George WebberArtist - Cartoonist - Illustrator

5FINITY HIGH FIVE AWARD 

Well I just about pooped my pants last night when I got the email telling me I had won a place in the 5FINITY Second Annual High Five Awards as "Most Original Artist" !

I don't win many Awards, mostly due to not trying out for awards or contest, so winning an award based on Fan & Dealer choice without knowing I was even up for it, is PRETTY FREAKIN' AWESOME

Thanks to everyone voted and thanks to all the hot babes I had to draw to get this award and thanks to all the little people (muchkins, smurfs, wee folks, etc) I crushed along the way to get here.

 From 5FINITY:

"As voted on by a core group of dealers and fans:

Favorite Artist (Body of Work) :  Mark Bloodworth

Runner-ups : Benjamin Glendenning, Patrick Finch, Axebone, Danielle Soloud

Favorite Artist (Specific Release) :  Dean Yeagle (Manga Mandy)

Most Collectible Artist :  Katie Cook

Most Original Artist : George Webber

100% Effort Every Time Award : Benjamin Glendenning

Each winner will receive a cool award and recognition in an ad in an upcoming Non-Sport Update magazine.

Thank you to all of the wonderful artists we are blessed to work with here at 5FINITY! Here's to a great 2012! "

SO TAKE THAT 2011 !

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Space Scooter Girl Saves Xmas - Comic 

Ok, first a little quick background info on this.  Originally this was going to be part of a little anthology book a few of us wanted to put together for Christmas ... well, best layed plans and all that jazz.

Bottom line, book didn't happen but at least I got my short story done.

The art could be cleaner, but drawing 5 x 8 inch pages in scale on crappy paper at midnight over three days, well it kinda limits the results, but over all I came out pretty good. 

First image is the character designs, originally I had no idea what I was going to write or draw for my story, all I knew was I wanted something cute, sexy and "PG" enough to not put off parents at the Xmas CAM-JAM (Decembers Cartoon Art Museum's artist Jam).

Anyway I hope you'll all enjoy this silly short story.

-gWebber

Thanks for giving Space Scooter Girl saves Xmas a read,

Happy Holidays to you all !

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 ALLEY CATS - Comic Book

UPDATE: A couple of unexpected outcomes from Alley Cats.

ONE : It's been far more popular among women than I thought it would be, given the characters are a "Street Walker" (to be polite) and a bit of a Con Artist Alley Cat.

I guess it proves women really like cats a lot or at least enough to over look the female character's obvious profession.

TWO : Alley Cats has gotten me a lot of praise and kind words about my artwork from people that I respect in the field of comics, many of whom have never really seen my work before.

THREE : This little book helped me come very close to winning an award, that was a surprise.

Anyway ... Here's the Cover and a page sample from my latest "Micro" AshCan Comic "Alley Cats".  I call this one "Micro" as the story itself only six pages long.  But don't let that fool you, for what seems on the surface a simple story I packed in a lot of underlying meanings and layers to the characters, you just have to think about it to discover them for yourself. 

The stories title is ALLEY CATS "Birds of a Feather" and it's indirectly about people (or in this case a cat and a person)  and how we perceive and treat each other, that we are all more alike than not and finding each other and each fore filling a need for another and receiving in kind.  And like Aesop Fables there's at least one moral to the story.

Now before you think I’ve gone all “touchy-feely” in the head or something, that’s the under lying story (or one of them at least) , the story is still lovingly written and illustrated in my best tacky gritty urban cheese ball style and humor.

Why… because only I can make “trashy” adorable.

The artwork for Alley Cats was done in a traditional comic book style of ink on paper over penciled layouts using 11 x 17 Blueline Pro Comic Book Page Paper, Kurtake Brush Pen, Kamimei Drawing Ink.

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  Lady Death Sketch Card Set for 5FINITY

I've been insanely busy the last few months with trying to get my Pirate Fairies of the 8th Sea comic finished for WonderCon and a zillion things in my personal life as well.

So I haven't posted as much new art and stuff as I should have here on the NCC Blog.  Well in an attempt to fix that a little bit I now present ... 

A sampler card from the Lady Death Sketch Card Set from 5FINITY Productions.  I'm not sure of the release date but you guys can look it up on the 5FINITY web site (June, July?)  And take a look at the artist list too, there's going to be some great cards given the people working on it.

