The Black Cat

Wow. Who knew writing, editing, designing, printing, and selling a novel would be so time consuming?

Okay, so where did we leave off? Spider-Man and The Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do by Kevin Smith...

What makes this mini series different from other Spider-Man comics is The Black Cat. I wanted to feature her on the cover. The red would evoke Spider-Man and with a little webbing, he'd be plenty represented. Felicia (AKA The Black Cat) was a former girlfriend of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Their past relationship comes to play in this series. I thought I would draw Felicia wearing a tee with a Spidey heart on it.

Sketches and notes

First drawing

Partially inked with Sharpie

Fully inked and cut out

Colored

She needed some sort of background. This is what I started with.

Background for The Black Cat

The Black Cat with background 

Then I glued The Black Cat with her background into the spot in the cover.

Next time: Title and Back Cover (plus final touches on picture inset).

Spider-Man and the Black Cat

Spider-Man and the Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do

For this binding, I was picturing a bright red book cloth since that is Spider-Man's primary color. I also had an idea of drawing a picture of the Black Cat and Spider-Man on the cover. I decided to do a full cloth cover with a picture inset. For this I needed two pieces of book board and once piece of chipboard, which is a slightly thinner piece of board. (I actually just used a piece of cardboard that came with my comic book order, which is thicker than the book board but a much lighter material.)

First I determined the size of the picture I was planning to draw for the cover. I cut that out on the "chipboard."

Then I glued the chipboard, spine board, and back book board onto the red book cloth.

Then I removed the cloth in the square where the picture will eventually go.

The next step is to take the scraps from the previous step and glue them onto the remaining book board. I traced the square from the chipboard onto the book board so I would know where to glue the scraps.

Then I glued the last book board onto the chipboard.

And turned in the edges of the book cloth.

Close up the book and you can see where I'm going to put the picture.

Next Time: The Black Cat!

What Next?

Next batch of comics. Which do I bind first? Spider-Man? Green Arrow? Robin?

Gotham Central--the "Cop"tic Stitch

The coptic stitch is a fun little stitch that can be a little complicated. First I poked six holes in the front and back covers. 

Then I poked holes in each signature (comic issue) to align with the holes in the book board.

Can't really see in this image, but in the spine, I have poked 6 holes

Then the sewing begins. I sewed the front cover to the first signature (issue #12).

Adding signatures...

Final Signature

And the back cover...

This binding is designed to show off the coptic stitch.

But I want to cover it up with tape.

I will use the gray paper to cover up the tails of the tape.

By cutting the gray paper into single strips, I will cover up the ends of the tape...

Back Cover

…and make a jail cell-like image…

Final:

For once, I was able to take the image in my head and make it tangible.

Gotham Central--the Endpapers

Okay. So where did we leave off? I'd just glued the book cloth onto the boards. Next step is to glue the endpapers to the other side of the book board.

First I cut the end papers to the size I need (using my trust dusty cutting board, ruler, and box cutter). The endpapers are the same size as the comic book, just slightly smaller than the book board. I chose a dark gray for the endpapers to compliment the dark and gritty tone of Gotham.

Then glue.

Glue

And press the end paper onto the book board.

Ta~da!

Next time: the Coptic Stitch...Wow, I just realized how appropriate the stitch I chose for this comic about the police. "Cop"tic. I did not plan that. Really.

Kate's Christmas Card

I have a coworker who wants to be a kangaroo. She believes her life would be exponentially easier if she had a pouch. And since kangaroo Christmas cards are hard to come buy, I figured I would just draw her one.

Initial sketches

Tried to personalize the kangaroo so it looked a little like Kate with the hair and glasses

The panda is me

I googled images of kangaroos for drawing references and set them up on my desktop the way I envisioned the card in my head. I knew from the start I wanted to use Gemna from the manga Ranma 1/2 as my panda model.

I started sketching everything out in pencil. Then I traced over the lines with a double-sided sharpie. I've found in the past that when I use a pen and I go to erase lines the ink smears some times. Sharpies dry instantly and I haven't had any smear issues. Sharpies do bleed on the paper and are not always the best choice when detailing something small like an eye. So I did use pen on the eyes of panda beth and at least one of the kates. Then I colored everything in with colored pencils.

Inside of the card

She loved the card.

So to all my one follower--hope you have a joeyful Christmas and a kickin' roo year!