You’ll Have That

David Reddick is a cartoonist who wears many hats.  He draws a couple comic strips over at rodenberry.com,  he’s an accomplished single-panel cartoonist, and he works for Jim Davis at PAWS, Inc. drawing and writing Garfield comic strips.  So you can imagine that I was quite honored when David asked me to draw a guest strip for his wonderful comic strip, The Legend of Bill.  You can check out my guest strip right here.

- Wes

I’ve been struggling with a way to present this bit of news eloquently, so I’m just gonna lay it all out there in one big pile:

I’ve decided to end YHT.

This decision was not an easy one, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it and talking it over with my friends and family.  2008 has been a difficult year for me personally, and I believe that now is as a good a time as any to end one project and start working on the next.

The final “You’ll Have That” strip will be published on Friday, January 2nd, 2009.  I hope to tie up as many loose ends as possible over the next two months, and I’ll try my darnedest to post these last strips on time!  In February of ‘09 I’ll be launching a new comic feature here at this site.

So I hope you guys will stick around to see how this cartoon concludes and sneak a peek at the comic I’ll be launching early next year.  I’ve always appreciated all of your support and encouragement, and my biggest fear is that I’m disappointing most of you.  I guess that’s a good problem to have, but I would hope that most of you would stick around for the next chapter in my cartooning career.  I’m going to need your support more than ever in the coming months!

- Wes

New comic strip will be up late on Friday.  Sorry for the delays.

In other news, check back on Monday for a major announcement that I will majorly announce.

- Wes

Peeps, I’m taking an extra day off.  You’ll get a twofer on Wednesday.  Send hate mail to wesmolebash (at) yhtcomic.com.  I love you.

- Wes

So, the Mid-Ohio Con has come and gone, and I had a pretty rad time.  My buddy, Jage, hung out with me all weekend at the YHT booth, and he did a great job of keeping me company.  Saturday was pretty busy, but Sunday was rather slow so it was good to have a friend to talk to about nerdy things and sports.

I have a few pictures from the weekend that you can see on my flickr site.

I was lucky to have awesome neighbors at the con, too.  Thom Zahler and his buddy, Jesse Jackson, were sitting on our left, and Billy Tucci kept busy drawing sketches on our right.  We didn’t have the opportunity to talk much with Billy Tucci as he kept pretty busy drawing and chatting with fans, but he was a pretty cool guy.  Jage and I had plenty of time to yap with Jesse Jackson and Thom Zahler, though.  Both gentlemen are exquisite human beings, and it was pleasure to occupy booth space next to them.

On Sunday I had the awesome opportunity to participate in a panel about webcomics.  The panel was made up of Thom, Ray Tomczak - creator of “Wasted Potential“, Steve Horton - author of “Webcomics 2.0“, Chris Eliopoulos - creator of “Misery Loves Sherman“, and myself.  Unfortunately, there were more participants on the panel than there were people in the audience, but we still had a good time chatting about the business of webcomics.  Chris told some fun stories about working with guys like Brian Michael Bendis, Robert Kirkman, and Erik Larsen.  Thom Zahler tossed in a few stories about lettering books for Marvel.  I told everyone how my mom is proud of the way I dress.

During the con, I was interviewed by a podcast called Comic Related.  You can listen to the podcast here.  My interview starts at the 18:40 mark.

- Wes

I’m gearing up for the Mid-Ohio Con this weekend, and I’m getting psyched. My buddy, Jage, will be along with me, so make sure to stop by my table and say “Hi” to us both.  I’ll have books and artwork and high fives.  It’s gonna be a rad time.

Also, I’ll be on a webcomics panel on Sunday with Chris Eliopoulis and Thom Zhaler among others.  Hopefully I’ll be able to say some smart things and not look like a total tool.  I’ll let you know what happens. 

- Wes

MOC on Oct. 4 and 5th . . .

The Mid-Ohio Comic Book Convention is coming up in a couple weeks, and I’m busy trying to get ready for it. I’m pretty psyched about this particular convention because it’s the first time I’ve ever been a guest at a convention. Being a guest at Mid-Ohio makes me feel kinda like a rock star, and I’m really looking forward to a fun convention weekend!

I ordered some flyers to pass out, and I’ll have books on hand. Probably gonna have some original artwork on sale for really cheap, too. I’m trying to think of some more, easy-to-prepare treats for the con, so if any of you have some ideas I’d love to hear ‘em. Just toss ‘em in the comments section!

Omar’s Plight . . .

*Fixed the broken link!  Enjoy the jam!*

YHT reader Mike Rotch (I’m assuming his name is an alias . . .) recorded a version of Omar’s Plight, and it’s rockin’ goodness.  Listen/download it here.  Mike is in a band called Sting Ray Whore - an apt title considering the fact that stingrays are the most sexually promiscuous of all the sea creatures.  You can listen to more of Mike and Sting Ray Whore’s music at their GarageBand page.

Thanks, Mike!  I really enjoy your version of the song!

- Wes

Out of curiosity, do any of you wish I’d go back to using gray tones in the strip? Any of you glad I ditched the grays in favor of the pure black-and-white art? I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Leave ‘em in the comments section!

- Wes

My friend David Hopkins posted this list on his blog, so I figured I’d take a crack at it as well. It’s basically a list of things that I’d really like to do, but probably never will due to priorities, lack of time, no money, etc.

Here’s my list.

