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I’ll bury it in post.

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Todd McFarlane has some of the greatest advice I’ve ever heard for comic artists. Something like: you have to accept that not every panel is going to be perfect, and you have to just keep going.

The Travelling Wilburys were named after George Harrison joking that when they screwed up, not to worry about it because “We’ll bury ’em in the mix.” That’s my other mantra. Probably my main mantra actually. 

I draw on actual pages, and when I would screw up, I would obsess about getting it right on the page so I’d bust out the white paint and try to fix it. Well that is tedious and time consuming. Eventually I thought to hell with that, and said I’ll bury it in post.

The Key part 5 is probably the best example of that. I was behind schedule and was rushing, and I ended up with was probably four of the worst faces I’d ever drawn. But no worries; I just added more black lines and deleted the ones I didn’t need later Photoshop.

Here they are. Face 1 got a hair cut and lost those bags under her eyes. Face 2 got a nose job and lip repositioning. Face 3 was way too angry, got a nose job, and even a bit of hair cut. And Face 4. My god. The poor girl looked like Johnny Cash.

-Love Nick

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May 2018 Shirt: Skull

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So last year I ran away and got married and didn’t tell anyone. In fact, I didn’t tell anyone I was engaged either. Anyway, when I got back from Maui, I had to draw a comic that week and this was it. Explains why it’s a little light on plot.

You can buy this rad new shirt and others HERE at my online store!

 

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First Fan Art!

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Oh man, here it is: the first piece of Life The Necropolis fan art! This was done by my Twitter friend Steve Lillie @SteveArtyPerson who is an absolutely fantastic illustrator, and I really can’t express how flattered I was when he posted this!

I won’t lie about this: independent comics can be soul crushing. Like most people trying to make something happen for themselves, my work is largely universally ignored. And honestly, as it should be. Work should deserve attention, and so I just keep trying to get better. 

That being said, seeing that someone I really don’t know cared enough about my work to draw something this awesome really, really made my day. 

Check out Steve Lillie’s website at www.stevelillie.biz for more of his work!

-Love Nick

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April 2018 Shirt: The Evil Wizard Magnu

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This panel still makes me laugh. I think because I made this comic when I had a super gnarly flu, I unconsciously tapped into my baser creative instincts and this comic just came out as raw introspective honesty. Still just slays me. That and I really like how I drew those castle bricks.

You can buy this rad new shirt and others HERE at my online store!

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Pokey.

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This winter, both my wife and I got that super gnarly flu that everyone got, and I got it the week I needed to make a new comic. While in a somewhat delirious, Advil Cold & Sinus fuelled haze, I was laying around on our upstairs couch desperately trying to think of a story to draw. I resorted to my surefire recipe for story writing inspiration when all else fails (including writing on the toilet, or in the shower) I put away my idea book, laid down on the couch, stared at the ceiling, and put on some Hawkwind. It’s usually Pink Floyd, but I’ve been listening to Hawkwind a lot more lately.  

What I realized was that all I really wanted to do was draw a story about a wizard (Hawkwind sings a lot about wizards.) I also realized I didn’t really want to draw proper trees, and since this story was on some kind of alien planet, I could draw the trees any damn well way I chose, which is why they look like popsicles. And so, I came up with that week’s comic: “Tower.”

However, I wasn’t alone on the couch that day; I was hanging out with Pokey. During a Christmas time trip to Costco that year, my wife saw a woman and her young child leaving the store with a giant stuffed dinosaur. My wife had to have one. She regularly reminds me that buying Pokey was “the best $20 I ever spent.” Naturally my couch companion had to be included in the story. So that’s why Life is riding a dinosaur to the wizard’s tower. 

This bizarre flu-driven comic got considerably more attention and traffic than normal that week, and most people commented to me that they really liked that dinosaur. 

-Love Nick.