Hey, I’m on time this year! Bless you, Google Calendar!
For those of you who came in late: Back when I was doing weekly new comic reviews before it started taking up too much of one of the only days I had to do household chores, I was running out of interesting ways to introduce the article each week. Intros are harder than they look. It’s how you hook the reader in to checking out what you have to say. So while fooling around with different art styles I tried one I really liked. Then I tried to redraw it and couldn’t. Repeated attempts led to failure so I gave up for the day. The next day I tried again and lacking the frustration of the previous day’s failures I actually did it. So I gave him a friend. The original was called Jake and the new guy Leroy…though when I introduced them on this site I ended up writing “Leon” and liked it better. Turns out that was a benefit to the logo having two names with four letters.
When I decided to change the new comic reviews to one a day to give me time to do other stuff than read comics (as much as taking a day to just read comics is a great way to spend the day) it became a list of article links I found during the week, but that meant some weeks I had to struggle to find enough articles. So I just did what is now the daily quickpost with articles or videos and gave my Sunday post over to Jake & Leon with updates for what’s coming in the next week and linking to this week’s article over at The Clutter Reports.
Every year I try to spend some time to go over my favorite comics of the previous year. Some were really good jokes or commentaries, while others just mark some artistic achievement. This year I missed a few Sundays due to time, illness, not having a good comic idea in time, or just something else occupying my attention. Still, I did more than enough to have some comics I’m really proud of.
When the de-aged Spider-Man show for preschoolers is doing Marvel better than Marvel, you’re doing it wrong.
This is when I started to realize how good the kids have it. Put down kids shows all you want but they’re getting the better stories more often than not because even when agenda sneaks in the goal is still telling a good story with bright colors or the kids aren’t going to listen. Can’t push the toys on a bored audience.
It’s also a gift for the fans. I expect DC to return it as soon as possible.
I’ve written so many times about the importance of the Clark Kent identity and why it works that I don’t know what to link to. Plus I always like doing Superman stuff. Favorite superhero after all.
………………..
It’s weird when the stats go up when I take time off, especially the time I actually planned to take off.
Capes don’t work for every superhero, but it’s telling that they keep trying to expel the recognized symbol of Western superheroes out of modern superhero costume designs.
Edna Mode, I love you but you are so wrong about the capes. I can denounce every argument Brad Bird tries to make against capes in the first The Incredibles.
Not a scary long list but it happens more often than I thought.
It really is. Bruce dates a lot of villains.
They died so we might live. Remember to honor that in between the hot dogs and parades.
Never forget shouldn’t just be about 9/11.
LIke a local DJ team used to say, wherever you go, there you are…but you can’t get there from here.
It’s rare when I get the characters out of the studio besides that one comic store.
I’m only taking a week off, so it’s not like it’s going to be a long cliffhanger.
Oh crap, I forgot I was supposed to do that storyline for October! I’ll think of something.
I wish that wasn’t literal, but 2016 was a thing that happened.
Sadly true. Just starting to finally put myself together in 2013, now that the hernia and kidney stone are gone.
My two favorite versions of the animated Incredible Hulk had Rick in long hair and cowboy attire. The 80s one also gave him a hat.
One of my better attempts at the Hulk and my first time drawing Rick Jones. Still don’t know why the cartoons gave him a Western look. It’s also one of the comics where I started experimenting with shading in the “host segments”. I’m still trying to get better at shading.
Even if they’re joking, I’d love to see Wayne Brady’s response.
Also the first time I drew Wayne Brady. I don’t do enough game show gags. I think this was my second one. Tried to play with the word balloon so the guy in the costume appeared to be somewhat muffled and I hope that came out in the comic.
This isn’t even the biggest jerk Leon’s commented on today. He discusses comics.
My favorite gag this year.
Now everything else Rachel Ziegler’s complained about, that’s just lame.
The closer we get to the end of the year the more unsure I am to include it. For one thing you saw it recently. For another it didn’t have the same amount of time to age like the early ones. Still, it’s an observation I had and wanted to share. In hindsight I probably should have given Leon a brighter shirt but whenever I tried it didn’t look right against that background.
A short list this year but I missed too many Sundays. Still, I’m most proud of these comics this year. On the off chance you read them, is your favorite of the year up here or did I miss one you liked? Do you even read the comics or ignore them and go right to the post? I’ll still keep doing them because I need the practice but I’m curious what people actually think about Jake & Leon. I’m willing to improve but I will judge responses that do nothing more than tell me I suck. I know that. That’s why I’m trying to get better. If you can’t say something nice, at least be constructive. You can catch all the comics in the Jake & Leon Archive section of the site. I keep it separate from the other BW Comics & Art because I do that one every week and I don’t want to relink everything in the weekly posts.
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