Atomic Tails #30

New Comic Online

Just a couple of notes about A.T. #30. I worked on this strip when I could, before and after the day job (yuck). I’ve been working extra hours (and days!), so I sort of “chipped away” at this one until finished. I feel like I still need to improve my characters, but I also feel like I got a better ratio between Chud and Buttery. In past strips I felt like I drew Buttery way too big. He’s a large mouse, but only a little bigger than Chud and Trog.

Since the last strip I have also been practicing and I feel some of it is shown in Butter and Chud here. I know some stuff looks wonky (very deep in the uncanny valley), but overall, I was happy with what I pulled off.

This strip is the first step in introducing a new character to Atomic Tails and hopefully Agent D-20 will make his appearance soon.

The next strip I’m gong back to Trog and Rio, and their day at work.

Cheers!

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Atomic Tails #29

I think this was longest break that I’ve ever had between comics.

So… I’m back at it., This year (I hope) to produce a bunch of new comics. Since last August, I’ve spent a bunch of time practicing the characters and cartooning, but #29 is based on old sketches I did last summer, so I don’t think a lot of the new practice really shows up here. Though I do kind of dig Rio in panel 3. That was actually a tough pose to get and at one point I even sketched out the entire interior of a BMW, but I felt it was unnecessary.

It honestly feels really good getting another comic done. I know I’m not the best cartoonist, and probably pretty bad at it, but I really like working on Atomic Tails, and I think I forgot how good it feels to finish one.

Well, Chud and I are writing new stuff, and I hope it won’t take another six months for a new comic!

Cheers!

Atomic Tails 27!

I did it! I finally finished Atomic Tails 27! Although I think most everything I do for Atomic Tails is kind of "ramshackle", there's some elements in this strip I think came out pretty good. A lot of stuff (like Rio's blue transparent look, and the fuzzed out background) took some time to figure out, but this is also the first time where I relied heavily on the original sketches for the characters. Usually I have to tweak and rework things in Illustrator until the mice look right.  Or at least better. Also, the full Rio figure in panel one represents a new way of drawing the mice. Since the last strip I've been studying a lot of cartoon styles, and elements like laying the tails on the ground are new ways of drawing the cartoons for me. 

I will begin work on A.T. 28, but I won't promise when it will be done. The last month or so I've been working a lot of extra hours so as to get myself out of debt. Actually, life's gotten kind of depressing, but I am seeing results, and I'm hoping to establish a better foundation for myself in the years to come. So, I may not be positing a new comic as often, but I'll probably be posting a ton of daily sketches to this site. I have to do a lot of drawings from the car (I work as a chauffeur), and to be honest that's where the idea of Rio came from. I spend so much time on the road that over the years I started to imagine all the traffic jams, and poor decisions people make, were caused by a evil god of some kind. 

Well, that's all for now. Keep checking back for more Atomic Tails and there will be a new comic... someday. 

Cheers!

Atomic Tails #26!!!

New comic strip! This one only took me two weeks!!! Actually one week. I got hit with a really bad head cold, but now that I'm mostly back to normal, check out the latest Atomic Tails. To be honest, this one was really easy to put together since I was able to use so many of the assets from the last strip. I'm probably going to go back and re-draw the kitchen. I'm still not happy with that. 

Anyways, check out the new comic below or in the archive. I'm still leaking a lot of snot so I'm going to cut this short!

Enjoy!

Atomic Tails #25!!!

Two months. I know. Really pathetic and I don't have a lot of excuses, but I'll make some up anyways. Two major problems with getting AT 25 done were One: I originally intended it to be a much larger ("Sunday" style) strip, an so I had sketched up a lot more art than I needed, and two: I threw my back out about a month ago and sitting in a chair for any length of time has been incredibly painful.  Though I am working out my back pains (no joke, it hurts!), while I was down it did give me time to look at the strip and realize I was doing every thing wrong. So, I went back, re-drew a bunch of the panels, and broke up what I had originally planned into a small four panel strip and then next week (I hope) I'll have the resolution between Buttery and Chud. Well, I don't think there's ever going to be a resolution between the two, but for this part of the story. 

Overall, I'm not happy with a lot of the sketchs for this strip. I did like how Trog turned out in a lot the them, but he's kind of hidden behind Buttery and Chud most of the time. As for Chud and Buttery, the only real finished piece I was (mostly) happy with, was Chud's entrance in panel one. That final colored drawing of Chud in his bathrobe just made me really happy. This strip was also a chance to create a new background for Trog's apartment. Though, I'll probably redraw it in future strips, I thought it was an okay first go.  So, keep checking back. I'm already into the next strip and I hope to have it online by next Saturday, but its me so don't count on anything.

Cheers!

