Hi, Folks!

Over the years, as I have continued working on my art and webcartooning, I have been asked one question again and again: Why do you do long-form comics? Why not do a gag-a-day strip? Gag strips are easier to promote, and they are generally more popular, are they not?

Yes, gag strips are more popular, by many magnitudes, than long-form webcomics. There are a few exceptions, but none I can really think of. Girl Genius is long-form, but it usually has humor and often includes humor. The Dreamland Chronicles? Maybe.

Here are my reasons for doing a long-form webcomic.

• This is the story I want to tell. It’s tragic, dramatic, and edgy, but it’s rarely funny.
• I don’t know how to write jokes. In person I can be funny and I’m good at getting the laughs, but I have no clue how to communicate that in a comic.
• I grew up reading titanic tales of adventure, both in prose and comics. I didn’t read funny animal comics, or humor comics, so I don’t have much history with that.

Back when I read monthly comics, my favorites were usually team books, such as JSA, JLA, the Avengers, the Defenders, and the like. As far as the individual characters go, Batman, Captain America, Daredevil, Thor, Conan, these are what I dug. Later on, it was books like Planetary, the Authority, and Hellblazer. You can probably see elements of these teams and characters in Johnny Saturn.

Those are the kind of stories I loved. This is why I produce long-form adventures. I loved Calvin & Hobbes, Far Side, and Bloom County too, but I just didn’t feel the call to follow that path.

I did a fan art pinup for Dave Reddick of the “Legend of Bill” webcomic, and he was kind enough to post it on his weekly “Fan Art Friday” installment.

As you’ve probably heard me say, I normally don’t do fan art, but I’m really into this comic, and I love Dave’s understated humor.  My favorite line, although I’m probably butchering this, is “I wonder if Conan ever got beat up by a girl with pink hair?”  I laughed about that for a week, because to me it really summed up the comic.

I grew up reading Sword & Sorcery novels, such as those by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Michael Moorcock, and Robert Adams, but none thrilled me so much as Robert E. Howard’s “Conan” books.  As a kid I was too young to see the humor in these stories, but it was there, hidden in ironic boatloads.  Dave Reddick probably read the same novels too, or at least saw the first Conan movie, and he got it.

So, if you want to read a excellent comic strip from a seasoned cartoonist with really high production values, and lots of laughs, go to the “Legend of Bill.”