i'll hear what i want to hear!

assumptions are killer! i've done my share of thinking i know what people are thinking and man, have i been wrong. and the consequences in a romantic relationship could be huge! so, despite what we hear, what we see, sometimes it's best to just simply ask, "hey, what's up?"

this week in artwork, we make small steps, small steps. further use of the eyebrow, playing of the panel layouts and the non-bubble for dialogue. small steps.

- johnny
(click to, well, you know what happens...)

foundation

i found last week's poll results to be pretty interesting. when asked what's the most aspect to a successful relationship, it was almost a tie between love, trust, and communication. surprisingly sharing a common set of belief didn't get any votes. so i guess as a continuation of last week's strip, in order to deal with jealousy in a healthy way, you just gotta have love, trust, and communication as the foundation.

and continuing my inspriration from calvin & hobbes, played some more with the panel layouts. also, i gave in and used eyebrows. it was so hard sometimes to convey emotions correctly but add in two tiny lines for eyebrows and BAM, instant emotion!

- johnny
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Picture Perfect

Picture it, Sicily, 1945...Oh never mind. I was whipping out the old Golden Girls reference, but roughly 2 people would get the joke! So, I'll just cut my losses now. haha. Anyway, this week our guy Riley takes a picture of Rob. But what happens next?

-Kevin
(click to enlarge)

no limits

within any relationship, there's always a certain level of jealousy. the key i think is to keep at a healthy level of jealousy, when you know both people are that into each other without limiting any freedoms. and of course, there's got to be a strong foundation of trust.

continuing to draw inspiration from calvin and hobbes, i've layed around with the panel layouts. hopefully it adds to the storytelling.

- johnny
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Shake it Up

I've been enjoying these two or three-strip story arcs. Each time I think I'm getting better at utilizing the sequential stories. The trick is to make it so that the audience can understand the current story without having read the previous one. I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it. Of course, let me know if you think otherwise!

This week's strip continues the story in the sports nutrition store. Our protagonist Riley is still looking at buying a protein shake. But he has a few concerns...

-Kevin
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louder than thots

i've gotten feedback for my strips both way - they're too sappy or they really like the emotional content. this week, we go the way of sappy again. my goal for the Finn comic strips is to make it both humorous and relatable. so, i don't know how many of you do what's stated below, but every so often i get those thoughts in my head and it a question of whether they should truly ever be uttered out loud.

in terms of artwork, i really wanted to portray finn's emotions through body language. so, take away the words, does the first three panels still work with the 4th panel's dialogue?

- johnny
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Way Good Whey Protein

I've started hitting the gym more frequently as of late. And by "more frequently" I mean more than once a week! It seems like I end up lumping all my workout sessions into the weekend though. I should really spread it more evenly over the week. Anyways, I've also been using protein powder as part of my regiment. I've always hesitated in the past, because I wanted to make sure there weren't 't some unsavory ingredients in the mix! Anyways, that's a long-winded way of talking about the inspiration for this week's strip. Hopefully, my creativity and my muscles will continue to grow as one! haha! As always, enjoy!!

-Kevin
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sunday comic

picked up a great book this week, Calvin and Hobbes Sunday Pages 1985-1995: An Exhibition Catalogue by Bill Watterson. unlike most calvin and hobbes collections I’ve seen, this one has the original artwork by bill Watterson on the left page, and the finished, colored published piece on the right page. so, it allows you direct comparison between his black and white, with white out errors, to what he envisioned it to be, colored. it also has his inside comments on every strip!

undoubtedly, it inspired me for this week’s strip, to make it a full sunday strip. mine is inspired by july 5, 1987, a sunday strip depicting calvin as spaceman spiff. little tidbits of info I found interesting, the first row are meant to be throwaways by newspaper publishers. i guess some newspapers reserve the right to throw out that first row of panels and thus, your strip has to work even without that first couple panels. and it used to be (still is?) that there were some panel placements that were required by the publisher. that way they could break up the strip to make it fit the newspaper’s format. bill watterson eventually was able to break this requirement, and hence, we’re lucky enough to have some great storytelling and artwork!

hope you enjoy, Johnny
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