Low Society

GERHARD:
(from Ger's Blog, 5 February 2013)

I was recently contacted by Rob Walton, creator of Ragmop, a comic book series which received two Eisner Award nominations, two Shuster Award nominations and has been included in Paul Gravett's 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die. Word on the street is, "He's a genius!"

Rob had the idea for aspiring artists to write and illustrate a comic book focusing on a professional, established comics character. He chose Cerebus. The Toronto Cartoonists Workshop created a Comics Lab as a forum for these freelance writers and artists to create and publish their own book. Rob is the instructor/editor and this is the first and possibly last of its kind.

Rob contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in contributing. I asked him how. He suggested that if I pencil the background for the cover, the students would then pencil in their Cerebuses. Dave has agreed to ink the Cerebuses and then I would finish inking the backgrounds. The result will be called Low Society. He sent this mock-up as a starting point for the background to the cover. I nearly laughed my as* off... and took the job:

From his "sketch" I created a pencil and colour mock up of the cover. The story is being written and illustrated as I type.

It was a pleasure to see Rob again. It's been almost 10 years since we've run into each other. He's been dabbling in directing, acting, cartooning, and doing all these things that make me feel like I need a nap. He recently completed a novel... sans cartoons.

GERHARD:
(from Ger's Blog, 5 March 2013)

I got the Low Society cover back from Rob Walton. Dave has inked the Cerebuses that the students had pencilled. I was impressed with the differences between each. One student wanted the aardvark to look more like a real aardvark and his rendition is the fifth character down the stairs. I don't know where Cerebus' clothes went on the last character. Dave also added a bunch of lettering, sound effects and motion lines to give it that Cerebus "look". It means a little more work for me, but it will be worth it for the students. I'm looking forward to reading the entire project.

You can see the final inked and toned Low Society cover over at Gerhard's Blog.