Taking the summer off of updating Family Man, and away from the internet in general, allowed me to do a lot of things. Foremost among them was getting married, which was fantastic. Workwise, I devoted a lot of time to hashing out plot details and writing new material for Family Man. And, in the category of “So Fun It Didn’t Feel Like Work” is Outfoxed.
Several years ago I wrote a script for a short comic – a cynical little fairytale about a girl and a fox. It’s probably the tidiest idea I’ve ever come up with for a story, and my original intent was to draw it in 14 pages and submit it to the Flight anthology. But paying work and personal life intervened every time the antho deadline came around. The constant scramble of a freelance career made it hard for me to justify spending time on “personal” projects other than Family Man.
Of course, I realize now this is a terrible attitude; the thing that keeps you alive as an artist is making new stuff, different stuff, and giving yourself the chance to remember why you enjoy what you do in the first place. You have to play. You have to force yourself to play, if necessary.
So I had three months of “break”, stretched before me. Realistically, I couldn’t spend it all in isolation at the writing room at the library; I’m the sort of person who starts having aggressive conversations with inanimate objects after six hours alone.
So I said what the hell, and decided to devote a month of studio time to finally drawing Outfoxed. To help break through my tendency to second-guess myself I asked a studiomate to be my “teacher”, giving me deadlines and offering critiques when I hit milestones. I expanded the comic to 20 pages to lower the panels-per-page count, designed everything in a drawing style that I find fun and easy, took up the missions of learning how to ink with a brush, letter with an Ames guide, tone with a single Pantone spot color, and draw to standard comics dimensions (big and tall). All sorts of big-kid stuff that I never gave myself the breathing room to learn.
And it was a blast.
I hope you enjoy it. it’s all online now:
Sempé is easily one of my favorite cartoonists of all time. He can evoke space, light, inner experience, society, poignancy and whimsy all in one sweet and accessible image. (click for fullsize)
