SUBSTACK ATTACK: Comics, Cars & Crooked Lines

This week’s Substack Attack turned into a full tour through the FWACATA engine room.

I pulled out the comics, showed where the name came from, talked about the strange road from Miami to El Paso, and opened up the sketchbooks where all the ideas, bad notes, good accidents, and future disasters are currently hiding. There are glimpses of Meathook, REZ, Zombie Years, Fierro, and a few other things I’m probably not supposed to be working on simultaneously—but here we are.

Then I settled in and worked on a new FUGLY page live, using toy cars for reference, ink washes for motion, and the sort of crooked lines that would make a ruler file a restraining order. Along the way, I talked about why restrictions can make comics easier, why speed matters, how I loosely script pages, and why you shouldn’t wait for anyone’s permission to make the stories living in your head.

There’s also a little philosophy buried under the ink: anybody can make comics, perfection is overrated, and eventually we all go into the ground—so you might as well draw the damn thing now.

Watch the replay, see the page come together, and hang out in the studio while I try to explain what the hell I’m doing.

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