Emma's Birthday 5

emmasbirthday5

Emma and I had an amazing few days at Villa Eyrie just outside of Victoria. Today's comic concludes a multi-part epic that started with Emma's Birthday 1Go back and experience the entire saga now! I had to wrap this up because it's almost my birthday! If you know someone with an upcoming birthday, why not get them something from my online store

Emma Reads Smith vs Smith

This comic is a little late, but I was busy all week putting together my next comic collection, "There's Plenty of Emmas in the World," which will feature over 50 Smith vs Smith strips and brand new material! Available soon!

This comic doubles as homework for my Vancouver Island School of Art Design Class. I had to create a repeating pattern. I do like using class assignments for Smith vs Smith strips.

Victoria Royals

Sunday night was the Oscars, but since I've only seen part of one Oscar-nominated film this year (I never finished Zootopia), we went to a junior league hockey game with some friends instead. Emma had never been to a Canadian hockey game before, so I was determined to make it as memorable as possible, and that included snatching any freebies away from meddling kids. 

If you're in Victoria, I hope you have marked your calendar for March 19th because I'll be appearing at the Victoria Comic Book Expo at Comfort Inn & Suites. Come by and check out some new mini comics!

Dirty Laundry

Exciting News: If you live in Victoria, BC, you can buy my comic "Three Crushes: Tales of Middle School Heartbreak" at Legends Comics and Books (633 Johnson Street) or Curious Comics (631 Johnson Street). 

"Three Crushes" is also available online at Payhip.com

And if you like reading webcomics on mobile apps, you can find Smith vs Smith on Tapastic and Comic Chameleon. Please subscribe to Smith vs Smith in the Tapas or Webcomics app!

This week's comic originally appeared in the Camosun College Nexus Newspaper

Valentine's Day

Exciting News: If you live in Victoria, BC, you can buy my comic "Three Crushes: Tales of Middle School Heartbreak" at Legends Comics and Books (633 Johnson Street).

And if you prefer to read your webcomics on mobile apps, you can find Smith vs Smith on Tapastic and Comic Chameleon. Please subscribe to Smith vs Smith in the Tapas or Webcomics app!

Cats at Night

Lots of exciting news this week! First of all, my mini comic, "Three Crushes: Tales of Middle School Heartbreak" is now on sale at Legends Comics & Books in Victoria, BC. If you're in the city, head to 633 Johnson Street to pick up your copy today! Legends is a great store and they are so amazing to support local indie creators.

Last week, on February 1st, I took the Hourly Comic Day challenge and created a comic for every hour I was awake. If you follow Smith vs Smith on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, you could have followed along live, but if not, I've collected the whole day here. Even if you saw the comics as they were released, it might be fun to read through the day from start to finish!

This week's comic was originally published in the January 18th issue of the Camosun Nexus student paper. Not only is Smith vs Smith appearing in the Nexus, you can also see Smith vs Smith in the Fernwood Village Vibe and the University of Victoria Martlet. THREE newspapers in Victoria, BC!

In 2017, I'm trying to push myself to do something different with each comic. I wanted to try a different page layout. This "inset" layout was inspired by an assignment I completed for the online Kadenze Comics: Art in Relationships course. Below is the original layout:

And here you can see the page I created for Kadenze: 

Can you tell who was the model for Deedee?

Look out for more panel experimentations in the future. If you want to see some of the work produced by other Kadenze comic students, check out the Sci Fi anthology we put together. 

Happy

While in Scotland for our Christmas break, Emma and I attended the wedding of a family friend. I bought a kilt for the occasion. 

Emma gave me a lot of really amazing Christmas presents, but my favorites are the amazing Ban Dai S H Figuarts full posable drawing figures for comic book artists. With my background in film, I'm always disappointed that my comics aren't more cinematic, but I'm hoping that these figures open up a whole new realm of possibilities! Check out the original poses below: 

Panel 1: Matt and Emma are getting ready for a wedding. Matt is wearing a kilt. Emma is in a dress. 

Emma: What should we write on the card?

Matt: What about: "We hope you're as happy as we are?"

Emma: That's not very nice!

I'm very excited to use these little guys in the future! 

Stress

Emma and I had a great Christmas in Scotland with her family, but 2017 is going to be an exciting year for Smith vs Smith comics and I couldn't wait to get back to work! For starters, Smith vs Smith is going to published in three papers in the next few weeks! 

This comic is a spiritual sequel to "Stressed," a comic I created way back in 2009, when I was finishing a teaching job in Malaysia and didn't know what was next. (I ended up teaching English in Hong Kong and will be compiling the comic strips from that time into a mini comic soon). See the original comic below. I'm hoping you can see an improvement in my art over the last 8 years...!

The original "Stressed" in all its Comic Sans glory. 

Fresh

Have you heard about the mini comic I created for Movember? The mini comic features 30 cartoon moustaches and all proceeds for the mini comic will go to the Movember Foundation, the global charity focused on men's health. Please consider donating (you get a comic!) and telling your friends about it. Here is an example of the moustachy goodness you'll be getting: 

Burt Reynolds Moustache

This week's comic was a challenge in several ways. I'm not sure if it shows, but since starting Comic School, I've been trying to work on my figure drawing and draw better hands (check out Smith vs Smith Comics on Instagram to see more examples of my life drawing). I also forced myself to use the Pentel Brush Pen for this entire comic, something I've been avoiding because it's new and scary and different and weird and takes longer and requires a deft hand. I prefer to grind into my paper with tough markers, but I'm glad I took the chance and stuck to the brush pen for this comic. 

The other challenge was how to depict smell. I drew Emma smelling something before, but for some reason the nose twitch wasn't working this time.

I had a similar problem a few months ago with drawing a slow action when I had Emma creep backwards up the stairs. Once again, I sought help. I turned to my fellow students from the Comics: Art in Relationships Kadenze course (who recently put out a FREE Sci Fi anthology featuring a Smith vs Smith comic) and some classmates from the Camosun College Comics & Graphic Novels Program.  Having their feedback has been extremely helpful over the last few months. 

Cheez Pleezers

This comic concludes a story arc that began over a month ago with Hungry. Eagle-eye readers may have noticed the aspect ratio of the comic changing a bit. We have the tall and skinny First Day and Eye Lashes and we have the short and fat, almost square aspect ratio for Vegetarian Lasagna and Catchoo. This is because at Comics School we have been making pages at the correct size for common comic books. However, I've also been publishing Smith vs Smith in the Camosun College Newspaper, the Nexus, which has been asking for almost square comics. Today's page was created over a month ago, but chronologically, it comes at the end, so it is still tall and skinny even though it follows a long run of short square comics. From here on out, expect consistency. 
I don't know if you're following @SmithvsSmithComics on Instagram, but if you aren't, you're missing out on my month length Movember cartoon moustache drawings. 

The Movember Foundation is the only global charity focused solely on men's health, so this Movember I got on board. I drew 30 cartoon moustaches and created a mini comic. All proceeds will go to the Movember Foundation. Find out more on my Movember Fundraising Page

Dinner & a Movie

Make sure you check out the amazing Comic Chameleon App where you can now read every published Smith vs Smith comic! So cool being featured on the app with some of my webcomic heroes like the Perry Bible FellowshipNedroid and Nhoj

This is the second time I've played around with shadows. It's an old gag I remember from Mad Magazine by Sergio Aragonés. 

I try to avoid serialization in the webcomic, especially with Smith vs Smith being published every other week in the Camosun College Nexus paper (if you're in Victoria, grab your copy tomorrow to get an extra does of Smith vs Smith this week!), but this week's comic is undeniably a direct sequel to last week's Vegan LasagnaThis really continues a storyline that started a few weeks ago with Hungry. This storyline will wrap up next week with a comic I actually drew weeks ago, but I keep adding more pages before the finale. 

This week's comic was originally created for my upcoming graphic novel, You're Stuck With Me Now, but I didn't have an organic place for it. See the original below: