Aliens and Ink Lines

a winning artist's toolset and trying to scream in space

I folks, I hope you are well.

I do not have any of my personal art to share today, but I wanted to share some things that have inspired me and things I have been thinking about. Hope you enjoy.

𝗗𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗘𝗟 𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗘𝗡 𝗝𝗢𝗛𝗡𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗡

I have written about Daniel Warren Johnson in the past here, but any chance i have to tell folks about him, and his work, I’ll do it.

He is by far, my favorite creator in comics in the past 10 years. Ten years ago he was releasing his webcomic ‘Space Mullet’, and I reached out to him on Twitter. We ended up connecting and getting breakfast a few times during Emerald City and Rose City. I was starting my work on SpaceCat, and we bonded on comics and love for the band meWithoutYou. It was been SO cool to see his career really take off. Now he is winning Eisner awards for his work, and it is well deserved. He has new series coming out. It is a collaboration with fellow creator Riley Rossmo called “The Moon in Following Us”, and I am sure it will be great.

For those who love to draw and ink, check out his latest collaboration with Proko, where he walks us all through his ‘travel bag’ of comics tools. I’ve always wanted to make a video like this, but I doubt I could make a better one than Daniel and Proko do here.

I use a lot of these tools myself, and you really can’t go wrong with Dan’s recommendations. I wanted to put this list here to make it easier for folks looking to pick up the art supplies Dan mentions here.

𝗗𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗘𝗟'𝗦 𝗧𝗢𝗢𝗟𝗦

Pigma Parallel Pen

Pilot Parallel Pen (I use these as well, but I’m going to try putting my own ink in it , like he recommended.)

Pental Aquash Water Brush ( Fantastic for easy and clean watercolor work )

10 Point Divider

Micron .8 Pen

Windsor & Newton 1.0 Fineliner Pen

Tombow Brush Pen

Bic Cristal 1.6mm Ball Point Pen

Signo UniBall White Gel Pen

Pentel .9 Mechanical Pencil

Neox Graphite .9 (Dan is not wrong about this lead. It lays down smooth, and erases better than anything i’ve seen.)

Pentel Brush Pen

Pentel Pocket Brush Pen

Zebra Brush Pen

Ain Eraser ( Personally I prefer the Staedler, but these are good too)

Presto White Out Pen (be careful out there)

Copic Multiliner .8

𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗡 𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗨𝗟𝗨𝗦

I went to see Alien: Romulus last night, and wow, what a movie. It is an Alien film, so be ready for all of what that can mean. But, If you love Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) , then I cannot recommend this one enough. I think I would describe it as if you took 70% Alien, 25% Aliens, and 5% Prometheus, blended them together, and you would get something like Alien: Romulus. I highly recommend it.

"𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗡𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗢 𝗗𝗘𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡 𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗨𝗔𝗚𝗘 𝗣𝗟𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗘"

Matthew Savage designed the Corbelan, the ship in the film. I would recommend following him and his work. He has been involved in a lot of beloved film projects.

I also want to recommend two videos that talk about the film as related to symbolism and character. These are a bit on the Spoiler side, so check them out after you watch the film.

First up is from fellow comics creator Michael Regina, creator of The Sleepover graphic novel. He talks a lot about storytelling and how this film threw all it could at the characters in this film.

This next one is from a new video creator that i discovered just today. Thomas Thorogood does a fantastic deep dive into some of the symbolism in the film and his take on it really made me appreciate a great film even more.

𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗪?

Did you know that Mike Mignola made an Alien comic in the 1990s. Alien: Salvation. Looks like it is out of print maybe. I could only find it being sold used on Amazon. I guess I was lucky when i found a copy. Keep an eye out for it.

OK folks, that about does it for now.

I hope to share some personal art and SpaceCat updates soon. I am working on an ambitious new project at work that I can’t talk about, and it is taking a lot of brain space. But, my hope is that I will find a routine soon with life and work and be back at the drawing board soon.

Catch you later,

Ed