What Did I Learn?

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This Is Me by Gerald Himmelein

This Is Me is a semi-autobiographical humor comic based on events in the author's life. Some comics are based on real life events and people, some are those flights of whimsy that you can only get in comics. The main characters are the artist and his wife, with celebrity cameos and their friend Andrew. Each of them contributes a different voice to the strip, not only providing commentary and humor but also emotional color. They also look very different from one another.

The art consists of good, solid linework and grey shading, with occasional bits of color. Mr. Himmelein has great attention to detail and he does good research on what he draws. One strip had him searching for pictures of tv antennae for reference. Most of us artists don't gather that sort of mundane reference. Usually, I'm drawing my comic on my lunch at work, which limits my reference to whatever is playing on Sportcenter or soap operas. I never think 'say, I'll need a picture of a tv antennae, so let me google one up before I go to work today.' It would pay off big dividends in my final work, I'm sure. Gosh, I might actually draw something in my comic. Shame on me for not doing that and kudos to Mr. Himmelein.

There are other surprises as well. One This Is Me comic has songs, with the actual sheet musical shown above each panel for three different songs. There are also several celebrity cameos with very, very good likenesses based on, once again, good reference. It's not the easiest thing to break a likeness down to just a few simple lines that will fit into the rest of the comic's style.

The strip also has good timing and punchlines. This is another thing not so easy to do, simple though it may seem before you try it. You can tell that Mr. Himmelein works hard on This Is Me. If you read the comments below each strip, he is constantly agonizing over the details and trying to do his very best.

One thing you don't see very often is a comic with bold use of color.There are many many colored comics, of course, but a black and white comic with spurts of color stands out as a great visual. It highlights the emotions and puts a special zip on the visual gags.

Once last thing that I took special note of was that Mr. Himmelein asks for email feedback and then responds to it directly in the strip. That's great audience interaction and I think it's a superb idea. I'd love to see more of it as the comments roll in.

What did I learn?
Use reference photos for unfamiliar objects and gather the reference before you start drawing. Don't be afraid to actually draw something. Work on the strip and make it the best you can. Don't hold back on including something special or fun, even if it doesn't fit the style you set for your comic. Finally, make sure your audience can interact with you like they can in This Is Me

Previous Reviews

Battlegate| Butterfly| Good Ship Chronicles| Evil, Inc.| Madscott| Jefbot| Chronicle| Sheldon| Stardrop| Theater Hopper| Knave| Lullaby| High Moon| Metadawn| Dead Days| PC Weenies| Ask Maridee | Tiny Folk | Gordian Algebra | Starslip Crisis | The Front | Coffee Time Comics | Patches | Little Creature | The Horrible Pirates | Serenity Tales | Crashlander | Girl Genius | This Is Me | Handle With Care | SuperFogeys | Copper | Eskimo Dave | Real Life | Chateau Wonderful | Count Your Sheep | Breakpoint City | Eeekeemo | Boxcar Astronaut | Zip and Li'l Bit | Wally & Osborne | Jump Leads | Dr. Sheep and the Aardvark | Station V3 | Dresden Codak | Lab Ratz | Toyzville | The Boids | Cow and Buffalo | Casey and Scotty | Just Outside | The Pretentious History of Everything | Tia's World | Quirks | Patrick Grey | For What It's Worth | The Sixth Dimension | Max and the Gorilla Goon Squad | Rainbow Orchid | Neko and Neko | Lions, Tigers and Bears | Spacequint | Lessons In Fire Safety | Corrupt Hardware | Enker's Tale | The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo | A Rusty Life | You'll Have That | From the Margin | Jitterati

About These Reviews

I love comics and I'm always looking at how I can improve my own work by examining other creators' works. It's such a wildly diverse field that it's not advisable to make sweeping generalizations and ignore special circumstances and subjects.

There's a lot we can learn from one another. And while there are many forums where you might discuss this, I haven't found any lengthy discussion on what we can do to make our comics more successful. There are a few good books on the subject but the aspiring webcomic creator is forced to learn by sheer brute force practice how to adapt his/her personal style to the medium. This is not as efficient as it could be.

Also, there are literally thousands of webcomics but only a handful of places where you can find decent, regular reviews. The focus of my reviews will be on trying to determine what is positive, successful and worth emulating about each comic. You might even get hooked on a given comic you read about here.

You may also wonder where the 'criticism' is and where the negative things about the comics are pointed out. As a matter of fact, I did mention some dissappointing issues with layout and such in my initial reviews. I quickly came to the realization that it's easy for any viewer to know what they like and what they don't. I don't need to call extra attention to the negative. I have, on a few occasions, emailed a webcomic author with a few ideas for improvements but there's no need to make that information public.

I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything, mind you. I just wish to have an open discussion about what good comics do. Hopefully, more voices will join in.