Wednesday - December 15, 2004:

The .eps files for those sound effects have been kicking around my hard drive since 1999. I've only had one other occasion to use them though. I stuck a CRASH into one of the my favorite panels from the old JIH.

They have their place, but, to be honest, one of the things that prevents me from picking up most of the main-stream superhero comics is that page-after-page mission of wowing the audience. Today, it's pin-up poses, sound f-x, and in-your-face layouts, but I remember back in How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, all of the emphasis was on the extreme action shot. I remember as a kid wondering why it was not alright to show a leg only slightly bent. I wondered, too, why it was not ok to use more than one line to draw an eyebrow. I puzzzled at the need to retell any and all back-story within the first four pages.The sad state of mainstream print comics is at least partially attributable to these kinds of goals.

It might be fun if I had the guys actually create the comic, robots, sound effects and large breasts for all. I'm not sure I paid enough attention to the Marvel Way to pull it off though.

-Bob Stevenson