Saved by the Bell V2 ANNOTATED

Complete series cover by Chynna Clugston Flores

Have you bought your Saved by the Bell Freshman Year compilation from Roar? Do it!

Sadly, this compilation of V1 and V2 will be the complete run for us. The license ran out, my editor moved on, and it's time for us to do the same. But first, let's walk through the second volume. If you didn't see my notes on my V1 art, click the tag for "Saved by the Bell."

I have mixed feelings about V2. I was crazy busy at my day job during the production of the stories, and the deadlines of everything combined was really stressful. But I look at some of the art here and think, "well, alright, still pretty good."

Overall, there are fewer inside jokes and bits snuck in, but here we go (page numbering from Freshman Year):

"Just Married"

This was my favorite SBTB story to draw. Loved Ox and Lisa; some homo-subtext with Zack and Screech. Just a joy to draw!

P157 P1: Screech is wearing a T with a Mayan symbol I had recently seen at a museum in Paris. Miss Wentworth came from Google image searching from the show--she was an actual character! Eames desk chairs and chairs throughout this story, too! Fred and Daphne from Scooby Doo in the back row next to Ox.

P158 P3: My recurring background character indie gay boy Jeff gets huggy in front of Fred and Daphne; Leslie and Herbert from V1 also still a couple and appear in the backgrounds throughout this story.

P160 P1: Far right, is a girl in a Betty (Bat-Girl) Kane dress, carrying a tennis racket (Betty's first love), behind Kate with her trademark umbrella in mini backpack.

P160 P5: My oft-used explosion effect.

P162: I really liked this page. I hated the Jesse character on the show, but I imagined her as a a lipstick lesbian when I drew her, so liked her more.

P163: More Eames in the library. I loved drawing Lisa and Ox; their dynamic (though exaggerated) reminded me of my sister and pretty much every BF she's ever had.

P164: P1 More touch-action for Jeff. P3-4 "twin sister" poster for my friend Matt, who has a twin sister.

P166: Miss Wentworth sports a dress inspired by Kara Zor-el from the 70s.

P167 P6: Jeff sports a "haifischbaby" T designed and sold me me.

P168 P6: hearts for Jeff and his skinny boy BF.

"Rumor With a View"

I hated this story, it was a lot of talking. From Jesse about Slater. Ugh. But still got kudos from my editor for making some interesting things happen.

P185 P1: another example of me compressing scripted panels 1-3 to make a half-splash. Here, the gang takes second place to Jeff and his skinny boy BF in the center. Happy with this page...though the perspective gave me a run for my money...

P186 P1: Jesse has a book titled Bra Town in her locker!

P186 P6: I haven't used the flower effects since Cavalcade in 2006!

P187 P1: Krueger fiberglass chairs.

P187 P4: Poster for the BBC show Do Not Adjust Your Set.

P188 P1: Kate with her backpack and umbrella.

P189: I loved this page with the shrubbery.

P190: I loved this page more...shrubbery plus shirtless Slater. Plus fun Kelly in P6.

P191: Jeff and his BF bicker.

P192 P1: poster for Slumbrew's comedy night (every Sunday).

P192 P2: poster for Race for the Cure...featuring Robert Smith. :-)

P192 P4: Ox, Leslie, Herbert in BG.

P193 P2: Rabbit book in the locker.

P191 P3: not sure what this poster was.

"Hats Off"

This is probably my second favorite story to draw. Lots of fun stuff going on with the cursed hat, and some fun splashy stuff to draw. Plus Ox. I love drawing him!

P199 P1: Bayside Chess team poster and I can't recall what the other was meant to be.

P200 P1-3: Several glimpses of Backpack Kate and Jeff. More Krueger fiberglass chairs.

P200 P5: McCobb Planner Group dresser 1509.

P201 P4-7: I had to scrap the first draft as the writer and editor wanted to invoke a feeling of a lots of time passing with Zack stationary. Here I drew the background once, and layer over several characters, some which recur over the 4 panels, others don't. A reasonable solution!

