The guest strip I did for Krishnas anniversary can finally be viewed over at PCWeenies.com. Woho!

Why are you still reading? GOGOGO! And read through that talented guy’s archive while you’re at it.

When I created Glitchtown – like, half a year ago – I didn’t really know just how I wanted to draw Leslie. Thus, he ended up looking like a piece of crap in the first strips – just see for yourself. Believe me, I’m aware of how bad he looks.

Anyway, he has really developed as a character, and I though I share this with you:

I’m very happy with his design now. ^^ I might make this picture into a wallpaper later.

The eyes are a bit to small, but still.

So, like I promised, I’ve started practising drawing Isaac, and trying to make his look more fluent.

I knew from the start that I needed to change his “face line” or whatever one might call it – the line that lapses from his eye down to his jaw, as an outline – because I just didn’t have any definite way of drawing that. His face needs more structure.

So I practised.

Some are of course crap, and some are better. I tried making his outline more smooth and straight, and not as complicated as before. I’ll develop that further.

Another thing that needed changing was his eyebrows; I need them to not be so stiff. He needs to be able to make expressions with them, without it looking awkward (Leslie has the same problem). So I made them thinner, sure, but also a bit “rougher”, I would say.

All the sketches above have a real standard nose, not sure if I’ll keep it like that. I’ll develop that further to.

Second sketch

And that’s a crappy drawing.

I noticed that he looked really cool in a moustache, as such:

Third sketch

I won’t make such a drastic change though, but it’s good to know he fits with it. Maybe he’ll grow one, some day?

That’s if for now. I’ll probably make another post tomorrow, noon-ish. Stay tuned.

So. Like I said. Yesterday I went along with my mother to Göteborgs Bokmässa 2008 (Gothenburg Book Fair), to buy lots and lots of books, but MOSTLY because I wanted to visit the few – but proud – comic related booths I knew where somewhere inside the mace of booths.

And it was a mace alright. The map we had did jack shit. It was a mace in itself, so we stopped using it pretty quick.

After strolling around for awhile, looking at all the funny people (there where a lot of ‘em, I felt like I fitted right in for once), we finally found a place that sold sci-fi, fantasy, manga and such books. I found a lot of stuff I wanted there, but bought nothing. I wanted to save myself for all the upcoming comics, which still where nowhere to be found.

After strolling around some more (you’re never walking when you’re doing stuff like this, always strolling) for maybe more than an hour, we found out that all the comic booths where RIGHT NEXT TO that sci-fi shop. And I really mean right next to it. Like, if we’d just turned around while at the sci-fi shop, we would’ve seen it. Seriously.

So finally. I got what I wanted. But it wasn’t much. Just a few booths, with a few fun things. Got a picture of David Nessle (Kapten Stofil) and Martin Kristenson (he doesn’t really do anything… lol), which made me feel good – Martin reminded me of Jerry Holkins (but why was he so bald?). And that made it feel a little more like Comic-con. Just a tad.

I also caught a glimpse of Mikael Sol (Michael Sun, heh), a Swedish cartoonist. I actually follow his blog, which made it feel a bit awesome. Due to my lack of social skillz, shyness and anxiety, I did of course not have the courage to actually talk to him, but I got a picture.

Cheese.

After a long while, I actually DID talk to him (well… he started talking to me so…), and I manage to squeeze out “I, uh, read, ehe, your, gasp, blog, hfffff…” so… yeah. That was about as far as that conversation got. But that was more than enough for me. I bough the latest number of “Hjälp” (“help”) of him, which contains a short comic by him, but I think he SCREW ME OVER with the pricing, that bastard (although, unintentionally). He was just packing up the comics when I bought it, looked at it and said it cost 50 kr. And it did indeed say that on the cover. But when I walked by a couple of hours later, they’d put up a sign which read “All comic 25 kr”. Wtf. And he was nowhere to be found. HE OWES ME 25 kronor, gnnnaaah!

