Brock Beauchamp

New page, Variables

Brock Beauchamp
February 21, 2011

I spent almost all of yesterday working on the book and I'm happy to say that I have nearly an entire page of buffer finished. I'll take some time to finish it today and possibly start on pencils for page four, which happens to be AN ENTIRELY NEW SCENE. So that means I have drawn my first introduction scene of Variables! Page three took me nearly 8 hours to color, which I hope does not become the standard for eight panel pages. That's just too long to color a page once a week after spending anywhere from six to ten hours penciling and inking the damned thing. I'm hoping this page was just an oddity and not the rule for some of these high count pages that are coming up in the first issue. Anyway, I'm starting to pile up comics that I need to read, including the last 4-5 issues of The Walking Dead. I've been so busy working on this book that I rarely find time to sit and READ comic books anymore.

Preview – new comic strip

Brock Beauchamp
February 18, 2011

Bill Watterson is one of the artistic icons of the past 50 years and one of the biggest influences on my art as a child. As a result, I've always wanted to do a straight-up, old-fashioned comic strip that drew from the elements of his brilliant Calvin & Hobbes work (one of the most fun, warm-hearted, and absolutely rolling-on-the-floor funny comics strips ever created), along with other great strip creators I followed such as Walt Kelly (Pogo... just fantastic) and Breathed (Bloom County, Outland... political, yet still charming). But, alas, my talent compared to these men is limited and despite thinking about ideas for a strip off-and-on for 20 years, I never found the correct mix of biting humor and cutesy charm that all of these strips possess.

Hello, Android.

Brock Beauchamp
February 16, 2011

After purchasing an original iPhone in early 2008 and upgrading to a 3G in 2009, I have deserted the iPhone camp and joined the Android crew. Overall, the two operating systems are nearly interchangeable, with iOS getting the nod in some regards while Android gets the nod in others. It's the hardware that separates these two phones and I couldn't be happier to move away from Apple's closed system and into the loving embrace of the Inspire's 4.3" screen, HSPA+ 4G data (really, more like 3.5G), and faster hardware specs. All of this for just $99, or $100 less than the lower-specced iPhone 4.

First Variables page

Brock Beauchamp
February 14, 2011

I think this is the point where I tell a bit about Variables: the comic begins in 1992 when, for the sake of the story, two people are suddenly aware of two strange abilities they now possess and how the people around them, the government, and the powered beings themselves react to these changes. It's a kind of origin story but not in the conventional sense because these characters are not the main characters in Variables, for there are no "main characters", per se. You will see recurring characters that play prominent roles in the universe but the story arcs deal with the universe, not one protagonist and/or antagonist. In this regard, it's similar to Frank Miller's Sin City series with a touch of conventional "superheroes", though superheroes are few and far between in the universe. To put it simply, someone donning a cape and fighting crime wouldn't last very long in the real world.

Preview – Page 2 inks

Brock Beauchamp
February 11, 2011

Initially, I was expecting to post some sketches of for the good of the people in the preview for this week and while I started initial character sketches last night, they are nowhere near the point where I’m comfortable posting the concepts. I nailed the dog character immediately but half an hour into the sketching session, I realized that I had absolutely no freakin’ idea what a frog looks like in real life. You take animals for granted, thinking that you know what they look like but when it comes time to actually put pencil to paper, you realize that... View Article

Website revisions

Brock Beauchamp
February 9, 2011

I’ve spent the past two weeks wracking my brain on how to improve navigation for the site. It’s been a long and at times, frustrating road to cleaning up the navigation, links, comic reader, and almost every other aspect of the site. I’ve done about as much as I can for the time being and while there are small problems whose fixes still escape me, I have to step back for a few days and let the dust settle on the current design. After awhile, it just feels as if I’m changing elements for the sake of changing them and... View Article