I’m on the final leg of drawing a graphic novel (54 pages left to ink!!! aaaaaa!!) and am currently in the RRAAR GODZILLA stage of mental sanity. Which is to say, there isn’t much and everything hurts. Especially my shoulders.
I drew the above comic when I finished my second graphic novel, The War at Ellsmere, back in 2008. The mental process I go through drawing a graphic novel remains the same, despite the fact that I’m now a full-time cartoonist, instead of an occasional one. ;) Funny how the line between professional and amateur is … uh, pretty much non-existent.
Oh yeah, and my most recent graphic novel, Friends With Boys, had 3 typos in it. Nnnoooooo.
Yes. Yessssssssssssss… Replace graphic novel with season of animated episodes, diet Coke with lemon ginger tea, and typos with retakes, and this is me and my experience too. After two years of joy and toil and a million ups and downs, we are just over two weeks out from Book 1 of Korra being completed, aired, and all said and done––all while we’re buried under a mountain of Book 2 production. “WOOOO! DONE!” will last for about a day… then this career of my own making will punch me right in the face again, as it does every day. And I still won’t be able to draw well enough. Or fast enough. Sigh…
I first learned of Faith Erin Hicks and her beautiful comics when my friend Aaron Alexovich (creator of Serenity Rose) posted her blog entry about how to pitch a graphic novel. Not too long after that, our network exec Megan Casey sent an email around with a delightful comic Faith did for Tor.com about Avatar. I loved and it and got in touch with Faith, and asked her to post the comic on her Tumblr so I could reblog it (which you can see here).
Faith always posts really cool comics, illustrations, and fan art, and I dig all of them, especially this recent post showing her process making a sweet piece of Korra fan art. I was expecting a package from Faith with her new graphic novel in it, and when it arrived, lo and behold, the original piece of Korra art was in there too! Thanks, Faith!
I read and thoroughly enjoyed her graphic novel, Friends With Boys. Beautiful art, charming characters with spot-on expressions and fantastic posing, intriguing story. Great stuff all around, I sincerely couldn’t put it down. You can check out the first twenty pages on her website, here. Pick up a copy for yourself! And follow Faith on any social platform of your choosing. She is really generous with sharing her experience as a professional artist, for any of you aspiring to do the same. Here’s another informative blog entry from her on that subject.
My savage love for Avatar: The Last Airbender and its follow up, The Legend of Korra, takes comic form. Tumbl’d here on request! This was originally drawn for Tor.com, so give ‘em a visit. I’ve done a lot of other comics for Tor, including one on Alien, A Wrinkle in Time and The Hunger Games (and the Hunger Games movie).
I mean it when I say Avatar:TLA is the best animated show of the past 30 years. It is truly spectacular, and as a former animator turned comic maker, I’m really happy certain creators were able to make it happen. Go you guys!
Edited to add: please view the comic full size! Can’t read it otherwise. Tumblr is mysterious…
Our exec Megan Casey shared Faith Erin Hicks’s hilarious and beautifully drawn comic about Avatar and Korra with Mike and me, and we love it. So I asked Faith if she could post it so I could reblog the heck out of it. Make sure you see it full-sized, either on her Tumblr or on Tor.com, where the comic was originally posted. Follow her blog and check out her great work on her website!