P202: I thought this was a prank when I read the script...Slater wrestling in a singlet?!? For me?!? It felt like a gift. Luxuriate on this page.

P202 P1: More Kate, plus Herbert and Leslie milling about.

P202 P5: My friend Scott is really "into" wrestling, and as tribute to him and our friendship, I asked him to send me a few of his favorite wrestling pics. This panel draws from one of them I thought worked best.

P203: Another fun page to draw, Kelly getting nailed by the basketball. I get to use my explosion effect.

P204 P3: Jeff wearing a Tin from Metal Men T; creepy stalker lurking too.

P205 P1:

P205 P2: McCobb Planner Group desk 1561.

P206: Among my favorite pages to draw of the series! I loved the way the bonfire in P3 turned out with the light and shadows. I think I managed to pull off the tiny panels well, against some big splashy stuff. Plus Ox! He may be the unofficially 7th Beller.

P207 P1: Poster is obscured, but it reads, "Cheer try outs and coffee house." Kelly wearing a 1976 Supergirl T & hotpants combo.

P207 P2: Ox carrying a Math for Jocks textbook. Last Ox I think :-(

P208 P1: Poster for my upcoming anthology, Love Street.

P208 P2: Joelle's script describes "a tall hot guy approaches Jesse." and his lines are attributed to "GUY" like so:

GUY:  Are you Jesse Spano?

At the time I was drawing this, one of my co-workers, by the name of Guy, was leaving Boston for Seattle. I made this Guy look sort of like our Guy (tall, insanely broad shoulders and insanely narrow waist). One poster behind him is of a sneaker (Guy had/has a sneaker fetish); the other is a poster from the "we miss you club" with little drawings of my co-workers in a heartfelt tribute to Guy.

"Sandblasted"

By now I was slipping further behind deadline, and really stressed out. Fortunately, this script was much easier to draw with the beach-y backgrounds. Though is did limit the inside jokes and recurring background characters I was inserting. Fun  to draw the guys in swimtrunks, plus lifeguards!

P213 P1: The only glimpse of Backpack Kate. Some weird layering of the title font over Zack's hand.

P220-221: For all you Kelly fans, I gave you as much bikini action close-up as I could!

P224-226: I drew the hospital scene first, since it was the toughest. Lots of talking in bed, but I I like the way it turned out.

***

That's all for Saved by the Bell! I'm both sad and relieved we're not moving on to sophomore year. I wracked up just under 100 pages in the series, and overall, I am pleased with my efforts. Since so much of the script was talking, locker scenes, the Max, and classrooms, I tried to take every moment to do my best layout and inking. And, when it came time for splapstick, I dove in there too. Plus I got to draw a few alt locations (the mall, the studio, the ski lodge, the beach, etc.). So the series wasn't my usual fare, but I 99% loved working on it and am grateful I had the opportunity! Joelle's scripts were spot on in series' tone; my editor Adam (mostly :) pushed me to better places; and it's an honor to be side-by-side with one of my favorite artists, Chynna.

So there!

The daily post challenge was kind of fun at first…since I had a lot of sketches from 2014 and 2015 to post. And I thought my sketches from the UK trip were pretty alright. But at the end of the challenge, to achieve my “traditional” 60 posts per year, I am overwhelmed! I mean with the whole social media thing. When do I post to Facebook? Twitter? Blogger? Do I differentiate between Blogger posts and Tumblr posts? After much encouragement, I started up an Instagram account…but what and when do I post there? How can I keep up with all this?—I’m just one man.

Admittedly, I am really strapped for time at the moment…being the director of my department, the interim director of another department since September (and likely through June), and being on the condo board of my artist loft building. Plus I’m engaged in a soul-searching exercise to plan out my next career move. I’m having some lovely conversations with mentors and former colleagues from ages ago, but it’s also a lot of time when I haven’t much to spare. And I extricated myself from my father’s woodshop after 6 weekends in a row up to NH to finish my started projects and begin purging my surplus collections. My purge keeps purging, as I open cabinets and boxes, declaring “I don’t need this!” and “I don’t want to store that!” wildly posting to eBay, packaging sold things, running to the post office almost daily, and meeting strangers from Craigslist to buy furniture I've refinished or built myself.

