Mailbag: To Origin or not to Origin?

Q: When starting a new strip. Would it be better to start with already established characters and show the origin in flashbacks or a later story or would you at first show how the characters meet and the sort of who, what, why, when and how of the main setting and character's origins at the outset. 

An example would be the Incredible Hulk movie to, say, the Captain America or the Iron Man movie. The former started out with him already the Hulk and everything established, the latter showed the origins of the character and the setting. 

I chose those examples over Superman or Spider-Man because those origins were less known to the non-comic reading audience and I see the same thing for the new webcomic, the origin wouldn't be known to the intended audience.

A: This is one of those subjective topics that no one can claim to have the "right" answer for. But here are a few thoughts.

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Saturday Deep Dive: Word Balloon Aesthetic

Today, we're going to dive deep into the archive to February 16, 2010, when I took a little time to discussWord Balloon Aesthetic.

Word balloons are so common -- so freely accepted as a part of a cartoonist's visual syntax -- that many of us haven't given the subject a whole lot of thought. Looking back at my own work, I know I didn't for the first several years. Choosing last Friday's Archive Dive made me remember a post I've been wanting to do for a long time: Word Ballon Aesthetic. If you haven't read the Archive Dive, take a second and look it over. It provides some good structure for today's discussion.

And, as is the case with any discussion of aesthetics, these are not meant to be taken as written-in-stone dictates. But the philosophy behind the aesthetics should help inform your own process in developing your own personal style.

It's time to look at word balloons again for the first time.

Basic construction

There are several ways to make word balloons. Put the tern into a search using the button at the top of this page and you'll find several.

But, for my taste, all good word balloons share some traits:

• The body of the balloon is circular -- not rectangular
• The tail should has slight curve to it and points to the speaker's mouth
• Tails never cross
• Text is centered -- vertically and horizontally in the body of the balloon.
• The style of the balloon matches or compliments the style of the illustration (which is where a comic likeDiesel Sweeties can break several of the above rules without suffering.)

Wanna see it done wrong? Look at syndicated strip Mark Trail on almost any given day. In the first panel of the example below, you can spot both crossed tails and tails that fail to point out the speaker.

Although, I'll admit, the most entertaining part of the strip is imagining a jumbo jet intoning: "Who is paying you to release those birds?"

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Friday Archive Dive: Sizing Original Art

Today's Archive Dive dates back to February 16, 2012, when I discussed an Art 101 technique for quickly andaccurately enlarging or reducing art proportionally.

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Web Design Hot Seat: Rival Angels and Raymond Hardcase

This is the third installment in the Web Design Hot seat. Same rules as all of the Hot Seat critiques. I'll discuss the participant's work and then open the conversation up to the group at large. Each header contains a link to the comic's Web site, and each image is a thumbnail you can click to see a larger version of the image.

Rival Angels

Raymond Hardcase

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Beware of trademark scams

This subject has surfaced before, but I wanted to bring it around again for anyone who might have missed the original post on the topic.

One of the side-effects of registering your trademark with the USPTO is that you becomne the target of trademark scammers. You see to the right one that I received earlier this week.

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