Zorphbert and Fred

If you are a webcomics reader, my guess is you’ve probably have at least heard of RSS feeds, if not already using them to their fullest. But for those of you who have avoided “yet another internet thingy to learn”, I am here to inform you. If you keep up with various blogs, webcomics, news sources, or other sites that updates on a regular basis, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Readers makes your life easy by collecting them in one place.

While there are many RSS readers out there, I am going to show you how the one I chose to use works- Google Reader. If you already have a gmail account, setting up your Google Reader feeds is quite easy. To add a feed (a favorite website’s updates) to your list in Reader, there are 2 ways to “subscribe”:

1. You can add it manually through Google Reader itself be searching for the site’s name or URL  -or-
2. You can look for that little orange universal symbol on the site itself, and click it to add the subscription
   

Once you subscribe, Google Reader will show you what sites, blogs, webcomics, news sources have updated that day (and previous days). You can then read a portion of those updates right in Google Reader, and if it’s intriguing enough, you can click the link to go to that page directly. As you can see, it’s basically a bookmarking/listing utility, with a little preview of what’s going on at each site (no more guessing as to if it updated!). Even better, you can create folders to sort different categories- like sports, webcomics, news, even forum feeds if you are apart of a forum (that you keep forgetting to check, like I do), very handy! I use it religiously to collect everything I read. For webcomics readers, often the webcomic image itself is included in the RSS feed, so you can literally scroll through your favorite comics all on one page!

And now a tip for the more advanced: those who have a website! A great tool in Google Reader is the ability to share a folder of feeds on your own website. For instance, say you have a folder of favorite webcomics, that you constantly update, and would like to post that list on your site for others to see. By going under “manage subscriptions”–>  “folders and tags”, you can “Add a blogroll to your site”. This feature will allow you to customize the list and colors a bit, and then generate code that you can paste into your website. And the best part, for me anyway, is when I subscribe to a new feed in Reader, it automatically updates it on my site. How I love syncing technology! You can see how I utilized my Google Reader blogroll right HERE

So now go, and embrace what RSS feeds have to offer you!

{click to enlarge}

A VERY belated fanart piece for the winner of the last PWITM Contest, Mike Witmer of Pinkerton! Congrats again Mike, I hope you enjoy my little tribute to Pinkerton!

Pinkerton’s tagline is “A Furry Little Drunken Soap Opera”. I think that sums it up, except for maybe “…and Your Online Source for the Best Quotable Lines”. Seriously, every update includes a hilariously quirky gem that simple must be reiterated at an opportune time. Plus, who couldn’t love these fuzzy freaks? Check out Mike Witmer’s Pinkerton folks, you won’t be disappointed.

First off, thanks to everyone who voted. Its nice to get a general idea of your audience, because you never know who is silently reading and loving your comic, but doesn’t feel right leaving comments.

As for the age breakdown, it’s basically about what I thought, and I fit right into the demographic age-wise. I am not surprised the majority of my readers are male, I knew from the get-go that webcomics.. and well, comics in general.. are a male-dominated industry. It’s cool, I’m used to being “one of the guys”. But I was expecting a slightly bigger turn-out from the gals than I got. Maybe… um, like 40% or so? I mean, almost 75% of the readership is male.

This makes me contemplate what makes a webcomic “guy-friendly” or “girl-friendly”… and what about Z&F turns off (most) women (or doesn’t attract them)? I mean sure, I would figure there’s more male webcomic readers than female. So, already, the scale is probably tilted. An interesting side note is that often new readers figure I’m a guy off the bat. I wonder if that’s a “male-until-prove-female” assumption that is applied to every webcomic author anyway, or if the writing and/or art in Z&F somehow exudes testosterone, LOL.

I could get totally, insultingly, stereotypical here and figure that most women would prefer sappy romantic manga type webcomics, that’s why they wouldn’t give a rat’s @$$ about 2 alien-dogs. But the other side of that stereotype is that men only prefer to read superhero action blood-and-guts type stuff. Which leaves goofy little humor strips like mine somewhere in the middle. Maybe the sci-fi element is way more masculine that I had thought. Maybe my social networking activity (that gets me new readers) tends to draw in more males. Maybe women don’t like to take polls. Who the heck knows.

I wonder what the demographic of other female cartoonists (who do a unique type of comic) is like. Does Danielle of “Girls With Slingshots” have more female readers than male, overpowering the general demographic? What about Jennie Breeden of “Devil’s Panties”? Now, those are two comics centered around an atypical heroine (or multiple ones)… a bit different than androgynous alien-dogs. Maybe in there lies the reason.

So, faithful readers, what do you think? Is Z&F a more male-oriented comic? Or is the discrepancy due to the demographic being already skewed?

P.S. my apologies for using the stereotypical “pink for girls” and “blue for guys” on the chart. Oh, the irony! Or is it hypocrisy?

Many people have asked about my process in creating a comic strip over the years. And honestly, it has changed a lot since I started Z&F in early 2007. So, in my ode to the new year, the new decade, and all the growth and change that we are going to see… Here’s My Evolution as an Cartoonist: Old School to New School.

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Out of college, and working as a printer operator for a large format print manufacturing company (billboards and such), I picked up where I left off on my old comic strip “Leftovers”. My technique consisted of pencil sketches, fountain pen and ink for the lineart, and the color and text was added in Photoshop after the lineart was scanned in. I fine-tuned the process by setting up the panels on 8.5×11, 2 by 2 (2 panels on top, 2 on the bottom) for easier scanning. This means I circumvented having to patch together multiple scans- quite the pain in the butt. Only for the strips where there was a very long panel- taking up the area of 2+ typical panels, would I have to revert back to multiple scans & patching. Worked well for a long time.