And then there is the association I’ve formed with Monica and Greg (and hopefully Mike!). It's exciting and motivational. Our first challenge to each other is "gothic tales" and I keep looking at my penciled pages, thinking, “soon, I will ink you.” In the meantime, Saved by the Bell is back on! I have three approved scripts for issues 4, 5, and 6. I planned out 6 (as it was approved by NBC first) but immediately turned to 4 when approval for 4 sprung about. Only did a little thumbnailing before holiday hosting duties began.

This was the first time I hosted Christmas holiday, and only the third time it’s not been at my folks’ house in my life (2002 was at my sister’s place in Savannah, and last year we were basically at Brigham & Women’s Hospital). Since my mom passed away last Christmas day, and my dad is making movement to sell the house, it definitely felt like time for change. Family friends Rich and Ken flew in from Los Angeles and Jacksonville, my sister and my dad drove down from NH. It was a fun few days. I only had a few moments that got me, and I tried to stay focused on joyful remembrance.

Anyway, daily post challenge complete. With my full plate, I will drop back to silence for a bit, to stay focused on actually drawing. I’m told to take pics of what I’m working on and post it to Instagram…maybe I will do that so you know I’m making progress. Otherwise, I’ll see you in August when convention season starts for me. Wish me luck hitting all my goals for 2016!   

Saved by the Bell #8 ANNOTATED

It's time to finally annotate the last of 4 episodes of Saved by the Bell that I drew in 2014, all with covers by the amazing Chynna Clugston. These stories were published for digital sale on Amazon in 2014, and the trade paperback was published summer 2015. Buy it! 


On to "Ski Trip!"

PAGE 1 One of Kelly's text books is titled "Hi" as I greet you, the reader. Once again Zack sports a polo with a sperm whale logo applique on it.

PAGE 3 Panel 4 Indie gay boy Jeff is in the background.

PAGE 4 I love the way this page turned out...the perspective, Zack looks good in all panels, and of course, I got to draw one of the coveted jokes—the giant cell phone. 

PAGE 6 Mr. Moody was fun to draw, though I doubted the realism of a mall shop owner staffing the floor. Anything's possible in Bayside, I guess. In the mall walks the yet-named large gal that often appears as an extra in my pages. Panel 6 I use my "classic" explosion effect again.

PAGE 7 Slater sports a the Tim Fish magnet T-shirt. Why don't you own one yet???

PAGE 8 Was so much fun to draw. Minimal backgrounds, and very action-y. Fun, fun.

PAGE 9 Awesome ski-on cameo from ARCHE-LADY as Mr. Moody's daughter.  

PAGE 10 Disappointing color rendering of Mr. Belding's ski suit. The photo reference shared with me was from a '90s ski catalog, and the suit was really garish. White, yellow, bubble gum pink and powder puff blue. But the published colors are gray and yellow. 

PAGE 12 Was really challenging to draw. Due to the web publish format, there is a hard break at the half page mark. So, no art can cross that zone. Generally, I've made it a fun exercise to make the page work with symmetry. But wow, this was tough. In the first half, I had to show so many characters, including the ski patrol guys to make the joke work later. And save space for lots of dialog and (in theory) movement. In the second half, I had to execute a complex slapstick moment. This really could have been a page and a half (and pages 9-10 could have only been a page and a half, but it would have been a shame to break up the lodge scene). Panel 7 is definitely a Chynna Clugston pastiche moment.

Thus volume 1 draws to a close. It was a really fun experience, and I thank Greg for pointing me to the folks at Lionforge/Roar. Adam was a great editor to work with, generally pushing me to a better place; Joelle's scripts were spot on in tone; and it's such a thrill to be side by side with Chynna in a TPB.