- write a graphic novel and have someone else draw it

- write and draw a series of graphic novels featuring the various characters from YHT

- learn how to grill a perfect steak

- form an animation studio and produce animated programs featuring my characters

- put together a small band with my friends to write and perform the soundtracks to the programs my animation studio creates

- read all of C.S. Lewis’ books

- get YHT published in a different language, and then do a book tour in that country

- buy a black Audi A4

- take Audi A4 on a road trip through New England in the fall

- submit a few ideas to Big Idea

- take a trip to the Holy Land

- have lunch with Jeff Smith at the Max and Erma’s in German Village

- start a comic book convention in my hometown similar to CAPE and STAPLE

- learn to paint on canvas

- learn to play lead solo guitar

That’s my humble list. Feel free to pick it apart.

- Wes

I found this little survey on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s website, and it looked like fun. I thought I’d post my answers here in case one or two of you are interested in how this comic is created.

Wesley William Molebash
Comics: “You’ll Have That”, “The Litterbox Chronicles”, etc.
Website: www.yhtcomic.com
Making comics since year of: 2004 (professionally)
Art education/schools attended: Didn’t go to art school. Dropped out of college because I’m a maverick like John McCain.

Pencils: I usually use a Pentel mechanical pencil with Pentel 0.7 blue lead. The blue leads have taken some getting used to because they’re much softer than regular leads, and they tend to snap pretty easily. At this point, however, I’ve gotten pretty used to the “feel” of the blue leads and I prefer to draw with them as opposed to regular lead. The only time I use regular leads anymore is when I’m doing commission work and I need to erase the pencil lines after I’ve inked.

Inks: On the rare occasion that I use a brush and ink, I use good ol’ Higgins Black Magic. It was my ink of choice in high school, and I still use it to this day.

Brushes: I have a couple of Winsor-Newton Series 7 Sable Brushes, but I rarely use them because they’re messy and hard to control. I should practice with them more.

Pens: I use a Pentel Pocket Brush, a Pentel Color Brush (black), and Faber Castell Pitt Pens (all four sizes). The Pocket Brush is used for pretty much all the line work, and the Pitt Pens help me get all the odds and ends. I use the fine (F) and superfine (S) nibs to ink the letters and the intricate details, and I use the medium (M) nib to ink the borders. The Pentel Color Brush is used to fill in the spot blacks.

Paper: I use 2-ply Strathmore Bristol Board with the smooth surface. The vellum surface wreaks havoc on my pen nibs, and my linework never seems to have the same “flow” that it has on the smoother paper. However, the smooth paper doesn’t absorb the ink as fast, so I have to be careful not smear it!

I used to draw the strip at 4 3/4″ by 16″, but I recently downgraded to 4 1/4″ by 13 3/4″. I can get two strips out of a sheet of 11 by 14 bristol, or three strips out of a sheet of 14 by 20 bristol.

Lettering: I hand-letter because I’m not a wuss like most cartoonists. On the rare occasion that I use a computer, I use Anime Ace 2.0 from Blambot.

Color: I usually color on the computer in Photoshop. I’ll use the mouse to fill in the spot colors, and I’ll use my cheap Wacom tablet to get the details. I’m not a great colorist mainly because I’m still developing my Photoshop technique.

Lately, I’ve been using my Prismacolor markers on commissioned artwork, and I’ve been pretty happy with the results. A few of my comics friends have recommended Copic markers, so I may have to give those bad boys a try before long.

Layout/ Composition: I do all my writing in a spiral bound notebook, preferably college-ruled. I basically write little thumbnail versions of each strip, but I don’t spend much time on the preliminary drawings. Usually, I just draw little circles with the initial of the character I want to be in the strip. During this stage it’s more important for me to get the dialog down and make sure it flows correctly from left to right without jarring the reader. I continue to tweak the dialog even while I’m drawing the finished the strip.

I’ve recently been taking a swing at writing a graphic novel, and this has proven to be a much more grueling process than writing a comic strip. It can actually be quite discouraging sometimes, but I’m trying my best to plug through it and get the pages done.

When drawing the finished comics, I use a t-square and a triangle to rule out the panel borders. If I want the panels to have a “dreamy” effect, I’ll ink them “freehand” with a brush. Otherwise, I’ll use the t-square and triangle to ink straight borders.

Convention Sketches: At San Diego this year, I used my blue pencil and Pitt Pens to ink the sketches. I bought a pack of grayscale Pitt Pens to color the sketches, and I was pretty happy with the results though I used them a little too heavily.

Tool timeline, starting from when you began drawing in any serious way until the present, and what spurred the changes: When I drew comics in high school I was hardcore about using a Speedball pen and Higgins ink. I made my mom quite angry because I washed my pens in the bathroom and subsequently stained the ceramic sink. There was a nice, dull gray, India ink blob around the drain of the sink.

I eventually discovered the Faber-Castell Pitt Pens in 2001 or 2002, and I was really pleased with the amount of line variation I could get by using the brush (B) nib. I used the Pitt Pens exclusively until earlier this year.

I now use the Pentel Pocket Brush for most of my linework, and the Pitt Pens are used to clean up.

What tools you’d never use, and why: I will never use Sharpie markers or regular ink pens (like Bics or Pilots) to ink my strip. The ink is non-archival and fades like crazy! I’m always surprised by the amount of artists who use these pens in their work, but, hey, to each their own, I guess.

The Gigcast . . .

I was recently interviewed on The Gigcast, and it was a fun conversation! We talked about the comic strip, the new site, my departure from Viper Comics, the current Emaline/Steve storyline and its inspiration, and Project Wonderful ads. It was good times! Check out the audio here!

- Wes