Merry Holidaze!  I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable time.  In the past I have taken a hiatus and not published anything for the next week or two… this year is going to be a bit different.

I decided while I was on the road traveling, visiting relatives, and generally goofing off over the holidays (people in Indiana would call them “Christmas” and “New Years”) I would go back and look at some of the older comics so that your could laugh at me at even thinking that I could do something as daunting as a comic strip.  I’ll will use the magic of Hindsight-o-Vision (patent pending) to say a bit about what was going through my mind when I posted these and what I have to say now that over two and a half years have passed.  Don’t worry I won’t be waxing nostalgically forever we will start back with new adventures after the New Year.

—

Today’s strip is really what would consider my first strip originally posted May 1, 2009.  It was shared on paper with a few folks before I uploaded it.  Anything posted before this was a test.  The first cartoon was a place holder, the second was a test to see how ComicPress actually worked when it came to scheduling something and to figure out sizes.

I decided to focus on the Fellowship that I won which got this whole this started and while the character is not exactly how “Bruce” ended up this early incarnation is pretty close to how he looks now.  A few other things you might notice are the slippers, I did at one point own slippers like that and wore them during college.  The cup in my hand would be tea (Earl Grey- Hot) since I don’t drink coffee.  WHile the shirt has wings I am not aware of MINI creating a t-shirt with the wings at that (or any) angle- so I do not own a shirt like that.  The PJ bottoms- no comment.

I was really working towards trying to get a consistent character design and spent untold hours trying to figure out how things would fit together.  As I look back on it I spent too much time and ended up tying my hands as I looked at expanding the list of characters.  As I have drawn more I find (as many artists I have spoken with) that it is almost better to draw more fluid and not focus on intricate details… It seems to look less forced, which to me this does feel that way.

As for the joke (like many gags I use) this one had been with me a while waiting for a chance to emerge.  While there are times in which everyone gets what I’m talking about, other times it is directed to just a select audience.

Early on I printed out 8.5 x 11 paper with “My Geek Odyssey” on top a rectangle and then the mygeekodyssey.com & © information and  just worked on that.  For this first strip it was done on plain copy paper.  With a variety of Copic drafting pens.  Scanned at some outrageous dpi on a small Canon scanner then cleaned up in Photoshop Elements (I’m still using ver. 3.0) finally reduced to 100 dpi and scaled to a width of 850 dpi.

Monday- Drawing in England…

It’s just a “Jump to the Left”
Posted on December 23, 2011 by Bruce
Merry Holidaze!  I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable time.  In the past I have taken a hiatus and not published anything for the next week or two... this year is going to be a bit different. I decided while I was on the road traveling, visiting relatives, and generally goofing off over the holidays (people in Indiana would call them "Christmas" and "New Years") I would go back and look at some of the older comics so that your could laugh at me at even thinking that I could do something as daunting as a comic strip.  I'll will use the magic of Hindsight-o-Vision (patent pending) to say a bit about what was going through my mind when I posted these and what I have to say now that over two and a half years have passed.  Don't worry I won't be waxing nostalgically forever we will start back with new adventures after the New Year. --- Today's strip is really what would consider my first strip originally posted May 1, 2009.  It was shared on paper with a few folks before I uploaded it.  Anything posted before this was a test.  The first cartoon was a place holder, the second was a test to see how ComicPress actually worked when it came to scheduling something and to figure out sizes. I decided to focus on the Fellowship that I won which got this whole this started and while the character is not exactly how "Bruce" ended up this early incarnation is pretty close to how he looks now.  A few other things you might notice are the slippers, I did at one point own slippers like that and wore them during college.  The cup in my hand would be tea (Earl Grey- Hot) since I don't drink coffee.  WHile the shirt has wings I am not aware of MINI creating a t-shirt with the wings at that (or any) angle- so I do not own a shirt like that.  The PJ bottoms- no comment. I was really working towards trying to get a consistent character design and spent untold hours trying to figure out how things would fit together.  As I look back on it I spent too much time and ended up tying my hands as I looked at expanding the list of characters.  As I have drawn more I find (as many artists I have spoken with) that it is almost better to draw more fluid and not focus on intricate details... It seems to look less forced, which to me this does feel that way. As for the joke (like many gags I use) this one had been with me a while waiting for a chance to emerge.  While there are times in which everyone gets what I'm talking about, other times it is directed to just a select audience. Early on I printed out 8.5 x 11 paper with "My Geek Odyssey" on top a rectangle and then the mygeekodyssey.com & © information and  just worked on that.  For this first strip it was done on plain copy paper.  With a variety of Copic drafting pens.  Scanned at some outrageous dpi on a small Canon scanner then cleaned up in Photoshop Elements (I'm still using ver. 3.0) finally reduced to 100 dpi and scaled to a width of 850 dpi. Monday- Drawing in England...

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