Atomic Tails #19

New Atomic Tails and I'm Going to SDCC 17 today! Keen. So, with the new Atomic Tails some stuff has changed. First, I've been studying (and practicing) a lot of new body forms for cartoon characters and I think (THINK) I like where this is going. Buttery, Chud, and Trog all have better sitting and body forms in this strip. Well, maybe. Also, I worked a bit more on Buttery's proportions compared to other two mice. Buttery is bigger than his friends, but not really fatter. Which, I think I was drawing him as in previous strips. I like his size relationship to the other two in this strip way more. Also, I got to draw a hooka in this one! I think the gag was a bit hacky in this one (Jas came up with it, but since I'm mostly trying to work on drawing the comic I thought it was good enough. Plus I wanted to do a comic that kind of went into why the twins are living apart up until now.), and hopefully I can get a better joke in #20.

I'm going to be at the con for the next few days, so I probably won't get to do any real work on A.T. until I get back Sunday night, but check out the full strip below and I hope you enjoy!!!

Cheers!

Atomic Tails #18!

New Atomic Tails!

Check out #18 below!

Finally here!!! Okay, I've been watching a lot of Rick and Morty, so I've been yelling a lot and typing in caps a lot too. However; Somewhere in between playing WoW and watching way too much fucking Adult Swim I managed to finish another strip. Like  always I tried new stuff or changed some old stuff to help improve the comic. This is one big learning experience so if you're reading this and you're reading the comic, please expect changes as I learn new stuff. 

Different stuff in this comic: 1. Buttery's fur. Though you can't see it in the grey scale version, I've decided to make Buttery's fur all the same yellow. That includes his hair style. 2. Chud with one 'D'. In the past I've always spelled it as Chudd. This is actually how Jason (my real life twin and the real life Chud) created the name for the character. Form now on though it'll be just Chud with one d. We love classic horror films of the 70's and 80's and both real and cartoon Chud's are representing the fandom. 2. The mouse faces. I actually learned a little bit about stylizing the mouse face from doing the Goldfinger mouse. I'm going to start applying this in future strips. 

Over all this was a fun strip. For #19 I'm going to get them off the couch. seriously, I'm done with the living room and want to move them somewhere else. Look forward to "the Tree of Woe!"

Cheers!

Atomic Tails #16

Last night I finally finished #16. Not that I really feel bad about taking my time with this one. there's a lot of changes in this strip from how I normally illustrate Atomic Tails. This is the first time I tried to do a larger, "Sunday" like, strip. It was fun, and I would like to work these strips in on a regular basis. Maybe every seven strips instead of days, maybe not. It does take me awhile to get a comic produced. Also, this is the first time I used Adobe Photoshop to fully color one of my strips. So, there ways a bit (huge) learning curve on how to work with PS on this level. I've only ever used Adobe Illustrator for my strip, but I can see how learning Photoshop will speed things up, once I get more practice. I still inked (digitally) the strip in Illustrator though. I just like AI's pen and brush tools way more than Photoshop's. Keep in mind too, I'm using CS3 a much older version of Adobe than most people have access too. I'm broke! I can't afford the cloud! 

Another thing of note is the logo for the Ascension of the Golden  Yo-Yo's, As Designed by Jason (aka: real life Chudd) Murray. I dig the design and think it'll give us a lot to play with in the future. Jason also helped with the writing of this strip and I think it came out a lot better than what I had originally planned. 

The last thing of note is the changes to Trog's apartment. I changed the couch to look more like my own couch at home (kind of...) and I also added some posters of stuff similar (kind of...) to stuff I keep on the walls of my own apartment. It wasn't until I had most of the strip done that I noticed how little detail I was putting into my backgrounds. I'm trying to work more with perspective and spacing, but I want to focus more on Chudd and Trog's world. I'm even playing with the idea of designing the layout of Trog's apartment. Right now I'm just throwing up walls, because they're in doors and there should be a wall there somewhere. In the future I'd like their living space to be more planned out and believable. Well, as real as an apartment for cartoon mice can be. 

So, I've already got a good bite into #17 and I'm hoping this one won't take more than two weeks! Keep checking back for more Atomic Tails goodness! Check out the full #16 below!

Strip #14 is here!

Yeah, it took me awhile, but here it is! One more strip for Atomic Tails. This strip introduces another many character to the story, Buttery Wholesomeness. Buttery is based (for the most part) on an old high school buddy of mine, but in a weird way, much less of an actual cartoon than the real guy. If you knew Chris, you would know what I was talking about. Anyways, Strip #14 was also a chance to work on the characters form and anatomy a bit more. Though I'm still unsure what happens to their tails when they sit on a couch, I actually like some of the poses I pulled off. All except the last panel. Trog's left foot still just looks weird to me, but as many times as I tried (which was a lot) I couldn't get the leg to do what I wanted. Oh, well... Practice!!! Also, though I went back and added it to strip #13, this is the first time I added a Logo type and creator credit to one of my strips. Chudd (the real life Chudd) helped a little bit with it. Anyways, I'm jumping onto Strip #15 now. I really would like to start producing one a week, but at this point I'd settle for anything under a month.

Cheers!