I finished the inking on page 6 last night, which was fairly brutal. Lots of different characters, lots of architecture. But then again, page 5 was tough too … lots of exterior architecture. I’m definitely getting better working with the brush, but I’m finding that I love working with the dip pen. I never really understood how to use one before, and how changing the pressure works with splitting the nib and releasing ink. It’s a lot of fun once you get the hang of it. I’ve actually considered switching to a dip pen for my editorial cartoons.

One thing I was just thinking about was my practice of hanging finished pages on the wall. It was something I started doing when I was working on Night Knight because I’d go through and throw down a bunch of black ink with the brush on a few pages at a time, so I’d put them up on the wall to dry and free up space on the drawing table. After maybe the third page, I’d pull the first one back down and do the lettering (which I was doing by hand on that project). My process is a little different on this project — no hand lettering, only inking one page at a time — but having the finished page hanging beside me while I draw is a nice way to keep it close in case I need any references while also keeping it out of the way.

Anyway, I’m planning on finishing page 7 tonight (nine panels — a nightmare to ink, but it’ll be fun) and then 8 and 9 tomorrow. Then I’ll take the batch to Kinko’s, get them scanned (too big for my scanner) and do the coloring and lettering during a marathon session Sunday. Then they’ll go to the printer so that Powerpop Comics Classics #1 will be ready in time for Wizard World Philly.

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