My comic has found a home in a Gay Publication, Im happy with that. Before I published it I wanted to define my characters a little more, First I used Mike 2.0 to give me the body type I wanted for this character, Then I exaggerated everything in a comic style that I made up myself.

Cool!!! Which pub is picking it up?

How great for you, congrats. Sharen

Best of luck with it. I used to draw a single-panel comic (Doc and Raider) that appeared in a number of gay/lesbian newspapers and magazines around the world, and its always a charge actually seeing something like that in print.

I am hopeing that noone here is offended by this cartoon, It took me months to come up with him, I have 2 gay friends who hang out in a leather levi bar, One of them has AIDS, I wanted to do this comic for a paper he works on to help bring some humor into his life.

My friend thinks it awesome but does anyone here think the He's any good as far as comics go?

He is being published in the Gay Paper, He should appear in either the next issue or the one after that from what I understand. When they run the strip Ill scann it and post the news paper page here. Here He is in full color, I did not like the dark brown so I gave his beard a lighter color.

Well, you can be sure that someone will be offended. Seems lately (some) people are offended when you say "Good morning, how are you?" Don't let that kind of reaction deter you from proceeding - unless you're doing something illegal, harmful, and/or disrespectful, and even the last is okay, when done with flair. My late stepfather told me that. At any rate, your character looks fine and kudos to you. Though not gay, I have some experience in this kind of thing, meaning publishing stuff for a gay audience. audience. Congratulations, good luck, and keep doing your thing. http://www.lanset.com/lfuller/gay_heartthrobs.htm

Now the design for my bear came from my friend in his leather getup, And a cartoon I once saw called hillbilly bears. Here is an image, the paw bear was kinda stupid but charming so I based that idea on my character.

Larry, Gay Heartthrobs was yours?? I loved that thing: it was so over-the-top whacked. Jeez... Ill have to pull out some of the old D&R stuff and post it in the thread just to see if anyone remembers it..... =)

VirtualSite, why thanks. That's very nice to hear. It has been out of print for years, though now and again Last Gasp and I do reprints, of which there have been a few. That was over half my lifetime ago, back in THE 70s, still can't believe that much time has passed. Look forward to seeing your D&R stuff. Funny thing, too, I still have a specialy commissioned portfolio by (the great) Mike Kuchar that I've never published. Maybe one of these days! Thanks again.

Looks like you're doing pretty good. You know, creating a successful character or characters doesn't just depend on technical expertise. It also has a lot to do with embuing it/them with that special something that makes it yours and communicates to the viewer (one at a time I say - no such thing as a large audience with print work) what you are intending to give to it/them. You can enhance this area with reference, seeing what others (more than one, else it borders on plagiarism instead of research) but when you get that GOOD FEELING OF SATISFACTION of seeing your creation "come to life" -- and you'll know when -- you're probably pretty much on the right track. Having said that, some sources of reference might be some old Tom of Finland work for motorcycle, cop and leather boys -- updated of course -- and maybe a bit esoteric here -- Trashman, who rode a WICKED bike, by the great Spain Rodriguez or maybe his colleague and fellow great, S. Clay Wilson, for my money the best inker to come out of the underground, though he is and was a masterful creator of parody and pencil work. And, you can't go wrong with just research for its own sake, for my money one of the top pleasure perks of doing any project, especially comics. Then again, don't sell yourself short! Looks to me like you're pretty much on the right track. You will make some mistakes but, hey, that's life! Larry F

good for you, go for it, great character

The top image uses classic cartoon drawing styles that I combined from reading comics over the years, It an ok style for him, But it creates some problems since I am using poser to help me with prop and scene design, that would mean I would have to redraw every single rendering by hand to get him into the CARTOON LOOK. kinda seems like a ton of work reather then leaving him in poser proportions.

I don't think it's going to really matter anyway, I think can reach a balance if I sit down and goof around to combine the 2 styles to work in sinc.

image3

DaddyBear and Biker Dyke, Ok I have this idea of a an evil character they must battle with, She is like this Evil Amazon Dyke that that was cast out of the Black Rose Guild and went Nuts, So now she runs over inocent animals.Old women and kids when ever she can. Daddy bear Biker Dyke and His pal masculine Cub must stop her and see that justice prevails. Oh well... I guess it sucks. How abouT dADDY bEAR MEETS bigfoot....

DaddyBear On the cruise

This was a couple of panels from *Doc & Raider*, which ran for almost a decade with publication on, at its height, three continents for a combined monthly readership of about two million (a guess based on the various publishers circulation numbers). The humor travelled pretty well, surprisingly enough, although some of the translations (done by the publications themselves) were usually more imaginative than literal. Still, it raised a lot of money for a lot of people (in exchange for running it, the publications had to make a donation to a local charity) and got some nice kudos. The panel on the left is from early on in the run; the one on the right, about halfway through the run.

One of my favorites. The cartoon got to explore a whole range of things, from leather contests to gay marriage to Garth Brooks to our collective fears of getting old before our time. As well, Doc (the blond) was HIV-positive, which allowed me, from time to time, to explore the effects of that on a relationship.

Those are pretty doggone good, VirtualSite. I think I may have seen some of that strip somewhere. I was once a die hard collector, but those days are over for me. Love that "practing" one! And the "cowboy tango" one too, especially as that is what takes up a lot of my time the last couple years .... tango, that is. Argentine and nothing but. No more of that international stuff. Thanks for sharing. Larry F

Now that is funny, I like the practicing one, He's Kinda jewish looking.:)

Attached Link: http://www.sev.com.au/toonzone/links/monthly.asp

try this link