Vegan Lasagna

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This comic continues an accidental storyline about eating which began a few weeks ago with Hungry. Or did it begin with my bad breath a week before that with Sigh? Or did it begin a week before THAT when Emma made me breakfast in First Day? You should probably read them all and make your own mind up. While you're at it, why not take a stroll down memory lane and read ALL 63 Smith vs Smith comics? Did you know this is the 63rd Smith vs Smith comic posted? Go read them all and double check my numbers!

And if you want to read Smith vs Smith from the start, why not read Smith vs Smith on the Comics Chameleon App? Comics Chameleon is an app that shares over 100 of the best webcomics on the web and from now on, Smith vs Smith will have a home on the app! It's never been easier to read Smith vs Smith on the toilet!

This week's comic was originally published in the Camosun College's Nexus Student Paper.  

Two comics & graphic novels students enjoying smith vs smith in the nexus newspaper.

For those who are interested in the process of Smith vs Smith comics, I am sharing the original pencils below so you can see how they compare to the finished comic. 

I tried this comic two years ago and originally saw it as a page in my upcoming graphic novel, You're Stuck With Me Now. Here is the original, unpublished version:

Hungry

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Big thanks to everyone who has purchased a copy of "Three Crushes" my 24 Hour Comic! If you haven't read it yet, you can get your copy now! I created the whole 24 page comic in (less than) 24 hours a few weekends ago. It's chock full of gut-wrenching stories of middle school heart break. Fun for everyone!

This week's page was originally an assignment from my life drawing teaching, cartoonist Joan Steacy. Joan tasked us with taking a pose from life drawing and turning it into a "splash page" (one image for a full comic page). I love turning assignments into Smith vs Smith comics, so while my classmates created scenes of samurais fighting monsters, I drew a scene featuring Emma and the cats!

Let me know what you think of the single panel splash page experiment in the comments!

- Matt Smith!
 

Sigh

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Huge thanks to everyone who has read my 24 Hour Comic, "Three Crushes." It was created two weekends ago in (less than) 24 hours. If you haven't read the true humiliating stories of a young Matt Smith looking for love in Middle School, go check it out now! Then let me know what you think about it! If you aren't already following @smithvssmithcomics on Instagram, do it now and you can see some of the process over the 24 hours. 

The comic originally appeared in the Camosun College Nexus Newspaper. It's really cool to be featured in print. If you're in Victoria, grab a copy! 

Trust

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For the last two weeks, I've been adding behind-the-scenes commentary to the weekly comic. Last week's comic ended up being a huge process, so I hoped this week's comic would be simple. It was not. 

Like last week's "A Summer Hike," this week's comic started as a quick page in a page of "The Blank." 

I wanted to work on my figure drawing and character poses, so I enlisted my sister-in-law and had her take photos of Emma and in similar poses to my sketch page. Then I digitally inked over the reference photos.

 

Film is my first love, and I always wish my comics were more cinematic. So I took the opportunity to use some film language along with the comic language. The comic ends on a reverse of the first panel. Where we started with Emma downstairs looking at me on the stairs and asking me to turn around and go back up, in the last few panels, I am on the ground, looking up at Emma on the stairs asking her to come back down. In film, when characters swap from left to right, it is called "crossing the line." In this case, the fifth panel is the turning point, when the balance of power shifts and the direction of the scene changes. I highlighted the crossing of the line by drawing us in white silhouette against a black panel. 

The page above has good poses, but the realistic proportions look incongruous with the rest of "Smith vs. Smith." Realistic heads are much smaller than I draw them. And we both look... much wider than I like. I have drawn entire pages completely digitally before, but I keep coming back to inking by hand, so I printed this version of the page, and hand drew over certain panels. 

The version of the page above is a Frankenstein's monster of hand drawings and digital. This is the version of the page I showed to a few friends and shared on a Facebook group. Overwhelmingly, people had issues with the last panel. Showing movement in static comics is a challenge, but showing subtle, slow movement is especially challenging. Based on some suggestions, I moved Emma further up the stairs and out of the frame. Angie Coe, a talented cartoonist from the Facebook group (she also does relationship comics so if you like my comics you should check her stuff out) actually drew me a quick sketch to suggest an alternate pose for the last panel. 

Art by Angie Coe. Used with permission.

The new pose makes the action broader and therefore, clearer. I also liked Angie's suggestion that Emma's hand stays where it is, like an anchor. For the final version of the page, I kept my pose the same during the last two panels, only changing my expression. This forces the reader's eye to search for the differences between panels more, allowing the change in Emma's position to stand out more. 

This "simple" page took far more time than I would have expected. If you've made it this far, please leave a comment and let me know what you think and please share with anyone you think has ever been in a similar conversation! 

Last Day in Kuwait

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After packing everything up ahead of schedule, we had very little to do in the apartment aside from staring at the wall... Emma and I are both in Scotland for the new two months staying with her parents. Despite being on summer vacation, I'm determined to update the webcomic every Tuesday! I will be making comics soon about our summer! If you can't wait another full week to see some Smith vs Smith content, please follow me on Instagram @smithvssmithcomics

Packing

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After several years teaching in Kuwait, Emma and I are moving on... We will be spending the summer in Scotland before relocating to Canada where Emma is attending art school and I will be studying comics and graphic novels at Camosun College. 

Comics will be posted on TUESDAYS now! If you are desperate for more comics before next Tuesday, be sure to follow @smithvssmithcomics on Instagram. You'll also get tons of exclusive content, like process videos for this comic! Follow us now! 

Assemble

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I freaking LOVED "Captain America: Civil War!" I honestly think it is the best Marvel movie so far!

This was my first comic made using Adobe Illustrator for the text. I tried a lot of new things with sound effects this week, using "Comic Book Lettering the Comicraft Way" as my guide. Let me know what you think of the sound effects in the comments section!