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!

View fullsize

An Atomic Tails Update

Okay. I know it is very unlikely that anyone reads this blog, or my comic, but it has been a long while since I posted a comic and I just wanted to get on here and write an update for what's going on with Atomic Tails.

For this next year I probably won't be finishing too many Atomic Tails comics. I am still very interested in making more comics, but I've got a lot of personal problems right now and I am working very hard to fix them. This means I won't have as much time to draw Chud, Trog, and their lives. I will try and get a comic out as often as I can, but until probably December of this year, I just won't be able to focus on the comic anymore. And that sucks! I really love these guys and I got a bunch of cool stories I'm just starting to get into. It kind of feels like everything up until now has just been learning lessons.  However, I will still try an get a comic on as often as I can. That image up above is of Rio: Evil Goddess of the California Highways. Trog is a limo driver, and Rio (in spirit) rides along side him in his car, causing him all sorts of problems. So, it may take a week or two yet, but Rio's introduction strip is coming very soon. 

Also, I've pulled myself off of Facebook for a little while, so for any Atomic Tails art or doodles, follow my instagram. 

Okay, I have a little bit of spare time... so I'm gonna draw some mice! 

Cheers!

Atomic Tails 23!!!

I feel like I need to start these post with a reason as to why it took me a month to do a four panel comic. I mean, I don't need to. The comic is free, but I have to do Atomic Tails in my spare time (after work and weekends) and sometimes life stuff just get's in the way. I have a day dream where I some how walk into $50,000.00 and I can just take a year off to do nothing but work on the comic and Atomic Moo. Seeing as how that's never going to happen, just know that there is an actual battle of will behind the creation of every strip. 

Another reason this strip took sometime was because I had to learn how to draw a bunch of new stuff. I think that is one of the best things about doing a webcomic is that it can force an illustrator (even untalented ones like me) into having to draw stuff like scared rabbits and fly golf carts. 

Anyways, the fellers are on their way to the Tree of Woe and I really had a lot of fun creating this comic. It's kind of a call back to strip #2, but I feel like I've learned a lot since then, and I wanted to try an push myself on more dynamic illustrations. 

Check out the new comic below, and I'm just starting on #24. I have no idea how I'm going to draw a beach, but I'm looking forward to figuring it all out.

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!