Hiatus

I'm taking a break from updating this blog weekly until further notice.

#99 Ph.D 2

Happens all the time. I almost got a doctorate in coloring outside the lines (literally: I didn't see why I should keep my crayon lines INSIDE the printed coloring page lines when there was a perfectly good ENTIRE PAGE I could color all over) but then I fumbled up my thesis by coloring inside SOME of the lines and it's all gone downhill from there. Look at where I am now: one color per line set; how far have I fallen.

#98 Ph.D 1

Velo makes his first comic book appearance... sort of.

#97 Puppy Eyes

OH NO, MY ONE (well... one of many...) WEAKNESS! Puppy dog eyes are surprisingly effective in most everyday situations.

#96 Sleep Schedule

AM, PM, same difference.

#95 Kristenbucks 2

More edifying facts about Kristenbucks.

#94 Kristenbucks 1

This is part one of a two comic expose on the most valuable currency known to man, the Kristenbucks. Note that both the singular and the plural of the word is Kristenbucks; this is because if you only have one at a time you're doing something wrong. Kristenbucks are an ideal currency for swimming in, lining hamster cages, and occasionally redeeming at the Bank of Kristen for actual, useful objects... but only when the bankers feel like it. (It is a fickle currency.) More on Kristenbucks next week!

#93 Hotdog Without a Bun

Bunless hotdogs- serious business.

#92 Aspirations

This is the comic on the back of Dan is Silly #3. Poor Dan; some day your aspirations will be fulfilled. I love it when people use sentences like this off the cuff in real life. Huzzah for vocabulary!

#91 Dan's Bluff Check

The object that Dan is holding is a twenty sided die, or d20 for short. In Dungeons and Dragons players roll a die to determine how well their character performs certain actions- for example, when attempting to lie to another character. If a character rolls a 1, no matter how good their other stats or bonuses are, they will fail... horribly. When a one is rolled archers will accidentally shoot the king instead of the assassin behind the king; a diplomatic translator will think they are complimenting a rival faction's floral arrangements when they actually insulted the rival's mother; a character trying to get rid of a pest who is latched onto their arm will end up punching their own arm off. Every once in a great while a person can be seen to roll a one in the game of life, like when Dan MASTERFULLY bluffed his way through a small lie.

#90 Sleepy Pants 5

...because, y'know, if I was at the door ALL the way downstairs that would just be WAY too far to go, clearly. That's like a ten mile hike, in a snowstorm, in the blinding sun, uphill both ways. Two feet... okay, MAYBE that's doable, just give me a minute.

#89 Sleepy Pants 4

This was the most challenging to lay out in such a way that I could keep the stair motif but not make it too confusing/hard to read. It's not perfect, but in the end it worked out alright.

#88 Sleepy Pants 3

...On the bright side at least Dan got some sleep, even though I would rather he let me in first...

#87 Sleepy Pants 2

The siren's song of Dan's bed was too strong for him to resist.

#86 Sleepy Pants 1

Dan keeps odd and ever-changing hours. I had fun with panel composition and strange perspective in this comic. This is a five-page story, a little longer than most Dan is Silly comics.

#85 Like a Fish

To be fair the Striped Bass (or striper) does have distinctive horizontal lines on its body. Still, if one were to come up to me on the street and say 'quick, what's something that has stripes on it' then marine life of all types would be low on my list. I give Dan points for creativity (mild insanity?) on the fly.

#84 Worry Wart 2

Fun fact! You can get rid of warts with duct tape. Adhesive, building material, and now it's even a remedy. Duct tape, is there anything you CAN'T do?

#83 Worry Wart 1

I tend to stress out about things. Dan always knows how to point it out in a kind, sensitive manner to help calm me down. HAH, who am I kidding? He just goads me until I stop worrying because I'm too busy hitting him and/or laughing. In other news, I think the first panel is the best self-portrait I've done in a while; it really captures my 'end of the week frazzled' feeling.

Watercolor Portrait of Dan

I'm going to post Dan is Silly #3 starting this week. As an extra here's a watercolor portrait of Dan I made for the inside front cover of the comic.

#82 Adventure Page 20

The end! I hope you enjoyed bunny-pig's adventures. Next week I'll start a new comic.

#81 Adventure Page 19

The end starts to wrap around to the beginning.

#80 Adventure Page 18

Bunny-pig sits victoriously on its home mountain, where it started before its adventure.

#79 Adventure Page 17

Fly, bunny-pig, fly!

#78 Adventure Page 16

This was fun to draw. Without a ruler it's just as easy (if not easier) to make interesting/unique panel edges than straight lines.

#77 Adventure Page 15

Bunny-pig starts the flight back to its mountain home.

#76 Adventure Page 14

Bunny-pig can fly! Its wings have grown enough to support it, and now it can travel through the air.

#75 Adventure Page 13

Since this comic is meant to be read from the top to the bottom and left-to-right it's hard to get a reader's eye to suddenly switch and read from the bottom left. I tried to mimic that effect by shooting bunny-pig into the air and work arrows into the waves.

#74 Adventure Page 12

I guess the whale was done visiting with bunny-pig.

#73 Adventure Page 11

Aww, they're friends.

#72 Adventure Page 10

Collision imminent! Bunny-pig finds a whale.

#71 Adventure Page 9

Bunny-pig visits the many denizens of the sea.

#70 Adventure Page 8

Bunny-pig lands in water and goes off to explore the ocean.

#69 Adventure Page 7

Bunny-pigs are naturally resilient and bouncy animals.

#68 Adventure Page 6

We finally meet our protagonist: bunny-pig!

#67 Adventure Page 5

You can see the different mediums a little more clearly on this page. Using more than one medium worked well most of the time; I'd combine markers and watercolors again in the future, though I'll probably skip using colored pencils for a while.

#66 Adventure Page 4

COLOR!

When I started coloring I added one more rule: I would color the different sections with different mediums. I colored the water with watercolors, the earth with markers, and the sky (or, in the case of this page, the sun) with colored pencils.

#65 Adventure Page 3

One of the rules I adhered to in this comic was that I didn't allow myself to write out a script beforehand. It worked out alright for this project since it was wordless and loosely structured anyways, but it's not a rule that I'm likely to repeat for a more coherent project. I ended up a few pages short and had to figure out where I could sneak 4 or 5 more pages in to help flesh out the story. Case in point: this was the first page I drew, and was supposed to be the first page of the comic until I added a new beginning and ending.

#64 Adventure Page 2

Most of the pages ended up being one huge panel or a few panels separated by elements of the picture itself. Usually I stick to fairly rigidly ruled panels, so it was interesting that I went to the opposite extreme when my ruler was taken away. (No panels! ANARCHY!)