Dog Blog

Many of you might not know the person Backslash is based on, it is a good friend of mine who I have lived with, worked with and had many fun adventures with. Through our friendship a playful rivalry came up possibly from us looking something alike and both wanting to establish ourselves as “the better one!” called “the twins” “good and evil” “the boys” by friends its clear to see we sometimes strived to define ourselves based on a superiority to the other. To that end something like what happened in this comic is not far from reality at all! My friend and I would prank each other on a regular basis and each one would lead to a bigger retaliation. It was great to bring it out in the characters based on us!

As for the art itself, I really had fun with this, I liked having full backgrounds, I loved the slow fade up as Backslash regains conciseness, and I really loved the flashback going to a black and white manga style. it was start to finish fun! This also marks my first 9 panel comic! Okay so some would say a black frame isn’t art… (me about ten comics ago.) so even then its still 8 panels and thats not to bad! I am a fan of this and I know no one else would catch this but Doug reading is my tip of the hat to Danger Mouse, my favorite cartoon as a wee little Doug, when ever he would drive or read or pilot his ship, to save on animation costs no doubt, his mouth would be covered so it was partial nose and eyes. So glad I got to add that in!

Also….. I loved drawing the past Backslash and Doug! hehe

Check out the COMIC HERE, 

Hey Everyone,

So this weeks Monday strip was the kick off for a 8 to 10 strip series of our Dog Housers going to Disney World. this is directly inspired by my trip to Disney World this past week. Since during my vacation I was not allowed to use my phone, check email or work on anything, I took the oportunity of our flight delay to jot down some comic ideas inspired by my voyage while it was still fresh in my mind.

This comic was basically an announcment of intent for the series. I also love how most web comics will have a vacation story line, its a great way to show off your characters in a new and hopfully desired location. This formula isnt just for web comics either, need I remind you of the Saved by the Bell, Hawii or the Full House in Disney World? Well The Dog House is nothing if not classical! And so our heroes are off to the sunny land of Florida to meet that most epic of icons, the Mouse himself! Let me state off the bat if you are looking for ironic villifying of the beloved cartoon characters Walt drew, you will be sadly disapointed. I have nothing but respect for what Walt Disney created, and as one of my personal heroes I dont feel like taking a poop on his creations for the sake of a laugh is a good way to go. That said, the Dog House is not a overly warm and fuzzy “Aww how cute” brand of humor strip either. This aint the Family Circus! So you can bet fun and hilarity will insue upon the arrival of our dear dog to the land of the mouse.

I was also excited to get back to having full frame comics again. what I mean by this is the use of a full background. I had done this in eariler comics and loved the look and stylistic flare it gave the strip. I had been holding off on it as it is a tad time intensive. I am really glad to be adding that little touch to the strip again. I feel it really fills out the image! Also i am keeping with the new coloring style for the characters, I feel this really makes them pop off the page more.  My biggest self critique is that I feel the speech bubbles became a tad hard to follow. I am also really stoked to show off more characters. I felt the last few updates have been very Backslash and Marcus heavy, and while I feel this is because of the levels of physical comedy they bring to the table I dont like that the last time we checked in with Lauren and Kat was over a month ago (unless you count seeing their legs in “Sit Up Boy”). The Disney World trip strips are going to show off more of our house mates and I am really glad to be fleshing them out as characters more. Kat has a much more stylized rounded look that I am really enjoying, Lauren has a more expressive face that I am really happy with. All in all I am really happy with how this strip came out and I am really stoked to get the rest of this series out!

I have been a busy, busy boy of late. And that, is in fact; a very good thing! I have recently finished off a shoot in New Jersey with Brian Viglione and The Penny Dreadfuls! These promotional ads for the Steampunk Worlds Fair consisted of 6 skits, (three of which I wrote out on my trip down to NJ) all of which involved Brian, The trip down was extensive, Meeting Laura and Paul at 11, taking the Boston T to South Station to find the next bus was in fact at 2 am. We then spent the next hour or so in the South Street Diner. I was rather happy to be able to take Laura there for the first time! Once the clock struck 2 in the gosh dang A. M we sped away on a bus that had an odd tendency to shift forward and back slightly as it went. making me regret the tuna melt and shake I had ordered from South Street. This lurching motion made sleep a tad hard but the Dogtoon crew managed to get a bit of sleep. we also seemed to make amazing time and arrived at New York City at 4:45am. AMAZING!  

Off the bus I think the first thing I was aware of was the bitter cold as we walked down Canal St to the subway. Upon reaching the underground Paul and I shared the same confused look as we attempted to plot our rout. Thankfully Laura lead us to Penn station (its good to have a New Yorker on hand in these kind of situations) We reached Penn Station just in time to run to our train. This would have been easier if we knew where the gates were. But with a bit of luck we actuallymade the train and then enjoyed the hour long jaunt through the NJ commuter service. 