Looking forward to volume 2! 

Saved by the Bell #6 ANNOTATED

In May or so, I worked on SAVED BY THE BELL #6. I enjoyed drawing this story, and I hit my stride with some of the panel layouts. Of course, enjoy the cover by Chynna Clugston here, and buy the e-edition on Amazon!

The e-format drives the page layout, so while it's written as a 12 page story, it's really 12 2-half pages or 24 half pages. It can be a challenge maneuvering the script into the half page format (would be a no brainer for me if the 12 page script allowed freedom to be drawn as a whole page) I'm probably not describing this well. Too little or too much coffee maybe.

PAGE 1 

Sorely lacking for my enjoyment are splash pages or half-splashes. So for this story, I significantly altered the script affording me the space for a half-splash. I love panel 1! The girl with the blue hair is wearing the "Hippie Daisy" T-shirt I designed while hanging a poster reading "art by Tim Fish." Zack is wearing the "Johnny's Magnet" T-shirt I designed. Jeffrey, the scruffy indie boy I worked into the backgrounds of issues 2 and 4 appears embracing his BF or maybe just a hookup. Tough to say. Panel 4 was really fun to draw.

PAGE 2

The script places Kelly in audition lines for the "Pop Diva" TV show, so lots of familiar faces worked into the crowds throughout the story. 

Panel 1:

• Archie, Betty, Veronica (obscured by the letterer's placement of text)
• Jughead

Panel 2:

• Andrea Thomas/Isis
• Kathy a.k.a. Pumpkin Head, a.k.a. PH (woman I work with)
• Indie Uncle Sam
• Human Bomb
• Phantom Lady

Panel 5:

• Lilandra

In panel 4, we meet two producers—the villains of the story. The primary villain I drew after my most recent ex. The secondary villain, I drew after his then BF. After I drew this, but before it was published, they broke up.

PAGE 5 Panel 1 we see recurring background character, a rather large gal, drawn after a colleague of mine. We also see a poster for a pub I frequent, Tavern at the End of the World. Panel 2 is Jeffrey again, and panel 5 we see Leslie from issue #4.

PAGE 6 Screech wears a robot T I designed for my office's student employees (my day job is at MIT). In panel 5 we see the iconic single pedestal Planner Group desk designed by Paul McCobb.

PAGE 7 Zack's polos drawn by me are usually labelled with the mark you see here...kinda looks like a whale. Or a sperm. Not sure. We also get to see the foil label in the desk drawer in panel 2; panel 6 I re-use my explosion effect I've blogged about before.

PAGE 8 turned out alright, except Kelly's head in panel 4 bothers me...should be a little over to the right. Looks like she broke her neck. Oops.

PAGE 9 catches a glimpse of Jeffrey eating some fries.

PAGE 11 went through significant edits in the pencilling and layout phase. Given the half-page publishing format it could have benefited from being busted out over 2 pages. But sometimes there are easy pages to draw and sometimes tough ones! Since my editor generally gives awesome quality and helpful feedback, I think the page turned out well.

Panel 1:

• Fred from SCOOBY-DOO
•  The Wizard from my Arche-Lady series
• Black Canary

Panel 2:

• Arche-Lady and Doctor Glax
• Lyle Norg/Invisible Kid

Panel 3:

• Johnny Magnet from my Arche-Lady series

Panel 4:

• Black Canary again

Panel 5:

• woman dressed as Tigra

Ok, that's all for May! What will June bring?—time will tell!

Saved by the Bell #4 ANNOTATED

I was originally slated to draw every third issue; but not long after I completed the art for "Fashion Don't," I was informed it would be used as issue 2, and I was asked if I could draw issue 4 post haste. Ask any fellow I've dated—I never say "no" so away we went consuming the better part of February.

Enjoy the cover and stock art from Chynna, and settle back for "Screech-a-Date."

