Is this bigger than yours?

So, in keeping with my love of process, I've included here a quick breakdown of 2 panels from issue 4 of Burning Building Comix. The first is what my notes look like, which in the case of Burning Building, are quick, action-descriptive lists. The second is a thumbnail, which I haven't always used, but does help to lay out the final art quicker, and helps me to work out pacing, and the logistics of fitting stuff on the page before I get to the full size art. Basically it's a lot easier to rearrange or redraw quick sketches, rather than a final penciled page. Then, the third is the final art all inked, minus the background that I drew separately and will combine on the computer. This is how I've been working for Burning Building, because it's a silent comic, and I don't have to worry about scripting dialogue, but for stuff like BlackStar, I'll usually start with a script of all the panels and dialogue written out, then go to the thumbnails like above. I've tried a bunch of different methods for the process, and kinda change it for what the project needs. However, I haven't tried the method of writing page by page as I draw, which is popular with a lot of great cartoonist, but I have no confidence I can do this and have it turn out the way I want. I guess I'm just a control freak, but maybe someday I'll try it and see what happens.

Here's the boy reading the scholastic color version of BONE. Everyone knows and loves Bone, and these scholastic editions are colored by all-around great guy, Steve Hamaker, who has been nominated for an Eisner award! The Eisner's are like the Oscars of comics, and Steve is well-deserving. Look here for a sample of his work. Good luck, Steve, with your big colored Bone!

Some songs from my ipod shuffle...

The Small Print, by Muse

Where Heroes go Down, by Suzanne Vega

It's not Unusual, by Tom Jones

Muse is this great band that sound like "The Bends" era of Radiohead, which is AWESOME cause I love that album, and even though I loved "OK Computer", and even "Kid A" to a lesser extent, their albums after that got too cold and atmospheric for me. To me, Radiohead was best when Thom was using his voice as an instrument and really belting it out, instead of the unaffected moaning he kinda does now. I think he wants to be a robot. But Muse rocks. I first heard them because of a song in the movie Millions. Hysteria, was used in the bank heist scene and worked so well with the movie that I looked up who did the song. They also have a song on Guitar Hero 3 that has a lick I absolutely cannot wrap my stupid head around!

That Suzanne Vega song is Emily's and I might have to start doing this differently cause of all her damn songs that keep popping up, plus all the songs I had to clear out to make space for Podcasts.

Ahh, Tom Jones. He's a beautiful man. The Voice has several great hits, "It's not Unusual" is amongst my favorites. I think the first time I saw Tom Jones, it was on an episode of Howard Stern on E!, and Stern, of course, was only asking sex questions, cause Jones is a notorious cocksman! The funny thing was, Jones answered every question with three responses. He'd either laugh, say "yeah" or say "sometimes". It was quite odd. Plus, there was a weird story about comparing penis sizes with Milton Berle.