The Digital Edition
The Digital Edition
Clyde’s Coffee Emporium is an amalgamation of every coffee shop we’ve ever been to, as well as the barista. Their comment on him depicts the beginnings of their friendship. It’s a small but important scene. As you can see in the background I may have an addiction to bookcases and have gone into withdrawal from not drawing them that I had to put an arbitrary one in there somewhere.
Hooray! We finally leave the bookstore so I can finally stop drawing bookcases! I look at these panels now and I think about how minimalist they were. One of many things I’d change if I had the chance. I still can’t get over the way I used to draw comics compared to the way I do now.
This is the part of the story where we get a little history on the characters and where they differ greatly from the real life Isaac and Lee. I didn’t want to make my Isaac and Lee identical to them so I started by giving them very different histories. Other than that, not a lot of the story changed. I also remember me and my then editor deciding that we needed to make the balloons come out of the panels in order to make the page look more interesting. Later on, this format would change as I went for a more traditional layout.
The conversation continues and I think I actually have the sad Mario on the bookcase asking me why I punished myself by setting the story in a book store. It’s a theory really. I hadn’t settled into a groove of drawing the characters yet, which led to radical changes from panel to panel. (Which is now more than a little embarrassing to look back on now)I also remember wanting to get to some action, but quickly realising that it simply wasn’t going to be that kind of story. I learned early on that Isaac and Lee were in control of the story and calling all of the shots, with me as a mere observer taking notes.
Ah yes, back in the days before I started striving for uniformity and also before I understood the importance of word balloon structure. I think I can safely say that these panels would not look like this today. It’s when I see pages like this one, I am sorely tempted to pull a George Lucas and redraw them entirely. If I didn’t have more stories to tell I’d probably do just that. This is also one of the pages where I wound up writing dialogue that was very similar to a conversation that the real life Isaac and Lee had. There are more of these to come.
Hello all!
So here’s the thing, I started drawing this comic a while ago and am slowly posting everything. I’ve got quite a bit stored up here, but I realised that it just doesn’t have any omph if I I don’t give some updates in between. It would feel mechanical to me, and that’s the last thing that I want this website be like. Isaac & Lee is anything but mechanical and so this site should be mechanical either.
My answer to this? Occasional blog posts in between the comics, just to say hi or whatever. To let people know that, yes, there is a person here who is making the comics (and is continuing to make the comics) as opposed to some mechanical drone.
Uh….. Not that I have anything against drones. One of my best friends is a drone…..
Please send all hate mail to moongoth@hotmail.com
But seriously, if you have any questions or comments about this webcomic please feel free to comment and let me know what you think or even if you just want to say hi!
I would later go on to put “Oh, the tragedy of the lowly, local bookstore owner” on many different items. I just really liked that quote. This would be the part where you begin to get a glimpse of Isaac’s penchant for drama and wise-assery (it’s a word now). Also, you can tell that I am beginning to grow tired of drawing plain bookcases and so, have been putting random items on the shelves in the background. I got the idea from this scene from the movie “Better than Chocolate” where there is a sub-plot involving problems trying to get books into the bookstore “Little Sisters” (an actual alternative bookstore in Vancouver, BC).
This is where Isaac and Lee get the first impressions of each other. Begin character development………Now!! Also note the Clerks reference in the background (I’m not going to tell you, just look for it). I also remember feeling guilty for re-using illustrations for panels. But the page turned out fine.
And here we begin with the bookcases. One of the dangers of setting a story in a bookstore. Multiple bookcases everywhere. Redrawn again and again. You soon will see what I do to liven up an otherwise boring background. This is also the first appearance of Isaac.
Ah yes. This is the first page of the first book. It seems like a million years ago. I remember when I was constructing this page. The book was (and still is) created one panel at a time. The first panel? Took forever. I was stressing out about making sure that I put every line on paper, ever so carefully. I knew that I wanted to have a complex background with simplistic characters. It would be a reflection of the story. I got the idea for the style from Hergé. This was my first minicomic and everything was a big deal. I was so scared just to get everything right.
For new readers, you’ll notice the change in style over the years as I play around with hairstyles and backgrounds. I also had changes in editorial staff over the years which has also effected how I create the books.