager or email; every message eft on his phone and at his hotel went ignored until the boxes were full.

After reading about the unprovoked attacks on convention attendees by crazed hoodlums, I feared Foz might be languishing in some SoCal ICU, mis-identified as JOHN DOE #107.

I started calling area police departments and hospitals. Once I got them to understand that, yes, Fosdick Bruingate is a real person, they told me, no, they had nobody in their custody or care with that name or physical description.

He was supposed to be back in the office on Tuesday morning. By five o’clock that afternoon, I was convinced he was dead.

Yesterday, I come back from lunch to find his notebook lying on my desk: warped and stiff and stained with something that I hope is (please, God, let it be) tequila. A pair of scissors stabbed through the front cover held down a seven-page note recounting a hitchhike down the Tijuana Libre, a no-name town with the world’s best enchiladas, an infected tattoo, and something about girl named, “Esperanza”.

I don’t know what, if any of it, is true. Honestly, I don’t care. The note is an astounding piece of writing. It’s pure genius, a joy to read, and totally unprintable on this blog. The same can be said for the entirety of his Comic Con entries.

Oh, there’s a place for this stuff, just not on the JMS site, not right now. I’ve got to work out how to get it to the public. It’s too good to just let sit. And I’ll get Foz back on the beat as soon as possible.

And his trip to Comic-Con was not a total loss, as far as this blog is concerned. Today, I received a box of books with a San Diego postmark. Foz collected some great stuff for me to review, including:

The Beast Of Chicago: The Murderous Career Of H. H. Holmes
by Rick Geary

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Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love
by Jim Ottaviani and Dylan Meconis

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Lucha Noir: The Complete Rafael Navarro in From Parts Unknown
by Rafael Navarro

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as well as a DVD movie by director Ted Smith, a cool CD by Hans Karl, and several advance reader’s copies of promising books due out later this year.

So watch the site for reviews of those.

And thanks for staying tuned.

Noble Failure #7 (Another 24-Hour Comic)

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NOBLE FAILURE #7 (July 2007) — Super Samurai Special!

 

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Revenge Of The One-Arm Samurai
(click here to download PDF) (1.8MB)

The ink on this comic makes all the difference. The story was good in pencils, but with the heavy blacks and strategic use of wash, it’s SO much better. I’m sure you’ll agree.

This month’s effort is a comeback after my breakdown on #6 is already one of my favorites, second only to The Pancake Tree.

Along with narrative improvements, you’ll notice the change in presentation: no more clicky-open-X-to-closey for viewing each page. Now the comic is all there in one easy-to-ready file.

Why the change, you ask? Blame it on my dead grandmother. The PDF format worked so well for that story it seemed smart to try it on a longer one.

Yeah, yeah, there are still a few technical issues to work out. Even so, this may become the standard presentation format for any future comics, including the five 24-Hour ones left for 2007. Let me know what you think via the comments section.

Enjoy!