Plus I can't tell you what a great thrill it was to have the creator of Lady Death, Brian Pulido personally look at and approve my cards for the set. 

A bit of a FANBOY moment on my part to be sure.

Oh, also this Lady Death Sketch Card was featured in my video on the Sketch Card Process on YouTube, you can see the video and others here > 

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  It's FIXED !

Just spent the better part of the night fixing the NoCashComics Store Pages.

So now you can buy my books, prints and art (as soon as I post more items). All of my books are up though, so you can get a copy of my latest book Pirate Fairies of the 8th Sea while you can!

Pirate Fairies sold like hotcakes at WonderCon and I'm only printing a limited number of them before I start working on issue 2 !

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Japan Relief Fund Sketch Card Auction 

So a few days ago I posted this sketch card up for auction on Twitter and Facebook hopefully to raise some funds for a Japan Relief Donation.

I started the bids at $25.00, pretty reasonable for a hand drawn,  one-of-a-kind, signed and framed sketchcard I thought.

And while I was initially a bit disappointed in how few bids came in, in the end I'm happy to say it sold for the price of $50.00.

Oh, but the story doesn't end there.

I gave the money to one of my in-laws who works for a company that is also doing a fund raiser and they are matching all employee donations 2 for 1 !

So, that $50.00 is now $150.00 ! 

I sleep a little better tonight knowing I have done some small good in the World ... how about you?

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Drawing & Making Comics on the iPad 

So the question is, can a comic book created or better still a printable comic book be made entirely on the Apple iPad?

Well so far the answer seems to be Yes, No, Sort of, Maybe. Confused?, ya me too.

Ok, so let me give you the break down. The first step was coming up with a short all be it stupid story, not too tough for a headcase like me.

Next you'll need some Art, this is where thing can get tricky as the iPad can be great for drawing but still has limitations, if you don't try to go too wild it'll work.

I used Apps like Brushes and Sketchbook Pro to draw a few random Batman test images while testing those apps (there are several others that work quite well too, but I'll get into that another time).

So I've got some Batman sketches I've done on the iPad and a few photos of a lady freind (Natasha Yi) that I downloaded off the web in Safari onto the iPad.

Next I need Panels, Word Balloons and Text.

All three of these I managed in a App called CartoonStrip CS, CartoonStrip is still pretty new and has a ways to go before it's a real comic book maker, but it has the basic tools to pull it off, not bad for a Version 1.01 App.

NOTE: CartoonStrip only does Horizontal pages at this time!

So, CartoonStrip ... just select a template page of panels, get your images from the iPads Albums by clicking on the "X' in the panels, move scale and rotate the images as you please.

Sadly you can only scale UP and not down, nor can you put more than one image in a panel as there's no Alpha Channels or Layers, it would be pointless anyway.

Next put in some Word Balloons and type some text. The "Tail" of the Word Balloons can be grabbed and dragged to any place and length ... although it does take some practice to get the "tail" and not the picture.  It would be nice if you could "lock" the pictures in place, but that's not an option either at this time. 

NOTE: Once you save a Page in CartoonStrip, it becomes a jpg and can no longer be edited. So be sure everything it right before you save or you'll have to make the page all over again. I know I had to make several pages two or three times to get them 100% right.

You can read my goofy comics pages here , then continue to read the rest of the story.

Just click the cover image to open it and click arrows to change pages.

OK, so that's the comic pages look as they come out of CartoonStrip.

The images are iPad Screen Resolution JPGs, so they can be printed and look ok, not fabulous super crisp high res, but not too bad either. I quite was surprized at how they looked, I didn't expect anything much given I had streched some images quite a bit. But they where pretty good.

For the next step I had to go out of the iPad and into the computer in order to make a PDF file from all my pages. I'm not aware of a PDF writter App at this time, if there is, then even more of the process can be done in the iPad, which would be great.

Anyway, it was a simple task, just rename the images in page order 01, 02, 03, etc and make a multi page PDF.

Setting the PDF to print a Booklet was fairly brainless too (borrowed the use of a nice high end laser printer for two sided printing, sweet )

Finally if you have the iBooks app on you iPad you can drag and drop your PDF into iTunes under Books and Presto! your PDF will go to your iPad (after a sync) and you can read you comic on your iPad.

