***If this email looks jacked up in your email window,

click on this link to see it on the website***

https://arseniclullabies.com/nl20250525Hbewb.html

THIS WEEKS BLOG

 Stay with me here...there's a point to all this...

Some things to mention, then onto the blog, and more comics at the bottom!

First order of business...I shall once again be at Comic-Con International at the usual Arsenic Lullaby booth (#2200) barring any unforeseen catastrophes. Like, my plane bursting into flames or something. More info in the coming weeks.

Second, yes you are absolutely welcome to share these blogs. I don't attach "share" buttons because they are a trojan horse. You put those into the code of your page and Meta can track all the traffic. It may be the Sicilian in me, but I know how to keep my mouth shut. You are free to enjoy A.L. comics, and whatever hair brained diatribe I type out, and no one's gonna hear about it from me. And by all means, your friends can sign up for these emails here.

The online store is temporarily open. Just about out of everything, but have some scratch and dent copies up there. By all means pick one up.

  NOW THEN,...

I do what's called "traditional art".  Which means instead of drawing directly onto a tablet or computer screen or working digitally, I use pencil, ink, brush.  Well, also ruler, compass, dip pen once in awhile...but you get my meaning. I use actual physical drafting tools, to draw physical lines on physical paper.  For example, every line on the pic below was drawn by hand and inked with India ink and that brush.

I fear, the time is soon coming, via the rise of AI art, that people who make their work digitally instead of typing words into an AI program and letting it spit out an image, will be considered "traditional artists" and I'll be...I dunno, either like some samurai master who's name is whispered and apocryphal tales are told of...

OR..viewed as the guy who still does yo-yo tricks.

In any case...the point being that along with the usual, this week I'm adding in a few "in process" pics of what I'm working on, just for the hell of it. The story I'm working on is...long, and most pages have heavy spoilers. BUT I can show off some panels in random order as evidence that I am in fact working on the next book. These are at the stage of being fully penciled and the easiest inking done...

Eyes and facial expressions in general...inking those is hit or miss. So, I'll often leave those for last and hit them in bunches when I really feel like inking is going well. 

Backgrounds I tend to do last...their lines aren't a determining factor in anything. What I mean is...the line thickness of the figures and facial expressions need to be what they need to be. And everything behind them needs to be thinner. So, once have have those dialed in...I can do the lines of what's behind them, knowing how thin they need to be for everything to pop.

That was probably confusing. Lemme see if I have an example that's far enough along for you to get what I'm talking about...here we are...

See the lines of the kid are thicker than the guy further back...who's lines are thicker than what is behind him. It's the line variation that gives it all depth. It's...not easy. It's part planning and part instinct. And It's one of the reasons I ink with a brush instead of a pen. I can make all manner of line thicknesses with one tool, instead of 6 different pen sizes.

Here's a more complicated example.

Trees in foreground, trees in background, each car, and the building, all different line thicknesses. With all that in mind, pitty the person (me) who's gotta ink this. What kinda sick bastard would draw this intricate fiasco (also me)knowing someone would have to ink it? This is roughly 10inches by 6...the smaller the illustration they easier it is to ink the long lines, but more tedious doing the smaller lines...there's no happy size to do this one at.

I tried not to give too much away here about the next book, but...obviously, it's a love story.

Onto the REAL point.

An average page takes me about 8-10 hours to ink, leading me to often think about a plan B as far as career paths. and I think may have one...

I was watching Kongo the other day, well..half watching. I had it on in the background while l was working. The 1932 version with Huston and Velez not that tripe 1929 version with Boris Karloff  titled "West of Zanzibar". Boris Karloff ( famous for being Frankenstein) Is real good at being menacing, but he just doesn't make your skin crawl like was needed for this story. Huston though..yeash. Normally I root for the villain, but this movie had me going "holy sh*t, I really hope someone kills you".

Damn...it.  Not again with the old movies. COMICS, we signed up for comics.

Hey...this is important. I noticed something here that no one has in almost 100 years. My 2025 perspective caught an element in this 1933 movie that has gotten past everyone. I'm proud of this, can't you just be proud with me.

...Okay... Let's have it.

Okay...it's on and I don't know if my subconscious made me turn at the right time or my spidey sense went off or what but I saw it...and rewound to make sure. It felt like accidentally finding T-rex bones in your back yard or something.

 You ready? Here it is...

boom!

...what am I looking at? what are you doing?!

Virginia Bruce's boob!  The red star isn't on the movie, I added that for the sake of discretion.

I understand that, and I'm sure we all appreciate you not wanting to shock anyone with a still shot of a burry black and white side boob. The confusion is...do you understand the internet...that you are on...has no shortage of pictures of boobs?

This isn't just A boob. This is Virginia Bruce's boob!

what happened to you?  You remember who you used to be?

I used to be a guy who didn't have a picture of Virginia Bruce's boob, is what I used to be. but those days are gone.

And if you squint just a little, you can kinda make out a nipple. ...might be a pixilation, but I'm pretty sure it's a nipple.