Thanks to everyone that came out to play for this week’s #webcomicschat. I started off this week by asking how folks deal with artist or writer’s blocks. This is always a concern for creative types and every artist has there own way of dealing with it. Here are some things I’ve learned over the years about my creative process. Stress for me, is the main cause of creative blocks. Whether it’s a deadline, family concern, or other problem, when I’m stressed out my creativity grinds to a screeching hault. Deadlines can’t wait so I generally have to trick myself to into being more relaxed. Here are some things that always help distract me: 80’s music, video games, figure drawing, reading comics, and exercise. It happens to me all the time where a solution to a problem will come while I’m doing something else entirely different. Let’s say I am having trouble coming up with a punchline. Many times what I’ll do is set the comic aside, turn on some tunes, pull out my sketch book and do some mindless gesture or figure drawing for 15 minutes. Somehow the combination of working with my hands on a drawing and letting my mind wander for a while has a great positive effect on my writing.

@shatteredmyth pointed out that for him he needs absolute silence. He also likes deadlines because they keep him motivated. This reminded me of a quote I heard from Peter Jackson, he said: “I never finish I just run out of time.” Sometimes a deadline is just what we need to let something go and move on. @shatteredmyth also prefers movie scores while working. @dogeatdoug said he’s gotten used to working with distractions. As those of us with kids know, it’s not always easy to have uninterrupted work time so it’s good to learn how to work amidst the chaos. It’s also good to be ready to capture ideas in a sketchbook or with a note pad at any time. I like the voice memo recorder on my phone. It never fails that a good idea will come up while I’m driving or some where out and about and if I don’t capture it at that moment I’ll lose it.

When it comes to writing a regular strip you have be writing all the time. Where ever you go or whatever you’re doing look for things that make you laugh. Keep track of them so that you can work them into your strip in the future.

We had another great #webcomicschat tonight, thanks to everyone that participated. Recently someone asked me why I didn’t use flash animation for my web comic. It seemed like a simple question, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while now. At the time I said, “Oh, it would take to much time, blah blah blah.” but now I’m wondering if there’s more to it. Marvel and DC have been creating “Motion” Comics for a while now and they seem to be successful. I’ve watched the Watchmen and the Spider Woman versions which I really like. I just don’t like calling them comics. To me they’re basic forms of animation not comics. Ironically they’re not too much different than the simplified animation Marvel produced in the 60’s based on Kirby drawings.

During our #webcomicschat a number of points were made about whether or not audio, FX, animation, etc could or should be added to webcomics. The Ghettomation podcast and Robot 13 were suggested as comics that are pushing the boundaries. Robot 13 apparently uses vibration in the iPhone version to suggest explosions and such which I assume works like an xbox controller. This sounds pretty cool although I’m not sure how I’d use it. One point that was made is that when a reader controls the pace of the story it’s more like comics, but when the pace of the story is controlled by the format you’re merely watching animation. Being a reader implies active participation while being a viewer is a passive activity. I also have a hard time calling something comics when it doesn’t contain any word balloons and the character voices are performed by actors. My definition of comics will always include text.

Ultimately what’s cool about webcomics is that a creator can DO whatever they want with their comic. There aren’t any rules. For me though it’s important to recognize why I like comics and for that matter, why I like animation. I want to create comic strips, which means I think something special happens when sequential art is joined with text. If I strayed too far from that and worried too much about adding “bells and whistles” then I wouldn’t have time to focus on my art and story. If I was more interested in animation then I’d probably feel differently and would love the idea of adding motion and audio. In any case, the artist’s preference is what matters and as long as it’s good I’m sure it will find an audience.

I had fun last night at #webcomicchat , as always thanks for participating. Search #hashtag #webcomicschat if you want to join in on twitter or use a website like TweetChat to keep track of the conversation. Usually I try to join the chat on Wednesday nights 6PM PST / 9PM EST. Feel free to post your own discussions at other times and I’ll try to make it as well. Click here to follow me on Twitter.

This week I started out talking process and we finished up getting our digital geek-freak on. I took the opportunity to describe some of my art process and asked for others to chime in with their techniques. Personally I do all my penciling and inking by hand and then scan the art for cleanup, lettering and layout. Others explained that they go straight digital. I’ve heard people like Kris Straub say that they use Flash for their comics. Using Flash mystifies me, I’ve got plenty of experience with both Flash and Illustrator and I see no reason why anyone would want to draw in Flash. I can’t think of anything that Flash can do better than Illustrator. With that being said, perhaps it’s a preference thing, but if you were asking me, vector drawing in illustrator is far superior than Flash.

My favorite drawing and painting programs are Painter and Illustrator. I still use a simple Intuos3 tablet. I prefer a smaller tablet because it seems more forgiving with the way I move and position my hand while I’m drawing. Some cartoonists out there are lucky enough to use a Cintiq. I’ve tried them before and love them. I will have one eventually but for now I can only drool. It’s easy to see how intuitive a drawing tablet could be if anyone would bother to really design one. I’ve seen tablet computers and they seem to work pretty well, but I don’t want a PC. Can you imagine how cool an iPad would be if it came with a stylus and Painter? Can you? Apple, *tap* *tap* Apple are you listening? Before we ended our chat some suggestions were made for iPhone stylii (what’s the plural of stylus?) One in particular was called Pogo, ironic considering the cartooning history of the name Pogo. The stylus looks cool but it looks like it is fairly large with a blunt end, I’ll have to try before I buy that one. If you have any other suggestions post them here: