Today is Second Thursday, when I post comics from my archive on Patreon. This month, it’s part one of CANDY & MANDY, a comic from my sketchbook that served as the basis for SANDY & MANDY, a three-part story that began appearing in Dark Horse Presents last month. The time seems right to repeat this blog post from last year:
David Chelsea is watching: Amy
with Amy Winehouse
I recently wrapped up work on SANDY & MANDY, an upcoming story for DARK HORSE PRESENTS, so here are some more preview images from it. The sequence of panels below shows my working method, from sketchbook rough to pencil to inks to watercolor to the final assembled frame:
This story went through more than a few changes from the original version in my sketchbook to the final color comic. Sandy & Mandy started out as CANDY & Mandy, and they looked considerably different. Mandy lost her baseball cap and sneakers in favor of a Pebbles Flintstone topknot and crocs, while Candy/Sandy went through a total makeover, from a soccer mom look to milkmaid braids and a peasant blouse (she also acquired my favorite style of eyewear, round black glasses); it all has to do with a plot development that I won’t spoil:
Sandy & Mandy’s friend Colleen changed less; in both versions her look derives from this still of Shelley Duvall in NASHVILLE:
When I began work on this story both of these characters were new, (I have since used both of them in 24 Hour comics) so I did some exercises to get familiar drawing them. Here is an early set of model sheets, before Mandy got her topknot. I later rethought her tattoos, eliminating the eye on her navel and shifting Snow Angel from her back to her bicep:
I went through a few sketchbooks and copied old one minute poses from life class, substituting Sandy & Mandy’s heads. Don’t get too excited- there’s no nudity in the comic itself:
Next up- the men of SANDY & MANDY!
Previous blog post about SANDY & MANDY.
Also today, I’m putting up the latest two pages of my continuing webcomic about Reality TV (also featuring Mandy), ARE YOU BEING WATCHED? on Patreon. In this episode Mandy & Mugg are hunting houses on the program Nest Quest, thoroughly checking out the attic, basement and garage:
Incidentally, one panel riffs on a 1970s National Lampoon photo comic written by Michael O’Donoghue, UNDERWEAR FOR THE DEAF, which I hadn’t seen in something close to forty years. I found the comic online after I drew this page, and it turns out I had come close to reproducing the dialogue verbatim:
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On the Spencer Watch, Spencer won his second immunity on Survivor this week, finishing his puzzle seconds ahead of Jeremy (meanwhile, Tasha, the sole Black woman in the cast, was unable to finish the swimming phase of the challenge- how racist!). Spencer was therefore the swing vote in a contest between people who wanted to vote off Tasha, and those who wanted to vote off the ultra-annoying Abi. In the end they voted off Abi- somewhat surprisingly, because often a player whom all the others dislike will be kept on by everyone until the end, on the hunch that they will be easy to beat in the final vote. Six, including Spencer, are left for the season finale this coming Wednesday.
