Blonde Marvel

Monday I’m going to order that scanner I wrote about earlier. It will be a relief to finally scan an entire page at  once rather than have to go thru all sorts of contortions to get my artwork to fit the standard size scanners. Also I’d like to someday publish a Blonde Marvel comic book. Having a large tabloid size scanner will save time and what’s left of my sanity.

Of course I couldn’t call my comic book Blonde Marvel. Although I joke about it from time to time, Marvel Comics really does have a lock on the word “marvel”. Why do you think DC’s Captain Marvel has to be called  “Shazam” on the cover. Why do you think Alan Moore’s acclaimed Marvelman series had to be re-named Miracleman here in the US? Although I could legally call the character Blonde Marvel inside the book I couldn’t put that name on the cover. I’d have to call it “The Adventures of Angela Zaftig!” or something.

I’m ordering a large flatbed scanner so that I can scan whole pages of artwork all at once (as opposed to in several sections like I have to do now). I’ll order it Monday (payday) and it should arrive the first or second week of June. Then there’s the whole “how do I work this thing???” phase, which should take a day or so. Once that’s over with I can start posting the new Blonde Marvel story.

I was looking at my stats this morning, checking out the people who check me out…
What I find amazing is that someone will spend 49 minutes and 17 seconds on your website, click on every page of your webcomic from beginning to end…and then leave without any comment whatsoever. Not even a “was it good for you too?” or a “I’ll call you.”
I feel dirty.

Here’s a Commander Marvel “piece” done by the artist/author who calls himself Roar Comics. This is from his webcomic series Stella and Celeste.

Here’s a quiz for you. Which one of these statements is true?

a) The check is in the mail.
b) No, those jeans don’t make you look fat.
c) Blonde Marvel will return.
The answer is c.

Obviously no-one’s life revolves around updates of Blonde Marvel (at least I hope not). But I did want to point out to the handful of people who care that a new story is on the horizon. Keep hope alive. I want to again thank my readers, both casual and hardcore, for their support. I’m grateful for your comments, love, hate, and everything in between. The only thing I can’t stomach is indifference.

I haven’t been idle. I’ve been doing a lot of sketches, some of which I should begin posting here. I’ve been studying anatomy and perspective and I have quite a long way to go before I master either.  I’ve also been going back and forth over whether future installments of Blonde Marvel should remain in technicolor or switch to black and white as a time-saving measure. I haven’t made up my mind but as of right now I’m leaning towards leaving it in color.

In parting, I want to point out another terrific webcomic that you may not be reading: Fayth: The Saga. It’s written and illustrated by Geovanni Flores. Read it. Bookmark it. Comment.

I’m wondering of late if I should (or should not) do the next few Blonde Marvel stories in (gasp) black and white. This would be a time saving measure so that I could get more work done and perhaps get BM on a regular schedule.

The coloring process isn’t terribly long. It usually takes no more than a day or two, depending. And it isn’t terribly difficult. Well, not after five years of bloody trial and error, it isn’t. But…

If I can shave anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days off the time it takes to produce a strip, that would be a good thing. As I take a sober look at what I can do to save time and keep to a regular schedule, the coloring process seems to be the likely thing to go. The negative (for me) is that I feel BM should be in color, as should all super hero™ comics, be they in print or online. After all, colorful spandex and tights are a big selling point for super hero comics™ (the word super hero is a registered trademark shared by Marvel and DC).

I have nothing, nada, zip against black and white comics. I was raised on (and in some cases, raised by) black and white comics. The undergrounds of the early seventies, the Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella magazines from Warren, half of Heavy Metal magazine, fanzines, mini comics and so forth. Black and white, when done correctly, can rock.

I just wonder: will people still like the comic if done in black and white?