Philly-area cartoonist Robb Armstrong, creater of Jump Start, was recently interviewed by Jamar Nicholas and Mike Manley for their series Pencil to Pencil.
I met Mr. Armstrong at a gallery show once where he had some work on display. When I asked why his comics appeared to be on tracing paper, he told me that penciling your comic strip on paper, then laying a sheet of transparent mylar over it and inking on that, is a cleaner, faster way to work.
And it's true. On his advice, I worked that way for years. He talks about this process starting at 1:04:00 in the interview.
Philly animator Lowell Boston – a regular contributor to The Plastic Club animation festivals – has a show on PhillyCAM called Optical Toys. New episode Episode 32: Something to Say is a mini-animation festival with some great shorts in it.
On the west coast, one of the founders of the underground cartoonist movement died earlier this month. S. Clay Wilson was known for creating outrageous comics alongside R. Crumb in 1970's San Francisco.
This article in The San Francisco Chronicle and this one in The New York Times recall his life and work. Many thanks to friend and fellow Plastic Clubber Mike Guinn for letting me know about this.
