Phew, guess it was just Browny that they heard outside.

Or was it…?

I could’ve split this up into two seperate comics, but this is a scene that just works better when you throw it all together.

Wow.

I don’t want to toot my own horn or anything, but I’m still sitting here awestruck that I just drew the above. I totally wasn’t planning to go crazy with the art; I wasn’t even looking particularly forward to churning this one out today (hence it was late), but as soon as I sat down, it just sort of…came out.

I started with Sarah in panel one, and right from the start she turned out exactly like I imagined, darting across the sidewalk with a sort of playful innocence and wonder. Women are pretty difficult to draw right, especially in a minimalistic style, so that was a big motivation booster right there.
Then I did all the backgrounds. I looked at two photographs for reference, but I made a case of it not to trace anything, or even copy it, I wanted to do this all by myself. So I looked at them once, taking in the general layout, and went to work. And it’s…I just can’t believe I really drew that. Everything just felt right.

This is what making comics is all about.

If you want to take a closer look at the art, you can click here to see it in it’s original size, or here for just the background art.

I enjoy getting a little philosophical sometimes, and it’s something that I want (harhar) to convey in my work more too. I’m a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes & Cat and Girl who both employ similar writing techniques. It’s hard work, but very satisfying.

Is Big D just getting paranoid, or did Bruce really survive the explosion…?

Everything seems to be back to normal at Big Daddy’s Diner.

Color! Yay, it’s back. I enjoy coloring the strips with my tablet now, although it takes a little bit longer than usual. But I think it looks better, I just have to stop myself sometimes from putting in all kinds of little details and advanced lighting and such.

Kat returns to Big D’s diner, but is not exactly welcomed…

Happy Sinterklaas, my fellow dutchies! Finished this one seconds before I left to celebrate the Dutch spinoff of Christmas.

The rivalling diner’s business plan becomes apparent.

This is the prelude to the big storyline that will start in January. I didn’t work on DD for a while because I had to come up with a good start for it, and the other day this came to me, so I was pretty motivated, which is why it’s also in color. Thinking about it now, I kind of set myself up by placing it in the evening. If I don’t color the rest, I’ll atleast have to add some greytones to keep the illusion of darkness. Damn virtualphotgrapher and it’s fancy color filters!

Part of the Midsummernightmare storyline. I had trouble focussing and getting things done because of the weather, so I decided to mold that into a story. This series of comics is probably the silliest yet.

Gavin voices some of my personal issues. From time to time I like to get a bit philosophical.

This comic was inspired by a similar scene from Citizen Dog. I was a bit empty on ideas in the beginning, and while I’m not proud of it, I emulated some things from my biggest inspiration. The punchline changes a few times during production.