For Tammy Borrero

For Jon Richeson

For My W.O.W. Students

On July 25th, I taught a cartooning workshop to a group of about 35 Long Beach youngsters aged 7-10 for LB Grace's "Way Out Weekend" program (or W.O.W.). We worked on a few basics of drawing, exaggeration and character design. I produced the comic below as an example for the kids (click any of the images to enlarge):



I also gave them a peek behind the curtain on how I do what I do. I showed them some rough sketches that helped me define (or in this particular case, re-define) what I wanted Johnny and Manuel to be.



I didn't really feel like I had a good grip on who the characters were until I did this sketch, though. This one helped me figure out what their personalities were and the sorts of stories I could tell with them:



"When you're trying to work out your own characters," I told them, "remember to stay loose! Loose as a goose!"



Finally, I felt good enough to do something a little tighter and defined, so I showed them a full-color shot of Johnny, from pencil concept to final art (this was also the piece of art I used to advertise my class).



It was time to do a quick story with my characters, so, loose as a goose, I roughed out my basic idea for the comic strip.



From there, I redrew the art using micron pens and markers.



Then some Photoshop color to finish it off!

We had a really great time together and I hope to do it again next year. The kids drew rough sketches of themselves, then exaggerated versions of themselves. Then, they created their own characters (and, in a few cases, settings and storylines) from scratch. Some really surprising young artists emerged in the group and I truly hope they stick with it.

For Duy Nguyen

Almost For Rich Stahnke

More comics from the junk drawer.

I found this unfinished comic recently and remembered that it was intended for my friend Rich Stahnke. Looking back, I think I abandoned it because the setup felt way too similar to the comic I'd done a month or two earlier for Ashley and, anyway, a funnier idea for Rich hit me so I chucked this and drew Monkey Cop instead.

On re-read, though, this made me laugh, so I finished up the pencils for it and took a chance you might like to see one of my comics that didn't quite make the cut. Mark this under "Obnoxiously Flaccid".

For Daniel Dyba

For Nostalgia's Sake

Spring cleaning in the Bear household: the time of year to go through old notebooks and sketchbooks and decide what's too old and crippled to keep and what gets shoved back into the nostalgia file for another year.

As a student, my favorite pastime was doodling little comics in the back of my notebook instead of taking notes, much to the chagrin of my GPA. Most of them are too horrific to share with anyone other than my wife, but there was an awkward sweetness to these, a couple of goofy gags from my junior year in college, that I thought deserved a public resurrection.

And anyway, it's been too long since I've updated.

Click 'em to big 'em and remember to be kind. You're only 20 once.

For Paul Searles

For Terry Julien

For Kent Currie