Francis Bonnet and his Suburban Fairy Tales SPECIAL EVENT

It's a Crunchy, Made To Malfunction,

Suburban Fairy Tale. It's...

Francis Bonnet

I’ve been working hard at comics for as long as I can remember.

 I’ve always been drawing something, but it wasn’t until 2003

that I started seriously pushing my work and publishing it

 on the web. My first web comic was Crunchy,

which was actually based on a character I created

in high school. I worked on the strip for about four years

(the first year was never published online).

ALL IMAGES CLICK LARGER

After a while, I felt that Crunchy wasn’t really going anywhere.

 I was sick of the main character and found myself writing

 more about the side characters. It wasn’t the same strip anymore,

 so I wanted to try something different. I actually had two ideas

for a new strip pop up in my head around that time.

 The first idea I had would be to put fairy tale characters in a

 modern-day suburban high school. The second idea I had

would be about an inventor and his housekeeping robot.

I decided to go with the fairy tale strip as I thought

it might appeal to more people,

 and thus Suburban Fairy Tales was born.

I worked on Suburban Fairy Tales for about 15 months.

 At around the 10-month mark, that previous idea I had

 about an inventor and his housekeeping robot

was burning a hole in my head. I really wanted to work on it,

 but I’m the kind of person who likes to put all his effort into

 one project at a time. If I was really going to work on that new strip,

 Suburban Fairy Tales would have to end. .. and so it did.

Made To Malfunction was the strip to follow Suburban Fairy Tales.

Instead of just a simple gag strip, it followed longer story arcs mixed

with science fiction and comedy. I worked on the strip for two years.

 During this time I was also sending my work off to the syndicates.

 To my surprise, The Washington Post Writers Group

 showed interest in Suburban Fairy Tales and wanted to see more.

 My dilemma was that I wasn’t working on it anymore.

 So I had to end Made To Malfunction abruptly

(thankfully not in the middle of a story arc)

 and pick up working on Suburban Fairy Tales.

I’m still working in Suburban Fairy Tales to this day.

 It actually felt good to return to this strip as I felt it had ended

prematurely. I’ve been at it for almost 20 consecutive months,

which has now exceeded its original run.

I just recently sent a sample off to the syndicate,

so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

When I’m not cartooning I work as a graphic artist.

 I have a regular job and I also do freelance. Right now,

 one of my freelance jobs is a website called The Ecobabe.

All the Ecobabe illustrations are my artwork.

They were done exclusively using Adobe Illustrator,

 which is different than I do my comic strips.

 My comics are usually always hand-drawn.

Thank you Francis for sharing the interesting

twists and turns your artwork has taken.

CCU is glad you've carved out a place in

 the world of comic strips...three times.

What will you do next?

Come back and show us ASAP. Until then we'll

live our Suburban Fairy Tale along with yours.

Read more »

Daniel Strickland and his StrickArt

Please Give a Warm Welcome to StrickArt’s Very Own

Mr. Daniel Strickland

*applause*

Um, hi. How are you? I’m Daniel. You may also call me

Strick, Strickie, Danimal, Danislaus, or Big D if you’d like.

Just please don’t call me Dan …or late for supper.
(All art clicks to view larger)

Moving on. I was born in the marshy primordial bog of

 Baton Rouge, Louisiana back when He-Men and G.I. Joes

roamed the earth. I became an obsessed comic book aficionado

 at a very early age and began crafting my own characters

 as soon as I could fit a pencil into my wee left hand.

 Yes, those were the years I created such cherished childhood

favorites as “Robot-Man” and “Guy With Daggers For Eyeballs.”

 Ah, those were the days…

Some time had passed and, in the year 2000,

I began my attendance at the Savannah College of Art & Design 

to further explore my love for the comics medium.

At SCAD, I had the great pleasure of learning directly under a few

noted industry professionals including George Pratt (Enemy Ace),

 Scott Hampton (The Life Eaters),

and Mark Schultz (Cadillacs & Dinosaurs).

 I graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sequential Art

 (i.e. funny books), Summa Cum Laude.

Since then, I have obtained work doing book cover illustrations,

 mini-comics, posters, portraits, web-comics, an inking gig,

and the occasional graphic novel.
Let’s see. One of my proudest recent comic outings has been
the honor of penciling and inking the web-strip saga entitled
M.O.P.S. (The Martial Organization Protecting Sanitation)
for the kindly folks at ICON Studios.

Working with creator/colorist/graphic designer Heath Tullier,

 writer/letterer/web developer Patrick Rills,

and writer Sean Jandle is always a veritable blast.

