Gerb's Quarterly No 11

So, funny story...

Many year ago, in the days before the internet, I had the idea of creating a short, quarterly mini-comic starring Gerb, my at-the-time, relatively new character, along with the two mainstays from my childhood, a dog named "Long Leg" and an earth worm named "Wormy" (Did I mention I've been drawing them since childhood?). Following through in the predigital times, printing off physical copies at Kinkos and distributing them to the masses, proved too much for me, as did producing them in the required timely fashion (Maybe instead of "Quarterly" I should call it a "Wheneverly"). 

One way or another, I do occasionally continue the storyline, and thus I present to you the 11th issue of Gerb's Quarterly. You can click on the GQ label below to read the previous issue, as well as to find the link to the first 9 issues that I have compiled into a graphic novel on Blurb.com. 

And, as always, thank you for reading!

 

Ultimately Final

In an earlier post I mentioned how I have been working on putting together another graphic novel book called Home Gerb Companion for self publication from a blank book full of a series of comics I'd drawn long ago. Before I started drawing my Drawing Breath comic, directly portraying my life, I drew a comic where my three characters - Gerb, Longleg, and Wormy - would have a running dialogue about my life from the sidelines, kinda like Mystery Science Theater 3000 style.  

The thing is, I never actually finished the original comic. I got up to the penultimate (second to the last) page...

...And then I paused because I had ambitious plans for the final page! I would make the last page like a pop-up book with the Phoenix, from whom Longleg had gotten the quill pen, unexpectedly flying straight out of the book at the reader in 3-D! The thing is that at the time the internet was relatively new, and it didn't have the wealth of information that it does now, plus I didn't have regular access to it. Not that I didn't have access to other information and instructions. It's just that my life was different back then and I didn't have the same resources or reservoirs of energy to draw on, so the project got set on the back burner where it has languished for almost twenty years. 

Then recently, when the arrow of inspiration hit to publish this volume, I realized that one way or t'other, I had to finish that last page. Not being sure how I would self publish a book with a pop-up component, I went ahead and drew the page, reserving the right to, at some future date, make that page an actual pop-up. Until that time, here is the final page of the Home Gerb Companion graphic novel drawn 18 years, 9 months, and 12 days after the previous page... 

I am really excited to get this work into book form! Stay tuned to my website, Facebook, Instagram, and this blog for updates to when it will be available for purchase. Meanwhile, if you'd like to see what other of my comics I've already published check out my Perching Wolf Studios bookstore on Blurb.

 

Bringing It Home

I don't know if  you've noticed, but I have not been posting a lot here lately, mostly because I haven't actually been drawing as much lately. Time I would normally spend creating new comics has been mostly dedicated to putting together a book of some older comics I drew in a blank book many years ago. These comics are a precursor to my Drawing Breath comics, still being a sort of illustrational journal of my life at the time, but rather than drawing myself in the starring role, it's a bit more Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with my comic characters - Gerb, Longleg the dog, and Wormy the worm - commenting on what's happening in my life from the sidelines. I call it Home Gerb Companion ~ Le Chronique de Comique.

 

So I've been spending many afternoons and evenings flipping through this journal and, with Palama the platypus aiding me by holding open the book, photographing each page in turn then cropping and fine tuning them. This is why on some of the pages you can see distortions of the drawings as if they are curving toward the binding of the book. Sometimes Palama couldn't keep the book entirely flat. 

I am not always central to what's happening as my characters come to terms with living inside a book...

...But they do celebrate with me my achievements...

...And they console me through my challenges...

Drawing women has never been my strong suit, which Gerb knows and sometimes exploits by hanging out with the Amazons when he doesn't want to be drawn. At the time of the comic, though, I was married to a fellow artist, Bobbi Blackwell aka Mrs. Cartoonist Dude, and I would just have her draw the necessary panels if needed...

She is not the only guest artist. As it turns out, Longleg is also a cartoonist whose work occasionally ends up on the page, as a comic within a comic, which is always fun...

And sometimes Newmar, Bobbi's teddy bear, would get a hold of the book and attempt to draw his own adventures, seeing as they were so much more adventury than my own... 

The fun thing is that, if it were Newmar drawing, I'd pencil it with my left hand and ink it with my right. If it were Longleg drawing, I'd pencil with my right hand and ink it with my left.

So, as production of new comics experiences a bit of a lull, you can rest assured that I am not idle. Soon this new book will be available for purchase, and meanwhile you can check out my other graphic novels and coloring books here on my Blurb Store.