Tools:

1. H2 pencils
2. black india ink
3. Crow Quill bowl pen nib
4. generic fountain pen base
5. either bristol board (expensive!), or thick drawing paper intended for pen & ink.
6. Mac G5
7. Adobe Photoshop CS2

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Into my second year of Z&F, I decided to give this new-fangled wacom tablet thingy a whirl. My hope was that I could work on comics 100% digitally… Save time on scanning, cleaning up in PS, waiting for ink to dry, etc. After a few weeks of practice, my final review of the wacom tablet is this: A great step in the process of comic-making, a great device for $100, and if your hand-eye coordination is top-notch, an easy way to ink a comic digitally. However, I found the disconnect of looking at the screen while drawing on the tablet to suck the enjoyment of inking right out of the process. I was able to train myself to do it, and use the wacom here and there, but after only a year, I found something even better (you’ll read about that in a sec)

My process using the wacom altered slightly. I found sketching on the wacom to be utterly impossible, as I am a very loose sketcher. So, I would still pencil out the roughs, scan in the sketch, ink it digitally and color. This eliminated the time it took for inks to dry, and I no longer had to clean up ink blobs or smears in Photoshop. Around this time I also switched from Photoshop to Illustrator. I found that I could get a slick clean line in Illustrator using vector brushes, where as Photoshop lineart often had a slight roughness to it that I disliked. Then came the discovery of live paint and live trace… Some awesome tools in Illustrator CS2+. This is a very detailed process, which I wrote up in a past “Tips and Tricks”. It was a good way to dip my toe into the possibilities of what technology can offer me as a cartoonist.

Tools:

1. H2 pencils
2. Generic drawing paper
3. Wacom 4×5 Tablet
4. Mac G5
5. Adobe Illustrator CS2

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For my birthday in August 2008, I received probably the most useful gift of my life from my mother and grandfather (mind you, this was no surprise, I selected the item, they just decided to get it for me rather than giving me some cash to get it myself) This gift was a Gateway Tablet PC- model C-141x with a 14″ screen to be exact. Yes, you draw directly on the screen, and the tablet is wacom-enabled, which means it’s also pressure sensitive like the wacom tablet itself. Works seamlessly with Photoshop or Illustrator. You may wonder why I “choose” this over the ever popular Cintiq tablet. The answer: portability, my friends. This is also a fully functioning laptop I can take anywhere… so no more telling friends and neighbors “oh, sorry, I have to stay in, comic to do!”. I can bring my tablet, and it’s all I need.

In talking to other webcomic-ers, I realize there are people who swear by the old school pen and paper, they love the feel of it, and no amount of technology advancements will sway that. Perfectly understandable. Others feel as though the difference in sensitivity of the Cintiq is enough that a Tablet PC such as this will not give them the result they desire. Okay, sure, the Ciniq does have a lot more “oomph” than my Tablet PC. However, for my simplistic lineart and flat colors, it works just fine and dandy. (yes, I said DANDY. I am officially old.) Also the second part of the decision was based on something very simple: the price. If you clicked the link to the products themselves, you’ll notice we’re talking a whopping $1K+ in difference here. And with the Tablet PC, you have an ENTIRE new computer, portable at that… as opposed to a device you have to plug into another computer. Now, for you mac heads, you may be thinking: “UGHHH! WINDOWS! EVIL! BAD! RUN AWAY RUN WAY!”. While I prefer Mac, I also know Windows has come a long way in leveling out the discrepancy between how Adobe products run on a mac and on a PC, and I have little against the general usage of a Windows OS . But let me also note, I am ready to go get Windows 7 once my finances allow it. Not a Vista fan.

But all in all, weighing the pros and cons for my particular situation, the gateway Tablet PC wins. Hands down. I highly recommend it, if you think you have a similar situation.

So, now my process is very simple. Sketch, ink, color and add text, all on the Gateway Tablet PC, all in Adobe Illustrator CS2 (have not been able to get CS4 quite yet). I only feel badly for my mac, sitting upstairs, feeling dejected and dusty. No worries tho, I’ll visit the ol’ Mac for work in Flash or InDesign. ;0)

Tools:

1. Gateway Tablet PC
2. Adobe Illustrator CS2

Now for some up-close-and-personal shots, right from my very work areas… where Z&F comics are born!

First off, a Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it. Happy Holiday otherwise, or just have a dang good day, k?

Now, on with the scary Santa clipart. I didn’t even have time to go through everything, but found a slew of gems:

Zombie Santa and the Mrs. are hard at work… after all, there’s lists of good brains and bad brains to make.

FAIL.

Santa Urkel? Maybe we should be glad he spends the rest of the year at the North Pole where none of us have to see this.

FAIL.

Mirror mirror, in my hand, who has the smallest head in the land?

FAIL.

“S” is for STOP. Stop making these cheasy fonts. Just. Stop.

FAIL.

Annnnnnd next on the shopping list.. Pants. Might be beneficial, with all those kids sitting in your lap, no?

FAIL.

I… don’t know. Make your own comment. I’m baffled.

FAIL.

Is it the magic of the holiday that is keeping this kid hovering? I could say something else, but I need to keep this PG as possible.

FAIL.

This is why Rudolf drives.

FAIL.

Dryer sheets really help get rid of that pesky static elf problem.

FAIL.

Rudolf the one-eyed reindeer… sitting in a {edited for PG-rating} sleigh. Well, just LOOK at it.

FAIL. REALLY, FAIL.

BIG FAT FAIL.

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Um, yeah, Happy Holidays! Hope your Christmas cards had better clipart than this.