Hi patrons,
It's been almost 3 weeks since I got back from Japan, but I'm still finishing up some watercolors and sketches from the trip, on top of my usual workload. Naomi took this picture of me in front of the...5th hotel room we stayed in, in 2.5 weeks? It was quite a whirlwind trip. Naomi and I were traveling with our fri...
2018-10-06 23:09:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Welcome back to SuperButch!
I took a few weeks off for a trip to Japan and Thailand--there will be a sketchbook PDF as soon as I get through all the scanning!--but we're planning to return to our weekly schedule.
2018-09-29 19:46:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Barry here. Becky is super-busy, but she still managed to get this page done.
I'm especially fond of the last panel, which is the result of a bit of the back-and-forthing that leads to most of my favorite SuperButch panels. This is also the sort of angle - requiring a great deal of comfort with both perspective and with drawin...
2018-08-29 20:37:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Becky and I both want to apologize for the less frequent updates lately. We feel bad about it and want to get back to weekly updates; unfortunately, that doesn't look likely to happen in August.
Becky has been very busy with unavoidable life stuff, and with work that isn't as fun as SuperButch but does earn a living. And...
2018-08-14 18:27:54 +0000 UTC View Post
Becky: Oh good, after so many crowd scenes, here's an uncomplicated page to draw!
Also Becky: I must dig through last year's photos from Olympia and Seattle in order to create the ultimate seedy warehouse district!
PS Do you recognize Ruth from 2018-07-24 17:08:39 +0000 UTC
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Becky here! The staging in Panel 4 was inspired by an ill-fated attempt to see what time it was while holding an open bottle of essential oil. :)
2018-07-18 04:29:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Three cheers for Barry's flamboyant word balloons!
2018-07-11 08:14:19 +0000 UTC View Post
Barry here! I really like this page. Panel 3, in particular, is one of my favorite panels in SuperButch so far - I just love Becky's drawing of Mona laughing. (I did call for that in the script, but it came out so much better than what was in my mind!) And I also love the wonderful depth of field that Becky works into that panel...
2018-06-21 19:44:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Victory!
Thanks for your patience!
Weekly updates will resume shortly!
Good night!
Hi everyone! Becky here. I'm done with the double-page building-cutaway crowd scene!
I learned something about my process, too. Lately I'd been doing 99% of my artistic decision-making in the digital phase. By the time I was using actual pens on actual paper, I could focus on making expressive lines, rather than "what should t...
2018-06-10 06:45:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone! Becky here. Barry and I had a great time at VanCAF last weekend, but as you can see, international comic conventions and finishing double-page-spread crowd scenes don't mix!
There were so many cute moments at VanCAF: watching people gift a copy of SuperButch to their friend/partner/sibling/person who was eyeing o...
2018-05-30 05:02:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi, folks, Barry here!
No new page this week, because pages 70 and 71 are a double-page spread - and it's a doozy, since I gave poor Becky about a zillion figures to draw. We'll post both pages together next week.
But to tide you over until next week, here are Becky's pencils for those two pages. (In the book, this...
2018-05-18 08:50:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Barry here.
As you may know, Becky does the art, and I do the lettering.
I enjoy lettering, actually - it's an interesting challenge.
Trying to place balloons and panels in a way that both makes readers naturally read the balloons in the right order (which is sometimes trickier than you'd think),...
2018-05-10 07:32:44 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello again! Becky here. In between putting my watercolors up at World Cup Coffee, going to Denver for a comic convention, and finding a new housemate, I talked with Barry about SuperButch on a local radio show, "Words and Pictures" (listen 2018-04-26 23:04:49 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey! Barry here.
Becky showed you my scribbled layout for this page in the previous post.
I should mention, though, that that isn't our typical procedure. More typically, I include some vague suggestions in the script - "close up shot of Lily" or something - and then Becky will make a layout incorporating my sugges...
2018-03-28 00:20:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Kansas is saying "Turtle Shell Hotel...Yes, there are rooms available...by the day or by the week..." (She works in Turtle City's Japantown. Thank you to Naomi for the translation--that's so cool!)
2018-03-20 07:36:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi patrons!
We took advantage of a momentary lapse in suspense in order to finish this page, which belongs in Issue Two (about 12 pages back). When you're writing a comic script, you need to think about where the page turns will be. They can add to the dramatic tension, or give away a huge visual surprise if you're not careful...
2018-03-13 07:44:42 +0000 UTC View Post
Whew! I am happy with how that last panel turned out. I copied the doors and the wood moulding from some photos I took in Salem last summer. (Did I tell you about that comics road trip? I drove; Barry gave a talk/demo at the library; I wandered around photographing old buildings; and then we found the BEST cake!)
Speaking of p...
2018-03-07 08:35:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons! Barry here. Page 61.
In my original script, I had Lillian saying "Let's cut the bullcrap." But "bullcrap" clanged on Becky's ear, so she went searching for expressions meaning B.S., and found "banana oil." We both instantly loved that expression. A quick research dive to make sure the expression existed in the 1940...
2018-02-23 05:45:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi patrons! This week's page is going to go up Wednesday, because I spent the weekend working on my first cartoon for The Nib!
The idea for this comic started--as SO few good things do--with a Facebook argument. Barry suggested I pitch the cartoon to The Nib, and within a week, I was sending in the final artwork!
This ca...
2018-02-21 07:01:54 +0000 UTC View Post
(You might have noticed we skipped a page number since last week. You didn't miss a page; we're just doing some re-numbering for future page-turn purposes when we print the comic on paper I'll explain later thanks again for supporting SuperButch!)
2018-02-14 05:55:54 +0000 UTC View Post
I won't say there's a reason this week's SuperButch update is late, but there is a layer group in the Photoshop file called "page layout fourth attempt." It was definitely a combined Becky-and-Barry effort!
2018-02-09 00:58:05 +0000 UTC View Post
This page involved a late-night India ink spill and an "oops where's the file" moment, so in this case I hope you have much more fun reading this page than I had making it! XD
Guess what: If you're a softball-level patron or higher, I'm working on a PDF of sketchbook pages to show you.
And to every Patron, we sincerely t...
2018-01-30 17:39:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone. Becky here. We are super-proud to give you the first peek at the cover image for Issue Two! (You may recognize it as an image from page 54, but redrawn with SEVERAL rounds of artistic feedback from Barry. It was a bit frustrating at the time, but definitely worth it!) Now we just have to look back through pages 26-...
2018-01-16 07:36:52 +0000 UTC View Post
