Sunday, April 11, 2010

Portfolio brainstorming

I apologize for clogging the internet with this, but this is the sum of my day! I had to come up with a portfolio of 20 strips to submit for my grad school application, and using the blog's preview function proved to be the best sorting option. As I have nothing else to show, here is what I came up with. These are the 20 strips *I* think sell myself the best. Why, yes, I *am* consumed with crippling self-doubt over my choices! How could I not be?

The first thing I was looking for was quality art. This is where I feel I am at a disadvantage, as the newspaper-style daily strip format tends to be rather simple in design. It's the nature of the beast. Any comic in which I had a chance to show off my artistic chops was automatically in. Next was, of course, humor. Again, my format gets in the way. I tell character driven stories. Many of my strongest strips are dependent on context. Those reviewing my portfolio will not have that context, so the strips I choose must be able to speak for themselves. That means no bake sale or school revolution strips, which is a shame. Those were funny STORIES, not funny standalone strips. The result is that I mined my gag-a-day theme weeks pretty heavily, with a lot of the early introduction strips as well. Finally, I threw in some Copper Roads for variety.

I'm proud of Precocious and I'm proud of these strips. They should be a nice taste, and clearly establish the kind of cartoonist I am. This is what I do, and I do it quite well. As long as there's still a place for classic-style strips in the world, then I should have a place in grad school!

Now comes to the agonizing task of arranging the strips so they flow nicely. Going in numerical order *almost* works, but I want to start with one of my grabber strips, like Rule #4 or Unrestrained Creativity. Ahh, it'll get done. It'd better! I have to submit this stuff tonight! (The numbers by the strips are for quick reference as I upload everything.)

98
107
111
131
139

143
145
162
169
185

191
197
199
200
288

309
312
463

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