I looked around some for Rene Engström, but since I had no idea how she looked, smelled or sounded like, I was clueless. I’m pretty sure I went right by her at some point though.

After looking at some presentations on the second floor, where “Grafiska torget” was – of both InDesign tips and an old man talking about color in typography – I started strolling around the comic booths again. There where a really nice place just around the corner that had lots and lots of graphic novels, where I would’ve gladly spent the whole day.

But the day soon ended, and we went home.

In the end I didn’t buy too much, but I’m happy. Especially with the “how to draw manga”-book, not that I want to, uhm, draw manga (haha! fail), but still. It’s a great book. I spent about 500 kr, give or take.

Next year, I’m going to have a booth at Bokmässan, mark my word (yeah, not gonna happen).

Or, maybe I’m just going to Comic-con 2009.

(Yeah, not gonna happen.)

I’m going to play copycat for awhile and just do the same as Krishna did recently in his blog.

Take a gander at the strip for today. It’s in color, as it always is. The problem is that I actually… kinda… almost… more or less… kiiiiinda think it looks better in black and white.

This is the same strip, in black and white:

When I started the strip I knew from the beginning that it would be in color. Every strip I read at the time was, and I saw no meaning in making it black and white since… well, hell; the screen can display millions of colors – if there’s anywhere a comic should be in color, it should be on the web, right?

But now, I almost feel like the color is detracting from the comic, rather then make it look better. In b&w, it reminds me of PvP (Yeah, I know. Nowhere NEAR that good. I said “REMINDS me”) and if I made it in b&w, I could focus more on making the artwork nicer and more fluid, with more different shoots and stuff. It’s harder now.

So I’m asking you guys, aka “my readers” – what do you think? Maybe you even think it looks better in color? Am I just talking nonsense? Maybe you hate me now? Maybe you think I’m ugly? Maybe you like tacos?

I would love some response on this.

And in other other news – Isaac got featured in a comic called “Finn-strip” made by our friendly neighbourhood Finn, Jarmo. Go check it out.

Through Google Analytics, I’ve noticed that most of my reader, aka “you guys”, are using Firefox and Opera.

Which is awesome, of course. That means my readers are smart and aware people. Remember, IE is still the most common browser. But you’re not using it, so you’re not common users.

However, there are of course people using IE here, too. That’s alright. BUT one thing which isn’t alright is the 24 people that are using IE6, because IE6 is cutting off my logo at the top. So please, to you 24 – seriously, upgrade to IE7 atleast.

And then we’ll all live happily ever after.

After a lot of working, putting together IKEA-bought stuff, my room finally have a new desk, with two new shelves, a drawer, and a new chair. And it’s a hell of a lot cleaner, too.

Just look at this, before and after (sorry for the bad quality in the pictures…):

I can actually SIT and WORK at that desk now. It’s like MAGIC. Before, it looked like a cramped up kids desk, now it looks like place of buuusiiiiiness. It’s great.

Expect 10% more “awesome” from here on out.

So there’s kinda a lot going on right now, and it’s good. As you might know now, Krishna found my latest strip all by himself, and made a post about it in his blog. Which was great. My statistics went through the roof, thank you very much. :3

So if you ‘re joing us from PCW today,  I greet you welcome. Enjoy the stay.  Have some cake.  Tell your friends.

Anyway. Later I joined Ustream to be able to talk to Krishna and others, while watching him draw his comic. We had a great conversation, everyone was really nice, and Krishna said some nice stuff about Glitchtown which made me the happiest man on the planet. Anyway, we got to talking about guest strips, and the possibility of me making one for PC Weenies soon enough. That will be awesome.

The boys and girls in the chatroom made me join Twitter, as the conformist I am. So now you can follow my every move over there. So go and… add me or whatever you do on Twitter. It’s a great way for me to post comic related news quick, anyway.

Comic’s still on for Friday, btw. See you then.

Got a little inspired by Craig McCracken and Genndy Tartakovsky (and, I guess, CN in general) – and made this little thing. (Click for fullview)