These comics have been prepared for the web using techniques pioneered by Nat Gertler. Nat had the stroke of genius to put all the pages of one issue of his minicomic, "Average Panther," in one long vertical GIF so that instead of waiting for one page to download, then reading it, then waiting for the next page to download and so on, the viewer could read the first page while the rest of the comic was downloading out of sight below the edge of the screen. You can learn more at his web site.
While every effort has been made to provide equal access to all browsers, viewers using Microsoft Internet Explorer on a Macintosh have reported system freezes while attempting to view the larger GIF files such as the color comics and the Cape Cod Sketchbook. (The Cool Maps and the Convention Sketches are JPEG files and cause no problems with Explorer.) PC users running Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Internet Explorer have reported no problems viewing the same files. Macintosh users are invited to draw their own conclusions and to support Netscape Navigator.
This is the third version of this web site. The first version is still available on floppy disk in the catalog section of this page. It includes color comics not posted here plus a large JPEG of the first Cynicalman minicomic from 1980 that will be of interest to collectors and historians for centuries to come. When all comics are distributed on the web, the only thing worth collecting will be original signed floppy disks so get in on the ground floor of this one!
Process | History | About The Comics
Process
First I draw a comic in black ink on white paper. Then I scan it at 150
dpi greyscale, convert it to RGB color, and save it in Photoshop.
I add color with the Photoshop paint tools, using the Apple web color picker. I use a limited palette so everything that is red, for example, is the exact same shade of red as everything else that is red. Same with yellow, blue, green and flesh color. Whenever I come across something I have to make a new color for (like "what color is Boardman?") I write down the color I use so I can match it the next time I have to use it.
I do almost all the painting right on the same layer as the B&W line art. With the Bucket and the Paintbrush set to "Darken" in the options palette, it's easy to paint over dark lines and fill in white areas without covering the line work. I'll sometimes use a second layer for coloring large background areas. I'll set the layer to "Darken" in the Layers pallet and use a broad brush to cover the panel, then erase the parts that I don't want to cover. Sometimes I'll use fancy selections with the Wand and Quick Mask to color in some parts and leave others untouched.
I'll save the color image as a 150 dpi RGB TIFF then use Image Size to resample it to 72 dpi (screen resolution) and adjust the dimensions so one frame fills about 3/4 the height of my 14" monitor screen, or about the height of a Netscape browser window. I save this version with a new name. Then I quadruple the canvas height, rearrange the panels in a vertical sequence and crop it. I save it again. Then I convert it to index color, using the web color pallet and finally export it as a GIF89A file with a new name. When I close the index color version, I don't save changes so I have three files when I'm done... a 150 dpi full size version for printing, a 72-dpi tall skinny version for exporting as a GIF, and the final GIF file for placing on a web page.
Process | History | About The Comics
History
I started drawing stick figure superhero comics
in Junior High School study hall like everybody else. During college I studied
art and graphics and worked on developing a commercial comic book style,
hoping to land a job at Marvel Comics or Heavy Metal Magazine. About 1980
I found myself getting bored with drawing portfolio pieces and started drawing
some loose comics again on the backs of Xeroxed flyers at the record store
where I was working. One of the comics I drew featured a new stick figure
superhero called The Amazing Cynicalman, America's Laid
Off Superhero.
I posted photocopies of the comics on telephone poles and vacant buildings in my neighborhood, trying my best to add to the punk rock ambience of the place. I also mailed some around to my comics-fan contacts and placed a classified in the old Alan Light Buyers Guide. One of the people responding to my ad was Walt Rogers who sent me his minicomic, Just Another 8-Page Wonder. It inspired me to redraw my Cynicalman page as a minicomic. I liked the way the stick figure art looked in a comic that size and when I discovered I could sell them, I was hooked.
I've been drawing and distributing my own stick figure minicomics ever since. I've had three paperback collections of my minicomics published, Cynicalman: the Paperback, Thunder Baas Press, 1987; ERT!, Caliber Press, 1995; and The Amazing Cynicalman, self published, 2003. During the "black & white explosion" after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made it big, I was drawing stick figure back-up features in Scott McCloud's ZOT!, published by Eclipse, called The Adventures of ZOT! in Dimension 10 1/2. Eclipse also published a full-size Cynicalman comic book and one issue of ZOT! (number 14 1/2) with a book-length ZOT! 10 1/2 story. I started a weekly newspaper comic strip starring Cynicalman in 1999 and it ran for 2 and a half years in some papers in Michigan. In 2000, I began a monthly feature in Disney Adventures magazine call "Dizzy Adventures." That ran just about every month til the magazine folded in 2007.
My latest project is The Death of Antisocialman, a 102-page minicomic graphic novel with writer Walt Lockley. Each chapter is one minicomic and all 12 chapters are now available in my catalog. Watch for the paperback collection next!
