Nick Marino

This year (like last year), I celebrated 24-Hour Comics Day at the Toonseum in Pittsburgh. Joe Wos hooked us up with a brand new extension of the museum's space, and it was an awesome place to get work done.

How awesome??? So awesome that I finished my 24-page story in less than 12 hours! Granted, I drew Stick Cats Act III in a loose line with minimal detail, so it's not like I pulled a Jack Kirby routine. But I'm extremely pleased with the way things turned out. (Check back this Wednesday to read page 1!)

What did I do differently from 2010? I learned from my mistakes by setting different goals, sticking to stuff that I enjoy drawing, and focusing on speed. My goal for this year was to finish in a half-day, and I'm glad that I accomplished that mission (I went to sleep at a normal time in my own bed! SWEET!).

It was a great environment at this year's 24HCD, with lots of space and a good vibe. People were there to work, and their passion for drawing comics was apparent. A few of my close friends were there, as well as a few peeps I haven't met before.

Everybody had a different way of working and it was a lot fun to see the different styles in motion. For example, Chris Maverick was wired up real nice with his laptop and tricked-out tablet. He demonstrated Manga Studio a bit, and I was totally floored by some of the program's features.

On the flip, Juan Jose Fernandez was working on special yellow paper stock in a much more old school method. His traditional style involved pencils and India ink, and he kept his pages in a stack on the top left of his table.

Now imagine if you will Chris and Juan standing on opposite sides of a room, with a full spectrum of working methods filling in the gap between them. That's how it was at 24HCD. A few of us had laptops to use for finding reference or keeping tabs on social media while we worked. Others kicked it straight analog -- it was just them, a pencil, a pen, and the paper.

I worked in my sketchbook. That's the method I've used for Stick Cats thus far and I've come to enjoy the feel of drawing the comic page-by-page in a coil-bound tome. The only drawback to working in my sketchbook was that it was hard for other artists to come around and peak at my progress.

I skipped pencils (as usual) and worked in black ink, using my beloved Paper Mate Flair pens to get the job done (with a little Sharpie here and there). As I've been working like this for going on 20 years now, it was easy and comfortable -- a technique I was able to leverage for speed.

So what did I learn this year that I can apply in 2012?

1. Focusing on speed is a great way to work, but I'd like to slow down a bit and do a more detailed story next year.

2. Working in my sketchbook greatly decreased my ability to share, so I'll definitely make sure to use loose sheets next time.

3. And, finally, I'm gonna focus on big action and minimal dialogue in 2012. My characters talked too much this year, and I got tired of drawing the same settings over and over.

BUT WAIT! There's more! I referenced 24HCD in today's Super Haters webcomic. Based on Grant Morrison's philosophy of transference from the comics page to the creator's real life, I figured that if Destruct-O-Tron could complete a brilliant complete 24-hour comic in the Super Haters reality, then maybe it'd transfer over to me. Though I'd be hard pressed to call Stick Cats Act III brilliant, the other part of the transference worked!

I was the lucky winner of a contest held by TopWebComics.com at the end of March. The prize? An iPad!!!

This video is my thank you to Richard from TWC, and it's also a chance for me to show off Super Haters on the iPad, not to mention Time Log on the Kindle app (which I obviously don't know how to use very well). Plus, there's a little peak at the AudioShocker Comics Archives v1 digital comic card.

Oh, hey, while you're at it, you should go vote for Super Haters on TWC!

It's been a while since I've done an update like this and there's a lot to cover, so let's get to it!

- The image you see up top is the art for the very first AudioShocker Comics Dropcard. Confused? Dropcards are essentially little gift card looking things that give you a unique code to access downloadable content. They're pretty common nowadays for musicians, but as far as I know, I'm the first person using them for comics. The Dropcard pictured above will make its debut at this year's SPACE.

- That's right, I'll be at SPACE (Small Press Alternative Comics Expo) in Columbus on March 19th and 20th. I'm rolling into town with a ton of great Pittsburgh comic creators including Shawn Atkins, Dan Greenwald, Scott Hedlund, Marcel Walker, and Seth Fronzoli (plus some other great PGH comics cats'll be there too, like Tom Scioli, Nate McDonough, Andy Scott, and more). AND I'll be catching up with some friends like Brian John Mitchell and Josh Blair (AAHHH NO MORE NAME DROPPING!). I'll have a bunch of comics with me, both old and new, including...

- The New Time Log (1 of 3), which is currently at the printers! It's my first foray into full color printing and it's a bit ironic considering I'm pretty against expensive, over-printed comics... But this bad boy is one high-quality sucker! Smooth paper, lush tones, and-- oh look at me, I'm gushing. Anyway, I'll be posting more about this book in the next few weeks.

- Speaking of new comics, I'm a contributor to Andy Scott's comix anthology, specifically Andromeda #7. I have a two-pager in there called "Adventure 101." Click the linked issue title to check it out on Etsy.

- And continuing the theme of collaboration, over on my daily webcomic, Super Haters, I'm gearing up for a new feature -- Super Haters Guest Weeks!!! Each month, beginning on the second Monday, I'll be featuring seven days of strips by a guest writer. First up in March is Ross Campbell, who's got some pretty nuts stuff planned for Destruct-O-Tron and Mind's Eye.