As often as I could in this story, I tried to create visual symmetry with the panel layout. I thook the challenge to myself very seriously. You won't get a sense of it in digital, but hopefully it will be very apparent when the stories are in print. 

PAGE 1, panel 3 we have a poster for the Brontë sisters—all three! You know me, I love their depressing novels...Jane Eyre, Tennant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights, all among my favs.

PAGE 2, Slater is wearing the t-shirt I designed and available on my website "Haifischbaby" though it's colored here as light blue.

PAGE 2, panel 1 features the indie gay boy, Jeff, that I drew into the backgrounds of issue 2 at the left of the panel. At the right of the panel, we see Cannonball, Danielle Moonstar, Magma, and some other girl I intended to represent as The New Mutants.

PAGE 3, panel 1 we have a poster for a big fight, Northstar vs. Kyle, Marvel's out gay couple I drew in Nation X.

PAGE 4, I added Lisa's unscripted stretches to add interest for me.

PAGE 4, panel 6, the PSA "check yourself" was inspired by the girls in my high school graduating class. What they said was a lot nastier, so I cleaned it up for Bayside.

PAGE 5, panel 4 I got to use my favorite explosion effect that has been in use since 1998.

PAGE 5, panel 6 was quite a controversy—you see draft 3 published. I was really happy with the first version, but it didn't capture the spirit of the joke. Ultimately I downloaded this app developed by a university in Vienna that maps combined expressions. I drew it just as the app shows but the result has a Kelly that looked old and hag-like. No one was happy with that, so on to draft 3, a wildly exaggerated goofy expression. Good enough.

PAGE 6, etc. Originally, the Max was not going to be styled after the TV show's set. After I submitted inks, there was a change of plans. So, I had to draw new backgrounds, digitally wipe out the existing backgrounds and layer in the new. 

I love the way PAGE 7 turned out! I did a nice job on the trees and particularly like panel 5.

Nice perspective work on PAGE 8.

PAGE 9, though in the background, Jeff's reading and stretching is far more interesting than the conversation in the foreground. Also, we see a flyer for Jimmy James' trivia at the Precinct Bar, Tuesday nights. Just after I submitted inks, Precinct shut down for renovations. When it re-opened 6 months later as the upscale hipster dive bar Brass, they eliminated the trivia night.

PAGE 10, panel 6. I had suggested placement for the word balloons which never came to be. So the pacing feels off to me, and there is a lot of white space.

PAGE 11, ha, Van Gogh and You.  Panels 5 and 6 I drew as scripted, but then everyone realized that the joke needed either Lisa worked into panel 5 or to be edited. As it was already colored and I was leaving on a business trip, I wasn't game to re-draw it. So it's an edited joke.

PAGE 12, panel 3, Jeff is wearing a beaver bullet T-shirt also available on my site. Panel 4, random dude wearing another of my Ts, Johnny's Magnet, sadly colored in green.

Overall, a better output from me than #2...fewer smudges to correct, fewer edits to make, felt like I was back in the groove! Onward!

Saved by the Bell #2 ANNOTATED

I finished inking this New Year's Day, and make some edits to the inks once the colors were complete. Lots of consistency errors, such as Lisa would be wearing some jewelry on page 2, but not page 3, etc. 

It had been a while since I had drawn a comic, and I was definitely rusty, despite my warm up period. Inking especially, was a smudgy experience. Lots of correction fluid on the pages of Saved by the Bell #2!

But here's an inside look at the issue. You'll have to buy it to follow along, which I hope you did on March 4!

The cover is by Chynna Clugston. She draws the odd-numbered issues of the series, and the covers, as well as setting the character style guide. She is amazing, and I am honored to be such a close part of a project that she's on. I've been a fan of her solo series Blue Monday for a long time.

PAGE 1

Lisa's outfits here and the whole issue, are ripped from the pages of Seventeen magazine. I hadn't ever looked at Seventeen!

Shout-outs on the posters hanging to Marvel, my series Cavalcade of Boys, and an ad for French Club as I've studied French (poorly) for many years. Colorist got the flag wrong though.

