Day before yesterday was major. Around 4am or so I got my first comic printed at this empty Pasadena kinkos by this guy Luis. “Looking over the fruits of your labor?” he asked. I nodded, flipping through the pages of the proof he handed me was like a rush. I’ve been working towards self-publishing for years. I remember talking with Robbie a few months ago on this very topic. And he asked, “What have you done lately towards your goals?” more or less. While there was lots of progress in the right direction; lots of practice, workshops and analysis but nothing like what I held in my hands. Not too long after that conversation, Angel sends me a text about a class at Art Center Extension program where at end of it, you would have a printed book. Sometimes things just fall into place, I remember thinking and signed up immediately.

Most of the pages and covers were done on 11×14 bristol board with Kuretake Sumi Brush pen and Microns over 14 weeks. I took some of the scenes from my past inktober sketches and turned them into shorts. Scanned at 300dpi with the self-serve copiers and then saved onto usb stick. As it got closer to the last day of class, I ended up switching from traditional pencils and ink to digital on my Surface for the last 3 with Autodesk Sketchbook pro. I used clip studio for the time in years for halftone dots, dialog balloons with blambot fonts and cleanup after some googling on how-to.

Yesterday was the last of class where you come with your printed book and exchange with classmates who also put in a lot time and energy into some great work. It was an awesome class.