Back in the early 2000s, I got to do a workshop at Montreal’s Blue Metropolis Book Festival with the great Gene Luen Yang. A movie adaptation of his graphic novel American Born Chinese is currently coming out. The book the movie is based on is an amazing exploration of being young and having a Chinese […]
Archive for the ‘comics’ Category
Gene Luen Yang
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, cats, collaboration, comics, sketchesThe Savage Yard!
By Jack Ruttan in brush pen, comics, digitalA comic by me, Jack Ruttan. Computer colours, this time. Seems like digital is much slower, and much more reliant on know-how than watercolours are, which are sort of in my bones. Still working on the work flow! Of course, what a person thinks about this who grew up with digital and has trouble with […]
A Comic. By Me.
By Jack Ruttan in color, comics, digital, watercolorLife has been tough, lately, and I’ve not been doing some things I should have been doing. I don’t know if comics is one of them, but lots of illustrators are doing them. And if I call myself a writer/slash illustrator, then that’s a natural. But it’s not very renumerative. I started drawing digitally, got […]
Dig Pigs
By Jack Ruttan in ballpoint pen, comics, montreal, watercolor, watercolourThis morning I was annoyed at all the construction noise outside, so drawing this felt like a good way to get rid of my frustrations. The title “Dig Pigs” is from graffiti I saw on one of this city’s ubiquitous “ROAD CLOSED” signs. It made me laugh.
Comic 2 — Sounds of Summer
By Jack Ruttan in color, comics, sketches, watercolor, watercolourThis one took considerably longer than the first one. Then again, I did actually write something, plus there are backgrounds and more figures. Inspired by all the construction noise around here every summer. There will probably be more on this theme.
Tags: cartoons, comics, watercolor, watercolour
Frustration Funnies
By Jack Ruttan in color, comics, sketches, watercolorI’ve been feeling down about doing comics these days, because it usually takes a lot of time. So I did this thing, and it only took me a few hours. That makes me happy. I like the rough sketchy treatment. But I will spend more time on the story aspect, next time, obviously.
Tags: cats, comics, watercolors, watercolours
Rod McKuen’s Co-Existence Bagel Shop Blues
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, collaboration, comics, Rick Gagnon, sketchesThe passing of Rod McKuen the other month reminded me of this comic a friend of mine and I did, based on a spoken word recording made by this famous (maybe in-famous) poet. The “official” beats hated these, as sort of climbing onto the bandwagon, but I think they’re funny and unpretentious. I did the […]
Fritz the Hobbit
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, comics, old comicsA twitter exchange with a University of Calgary alumnus reminded me of this comic I did way back in 1979, for the University of Calgary GAUNTLET. Unhappily, I couldn’t find the first episode in my files, so this is all I’ve got. The narrative is already a little shakey, because I think installments came out […]
Car-Free Day, 2009
By Jack Ruttan in collaboration, comics, montreal, ruttan's placeBrowsing around, trying to resurrect some Jack links, I found this story I hadn’t seen before. I had spent a day in the street with some other cartoonists during “Car-Free Day” in Montreal, drawing comic strips on easels. Car Free day meant that they basically shut down the city core to cars. This isn’t done […]
Relative Fandoms
By Jack Ruttan in comics, digital, sketchesMy first Venn Diagram, inspired by a comment from a friend of mine in Facebook. People are already complaining about this over at Facebook, but maybe I can beat The Oatmeal.
Printemps d’Erable
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, comics, pencilI hope this doesn’t make me seem too right wing. I was listening to the news on the radio this morning, just waking up, and this is what one item sounded like. To tell the truth, I support the protests!
The Punk Lives
By Jack Ruttan in black and white, comics, digital, Skinny Nameless PunkI’ve learned a lot of crazy inking tools in Adobe Illustrator, and with this study, am happy I’m going to be able to continue my comic, The Skinny Nameless Punk. This is with the blessing of my sometime collaborator/inker Rick Gagnon, with whom I originated the character. Now the thing is to draw a bunch […]