Episode 7, Elimination #2

I’m back from the past, Washington state, so it’s time to check in with Strip Search.  It’s Ty versus Katie.  This is Katie’s second time at the dance and before I even saw the episode, I called Katie ftw.  Not that I don’t think Ty has the skills, but I think Katie’s style and quirky humor work so well for the elimination challenge format that it’s going to be tough to knock her out.  It also appears that they must use to the Cintiqs.

It’s still really disappointing that we don’t get more footage of the Strippers drawing.  The focus is more on the banter between Mike and Jerry and the Strippers which actually isn’t all that interesting.

This time, it wasn’t as clear cut as the last elimination.  Mike and Jerry found both strips to be lacking.  Neither strip really had an idea that was strong enough to stand on its own.  It came down to a question of execution and in that regard, Katie won out.

It was great that Mike and Jerry gave some very helpful constructive criticism to Ty like they did with Alex.

 

Episode 8, Drawing Blind

Partner time.  For this mini challenge, the Strippers must pair off.  One person describes a drawing while the other draws what’s being described.  Then they switch.

I have nothing much to say about this challenge.  Certainly, it’s interesting to see how well people describe stylized art to one another and to see how close they can come to the original drawing.  But I kinda just fast forwarded to the end.  The winning pair both got Intuos 5 tablets as a prize which is really awesome.  Although, I kind of think this was more difficult than the Seattle trivia challenge so maybe some Cintiq action was in order, but an Intuos 5 is still an awesome prize.

Next time, the Strippers do a challenge with Scott Kurtz about branding.  This should be interesting.  Kurtz is known for wearing his emotions on his sleeve and notorious for getting into heated internet arguments over various aspects of cartooning.  If anyone knows the pitfalls of managing and maintaining a personal brand, it’s Kurtz.

This is my friend, Sam, and she is invincible.  I don’t know which is more impressive, the fact that she beat cancer or the fact that she beat a Baltimore city commuter train.  That’s right, Sam survived being hit by a goddamn train!

Sam is also awesome.  She wants to spread her powers of invincibility and help people beat cancer through nutrition.  She’s raising money through Indiegogo so she can get a culinary nutrition certificate to expand her knowledge so that she can help more people kick the shit out of cancer.

This is an awesome project.  If you can’t afford to donate, please help Sam spread the word and tell your friends.

 

PBS’s Off Book gives a quick primer to webcomics.  It’s a pretty fun look at a wide variety of comics that you can find on the web.  I don’t think you’d ever be able to include every genre of webcomic in a documentary without it running fifty hours long, but if you’ve never read a webcomic, I think this is a really fun introduction.

I am kind of surprised there are no gaming comics mentioned.  They’ve been the staple for webcomics since the very beginning.

I don’t do as much straight up digital work as I used to. My process now usually involves pencil, ink, ink wash, and paper with a few digital touch ups here and there. Even when I do full color work, most of the time I’m working on line art that I’ve done on some form of dead tree. However, there are times when it’s just faster to do everything on the computer and for that, I turn to my trusty baby Cintiq, the 12WX.

My upgrade cycle is weird.  For years, I tooled around with an Intuos 2, long after they discontinued the model, long after they abandoned the drivers.  So when I upgraded my tablet situation, I went for the most Cintiq I could afford at the time.  After years of practice, working with a regular tablet is no longer an issue.  But drawing directly on the screen is a much more intuitive experience.  And with all the function buttons on the tablet side panels, I almost never have to have my non-drawing hand on the keyboard.

When Wacom announced the Cintiq 24HD Touch, my art boner nearly ripped my pants.  The screen now has touch capability meaning you can use your grubby hands to move, zoom in, or turn your page.  That functionality is built in to some of the Intuos and Bamboo tablets, but being able to do that on the actual screen is totally drool worthy.  Fuck. Yes.

So now we get to the Cintiq 13HD.  Certainly, it’s a gorgeous piece of kit.  The slim design, the larger drawing area, the sleek pen case, the three-in-one cable, it’s all beautiful.  But there are a few things missing.  Gone are the touch strips on either side of the tablet.  There are also fewer buttons than on my 12WX.  This means you get fewer tools accessed directly from the tablet which means at some point, you’re going to have to have one hand on that damn keyboard.  There’s also no touch.

If you don’t already own a Cintiq, even with some of those missing bits, this is certainly the best value for your money.  And if you want the added features of the 12WX, I’m sure they’re going to be on sale now.  But, there may be a reason for you to wait.  Over on their facebook page, Wacom hints at a new tablet device they are working on that will have actual pressure sensitivity.  They’re going to announce something this summer.

Could this be the device of legend that I’ve been feening for ever since Microsoft’s original tablet PC line?!  For years, I’ve wanted a tablet device that was as responsive as a Cintiq and small enough to take with me on the go.  And I always imagined such a thing was a pipe dream and that my wallet was safe.  Depending on what Wacom announces in the summer, there may be a giant hole in my wallet yet to come.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Ah, the dreaded interview challenge.

Graham straight up lies to the Strippers and tells that they will be interviewed for an article about Strip Search.  In reality, they are asked a whole mess of personal and antagonizing questions that would NEVER come up in an interview about a comic unless you were doing a very deep, psychoanalytical journal comic.

The journalist had a bunch of thoughts about each Stripper which annoyed the shit out of me, especially her criticism of Erika Moen.  If she had done her damn homework, she would have known that Erika is more than willing to share intimate details of her life.  So I really don’t think that her comment about Erika, that she shared too much, is a valid critique.  Part of Erika’s charm is that she is so open.  She’s fucking KNOWN for it.

I hated the way the challenge was set up.  Graham tells them that the journalist is not their friend, she is there to get her story, she is there for her not for you.  That’s unnecessarily antagonistic and sets up a terrible mental state for anyone going in to an interview.  It set up a lot of the Strippers for failure and is just a mean ass thing to pull.  I guess you could argue that it prepares them for a worst case scenario, but I don’t buy that.

One thing that I would like to see from any interview challenge is how to land the interview in the first place.  The premise of the challenge always assumes that you are interview worthy, that you’ve done something to gain the attention of the mass media.  But what if you’re a startup cartoonist?  How do you land the interview?  How do you convince an entertainment/media reporter to do a story on your little comic?  If we’re talking a test of business acumen, getting a reporter to give a shit about you would be a much more effective test than answering dumb shit questions that have nothing to do with comics.

I’ll be missing this Friday’s elimination episode since I’ll be out of town visiting my brother.  So next Tuesday, I’ll review two episodes.  How many more of these damn things are there?