As we roll into the second major story arc, I figured it might be a good time to open up a Q&A thread. I don’t know how well this will work out, or if readers even have any questions or not. But we’ll try it and see how it goes.
The rules are simple – ask a question by posting a comment on this post. That’s it! You can ask any question about Marooned specifically or about myself and cartooning in general. I can’t promise I can answer every question about the Marooned story – I won’t be giving out any spoilers! But other than that, ask away.
If this turns out to be fun and interesting, we’ll do it on a somewhat regular basis.
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q: how come the martians speak so fluent english?
Martians have been around for ages. As has been hinted by the Geborga and Ugo – something terrible happened on Mars some time ago that wiped out their civilization. But I think you can get the sense that it was quite an advanced civilization.
That would mean they were quite easily aware of Earth and its cultures.
And we have to remember this is fairly far out in the future – in the 2080s to be exact. Is it possible at this point that English was the dominant language on Earth at a time when Martians could easily observe them?
Yep, that’s definitely possible.
Wow, English was the dominant language? What about Chinese?
I’m really interested to learn about your Wacom tablet and how you use it. I’ve been considering getting one, but not sure I’d be able to draw with it.
I didn’t say it was the ONLY language
I had real trouble with the tablet at first. It takes a long time for me to get used to it. But I don’t really draw much with it – I really still can’t. I mainly use it to color/paint with.
At some point I’ll do a screencast when I have time, I’ve been wanting to do one anyway.
So is the tablet worth it? Does it actually save any time? Do you still find yourself able to be sufficiently creative in this newer medium?
It’s definitely worth it, especially for 99 bucks. Save time – for me it wasn’t about that – I’m spending more time coloring. Because it has expanded my creativity by allowing me to apply painterly effects and techniques.
So I’m not really drawing (although I’ll do a correction here and there, or draw a small thing if need be), I’m texturizing, coloring and adding effects. For example, Ril’s bioshield looks the way it does because of the tablet, and I don’t think I would have figured out how to do it otherwise.
In fact, the first time I drew it, it looks bad (still haven’t fixed it) because I hadn’t figured it out yet.
Right now I really dig the tablet. Eventually I will want a bigger one for sure. I may never actually draw with it, but I will always use it.
How did you come up with the title?
Hey Tom, great work with this strip..It’s always interesting and is one of the highlights of my week..
My comment / question is very generalized but I’ve always been rather jealous of artists and cartoonists..Always wanted to have the drawing gene..Is that something that came easy for you? Were you always able to draw well and easily or did you have to work on it to develop your talent?
Do you have any tips for budding cartoonists on drawing characters with a clearly cartoon style?
@rregan – The title. The original title of the strip was simply “Captain John.” But that was far too focused on one character. I didn’t want to lock myself into anything. Then I figured their situation was that they were marooned on mars – and I liked the sound of the word “marooned” – it sounded like a good comic title. And it could encompass a lot of concepts. So I went with it.
The tagline was added shortly after that. The first one I had was “a webcomic that’s out of this world” which is extremely lame. But when I gave it some real thought, I realized that it was a space opera that’s fun and slightly off – so it was out of key – a space opera in the wrong key.
@Mike R. – Thanks Mike! Truly anyone can draw, although maybe it comes easier for some than others. It’s a discipline like anything else.
But I always drew when I was a kid. When I couldn’t find paper I would draw on the inside cover of books – which didn’t exactly go over very well. I drew all the way through high school and into college where I majored in Fine Art, so I took life drawing and composition and all the typical classes.
But it didn’t, and has never come easy for me. I’m my own biggest critic frankly, mainly because I find it extremely difficult to get what’s in my mind down on paper.
The problem is I don’t draw enough. When I was in college, I was doing a lot of artwork of all sorts, I was engrossed in it – and I got to a point where I was becoming happy with some of my work (which is sadly, all gone – I tossed it years ago).
But after college I didn’t get a job using those talents, it was doing other things and I stopped drawing for 20 years. So getting back into has been very very difficult for me. It has been 11 months now, and I am only now *just starting* to begin to feel like I’m getting back into the swing of it.
I will never have the time to draw enough, most likely, to get where I want to be. But I’m pretty happy to continue on this path and improve as best I can. But the main thing for any artist is to draw every day, constantly. It’s the only thing that makes you competent.
@Daniel – A really good thing to do is copy cartoon characters you like. Draw them over and over, trace them even – get a feel for why they are good by drawing them. Really study them to find out what makes them tick.
The truth is that good cartoons come from a good understanding of fundamental art principles. Cartoons are a spoof on real life for the most part (whether human or animal) which means it really helps to have a solid foundation in what’s real.
Charles Schulz was a wonderful artist before he drew Peanuts. Bill Watterson is an amazing draftsman – but those two drew some of the most memorable cartoon characters in history. It’s because they knew the basics of composition and form that they could then properly reduce things to something that was appealing.
A good book I just read was How to Draw Stupid by Kyle Baker – definitely worth checking out. Also The Illusion of Life – the Disney book, even though geared toward animation can teach you a lot.
The truth is to be a good cartoonist, you need to be grounded in fundamental artistic principles. You don’t have to be a master, and you don’t have to have some college degree – but you should look at those things, study them and try to learn them, because they are all part of what makes a good character.
A great thing you can do is watch cartoons, read cartoons and watch movies of characters you find compelling and try to break them down to what makes them that way – why do you like them? Why do you think they are appealing?
Another great thing is to listen to commentary by directors on DVDs. For example, the commentary by Brad Bird on the Incredibles and on the Iron Giant is great stuff – you can learn a lot.
What kind of sketchbook do you use, and where do you write/doodle your strips?
I generally buy the Canson 9×12 spiral bounds, but really whatever is on sale at Michael’s in that size, I buy.
I don’t do a whole lot of strip related stuff in the sketchbook, mostly because I do a lot of strip work at my job on lunch, and I don’t usually bring it to work (I’m already dragging my bristol board pad, pencil case, lunch and such).
So – I write my strips in a Google Document. I keep it current with the next strip(s) script, and I can access it anywhere I have a computer. Right now I have the next 3 strips scripted in there. When I am done with one, I erase it and start with the next one down.
I don’t thumbnail stuff out as much as I would like due to time constraints. So often I just go to town right on the Bristol board itself. But when I do that, I do real general sketches – almost stick figure stuff first – to make sure it’s what I want.
If I’m going to thumbnail it out first, I’ll grab a piece of copy paper or a page out of a notebook here, draw a rectangle and rough out the panels. I find this is helpful and I really should do it all the time.
So the process is: Think about the strip (I’m always mulling over ideas in my head) – get it down in the Google doc, do a quick thumbnail layout (when I can) then pencil, ink and color. Done!
Your blog is so informative