Looking back at my sketchbooks, random bits of paper strewn around (that I have managed to save) and annotations on the margins of other drawings, I’ve been plotting the basic idea for Atomic Laundromat since at least 2004.  It’s kind of scary to think everything I’ve done with my life since that point – moving countries, traveling to the ends of the earth, holding different jobs, changing career paths, issues in my personal life… but a couple of squiggles and chickenscratches of the early Atomic Laundromat managed to survive in my memory through it all, until apparently it was time for them to come to life.

And it would seem that the time is now.

One of the reasons I think I hadn’t been ready to publish was due to the fact that I’m a self-avowed perfectionist.  I wanted to get everything in its place, in its proper order before I dared to push something out for public consumption.  Recently, I realized that the only way to actually get good was by facing the outside world, the public.  I took a look at the early work of my heroes – Adam Warren, Frank Cho, Bill Watterson, Tycho and Gabe, amongst others – and guess what? They all matured into their style and into what I even love about them as time went by.  Early Calvin and Hobbes looks and feels weird.  Early Brandy from Liberty Meadows looks nothing like the obsidian-haired goddess she is in the later volumes (and Cho even remade University2 from his college years).  Original Penny-Arcade looks like it was made in MS Paint.  And the list goes on.

This might seem like a no-brainer to some people – but until recently, it wasn’t as obvious to me.  I think the catalyst for me was both my return to drawing after a long hiatus and the existence of a growing community of webcomics artists.  To paraphrase from Pixar’s Rataouille “Everyone can draw” in this day and age, and I wanted to share what I was doing in the hopes that it resonated with someone else.  An epiphany with friends whilst playing Munchkin (a story for another time) also helped a lot to spark this development.

I’m having a blast drawing Atomic Laundromat.  Yes, to you these are but the first few strips, but I already have a lot in mind that I’m putting to paper.  If I gain nothing else from this venture, the sheer joy I’m getting from the act of creating will suffice.  I only hope that you can catch some of that same fun as you read it, and you feel like joining me in the weird, wonderful world I’m trying to create.

Welcome to the Atomic Laundromat.

It is funny when you start writing little words in ballons coming from squiggles on paper. 

What I’ve been learning is that sometimes I have a hard time separating the dialogue from the way I would say it to the way the characters would say it.  As with my first post, I know this is probably not an eureka moment for anybody who has been doing comics for longer than 2 weeks (unlike myself) but that’s one of the realizations I’ve had during the nights I’ve been struggling with Photoshop.

I have a good friend who’s taking a look at my strips before I post them, and who has been helping out with proofreading and pruning the dialogue.  It’s amazing how a couple of words or inflections can completely change the tone of a character, and how those details can either keep the character consistent or completely change what they stand for.   Professionals make it look so easy, you never notice that – you just believe in the character and get to know them in a very real way. 

My hope is that eventually my characters are able to speak for themselves and find their own voice much more easily.  I think I am slowly getting there with David, Bob and Angela (who you haven’t met).

Now, if I could persuade the characters to also draw themselves, that would be even more awesome (if a bit creepy).

Just a quick note — if you are a Spanish speaker or you just like to look at pretty pictures, head over to JoshComic.  I wrote a guest strip over there!  Another webcomicartist…webcomicker… uhm… guy who does webcomics from my hometown (Monterrey), Josh has a really cool webcomic about life, pop culture, robots and unholy hybrids of chicken and pork. True story.  Check him out!

I continue to inflict my drawing and writing upon other poor, unsuspecting webcomics.  This time around, Zirta at Oseano.net has run a guest strip from me.  Go and check it out — both my strip and the rest of the site.  Then come back here and send me cookies. Or something.

I will be out of town for a few days, attending the wedding of one of my best friends.  Site is in autopilot and should continue to update automatically. Comment moderation might be slow, so appreciate your patience in advance.

One of my favorite webcomics is Girls with Slingshots.  The site’s tagline describes it as “Two girls, a bar and a talking cactus”, but that really doesn’t encompass what Danielle Corsetto (the author) has achieved with her comic: a really funny look into the life of two young women and their everyday occurrences, which makes me laugh out loud at work very often — while at the same time being poignantly sweet without being sacharine.

And of course, the crowning achievement of McPedro the talking cactus, who I wish would show up more often.

Anyways, GWS recently celebrated its anniversary, so I took up the opportunity to buy one piece of Danielle’s art – the original art to strip #733.

GWS - Strip 733

With so many people doing work directly on the tablets and photoshops and vectors and whatnots, original “physical art” is a luxury. When I opened the envelope, I was blown away by how crisp, clean and beautiful Danielle’s line work looks up close.  She could put this in a Xerox machine and have her strip done with no additional retouching.  Also, she has the sort of penmanship that my mother was never able to instill upon me.  Lettering done by hand is also a dying art, and Danielle pulls it off wonderfully.

Also, this strip features a “dead” farting kitty.

GWS - Strip 2

If this sounds like total fanboy gushing… yeah, it absolutely is.  Check out Danielle’s comic as soon as you have the chance.  Just don’t forget to come back. I’ll be waiting.

