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Thinking about how much time I spent getting the texture juuuuust right on that 2X4. Or all those teensy-tiny little wires behind the tower in panel four. Or that whole horrible frame! Do you think people even appreciate all that unnecessary trouble?

I do!

I loooooove teensy-tiny details, the more the better. Big fan of seeing all that madness on display. Even if I don’t sit there carefully analyzing every bit of microscopic clutter in someone’s Waldo-fied art piece, I still love that they succumbed to the madness. Details makes the world they’ve created feel richer and deeper. Super-simple things can be beautiful, too, but I don’t see simplicity as a noble goal to shoot for. Clarity, sure, but not simplicity for its own sake.

Simplicity sure pays, though!

I’ve gotten much faster at making pages over the years, but it still takes me way too long to get the level of detail my brain demands. And in comics, tragically, you don’t get paid by “detail level.” A full-page drawing of Charlie Brown’s big circle head would earn me as much a page full of deranged fussing like this. AND YET FUSS I MUST. 

Honestly wish there was a way to get away with doing less work, but here I am, trapped in a nightmare world of my own making. Every now and then I look at Dav “Dog Man” Pilkey’s comics and think, “Y’know, I should probably cut down on the detail.” Then I look at how well Dav “Dog Man” Pilkey’s books sell and think, “Y’know, I should probably jump out this window.”

What I’m saying is, please enjoy all this detail! I’d hate to think I’ve wasted my life here!

Ironically, my favorite part of this page is the super-simple doodle of The Twitchriddle in panel three. Part of mastering the Heavy Detail Lifestyle is knowing when to drop the detail completely. Without contrast, everything turns to grey paste.

Back in the glory days of practical FX, artists used to call all the teensy-tiny little lumps and chunks all over spaceship models and whatnot “greebles.” Greebles were mostly built up from kitbashing (gathering a bunch of store-bought model kits and repurposing the parts), but if you’re making comics to have to draw all that junk your own dang self.

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I bet the contents of my stomach were 90% gummi worms when I wrote this. The sour ones with the crumbly bits all over. Thinking about my diet in the late 90’s/early 00’s is sorta hair-raising to me now.

Several times a week on ZIM I’d go to the 7-11 next to Nickelodeon and attempt to hurt myself with “food.” Often a large amount of gummi. Or a large amount of gummi and a massive tankard of Mountain Dew. Or a large amount of gummi and a massive tankard of Mountain Dew and a Red Bull. Gotta stay alert and nimble at all times when you’re sitting in a cubicle, yeah? That consistent stream of highly-sugared coffee from 9 AM until 3 PM is simply not sufficient, momma needs her medicine. More sugar more caffeine sugar sugar LET’S GO. This “Dookie Beast” is not gonna draw itself got-dammit!

Then I’d go home and put on another full pot of coffee for a long night of making Serenity Rose comics. How was I drinking so much caffeine back then?? That can’t have been good for me! What was it doing to my– Okay, looking it up now…

“In the largest study of its kind, researchers have found that high coffee consumption is associated with smaller total brain volumes and an increased risk of dementia.” LINK

Fantastic! Great news!

People used to ask us all the time, “What kind of drugs were you all doing on ZIM?” We used to say “nothing,” but the true answer is “sugar and caffeine, and we all have dementia now.”

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

I think I made it through COVID okay? Or maybe I didn’t? Is this the afterlife? Is the afterlife just continuing to make comics, but with more phlegm? No way of knowing!

Back in the flow thumbnailing SHOCK CITY book two this week. If you haven’t yet, please smash your cursor down on the image below to pre-order book one. I’d love to keep making these for a while! Thank you!

NEXT WEEK: 7.75 MINUTES WITH AUGUSTO PINOCHET.