- I also have a ton of other stuff going on, like an upcoming talk at the Out of Gutter comics discussion group at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Library in Oakland, the bi-monthly Sequential Underground podcasts, Time Log nearing the end of ACT II, Project Basement (v3 starts later today (Powers and Costumes this time around)), an impending Deadpool comic with Brian John Mitchell, and... this brief 24 Hour Comics Day 2010 interview that I did with the TGT Webcomics Podcast (my section of the interview starts at 28:20).

Justique and I created a special SPACE exclusive six-panel Super Haters comic for the 2011 digital anthology (a project edited by my friend, Brian John Mitchell).

Check it out!!!
- SPACE Anthology 2011 PDF (75 MB)

Super Haters has made it to the final round! Granted, the entries in the Webcomics category were a little thin and EVERYONE made it to the final round... but I'm still in it, goddamn it!!!

Big congrats to my friends and acquaintances who are also nominated -- Brian John Mitchell, Josh Blair, and Pat Lewis. I'm glad they're not in my category cause they all have a great shot at winning their own respective SPACE Prizes!

If you were a SPACE 2010 exhibitor and you're interested in finding out more about my entry before you vote, here are the ways you can check out my eligible Super Haters comic strips:

- Start with Super Haters #1 on the AudioShocker (read up to #41)
- Read Super Haters #1-41 as a photo album on Facebook
- Read Super Haters #1-41 as a set on Flickr
- Download Super Haters #1-41 as a single PDF (about 6.75 MB)
- See the Super Haters Master List to pick and choose individual strips

Also make sure to check out SuperHaters.com. It's featuring slightly remixed versions of my original Super Haters strips that ran on the AudioShocker, as well as collected story arcs and some other goodies. New material starts on Groundhog's Day 2011. AND make sure to hit up the Super Haters on Facebook and become a fan!

Thx to Bob Corby for allowing Super Haters into the running and thx to any 2010 SPACE exhibitors who vote for the Haters (deadline is Jan 31st, 2011)!!!

- OMG, how could I not post this??? The Super Haters have their own website now... the redundantly named SuperHaters.com!!! The webcomic is going daily (it is only talking heads, after all...), and I'm creating some lead time by reposting the original 64 comic strips that ran on the AudioShocker (and Drunk Duck, too).

- A lumpy, heavily photo-ref'd self portrait:

- Warning to all podcasters out there using podPress on their WordPress blogs: don't update to podPress 8.8.8! It's got some weird flaw that kills your podcast RSS feed. Stick with 8.8.6.3. I had to find that out the hard way.

- I'm launching a daily sketch series next Monday called A Deadpool A Day in December. I was at the Steel City Con over the weekend, and the stupid Monroeville Convention Center doesn't have wifi or openly accessible electricity for vendors, so I was forced to use pen and paper. My Deadpool sketches will run daily though the end of the month.

- Ongoing: Time Log, AudioShocker Podcast, A Podcast with Ross and Nick (and EXTREME), Sequential Underground, Soulboxer, Pepper Jones, and CENSORED (hehe).

I've been working hard on a TON of projects, including:

- the upcoming Time Log webcomic (only one more week to go!)

- the most recent (and final, for the time being) story arc on Super Haters

- a new opening theme for the Comic Book Pitt podcast (the song itself will be available on my next album, 7 Star Sky Flash Kick, due out whenever I have 13 original tracks mixed and mastered for release)

- Project Basement, a fan art collection of raw, energetic pieces

- coordinating the comics end of SPF 2010 (SPF as in Pittsburgh's Small Press Festival)

- contributing to the Sequential Underground Strip Club vol 1 (a rotating series of fast and fun comic strips)

- getting the Time Log one-shot into a ton of stores (shout outs to Dragon's Lair in San Antonio and Austin, Tribe in Austin, Atomic Comics in San Antonio, Alien Worlds in San Antonio, St. Mark's Comics in Manhattan NYC, Comicazi in Somerville MA, Hub Comics in Somerville, New England Comics in Cambridge, Copacetic Comics in Pittsburgh, and Phantom of the Attic Comics in Oakland/Pittsburgh -- all these shops picked up copies of Time Log to sell in their stores)

- and doing this Sleepwalker sketch for Ross because he took my Henry Poole is Here challenge:

It's been a couple weeks since I tossed out an update, so here it goes:

- I finished scripting the second act of Pepper Jones, Adventure Scientist (remember the sample I posted from the first act?). The third act was practically written as a script, so all I need to do is break it into panels. This project is, for those who don't know, a digest-sized full-length graphic novel I'm co-writing with Shawn Atkins, who's also the artist:

- I've had a few story conferences with Pete Borrebach regarding the direction of our upcoming Time Log webcomic (launching in August!). Again drawn by Shawn, Pete and I thought that this story was locked down... until we went back and looked at the scripts we wrote three years ago and realized they needed to be completely overhauled. So overhauled we have! We should have the first few strips written by the start of June.

- Yeah, I shifted myself from one apartment to another over the weekend, but the real shifting is going on over in Super Haters. I bet everyone thought last week's ending was just a mindless joke, right? Well it may have been mindless but it wasn't a joke! Expect some... changes this week. (Here's last week's ending:)

- I've crossed the 15,000 word mark on my super-secret project (which is technically no longer a secret... you just need to know where to find it).

- And finally, I started stripping. Yep, over at Sequential Underground's Facebook page, the Strip Club is underway. It's a rotating cast of cartoonists telling one big semi-coherent story through a series of comic strips. Here's the first panel of my first contribution to Strip Club, Vol 1: