Tankadere!

Friends of mine run a small press called Crab Tank Ink (you can visit them here:  http://www.crabtankink.com/tankadere/) that features comics and cute, snappy design. They’ve been giving emerging artists a shot at telling great stories in their Tankadere anthology. The name comes from Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days and reflects both the worldliness of the anthology (they recruit from around the world) but also the steampunk-friendly bent of the anthologies’ themes. My Bad Day Monsters appear in volume one and again in volume two, and I believe will run for the duration of the anthology—what a great group to work with!

Short comics are an interesting storytelling format. When I aim at a 4-8 page work, I inevitably think of it in terms of jokes. I want to escalate quickly to build up to a punchline, and exit as soon as the funny is over. When I was a kid, I used to write short, supposedly funny skits for puppet shows we’d put on at our big neighborhood Halloween parties. The Bad Day Monsters comics definitely hearken back to that creative outlet of yore, only when my new monsters are painful to watch, it is completely on purpose.  As much cannot be said for squeaky-voiced sock puppet ghosts re-telling Chicken Little.  Huh, maybe I shoudl revisit that concept…

Tankadere Volume Two is out now, and it is fantastic! So much growth on the part of the artists, and they welcomed a new production designer who had mad comicking skills as well. Check it out!