The Tally Hall Comic

This week I'm preparing lots of material to exhibit at the Bronx Heroes Comic Con, which is THIS SATURDAY.  I just printed out some "tally hall" comics I did a few years ago.  The comic is about a band called tally hall (an actual band) that has musical super powers.  Set in the city of Ann Arbor, MI (where tally hall and I went to college), a crazy guy called Mr. Misnomer tries to take away all sound.  Will tally hall be able to stop him?  The comic is still pretty funny even if you aren't familiar with the band.  Each member has different colored ties and in the pic above I'm hand coloring each one, because it was cheaper to print in black and white.  But I forgot how LONG it took!  I colored about 7, and I think I'll do the rest on the subway to the Bronx next week.  Gotta make the best use of my time.  Here's the first part of the comic:

I'm also working hard on my new comic short - it's a surprise, though, but I can't wait to post it!

More Custom Comics

Mindy indy is back with another custom comic I've done for a client.  The client is actually my cousin who is an art teacher in Florida!  She's also a very versatile artist herself.  I had lots of creative freedom with this comic - she gave me a basic idea and just let me run with it.  She wanted the comic as a piece of art for her, but also to use in her classroom as an example of what a real working artist does.  I thought it would be encouraging for the kids to see a comic about how fun it is to draw comics :)  This comic is also added to my "Custom Comics" page (there's a link on the upper right of this page), which tells more about custom comics, my rates, and more.  Please check it out!

Custom Comics

So far mindyindy.com has focused on AER HEAD, the graphic novel I'm (slowly) working on.  My freelance work has been picking up, though, and I want to share some other comic work I've done recently - a custom comic!

A custom comic is a comic specifically made about someone, usually as a gift.  In this case, the client wanted one about her boyfriend for his birthday.  The client told me many details about her boyfriend's personality and life, and sent pictures for reference.  We discussed the format of the comic (3 panel strip vs full page, color vs black and white), I drew it, and voila:  the perfect birthday gift!  Both the client and her boyfriend love it and intend to hang it in their new apartment.  There was even talk of being Action Alex for Halloween!  This was super fun and I want to do more of these projects!

I put a new Custom Comics page in this blog's upper right corner, listing my rates and more details.  If you would like me to create a custom comic for you, just send me an email (mindy@mindyindy.com) or call 734-776-6477 so we can discuss details.

Page 2!

I surprised myself with how well this page turned out :)  Masking fluid and white out are awesome.  Sparkly rainbow outer spaaaace!

Special thanks to my friends at Drawbridge - I inked this page at their studio.  I put their blog in my blogroll to the right.  I also learned something very interesting when I was there about "dot gain."  Take a look at the black and white line art of page 2:

Look at the black strips coming from the character's right arm - they are separated by very thin white lines.  I learned that the lines may disappear in the printing process due to dot gain!  Dot gain is when ink spreads out a little when it's laid down on paper.  The fact that the art is shrunken down for printing would also diminish the lines' visibility.  So, in Photoshop, I widened the lines, as you can see in the final piece.  The more you know!

PS:  For some reason the email notifications for my mailing list seem to come a day late - I'll look into that!