Mike Dawson Comics

Four new Troop 142 pages posted, wrapping up the fourth chapter in the story, Wednesday. Three more to go…

This means the book is more than half-finished, which kind of helps me get over a mental hurdle, where before I couldn’t really see the end in sight, now I can. Obviously there’s a way to go, and I haven’t even thought about starting in on major edits, revisions, and additions to the story – but clearly real progress is being made.

I know that I’ve probably talked before about my writing process, but I want to stress that for me, there’s no other way to write except for the approach of completing each page as I go. I’m just not able to script or even thumbnail things ahead of time. It doesn’t work for me. The best I can do is make notes in the margins of the pages, and write down ideas on my iPhone when they occur to me outside of my studio. I do have an outline of the general story arc written down in a word doc, so I’m not flying completely blind – but that’s just very loose, and I keep changing things as I go.

The approach makes me nervous, because there are likely some ideas that get forgotten because I don’t write them down. And also, I know that many pages that get finished might get tossed in the end. This has definitely happened in the past.

I think the truth is that I’m only able to really write while I’m inking a page. I can spend those hours at the table, inking, and let my mind dwell on the story while it’s not distracted. If I was to sit at a computer trying to write a script, I’d keep stopping and checking my e-mail or playing Scrabble. If I was to try to do some thumbnails, I’d get frustrated that I was wasting valuable drawing time, where I could be getting a page done. I’ve tried these other approaches, and have never been successful. I used to feel self-conscious about it, but in the past year have just decided to embrace it.

Whoof! This was a rough one! Technical problems abound. We’re joined in the first half of the show by The Desert Panther, Tony Consiglio, until connection issues force him to take his leave. Not before he gets to tell us about his recent trip to Vegas to see The Blue Man Group, however. Then, in the second half of the show Alex and I are at our absolute funniest! Oh, it was the best! Unfortunately, we didn’t record. Don’t worry though – the Panthers see if they can recreate that earlier magic. Comments Welcome!

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Two new Troop 142 pages posted to the website. Matt, Aaron, and Jason are in hot water with Big Bear for going down to the falls unsupervised. What punishment awaits them?

It’s Friday, and I’ve got four new Troop 142 pages posted. This seems to be becoming a pattern, so maybe I ought to just commit to updating once a week.

In this scene we see the two Davids escorting Zack over to the Nurse’s office after Zack fell off the Monkey Bridge. This sequence deserves a little “NSFW” warning, I think, just for language.

In related news, I just wanted to point out that I am cross-posting Troop 142 to the ACT-I-VATE webcomics collective. I post updates every Tuesday. I’ve been putting up large chunks in an effort to get both sites on the same page. Maybe when I’ve caught up on AIV, that might be a good time for me to make Tuesday my updates day, and post new pages to both sites. It feels a little clumsy posting at different rates right now, but I think it’s all worthwhile. There’s definitely folks who’re seeing the comic over at AIV who hadn’t been seeing it when it was buried over here on my website.

This episode is all about followups: Gags finally gets out on the basketball court and shows if he’s got game, then reveals whether he took his wife to see The Human Centipede or The Babies or The Human Centipede Babies. Plus announcements, shout-outs, and tributes. Comments Welcome!

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Four new pages posted. What’s the rest of the Troop up to whilst Jason, Matt and Aaron are down at the falls where they shouldn’t be? Why, they’re crossing the Monkey Bridge. Give a look, won’t you?

The Ink Panthers note the passing of legendary fantasy painter, Frank Frazetta. Will the title of Greatest Living D&D-style Artist be passed to Boris Vallejo now? We do little to settle the debate. Comments Welcome!

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Four new Troop 142 pages posted. Aaron, Matt, and Jason have gone down to Crystal Falls, despite Tony’s warnings that they risk getting into serious trouble if they’re caught down there without adult supervision. But, as Aaron points out, he’s an Eagle Scout, and shouldn’t that be good enough?

This week cartoonist Jim Rugg crouches with us inside the Panthers Lair. It’s our most Investigative Reportering episode ever, as we try to discover once and for all whether Brian Maruca (Street Angel and Afrodisiac co-creator/writer) really exists. Is he an actual person? Or, is Jim pulling-off some elaborate Andy Kaufman-esque hoax? I’ve never seen the two of them in the same room… The Ink Panthers find out the truth! Comments Welcome!

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Rob Clough, one of my favorite reviewers, posted a thoughtful write-up of Troop 142 #3 over at The Comics Journal website

The issue’s ending was another marvelous bit of restraint on Dawson’s part, as one of the boys asks the other if he wants to know a secret. Nothing further is revealed here, and I’ll be fascinated to see where Dawson takes this particular development, especially in light of the BSA’s infamous attitudes toward homosexuality. Dawson is cooking up a fascinating series here, and it’s clearly the best work of his career.

Clearly! Come on people, pay attention!