PIPE DOPE #60

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So there you have it. This is what Pipe Dope's first act has been building towards, and this is what will color (so to speak) everything still to come.

Apologies for being a bit late with this morning's post, and apologies again for shifting to the Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule this week. (Also, here's an advance warning: Next week will also be Tuesday through Saturday, but fingers are crossed the week after that I'll get back to the usual Monday through Friday.)

I'm off to roam the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books today. There are some great comics-related goings-on at the show, and if anyone reading this is in the greater Los Angeles area, I highly encourage you to go check it out, too.

Oh, yeah, and for those who've expressed interest in what I've been listening to while working on Pipe Dope, today's panel was penciled and inked to the Stone Temple Pilots albums Purple and Tiny Music...Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. There may well be some more '90s jams next week, and then I'll start venturing out again--and hopefully bring things back around to the Kingston Trio.

PIPE DOPE #59

 

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Listened to more Pearl Jam while penciling and inking this one. Ten, Vitalogy and Vs. (again), in that order, 'cause that's how iTunes rolls. Also, I'm really happy with how that fourth panel came together. This is a tough week for me, content-wise, so I'm holding onto these small victories even more than I might usually...

PIPE DOPE #58

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I've been listening to some '90s rock to help take me back for this week's story. #57 was drawn to Pearl Jam's album Vs. and this one was drawn to REM's Monster. It's not true of a whole lot, but some of what I dug back in my teens still holds up!

PIPE DOPE #57

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And so begins a fresh round of experimenting with layouts in this small format. Here's hoping it all works!

PIPE DOPE #56

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Welcome back to another week of Pipe Dope! It's yet another nutty week work-wise, and so, in the hopes of being able to hit five consecutive days, I postponed this post and am going with a Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule for the week. I apologize for the change-up, and I'm hopeful that I'll be back to posting Monday through Friday next week (or, more likely, the week after), and in the meantime, I greatly appreciate your understanding. Assuming you do understand. And if you don't, well, hey, I understand where you're coming from, anyway.

PIPE DOPE #55

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For anyone who knows me or who's looked at the kinda stuff I've read and mused about in the "Bag It and Board It" posts, it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm what I like to think of as "ecumenical" in my love for comics. Superheroes, sci-fi, crime, melodrama, memoir--if it's a story told in words and pictures, I'm down for reading it. And I'm not sure my drawings are good enough to really reflect my range of influences, but I've gotta say that I've been jazzed about this week's Pipe Dope sequence for a while because it offered a chance for action. In my head, I saw the dynamic angles and bold foreshortening of Jack Kirby and Gene Colan. What I got onto the page doesn't come close, I know, but I hope the spirit of the intent--and the all-around love for comics--shines through, nevertheless.

Countless thanks, as always, for taking your time to look at what I'm up to. Have a great weekend, and if you're digging this story, please come back next week (and encourage your friends--or even strangers--to do so, too). Act One is wrapping up, and things are about to get a bit heavier.

PIPE DOPE #54

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PIPE DOPE #53

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There are a lot of ways to break down the basic panel size I'm working with. Next week's gonna get especially ... interesting? I'm typing this late at night, and the best word is evading me. Anyhow, I hope you'll stay tuned!

PIPE DOPE #52

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That caption pretty much says it all.

PIPE DOPE #51

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... And I'm back--with high-stakes action on the high seas, no less! Thank you all for your patience last week as I traveled for work. The days were long and there was no way I'd have been able to keep up with Pipe Dope while on the road, but the break also afforded me a chance to come at the next number of weeks with fresh eyes, so to speak; while I didn't exactly hit my intended goal of building up a buffer art-wise, I did manage to get a good bit of script work done, fleshing out the bare-bones outline I've been working from. Onward, then, a day at a time!

Business Trippin'

Hey friends!


As mentioned in Saturday's post (#50--woo-hoo!), I'm taking this week off from posting new Pipe Dope. Again, the reason is twofold: one, I'm in Vegas most of the week, attending a trade show for my actual job at the magazine; and two, when I get back to Los Angeles, I want to build up a few days of buffer again before pressing on. Also, 50 posts seems like a nice place at which to catch my breath.

Naturally, though, I want to keep you all entertained, and so I'm throwing a bunch of content into this post that you can hopefully take some time going through. (Or you can just tune back in next Monday for #51.) To begin, there's the photo above of good ol' G the D, and here's his right-hand bear, Buff:

In case anybody has any interest in my process, I've also taken poor quality cell-phone photos of my thumbnails for you to look at. The detail in the photos ain't great, but then again, the detail ain't great in the original thumbnails, either. Anyhow, you might notice that some weeks I figure things out pretty much right off the bat, and other weeks I play around with a handful of ideas before committing to a definite plan. Here are the thumbails for weeks 1 through 10, in chronological order:

And here's a look at all 50 posts to date, all in one crazy photo:

I hope you enjoyed this peek behind the curtains. Thanks as always for taking some time out of your day for Pipe Dope, and please check back next Monday, the 18th, for #51!

PIPE DOPE #50

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The big Five-Oh! The only thing that would've been more impressive is if I'd actually posted it on time, but so it goes. Crazy days, these! Anyhow, apologies for the late post, and many, many thanks to everyone who's read these first 50 installments. (Only 200ish left to go!)

We're speeding ahead toward the end of Act One--roughly 10 more panels oughta get us there--but first, I'm going to use finishing 50 panels as an excuse to take a week's respite. Also, I've gotta fly to Vegas on business tomorrow, and I'm gonna be gone through most of the week. With some luck, though, I'll be able to rebuild a buffer at the end of the week and hit the ground running again on Monday April 18 with #51. And until then, fear not! I've got a big ol' behind-the-scenes post scheduled for this Monday, the 11th, that should give any diehards out there something to mull over during the intermission.

Again, thanks for reading, and if you like what you're seeing, I'd be thrilled if you passed the link around and introduced more folks to Pipe Dope. More soon! Yo-ho!

PIPE DOPE #49

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This has nothing at all to do with Pipe Dope, but I've gotta give a quick shout out to the crew on the Meltcast, which has been a consistently fantastic and wildly entertaining comics podcast for 74 episodes. For anyone in the greater Los Angeles area, the Meltcasters are gonna record their final episode, episode 75, TONIGHT at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood, starting at 7pm and going until who knows when. It's sure to be a helluva time, and I highly encourage anyone and everyone to roll on out for it.

PIPE DOPE #48

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It's been awhile since I've gotten to do one of these two-panel deals. So, you know, that was exciting.

It's the simple things, friends.

PIPE DOPE #47

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Apologies to Mr. Ledoux; I haven't got a clue what he looks like, and I'm also guessing at the spelling of his name.

Ah well, that's why I've always said these are "mostly true stories."

PIPE DOPE #46

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Welp, it's a good thing I didn't guarantee I'd be back on the ol' Monday through Friday schedule. Tuesday through Saturday it is for one more week...

PIPE DOPE #45

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Sorry once again for the Tuesday through Saturday schedule this week, and further apologies for posting later in the morning than usual today. It has been a week.

Fingers are crossed we'll be back to our regular Monday through Friday schedule this coming week (two days from now--gah!), but I won't be so bold as to offer a guarantee. Regardless, enjoy the weekend, thanks for reading, and I hope you'll come back next week for more Pipe Dope!

PIPE DOPE #44

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