dank innards blackly acoil.

lo, the grim tangles of the San Diego Con are thrust upon us.

right now i'm going through my cold feet phase that always happens right before the con (and usually before every other trip, too), where i try to convince myself not to cancel the whole thing and stay home. but i'll be there; i'm signing at the Oni Press booth once a day except Sunday, here's my schedule:

Thursday: 12:00 - 1:20
Friday: 6:00 - 6:50
Saturday: 12:00 - 1:20

that's what it is now, i'm not sure if it'll change or if i'll swapping with other people or whatever, so be sure to come by the Oni booth and check the schedule they have posted there. i might be on the DC/Minx panel which is also at Saturday at noon, so my noon signing at the Oni booth might get moved to a different slot. i'm waiting to hear back from my editor about that so stay tuned. the Oni Press panel is at 1:30 on Saturday, i haven't been asked to be on it but i might be in the audience just watching.

--

all righty, i wasn't going to do this and i'm still not sure if i should be, but i keep getting comments and notes and e-mails about it so i'm going to throw everyone a bone and sort of address the recent changes seen in the Wet Moon cast (namely Cleo's eyes, obviously). you guys have always been really great so here goes.

my skills are always improving and thus changing as i learn more and more, and so it's impossible for my style to stay the same, even if i wanted it to. i learn so much with every drawing and every book i do. there's definitely something to be said for consistency, especially in a continuing series like Wet Moon, and i'd love it if it were consistent across the board, too, but like i said even if i wanted my style to be exactly the same for that purpose, i wouldn't be able to do it if i tried. i can't erase the knowledge that i gain over time, and my style as a result changes along with it. the main reason for the more cartoony shift was just unintentional style progression, things were changing so fast that i'd look back at earlier pages i'd done only weeks before and they'd look completely different and i wouldn't even realize what i was doing. but the other reason is when volume 2 came out, readers at first thought Myrtle was Trilby on the cover, and that was sort of a wake-up call for me. the characters just weren't unique and distinctive enough, they had to be instantly recognizable and distinct from one another, so when the exaggerated features started happening around volume 3, i decided to go with it and really push it and make each character completely distinct. like people are in real life, except since they're cartoons it's an exaggeration of the truth. i look back on volume 1 and all the characters look basically the same to me; they all have basically the same nose, same eyes, even their bodies aren't all that different from one another. that had to change, being that Wet Moon is so much about the differences between people, including physical differences. and my style, already being cartooning and illustrative, needs that exaggeration, because when you draw people realistically with just linework they all tend to start looking the same. i had to go in the other direction.

i think people also forget or don't realize that the Wet Moon volumes are not drawn back-to-back, i have to alternate them with higher-paying projects in order to pay the bills. what this means is that when i return to Wet Moon, i've done an entire other book in the meantime, drawn a completely different cast of characters for months on end and been informed and influenced by them and learned from that whole experience. this unavoidably influences the Wet Moon characters (and vice versa, they influence characters in other books) because i come back to them with this whole new batch of knowledge i can't deny or erase. it's like looking at them through a different, new set of eyes that i have no choice but to see through. i don't think of it as contaminating Wet Moon, it just lets me see those characters more clearly because i'm so much more knowledgeable each time i do a Wet Moon book.

there was so much sketching and thumbnailing of volume 3 and "behind the scenes" stuff, that it's like the character designs evolve on fast-forward. Audrey and Cleo underwent the biggest changes, but every character is going through some, too; Fall getting droopier and her eyes bigger too, Trilby getting sharper, Mara getting a new nose, etc.. it's evolutionary; features that work get better and the stuff that doesn't work gets tossed. changes i like, i go with and develop them further. it's obviously not for everyone. some people asked if the look will stay this way, but i can't say how my style will change in the future, so who knows. who knows what Wet Moon volume 4 and beyond will hold, maybe in the future i'll go back to a less cartoony style, and that would be fine too, but it's all very moment-to-moment for me.

some people are saying the eyes are a problem because they're not realistic. a fair complaint, i guess, but for me, i've never thought of my work as visually realistic anyway, at least in terms of facial features. it's still illustrative, i like to think of it as "cartoony realism," but it's always been cartooning, which is simply distorting reality (which you have to do when you draw with lines anyway). and as i learn more about reality, the characters become more distorted, and simultaneously more realistic in a "hyper-real" kind of way. it's an exaggeration of the truth. and through that, to me, the characters become more real and more human.

i'm not gonna say it wouldn't be nice if the series was more consistent, too, i think the style shifting kind of mars any possibility at Wet Moon being a singular opus when the series is finished, but i can't help it, my stuff changes so fast and how i can deny things that i realize down the road? i get better at anatomy and drawing a wider range of body types and after i've gained more knowledge, how can i deny it? should i deny my skill improvements and gut instincts, or just the simple process of growing up and changing as a person, and keep the stuff the same just for consistency except be frustrated with it the whole time? i don't know. and like i said, i don't think i could keep it the same even if i tried, there'd always be some kind of change. nothing can stay the same.

i don't expect everyone to like the progression, i don't really expect anything. i really really appreciate that even though most of you don't seem into the progressions, that you're invested in the characters enough and like my work enough to care and voice your opinions. it's really an honor and amazing even to have people get upset or concerned over this stuff. some people asked and even begged me not to keep Cleo's eyes this way, and some people even said they were no longer going to read the comics because of the change, but i have to follow my heart and do what i think is right for the characters. even if everyone hates it, i know that, at this juncture at least, that it's right.

hope to see some of you guys at the con next week!! i'll have some prints (some new, some left over from last year), Mountain Girl #2 and #1 for anyone who missed that one, and some original pin-ups and pages. i don't think i'll be doing any sketches this time so my hand and arm can have a much-needed break, so sorry about that!!

--
WET MOON VOLUME 2 on Amazon!!! www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932…
-
The Abandoned stuff:
- Buried.com Interview: www.buried.com/interviews/horr…
- iComics.com: www.icomics.com/rev_042406_aba…
- Buried.com: www.buried.com/fictionreviews/…
- Ninthart.com forecast: www.ninthart.com/display.php?a… (you gotta scroll down a little bit until you see the book cover.)
- IGN.com: comics.ign.com/articles/694/69…
- phishy's review: phishy.deviantart.com/journal/…
- vgonetwork.com: www.vgonetwork.com/anime/anime…
- Ain't It Cool #1: www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi…
- Ain't It Cool #2: www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi…
- Binary Culture: www.binaryculture.net/content/…
- CHUD.com: www.chud.com/index.php?type=th… (scroll down)
-
-- Suicidegirls.com interview: suicidegirls.com/interviews/Ro…
-- Wet Moon on Amazon: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASI…
-- The Abandoned on Amazon: www.amazon.com/gp/product/1598…
-- The Abandoned on Newsarama: www.newsarama.com/tokyopop/Aba…
-
-- art for sale: www.greenoblivion.com/artforsa…
-- wet moon t-shirts: www.greenoblivion.com/shirts.h…
-