To read the fully-colored and lettered strips, please visit

http://www.wefightdirty.net/. If you like what you see and want the

 M.O.P.S. adventures to continue, forget writing to

your local congressman, please write to Heath and Patrick!

Tell them how much you enjoyed the series

 and that you want it to keep going!

Inking other pencilers is a skill I practice honing whenever I can.

I learn so much by doing this. I think inking gets a bad rap

in these days of Photoshop-darkened pencils and whatnot.

 But, I’m gonna tell it to you straight:

IT’S JUST NOT THE SAME! IT’S NOT JUST TRACING!!!

If you’re still skeptical, just print out any large

professionally-penciled comic page you can find on

 Google Images and try it out for yourself. You’ll see that it’s HARD!

 The old-world craftsmanship of inking with a brush

 is all about embellishing forms through use of varying line weights,

 emphasizing focal points, enhancing textures,

and composing in black and white. It’s a noble craft indeed

 and it’s a real shame to see it currently going the way of the dodo.

 

These sample pages are from two different Star Wars books

put out by Dark Horse Comics. All rights reserved.

If you do like what you see and want to hire me to

 ink your next project, please shoot me a line at

dstric21@bellsouth.net.

I’ve also been known to delve into Pin-Uppery.

Just for the heck of it.

I plan on drawing more single images of

classic character favorites and bodacious ladies when time permits.

 If you have any character requests and would like a Pin-Up,

 I am available for commissions. Just write dstric21@bellsouth.net.

 Serious inquiries only, please.

Next is a project I’m super-jazzed to be currently working on

 called Fisher-Cat. It’s a collaboration with Erik Van Buren 

of the Baton Rouge Cartoonist Society (BRCS)

for their latest anthology book.

I’m pleased as punch to be working with him on it.

 Tell Erik how much you liked it here.

Lastly, but definitely not leastly,

 there’s my secret project: GODSPEED.

It’s a character and story I’ve been forming off and on

 for years now. My wonderful girlfriend and art partner

Chandra Potopsingh helped me flesh out this initial story.

 It will be included in the upcoming BRCS  Pipe Dream collection.

 Here’s a sneak peek:

Thank you so much for reading this and a BIG thanks to

 Comic Creators United for having me.

Graciously, Daniel

In summary:

Cool stuff……………………………….................………www.comicspace.com/strickart

Oldish stuff………………………………............................…………..www.strickart.com

If anyone still uses this……………………………….....……www.myspace.com/strickart

F word....…http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Strickland/1557676520?ref=search

M.O.P.S. awesomeness………………………………..…………….www.wefightdirty.net

Web-comic comrades………………………………..........................www.iconstudios.org

Mini-comic comrades/Anthologists..…………….……http://www.comicspace.com/brcs/

Serious inquiries………………………………...........................…dstric21@bellsouth.net

Thanks to you Daniel. That's a lot of top-quality artwork.

CCU can't wait to see more "GODSPEED" and expects

you to come back when it's up to full speed.

Drop him a line folks. I don't think he sleeps.

Read more »

Ryan Carpentier: Illustrator

CCU has got talent. New Talent.

Ryan Carpentier:
Illustrator/Cartoonist

http://www.ryancarpentier.com/

http://www.ryancarpentier.blogspot.com/

http://alienanddog.blogspot.com/

http://www.comicspace.com/ryancarp

http://volumeone.org/magazine/category/1.html

ryanjcarpentier@gmail.com

 Ryan Carpentier recently graduated from the

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

 with an illustration major. His style is very cartoony

and he always attempts

to add humor to his imagery when possible.

His work has been published in magazines around the northern Wisconsin area and displayed at local businesses. Images of Ryan's work can be viewed at his website http://www.ryancarpentier.com/.

After spending a year and half as an illustrator with

 Volume One magazine, which covers

Wisconsin culture and entertainment,

he is now looking to get his work out for larger audiences.

http://volumeone.org/magazine/category/1.html

With a desire to create a funny comic strip,

Ryan has been developing the cartoon known as "Alien and Dog."

Always a sci-fi fan (Trekkie alert) and especially a lover of canines

(his dog Penny is always a source of material for his cartoons),

he decided to merge the two affections into a cartoon

that puts a different spin on the old 'owner and his pet' story.

ALIEN and DOG

With the cartoon strip still in it's infancy,

Ryan definitely loves drawing "Alien and Dog"

and can't wait to continue with the two wacky characters

on his blog at

http://alienanddog.blogspot.com/!

Thanks Ryan.

We're gonna keep an eye out for those two

 and your illustrations. CCU hopes you'll come back

and show off Alien and Dog as it progresses.

Read more »