Ryan Lee Blu Ray Commentary I basically turned Martian Manhunter into Misterjaw from the old Pink Panther show. He was a great white shark with a top hat running around (often in dry air) startling people with his trademark “HEEgotcha!” I don’t know if that’s something to be proud of, but that’s what I did. This scene actually extends for some time in my brain, ultimately getting to a NSFW bit about the Martian Skiptracer taking liberties with Zip’s wife. If this were an animated show on Adult Swim, I’d have room for that.

I’ll say this for writing a 3 panel gag strip – there is no better training ground for writing efficiently, outside of perhaps haiku? The iron gauntlet of available space demands you boil the bit down to its absolute essence, and then you must pare the words off the essence to allow the art to breathe. In this case, I was selfish and decided I really, really needed the “sad pathetic creature” tag at the end. (I’m probably wrong about that) When I look at the finished strip, I see that Mike’s rendering of the Martian Skiptracer as a pitiable goofball is way more important, and so that extra word balloon is probably a net loss. I don’t think it breaks the strip, but…not great. I think Mike and I are leagues ahead of where we started, but refining the process is probably a lifelong adventure.

Monster Mike Blu Ray Commentary I had a ton of fun with this one. Reading the script, I didn’t pick up on the Mister Jaw reference, I just wanted to draw a fun alien/superhero. As I did with the last strip, I got lazy on coming up with the colour scheme. He’s basically Martian Manhunter. Among the characters that I’ve been able to nail down, visually are Colugo and a select few others. The Zip, even though he is one of our earliest creations, eludes me. Each time I draw him, I tend to make slight little adjustments. Next time, I’m going to get it just right.

Last week, I asked Ryan if I could do a Darwyn Cooke tribute piece and we would both offer our thoughts on Darwyn as the commentary. Ryan delivered. I did not. I just haven’t yet come up with anything that I feel good about posting. Darwyn has had a huge effect on me as an artist as I’m sure he has on countless others. There will be something eventually.