A while back, the fine folks at Broken Pencil asked me if I would be willing to contribute an illustrative-bio – well, more of a comic, really – for their fine magazine’s back page. I gladly obliged as comic work is probably one of my favourite methods of working visually, and the criteria was pretty open as to how they wanted me to approach things.The job description was to illustrate a one page comic biography about a certain Tony Nesca, an indie writer and publisher printing work under his Screaming Skull Press publication co. After being given a rather short interview with Tony himself, and perusing his blog, getting a sense of his general work aesthetic, I had an image in mind as to how I wanted to handle the situation. I did notice that it can be a challenge taking an interview that spans the past to the present and having to squeeze it all into one single page. You can see the rough I submitted below.

They liked it! Not even a single change was asked for, so straight to the inking process – which I must say, is the easiest part. My favorite elements in this comic-illo are the wandering arrows that lead the reader from one square to other parts of the format, a la Snakes and Ladders. For example, the top right frame depicting their house from the outside leads itself all the way to the very last frame, showing the interior basement scene. Just doing whatever it takes to try and keep the reader’s attention for as long as possible!

You can see this illustration in the upcoming issue of Broken Pencil, coming out at the end of July, 2009.