Pretty freakin' cool if I do say so myself

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 Using the iPad for Art? Part 1 

When the iPad was first announced I like many other artist wondered if maybe this could be a light weight moble art studio or sketch pad.

The more I read about the iPad at that time the more I had doubts that it would or could, but it was a bit too soon to tell for sure.

Since then I seen several iPad add-on gadgets and many apps that made me interested in the iPad for other uses, but at the same time I still wanted to draw on the iPad.

So ever since I got my iPad I've been trying to find what Drawing Apps, Stylus and other gadgets work together well enough to say the iPad is a plausable mobile art studio or at least as a functional sketch pad.

So far I've been testing three brands of stylus, eight drawing apps, three photography apps and several iPad gadgets like the Apple USB port adapter and some others.

And I'll be writing about the Apps and gadgets as part of this on going series, but for now let's start with the Stylus.

The Pogo Sketch Stylus

Like most people it seems I tried the Pogo Sketch Stylus first.

 http://www.tenonedesign.com/sketch.php

The short version of my thoughts on the Pogo are as follows, if you want something small to just poke around your iPhone or iPad's screen, it's fine, but if your looking for an art tool ... maybe not so much.

At the same time I can't totally rule out the Pogo as an art tool as it largely depends on how you feel about the following items.

The first thing is the Pogo is skinny, much like a PDA stylus which for some people might be fine, but for larger hands it could be a problem.

Of course the Pogo has a pocket clip and a top knot with a hole for tethering,but while the body is metal, the clip is plastic and at $ 15.00 bucks feels too cheap. Sure I've seen it listed for as little as eight bucks and even then it just doesn't add up for me, it feels like paying ten bucks for a 49 cent Bic ball point pen.

The next thing is the little spongy tip has a "drag" feel to it when moving on the screen, some people like a little drag, some don't mind, others may not like it at all.

In my opinion it's not huge drag but it can be felt and I don't care for it when doing broad strokes, on smaller detail work it's not so bad. In fact sometimes the Pogo is just what you need to do detail work as the small tip is pretty easy to see around and place where you want it, but still not great.

The big issue I have with the Pogo is the sponge tip doesn't seem to hold up to the scrubbing motion that many artist may use, it really seems to get compressed or wear down. I noticed a change in the shape of the tip after about a week of some what heavy use.

Next up is the Dagi.

I don't own a Dagi yet, but I did try out my friend Doc Popular's for a little while.

The first thing I noticed is it really requires you to hold it in a certain position and seems like your forced to work a slower pace. It also seems to need a firmer touch to work.

It could be I wasn't really used to the unusual feel of the Dagi's harder plastic tip, however that nice little sight glass pinpoint might work well for smaller precision placement for detail work once getting used to it.

I'll have to get one to test it out more to make a final determination on it and that could be a trick in itself as they are only really sold in Asia and through eBay.

http://www.dagi.com.tw/front/bin/home.phtml

The final stylus we have is the Targus.

The Targus is the stylus I currently use and like quite a bit.

It's body is thick enough that it feels like a nice pen, although it is shorter than a standard pen, it's not too much shorter so it still fits the hand pretty well. It also has a nice weight and balance to it.

Anyway like the Pogo the Targus features a pocket clip and a top knot with a hole so it can be tethered somehow if you wish, the diffrence is it's all metal.

Now the most important part of any stylus is the tip and the Targus has a rounded soft rubber like material that with a light or heavy touch glides quickly and smoothly on the iPad. On most of the apps I've tried the Targus response is quick even using a soft touch which is nice.

If the Targus tip has a flaw it's that being soft you'll tend to "squish" it down on the screen harder than you need to, but even then it moves quickly and doesn't wear down like like the Pogo. After a little use you'll get the feel for the Targus and it'll perform nicely.

The Targus has a much more natural angle like a pen or brush when drawing with it.

It seems Box Wave makes a stylus that's pretty much a twin for the Targus so I'll assume the results would be the same with the Box Wave, except that the Box Wave cost more.

All told I have to say as art tools each of these stylus may have a use, but for a good all around general purpose tool the Targus gets my money first.

BestBuy has them but at $ 15.00 bucks they go out of stock fast.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Targus+-+Stylus+for+Apple%26%23174%3B+iPad%26%23153%3B/1151337.p?id=1218226504600&skuId=1151337

Try the Targus, I think you'll like it.

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Something New

So I'm trying a little something new.

I'm in the process of changing the look and navigation of the site in an attempt to make it less visually cluttered and (I hope) more cell phone and tablet friendly as well.

Sadly CSS Coding isn't one of my strong suits, so expect some bumps along the way, I'll try to make it as painless as I can.

To start you'll see I've put up the NoCashComics Blog as the "Home" page. I'm hoping that this way I can keep the site's front page content a little more fresh and interesting, plus quicker and easier for my readers to find the good stuff .

I'm also currently in the process of writing a bunch of new articles that I'm pretty sure will be of interest to my fellow artist, cartoonist and hopefully to my fans too.

So stick around and see how it goes

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APE - The Alternative Press Expo - 2010 

As much as I love APE and this year was especially great, I really wished they didn't charge such a huge price for their tables.

I mean I really do love doing the show, but just once I'd like to go and think maybe I can come out ahead instead of at a loss. 

It seems like they treat all the tables as "Small Press" and price it almost as much as a Small Press Booth at a bigger show.

Me, I'm just a cash poor artist trying to make it, so where's the "Artist Alley" pricing for tables at APE?

Seems like theres non, I don't know why don't they have something more affordable given that it's just not that big of a show ... and no I don't mean a "Half Table" which anyone that's had one knows it's pretty useless.  

Sure a Half Table is cheaper, but what have you got space for? one sign, two stacks of books a couple of drawings and maybe a few buttons and if your doing sketches that four foot table gets really cramped.

Anyway ...   There's no doubt about it, this year APE was huge!   So let's look at a few silly photos and talk about it, shall we   First off I think my table looked pretty good, even better when I hung up more art on the wall display.   (Grid Wall Display from ACME Display here in San Francisco)   There where far more exhibitors than ever before and what seemed to be a larger than usual turnout of long time fans and new people alike.   No, it wasn't the huge throng of geekery that we all love at WonderCon and other big shows, but still, for APE it was bigger and better attended in my opinion.   Saturday and Sunday both had great turnouts even with the bit of rain we had on Sunday. The flow of people while not always huge on Sunday was there all day long.   All I really remember was so busy doing sketches, talking to artist, friends, fans and first timers, that I only got to leave my table for a few minutes a day and hardly had time to look at anything myself.   A few exhibitors I know seem to agree that this was a great year to be at APE.  There was so much new stuff to see and so many new artist to meet, plus APE put together such a  great list of guest artist and panels that it almost felt like it needed to be three days instead of just two.   From what I've heard (and saw) people came from all over the World to be at APE this year, either as exhibitors or fans.   I know for myself, several fans and friends came pretty good distances to stop by and show their support.   One example of that is friend, fan and fellow motorcycle loving cartoonist Rob Campbell who came from Hollister.   He stopped in to so we could meet for the first time as we've only known each other through our "internet artist lives".   So it was great to finally meet him face to face and talk about bikes and art for a bit.   There ain't nothin' better than talking about bikes, broads and cartoons ... oh ya' good times.   Oddly I didn't have opportunity to do that many full-on Commissioned Con Sketches at this year's APE.   So when I was asked to do a sketch of Capcom's Felicia character, I got to go pretty hot and heavy with her. I'd never draw her before although I've been wanting to for some time, so it was great fun to work on.   I'm just glad I remembered to bring good paper and my Copic Markers !   Kinda' wished the photo had come out better, some nice grayscale shading on her, oh well.   And we're not done yet, check out the photos down below for a few more fun moments at APE 2010.
There was quite a few people in costume this year at APE both behind and in front of the tables.   Just wished I had more time to get more photos.   I did manage to grab some shots of Wonder Woman and the Huntress walking by, both had great costumes.   And one more photo below ...
Ok, so she's not the tallest Amazonian I've ever seen, still as Wonder Woman she was completely in the character ... oh, bondage, fun.   Her Golden Lasso makes anyone tell the truth and the truth is, Hell ya' she's cute!   Can't wait for 2011's WonderCon, APE and all the other shows, I think 2011 is going to be a blast.

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