Dave Sim (a great cartoonist, despite his appalling misogyny and homophobia) once advised young cartoonists “once a page is done, don’t finish it.” It’s wise advice, and I habitually ignore it; the day after a Hereville page is finished, I always spend a while making corrections.
I don’t try to fix everything I don’t like about a page (that would be impossible!); but there’s always a few glaring errors that I have to try to fix.
For example, among other problems with page 20, Mirka’s huge, engorged forefinger – far out of scale with the rest of her hand – really bugged me in panel two. And the warped glass (including a stem that had a different center line from the rest of the glass) in panel three really got under my skin, too. (The glass is still pretty awful after my correction – I’m terrible at drawing manmade objects – but it’s better than it was).
Would most readers even notice? I doubt it, but stuff like that drives me crazy if I don’t correct it. Anyway, for the edification of the curious, below is a “before and after” of the two above-mentioned details of page 20.
Hi Barry! I’ve enjoyed your work a lot ever since discovering it in Z Mag, and as a fan of yours, I must disagree with Sim. He seems to be encouraging backward-looking. I would prefer it if artists, writers, chefs, etc would look at their works, note the “flaws”, and move on to their next work with that in mind.
Maybe it’s because I’m such an anti-perfectionist. My art is sloppy and so’s my cooking and sewing. But just want to throw in my 2 cents. S’all I got! :)
Hi, Jennhi. Thanks for reading!
I think you misunderstood Sim’s point,though; what you said seemed to totally agree with Sim. Don’t waste time finishing stuff that’s done; instead, move on to the next piece.
Thank god you did this Amp. I was reading page 20 earlier and thinking “Man, Mirka’s finger there ruined the entire page for me”. But now it’s all good.
I liked this nice peaceful Shabbos-time. The way your narrative structured was a great way so slowly set up the world without risking turning off your audience by boring them with a long exposition before you see the characters in action. That sounds harsher than I meant, but since the overall theme is “Hereville is teh r0x0rz”, I’ll stand by it.
You’re right, Barry! I sorta read into Sim as saying “You’re never done”.
But you may find me rallying in front of the Federal Building with a sign that says “Save Mirka’s fat finger!”
Raznor: LOL.
It was crap before, but now it’s acceptable.
:P
You know, I think it’s not the glass itself that’s “awful”: it seems perfectly lovely to me. I think what may be throwing you is the way the hand is interacting with the glass: the hand itself doesn’t seem to be holding the glass in a natural, relaxed way.
But what do I know? My boyfriend’s the artist: not me.
There is no room for error in art, Barry. Forty lashes!
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