Counter Attack #4 process

Hello and welcome to my drawing desk! It looks kind of messy here because it was when I was in production on the 4th issue of my comic Counter Attack. I took some photos along the way to give a little behind the scenes look at how I create Counter Attack.



Counter Attack is the first mini-comic I started in 2005. It stars my two gray cats, Moe and Fidget. I've put out about an issue a year since 2008. It's only 16 pages of single images, so my production time is much shorter than my other comics. It only takes me about 2 weeks from start to finish!



Throughout the year I write down ideas and do little sketches like these when my cats do something funny that I think would work in the book. After about 6 months, I usually have enough ideas written down to start another issue.



I look through my notes and sketches and decide which ones I want to include. Then I make a layout mock-up on a sheet of paper to see how I want the book to flow. Sometimes seeing the images together helps me decide in which order to put them.



I work on 11x14 Smooth Bristol Board with Rapidograph Black India Ink and a size 0 Utrecht Sablette Brush. I do my pencils with a Staedler mechanical pencil because I like the thicker lead. I also like sketching my thumbnails out with a Pilot pen because I like the immediacy of the line. I letter the comic with a Micron .08 pen. I use a Pentel Brush pen when I'm on the road or sketching outside since it's easier than constantly dipping a brush. Here's a photo of some of the tools I used to make my journal comics.



I pencil all the pages out on the Bristol board and then move on to inking them. I end up erasing my pencil lines before I scan the pages, but here's what a panel looks like before it's erased:


I'll be back next week with some photos of my process for painting the cover and a look at the final comics!