After a short nap on the rails, I woke and called the hotel to confirm our reservation, and to have them send the shuttle. Of course, our luck ran that the shuttle wasn’t ready yet. But the kind folks had the number of a driver they use. So I dial the number and I can only relate the following as best I can from memory as it was so unbelievable that I really wish I had it on record. To paraphrase, it went something like this; 

     Doug: Hello, I would like to get picked up at New Brunswick station please, 

     Guy: Where are you now? (took three tries to get this) 

   Doug: I dont know really, umm.. pulling out of Elliot station? 

   Guy: Pick up at Elliot to New Brunswick! Okay 

  Doug: NO! no no! I want to be picked up AT New Brunswick! 

  Guy: Where? 

 Doug New Brunswick Station, 

     REPEAT the last Two lines 12 times, (No lie!) 

Guy: (clearly frustrated) WHEREwherewherewhereWHERE!? 

Doug: Okay, I dont know how else to say New Brunswick station soooo, what are you looking for me to say? 

Guy: WHERE in New Brunswick!? 

Doug: Like what part of the station? I dont know dude, Im not from here! 

Guy: Where?! Where?! Where?! where are you? Bridge? 

Doug: Sure….. why the hell not, the Bridge? where would that be? 

Guy: Okay… Bridge! ~click~ 

 
So yeah… needless to say there was some confusion once we got off the train, after two more calls with this guy, both of them as fruitful as the first we hopped in a cab and I proceeded to ignore his angry calls. I did save his angry voice mail though so if you see me and ask, I will play it for you! Hopping in this cab might not have been our best move, we all pile in and I tell the driver the address, and without looking he jumps out into the street and pulls a big U turn in the newly falling snow, cutting off three cars as he did so.  From here, Somehow Laura got to sleep so only Paul and I got to enjoy the cab drivers attempt to get us to the hotel!  This of course involved the usual, you know…jumping a curb, a bit of off roading..missing a stop sign so to make up for it slamming on the breaks and sliding into the center of a busy intersection…fishtailing… and my favorite, driving along peoples front lawns!  Well, we managed to make it to the Hotel…alive. Well done crazy New Jersey cab driver.. you earned your twelve dollars! 

More on the shoot in the next Blog

Hello All,

Time once again for the comic blog, where I explain things about the current comic! This time it for Strip 57 Mondays update “Convention Memories” As I travel around to various conventions throughout the North East I have been marking down some select things I find humorous. Of course the question I have been getting since the comic went up is “So did you actually make out with a Storm Trooper?” and let me side step that question by telling you about the coloring! haha honestly though I love seeing the strip in color and I may try to keep rolling with it and change the update schedule so I can keep them in full color

This past year was my first time going to ConettiCon and it was a huge blast for me! I met some great people, got involved with the Penny Dreadfuls, got to chat up other far better established web comic artists! So I really got a lot out of this convention, and I cant wait to go again next year! 

As far as the art goes, I sketched this comic out about 3 weeks ago, and have just been able to finally ink and color it. I lost my usual means to ink so I had to get creative for this strip and it took me longer then I wanted, this strip was going to be strip 56. But better postponed then not at all! Also in this strip I tried something new, i made Doug’s ears the same color as the rest of him in an effort to make him a tad more Golden Retriever looking, I am not really sure if I like it or not and if you have a preference please let me know, I love feed back! I think it looks a bit better color wise with the brown ears he had before but hey, always fun to try something new! …like making out with a Storm Trooper….

Comic Strip #57 

Hey All,

So, the Holidays have come and gone, the dinner parties, the feasting, the drinking and as with many people…..I have a pleasant reminder of how much I enjoyed it, in the form of a semi protruding and rather annoying gut! I feel this is made all the worse by my being a generally skinny guy. Nothing makes
a belly worse then having it on a skinny frame. So as I work to get rid of mine lots of comedic things have happened and I felt a good old comic story line is just what the doctor ordered!

I think I have really gotten my schedule down, (though work is moving me all around gahh!) but I think at this point I will have Monday as my color update, and Wednesday as a line art day. This gives me plenty of time to work out my story lines and color between the Wednesday and Monday update. I also am fervidly using my sketch book to get out story idea’s character notes and overall story arch’s. I really feel sorry for anyone who has to decipher my ramblings. But at least I can make sense of it, and I am really stoked to get this story underway,

A little about the comic story, I really liked the idea of Doug being the butt of a joke every now and again and since I did in fact gain some weight what a great little fact to poke fun at. This story line will of course develop for a few strips to come. So stick with it!

Check out the comic HERE!