A Proper Timeline

Thank goodness nobody is reading this blog or I would be really embarrassed! (I blame the advertisers). The timeline which I have established by way of posting material is nearly completely backwards! Oh my. This proper timeline tells a different story than I had originally intended, but what can you do. The new story shall unfold.

The Proper Timeline [2005-2007]

• The Lo Life January 2005–December 2006
• Cartographer May–June 2007
• Killbot & Johnston April–September 2007
• Two Ten-Gallon Tales August 2007
• Twang Scuffle September–November 2007

Imaginary Villains!

It's probably a bit inelegant or even pointless to discuss this here, but seeing as how I'm the only fan of The Lo/Ho (see sidebar on right), one can assume that makes me one of the very few readers of The Lo/Ho, I will discuss this here. For myself. To myself (and maybe "you").



In December of 2006 I had the epiphany that I should send my comics out to see if anyone was interested in them. I basically used the weekly Lo Life comic strips as a rough outline for a larger more detailed story. I figured comic book publishers were just dying to get their hands on some adequately drawn, half-developed, comics about a skeleton.

I mailed myself a copy of everything first. I know there a few of us that believe mailing yourself material through the postal service and leaving it sealed in an envelope will hold up as copyright. I don't know if that actually holds up (although they say it does on the net...dude (that's 90's jive for the internet)).

As you might have expected, everyone was not dying to get their hands on some adequately drawn, half-developed, comics about a skeleton. And I can't say this was completely unexpected. I knew it was lazy to send a glorified outline to a publisher, but I also thought maybe it would be enough to spark some interest.

As days and weeks went by I was also feeling a sense of pre-boredom with drawing the same characters in the same world for the rest of my life (which is obviously what would happen given the impending worldwide success of The Lo Life). In fact, The Lo Life appeared to be gaining some momentum, I believe this subculture began as a reaction to the eight Lo Life comic strips.


About a month or so after sending my glorified outline to my favorite companies, Dark Horse being one of them. In January 2007 I picked up the latest issue of The Goon (a Dark Horse comic) written and illustrated by the amazing Eric Powell. It was a weird little stint of The Goon series presented by Dwight D. Albatross. These issues consisted of short stories written and illustrated by other illustrators and one brief sketch/comic by Powell.

As I was reading the issue something a bit odd happened:


So naturally I suspected Dark Horse passed my submission on to Eric Powell so that he could put a very similar scene in his next comic.

...

...and that feeling went on for another 5 years. I've felt a bit weird about Dark Horse comics since the great Lo Life submission of 2006. That is, until I started to put together the dates and take a look back at my work. What's interesting is that I've remembered this as the moment in which I stopped drawing comics for just over a three-year period. When actually it was more of the beginning. This was really the moment I decided I wouldn't try to be the next guy that draws Batman, I would be the guy that does his own thing and between January and September of 2007 I created 3 mini comics and 40 comic strips (not really an end).

As I began to piece this together for the blog I also realized that the story Powell drew was called
Peg-Leg Full of Heaven and this was part 3 (Part one was published in September of 2006, however no pirates make an appearance). So with a title like that one would certainly expect a pirate to appear at some point. Really, the only weird thing about the situation was that we were drawing nearly the same thing at the same time.

The moral of the story? Don't overlook the details! Why didn't I notice "part 3" at the time? That's just silly. I was probably feeding my own ego to suspect-but-not-really-suspect Dark Horse of stealing my idea. I ended up creating imaginary villains for myself and I'm pretty sure that's already a story!

The Final Weekly Lo Life: Week 8 (2006)

So there you have it, eight weeks of The Lo Life. I haven't drawn Lo since this last strip, so its kinda weird to look at that last panel; Lo seems to be waving good-bye as he says, "Ah well, I guess it will have to stay a dream."

As the tears dry on my cheeks I am working on a little cartoon to explain the Great D. Foote Comic Drought (2007-2010).* Stay tuned Los Hobos!

*In fact, Twang Scuffle was the last comic I worked on before the drought. Please see the Proper Timeline here.

A Weekly Lo Life: Week 7 (2006)

Only one more Weekly Lo Life left! That's right imminent doom awaits my comics (4 years ago).

A Weekly Lo Life: Week 6 (2006)

A Weekly Lo Life: Week 5 (2006)

A Weekly Lo Life: Week 4 (2006)

A Weekly Lo Life: Week 3 (2006)

The Lo Life: Lo loses an arm, part two.

A Weekly Lo Life

The Lo/Ho still resides in 2006. Little did these comics know, they were right on the cusp of a three-year-hiatus!...

Impending doom aside, I began a weekly version of The Lo Life with an actual story. The story: Lo discovers that he is more or less invicible thanks to walking his girlfriend's dog, being shot by an outlaw werewolf and then revived by some jazznik alley pirates. Run of the mill origin story sh!t. Part one:

And then there were none: The last of the unfinished Killbot & Johnston comics

And that's as far as I got. It certainly seems like a ton, but really its about 5 1/2 weeks of daily comic strips. It certainly got me comfortable drawing with a calligraphy pen, despite not drawing with one anymore. I still like the line work on these, although I think these last few are getting a little too loose. Drawing a robot organically is a little counter-intuitive, but I'm for it. Well, that's all she drew...

But remember, Killbot & Johnston lives on! You can read Killbot & Johnston, written by Mike Katzenstein and illustrated by Shane Pangburn at itsnotabook.com.

And now... even more unfinished K&J

Round 3: unfinished K&J

Several more unfinished K&J

And now some unfinished Killbot & Johnstons...

I suppose these won't make a ton of sense with out the dialogue and jokes...