Design-comic noire for your visual enjoyment. As expected, I had a lot of fun drawing in this style, and no, Frank Miller didn’t invent it, okay? He did popularize it, and it works wonders on this format, so I’ll give him that. If you really want to see people working with skill like this, check out Mike Mignola or Tim Sale.
I’ve found that creating this strip has actually been improving my day-job illustration skills. Generally, the art in the comic is “Nate Voss Light,” a less-filling, slightly-off-taste form of the same great beverage you enjoy as “Nate Voss Heavy,” the champaign of spot illustration. It’s quicker and definitely off the cuff, done entirely on the wacom. But yesterday, as I sat down to do some Heavy illustration, I found some things coming easier to me than they used to, most especially expressive faces and body language. I’ve always told people that doing the comic, rapidly approaching its 50th installment, was a way to keep my skills sharp. I always assumed I was lying when I said that. I guess not?
Nate Voss is a designer, illustrator, talkshow host and design journalist. Working in Omaha since 2001, Nate served four years on the Board of Directors for 
Donovan oversees all creative development at
Going all Frank Miller on us, huh?
My post seems stupid now, following the updated post about todays comic. Oh well, nice work though.
Don’t feel bad, Adam! Your post totally informed my post. I couldn’t have done it without you, buddy!
“colored-pencil drawings of Tupac”
God, that made me laugh. Do those still exist?
Nice – always look forward to these.
Slightly off topic, but with the Wacom, is it purely a time-saving device or can you illustrate as well as pen/paper/scanner?
I’m considering getting one, but have heard really conflicting opinions from people.
What model do you use?
Cheers
Jem
Jem:
It completely depends on the method and the software (and talent I guess, too). I prefer Illustrator using the brush tool with pressure-sensitive stroke weight. Nate, I believe, prefers Photoshop using the pen tool. My roommate prefers Photoshop with the brush tool at 1-3px radius and opacity sensitivity rather than brush size variation; he also has PainterX, a Corel product, that simulates real painting (it’s frighteningly realistic). Von Glitschka makes all of his illustrative decisions on paper, then uses the pen tool in Illustrator (although, actually, I don’t know if he uses a drawing tablet).
Bottom line is that you’ll probably love it; it feels more natural to hold a pen to draw, even if it’s tracing a scanned illustration, than to hold a mouse (or track pad, yuck!). Most everyone (myself included) starts on paper, or at least from a reference photograph on a separate layer. And it’s personal preference whether you stick to the original once you’ve begun creating vectors.
The main benefit, at least for me, is the ability to undo. But that’s probably closely associated to my method (with the varying stroke weight).
@kadavy
Yes, I know its hard to believe, but they still exist. And every year there’s another batch. They’re like Bebe’s Kids, they don’t die…they multiply!
“Colored pencil drawings of Tupac and hot sauce bottles.” Crap, that’s my whole portfolio. But did I throw Verdana on one illo so it could pass an an ad.