Sometimes You Gotta

Barry's ThoughtsThis Week at SAWSeriously ComicsProcessProjectsOnline LearningMemoir

Oct 3

So, I'm doing a memoir comic. Yeah, it's got an anthropomorphic bear and a Gumby-looking guy and the stories aren't 100% "true" but it's a memoir nonetheless.

That is part of the reason I decided to fly home to New Hampshire for a weekend this fall.

Me and my friends had agreed to meet to climb Mount Chocorua in the White Mountains.

I also visited Mauricio Cordero in Medford, MA and got him to pose as a farmer next to his compost (shhhhh, don't tell his mom).

We hosted the Draw Jam together from his house.

Meanwhile I got a bunch of drawing done.

These may look like only sketches, but I expect to use all of them.

I don't script or thumbnail. Yes, yes, I know how inefficient that sounds.

But it works for me.

I developed this style over the past 3 years by sneaking art into even the tiniest available moment in my life.

I draw while I'm at my kids karate practice or speech therapy. For example, I drew these picture mostly on the plane up here.

I scan and clean up my drawings when I get downtime at work.

I lay out my pages after my kids go to bed and color them to wind down before I fall asleep at night.

I make edits and write dialog as I go.

And I learn what the story is about as I make it.

Because I start with one idea, a kinda vague jumping off point.

And I just jump right off.

The story, or plot, stays pretty close to my original idea, but the meaning changes in all sorts of ways as I draw and write.

As that meaning develops I learn things about myself and my parents and their parents and my wife and my kids.

The learning process is not always easy or pleasant.

But I need to learn this stuff. I set out to learn this stuff.

Because I want to know myself better. I also want to be a better version of myself for the people I love and the other people who come in contact with me.