 

The Saga of Didrik - Complete

Now that I have finished this particular adventure of Gerb and the gang, I wanted to put all the pages together in one post. Ta-da!!

 

Saga of Didrik page 19 plus one

Finally, as was my stated intention a couple posts ago, here is the final page of my Saga of Didrik story! It is the first of many stories I wish to compile into a collection of archery stories and myths from around the world. WOOOOHOOOOOO! 

Please click on the Didrik label below to read the complete story series, keeping in mind the updated First Page is posted here below the the final page -- Kind of an Ouroboros (symbolic images of a snake eating its own tail). When I drew the first version of page 1, it had been a while since I'd drawn Gerb, and I found the original drawing a little too stiff and unsatisfactory. Now that I've been drawing the gang for almost 20 pages, I've loosened up somewhat and gotten more into the flow of drawing him, so I wanted to redo that page, and the result is what you see below.

But first the last page of the series...

...Then lastly the first page of the comic...

Thank you for reading! <3 

 

Saga of Didrik page 18

Almost finished! I haven't got it totally mapped out yet, but there's just a page or two more to go now until the conclusion of the Saga of Didrik. Stay tuned! 

To read the entire comic up to this point, please click on the Didrik label below, and thank you for reading! 

 

Saga of Didrik page 17

As usual for any given situation in my life, I have several brands in the fire when it comes to my comic projects. Not including any one-shot, one- or two-pagers that randomly occur, I have at least three separate comic stories actively in progress -- 

Dismem-boar-ment - Chronicling some profound experiences from a Vision Quest a couple years ago (Click on the corresponding label below to read the story so far)

Smoke and Mirrors - A exercise of soul-searching in response to some outside resistance I encountered to my spiritual path (Click on the corresponding label below to read the story so far)

Saga of Didrik - First of a planned series of adaptions of archery myths and legends from around the world, the latest page of which is posted here (Again, click on the corresponding label below to read the story so far)

So I'm going to try (I know! "...There is no try, only do or do not..." blah blah blah...😉) to concentrate on Didrik, being the one closest to being finished, and, I believe, the one I've been working on the longest, to free up some creative energy on the other two. My intention is to not let anything linger in limbo for too long. It's good to have a couple things going at the same time, so I have a couple choices of were to apply and follow my inspiration, depending on the accompanying emotional states. When things go on for too long, though, without closure or completion, for me it seems to leave loose ends which are fertile ground for the development of guilt and self-judgement, which tends to block or clot the creative energy, slowing the creative flow to the detriment of all creative projects. 

So, in that spirit, here is the latest page in the last chapter of the Saga of Didrik!

 

Whose Line, Dr. Quinn?

Before I started my Drawing Breath comic, drawing comics directly about my life and experiences, I drew a series of comics about my life and experiences through the interaction and conversations of my comic characters, kind of Mystery Science Theater 3000 style. I find it actually very healing as it allows me to step out of my head and observe my life from the outside as if it were a sitcom or something, bringing that extra little mental space for a healthy perspective. Plus it allows me to laugh at myself and remind me of the wider story arc and Hero's Journey that is my life. As Oscar Wilde said, "Life is too important to be taken seriously." With my trio of commentators, that is not a problem.

As of late I've gotten drawn into (literally) comics that are more involved and longer to finish, which is great, although it leaves little room for the fun day-in-the-life kind of comics that chronicle more of the inner workings and daily idiosyncrasies of my life that I love and miss doing. I am committing myself to at least a couple times a week drawing those comics which reflect more accurately the underlying vitality that makes up my life and supports those longer, more involved story lines. 

It's amazing what you can learn about yourself by drawing comics! 

p.s. There's an inside joke here in that I've realized over the years that, if I'm stressed out I tend to watch endless hours of Whose Line Is It Anyway, and if I'm dealing with romantic/heartbreak issues I tend to watch endless hours of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. :)

Space Shark Origins

Here is another Space Shark comic I drew as a kid which I recently inked and cleaned up from the original that was drawn on lined paper with pencil. This is the origin story and shows absolutely no early influence from Star Trek.

Space Shark is one of the few comics from childhood to have survived into my adulthood. Of course in more recent times the origin story has changed a bit. I thought I would share the current origin story from my graphic novel The Collected Gerb's Quarterly Vol 1: 

In case you want to read more of their story, here is the link to check out and order The Collected Gerb's Quarterly Vol 1. Click on the Book Preview.

 

The Collected...

Vol 1

By Patrick Corrigan

Book Preview