PAGE 2

Shout-out to my OGN Strugglers, though obstructed by the letterer.

PAGE 4

Ha, Jessie's book is titled, Subject.

PAGE 5

Had to research random teachers that appeared on the show for this page.

Panel 2, first appearance of, let's call him Jeff, the gay indie boy that is a recurring background character in my art.

Panel 4, I forget what this was supposed to be a shout-out to.

Panel 5, Jeff panel-bombing again.

PAGE 6

At first, there was no style set for the MAX. By the end of the issue, it was decided to go with the TV show set, as if anyone would hang out there present day. But it was too late to change for this issue.

PAGE 7

Possibly the only full page I really like of this issue.

PAGE 8

Panel 1 is nice. My Co-worker Rosheen, a huge SBTB fan, is there, as is my friend Adam, who lent me some pens for inking this. I couldn't find them locally, couldn't wait for an online order, yet I had a deadline. Thanks, Adam!

PAGE 9

Jeff panel-bombs panel 2.

PAGE 10—awful!

PAGE 11

Fashion channel's offices utilize Saarinen Tulip Chairs, designed in 1953.

Panel 4, poster for the Jane Austen Society.

PAGE 12

Panel 3, Jeff's reading in the background.

Oops—mid-year updates

Ok, looking back to my ambitions for 2014, I was rather too ambitious for who I am today.

I've kept up with my Saved by the Bell assignment, which has been fantastic. I have a great editor, the script is fun to draw, and it's an important step for my comics, professionally speaking. Great, yes? Yes.

Each 12 page shortie takes me about a month to complete (pencil, edit, ink, edit) before and after working at MIT. The assignment is the series' even-numbered issues—more or less—one month on, one month off.

I'd thought I could keep pace on my off-months with my own pet projects (Arche-Lady compilation; Arche-Lady SPECIAL #s 13, 14; Cavalcade mini, Baby Makes Three). Nope. 

Sadly, the assignment comes to me about 5 years too late, both in terms of the peak of my production capabilities, drive, and draftsmanship. While I think my art is still solid, and I've not faltered on the deadline, I'm simply not able to keep burning the candle at both ends. 

In short, I love the assignment, and I love my down time.

In the coming weeks, I'll offer up some details about how I've spent 2014, but in the meantime, here's a quick update on all my boastful New Year's plans:

•  Saved by the Bell —issues 2, 4, 6 e-published and TPB due soon. Issue 8 inks submitted. PASS
• Sign up for New York Comic Con—applied but rejected. FAIL
• Cavalcade of Boys "Quickies" mini—3 of 8 pages drawn; won't have in time for Boston Comic Con. FAIL
• Baby Makes Three—no progress. FAIL
• Arche-Lady compilation—completed V1, V2 not yet started. FAIL
• ArcheLady SPECIAL #s 13, 14—no progress. FAIL
• Make new business cards—complete. PASS
• Make new convention banner—incomplete, not likely to have in time for Boston Comic Con. FAIL

Oh well. In the meantime, enjoy this sketch of Kelly Kapowski, which was one of 3 final character sketches that got me the SBTB job.

UPDATE: I just finished and uploaded my new banner. If it functions properly, I will have it in time for Boston Comic Con. Might just be a PASS after all!  

Saved by the Bell

Secret revealed! It's Saved by the Bell. 

Lion Forge Comics acquired the right to do a SBTB comic, and hired Chynna Clugston as lead artist. Right time, right place, with me at NYCC and Greg pimping me over to Lion Forge. Yay!

I'll be a regular back up story artist, with my first story slated for issue 3. Not sure if it'll be precisely monthly after that or a bit random but regular. 

Was a lot of fun sketching the characters, pushing closer to Chynna's style guide. The series is set in present day, so I spent a lot of time looking at Seventeen magazine for the latest teen girl fashions.

That's all I'll say for now. I'm excited to get the next script late this month. In the meantime, more work on the Arche-Lady compilation!