Well, I’ve been negligent in posting about this, but I recently did a gueststrip for my friend Rocio on her webcomic, Felinia goes to Paris. It’s about a cat and her vacation to Paris.  Oh, and she has long conversations WITH her phone, not ON her phone.  Rocio is a longtime friend and we were in a comic-making workshop (not to be confused with sweatshop) ages ago, where she was already excelling with mad art skillz. So, go check out my contribution and read through her archive!

I’m playing around with my sexy new tablet.  It’s so sexy I could do unspeakable things with it.  At any rate, I’m continuing down the path of self teaching on coloring and digital technique, and I present to you a colored version of Bob.

Bob in his amazing technicolor glory.

I posted this on the comic’s Facebook page last night, and it was funny reading through some of the comments/reactions. First of all, some people had visualized Bob to be red/orange.  It’s curious how someone can have a very clear image of the color in their heads, and I went ahead and destroyed it.  Other people totally got the color aspect of it (why I chose it) — he’s been described as a vintage milkshake machine / refrigerator / sewing machine.  And one more person commented on the legs’ design itself: why does it look like mecha hardware? Excellent question! One which will have to wait for a resolution.

I’ve received some requests (2, actually, but oh well) to get a glimpse of my work setup. Personally, I’ve always liked to see where my fave artists work (one of these days, I swear I’ll steal Adam Warren’s desk) so thought it would be a fun thing to share.  Without further ado, I present to you – THE STUDIO (a corner in my bedroom, but it sounds better when I call it THE STUDIO).

For your reference…

1. 28″ Widescreen monitor.  This thing has spoiled me forever – I refuse to use the puny screen at my office anymore.
2. Intuos 4 XL Tablet. Thus far, I use the tablet only for coloring and to write word balloons.  I really want to get around to really learning every possible use – although I don’t think I’ll stop doing hand-drawing and inking.
3. Pixma Pro 9000 Mark II printer – This printer could potentially kill a grown man if I dropped it on top of said man.  It’s a large format printer, and I use it for my guides and to experiment with for some cool posters and other projects I have in mind. Also, to print pictures of LOLcats.
4. My Chair. This is where I park my ass.
5. Paper sorter thingie. In progress strips, layout pages and random ideas are stored here. There’s an intricate filing system at work here people.
6. Muztek 11×17 flatbed scanner. This is an AWESOME scanner for the price. Also, it allows me to scan in the pages I usually work at with a lot of ease (no pasting/etc.)
7. Wall o’original art. This will build up with more time and be increasingly awesome.
8. Shelves. I keep here the DVDs and books I’m currently in the process of going through or reference material.  I have a lot of good books here that I’ve been using to self-teach drawing techniques, coloring, webcomicking, and other stuff.  Drop me a note in the comments if you would like to know a bit more about my reference material.
9. Magnetic board. Reference drawings (Bob and Angela, currently), script ideas and some assorted pens readily at hand.

And a closer look at my work area, with some in progress strips (You’ve seen this one before). 

Hope you enjoyed the look at the space - on some future post I’ll share my comic process (from layout to finished piece).  Won’t really be a tutorial, unless somebody actually thinks I can impart some knowledge…

Summary: Donate to Haiti thru any means of your choice through February 15th, send me proof and your mailing address, I’ll send you an AL character sketch of your choice. It’s that easy!

In case you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, Haiti was recently struck by a massive earthquake.  In a country already hard hit with poverty, corruption and lack of access to things that many of us take for granted, this event’s destructive qualities are terribly magnified. The situation currently is, for a lack of a better word, abysmal – and it’s not bound to get better any time soon.

For a lot of us, going to Haiti to help directly is not an option – with my lack of real life, survival or practical skills, you could possibly make things worse or stand in the way. But there are ways to donate and help out. As I put in a donation to the Red Cross yesterday, I decided to put one of my few actual abilities (drawing, apparently) to good use.

That’s why if you donate anything to Haiti between now and February 15th, through any organization of your choice (there’s a lot of good options out there — see below for some pointers) I’ll personally send you a sketch of any character of your choice as an extra incentive for you to open up your heart. All you have to do is send me proof of your donation to armando@atomiclaundromat.com (you may hide the donation amount to protect your privacy if you so wish) with your mailing address. DON’T SEND ME ANY MONEY. To avoid any confusion, I’m deactivating my own “Donate” page — I want you to go put your money in the hands of the people who can action in Haiti ASAP and just let me know when you’ve done it.  By the way, if you donate in a way that has no obvious “proof” – dropping off a sack of canned food at a collection center, or depositing money at your local church – email me anyways. I think that for something like this, we can do the honor system. Although a picture of a reader with a sack of cans would be awesome.

Donors in the USA
- American Red Cross. The American Red Cross is taking donations via text message – text “haiti” to 90999 to make a $10 USD donation (major cell carriers are waiving additional text messaging fees). You can also donate on their homepage.  

Donors in Mexico
- El Universal has an excellent page on all collection points and bank accounts for aid to Haiti.

Donors elsewhere
- UNICEF. They are collecting funds for children in need on their homepage.
- American Red Cross. They accept contributions from everywhere on their homepage.
- Canadian Red Cross. They are accepting contributions from everywhere, so visit their homepage. (thanks Elliott!)

I know that maybe a lot of you were already planning on donating anyways, so this is a small thank you on behalf of those whose life you may be changing. If this whole thing pushes just one person over the edge to make a donation, I’ll call this whole little effort a success.

This “offer” is open to anybody around the world.