Keeping the comic making train rolling, I jumped into another project with the Kayfam to work on a special comic project. The group decided to dedicate their next project to celebrate the memory of the late cartoonist Ed Piskor and the Youtube channel Cartoonist Kayfabe, calling it Cartoonist Kayfabe Illustrated. Each participant got the chance to choose an episode of Cartoonist Kayfabe as the theme of their page, and I ended up picking Moebius Comics! Arzach, Harzak, and Other Stories… for my page. I have been working on a special project that relates to the French artist Moebius for a little while, so picking a video about Moebius, and specifically Arzach, for me was a no brainer.
The set up for this project was more or less the same as last time where I had 48 hours to get my page done, and just like last time I went well beyond the time limit.
Nonetheless, I jumped into the project similar to last time. First, I started by rewatching the video so I could put myself in the mindset for getting my page made. Along with that I had a copy of the Heavy Metal which had the first four Arzach stories that Moebius created, which were featured in the Marvel Epic edition along with other stories including The Detour. With this project, it was a requirement to include Ed Piskor and Jim Rugg in everyone’s page, so I started to do some sketch studies of them along with the main Arzach character and bird creature.
After getting the nuts and bolts down for the characters, I started to thumbnail out each panel while also working on an overall layout for my page before proceeding to get the pencils done. From there I scanned in pencils and printed them out on an 11 x 17 piece of paper to lightbox onto a piece of bristol board.
At this point, more than a week had passed, and I just started working on my inks when I got a message from the project manager for this book asking where my page was. They explained that they were planning to send the book to the printer in less than 24 hours. Knowing the importance of this project and who it was meant for, I shifted it into turbo mode by putting on nothing but music from the anime series Initial D. It was about 2:30pm in the afternoon.
My tools of choice for inking for this project with dip nibs, one Japanese nib for thicks and thins and one Maru nib for much finer details. I was slinging ink like crazy to get the page done, making compromises on what I was initially planning, and focusing on the essential elements the page needed. Another important part of the project was to emulate the style of the artist of the video, so I did my best to capture was Moebius’ hatching style. At around 11:30pm I got an inked page submitted just as a place holder because I wasn’t done yet with my page. From there I busted out my color markers and color pencils to get to work on coloring my page.
Finally, at 3:30am in the morning, after putting in some final touches, my page was submitted and the project was completed on time.
Shoutout to Bryan Moss for putting together The Kayfam and Power to the Panel, along with everyone else putting together Cartoonist Kayfabe Illustrated including Mr Meow, Danny Nehme, Vero Stewart, and everyone else involved. I also want to give a shoutout to the Piskor Family for continuing the positive legacy of Ed alive. Cartoonist Kayfabe and Ed Piskor were a huge inspiration and motivation for me to get back into reading and making comics, and I do my best to encourage others to do the same.
Oh, and there was a very special reason I picked a video about Moebius for my page, which I’m excited to explain in more detail at a later date.
