Monday, August 3, 2009

Salty 'Ham Slam 2 - On Reflection

Our second meeting had a lower turnout, perhaps because of scattered showers (?). Several people who I hoped to see did not show; hopefully they'll come to future meetings.

We had a great time, though. Present were Chris Fason, Garth Potts, Kirk Creel, Tim Rocks, Chris Rosko, Sam McDavid, and myself. (And guest Paul Godbey.)

The meeting benefitted, in my opinion, from some purposefully imposed structure. From 2:00 to 3:00, we put some art out on the table that we could all look at, and just talked about stuff in general.

At 3:00, I talked about issues facing the group, and everybody gave good input. We're going to let all members vote on what directions SHC will take, so watch for upcoming emails about that.


Next, we started drawing. (Here's what Brian Ratigan drew in my sketchbook, when I ran into him a few days before the slam -- )



I asked everybody to draw in my sketchbook. We'd been talking about Free Comic Book Day, so I guess that's what inspired the following sketch by Tim Rocks. Tim, does this refer to the free comics of our youth, like the ones that advertised Captain D's, or Radio Shack's Tandy TRS-80 computer?



Chris Fason drew this very Fasonesque bear in briefs:



Kirk Creel doodled this dog with delightfully human feet. This poor animal is definitely no longer enthused about life:



Chris Rosko drew this roller-skating alien (or is he a Lovecraftian ancient god? Could be Cthulhu's cousin Kevin.) I subsequently colored him in PhotoShop:



Here's an exquisite corpse we did. 4 artists each drew one quadrant, without the benefit of being able to see the other quadrants. All you have to go on is the ends of the lines sticking into your part of the page, so that the stuff will connect.


Chris Garrison (that's me) drew the snake section; Sam McDavid drew the tongue portion; Chris Rosko created the quarter with the Gnuh!; and Chris Fason did the bubble-blowing mice.


Here's an odd collaborative effort:


Errant head by Fason; dog by me; creature by Rosko; Twinkies by Rocks; pterodactyl (?) by McDavid, maybe?


Here's a wacky comic jam:


Panel one by Chris Garrison; panel 2 was drawn by Chris Fason, but he didn't have a caption, so Sam McDavid wrote one for him; Tim Rocks drew the shocking panel three, which we all had to admit, after panel 2, made perfect sense; Chris Rosko drew panel 4; Kirk Creel did panel 5; and I returned to finish the jam with the 6th panel.


And here's another delightful comic jam:


Chris Garrison started this one with panel 1; Kirk Creel drew out the suspense with panel 2; and Sam McDavid drew the hilarious third panel. The jam was then passed to Chris Rosko, who said that panel three should be the ending. Everyone agreed, so Rosko wrote "The End" on there.

People ate cookies and candy, and fun was had. I think Salty 'Ham Cartooneestas has transitioned from what I've been calling "an online list of / gallery for cartoonists" into "a cartoonists' club with a web site." That might sound like a subtle distinction, but I think it's a big deal.

3 comments:

Kirk Creel said...

One of the idle chats that came up was "The Buckets" Comic that is currently produced wholly by Greg Cravens. I just KNEW that Scott Stantis had created that strip. It turns out that he DID create it and syndicated it in 1990. Cravens came on board around 2000 and eventually took full control of the strip so Stantis could focus on "Prickly City".

Tim Rocks said...

Chris:

Yes it refers to the computer-ad comics.. I couldn't remember the exact name TRS-80, but for some reason I think I actually read that story where some kids help Superman (with TRS-80s!) several times.

rosko said...

Seege (C.G.), I likey the color version of the skathulu fella!
Ahh, mammaries I mean, memories...
I have a Capt. America free comic in which he battles allergens & other asthma triggering baddies.