Study Group has posted the final update to Skew! You can now read all four parts of my second graphic novel on their site.
Skew Page 221.
Here are some of my favorite pages from Skew: Click here to see these pages
April 17th, 2018
January 9th, 2018
Tales from the Hyperverse in Comic Shops Tomorrow
If your local comic book shop ordered Tales from the Hyperverse through Diamond, it’ll arrive tomorrow!
In other news:
Ryan C. reviewed Hyperverse for his blog, Four Color Apocalypse.
Here’s a quote:
My only previous exposure to Cardini’s singular psychedelic abstractions was in the pages of his B&W comics ‘zine Vortex, as well as a in a couple of anthologies, but he’s claimed a territory all his own in a fairly short period of time, and he plants his flag in it more firmly than ever in the pages of his new Retrofit/Big Planet solo anthology comic, Tales From The Hyperverse, a cosmos-shredding series of interlocked (at least thematically) stories that reduces Kirby-esque interplanetary/interdimensional clashes of absolutes to its barest elements, shakes them up kaleidoscopically, and dares you to figure out exactly what comes out the other end.
San Antonio comic book shop Gotham Newsstand already has Hyperverse and my other in-print comics (because it’s run by my brother, Peter Hensel, so I make sure he keeps everything in stock) and he put Hyperverse as #3 on his list of the best stapled comics of 2017!
Here’s a quote from the write-up:
In beautiful full color (but still filled with psychedelic patterns when they can be effective!), we see a cast of warriors, rival wizards, creatures, and more of the odd universe to which his graphic novel introduced us. I can’t wait to find out more of it!
Finally there are more pages of Skew Part 4 over on Study Group!
Skew Page 177.
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December 12th, 2017
Skew Part 4 on Study Group
Skew Part 4 has begun on the Study Group Comics site.
Here’s the cover for Part 4.
The first four pages are already up. Skew will update on Sundays.
Here’s a summary of where we’re at in the story: The hypermollusc has exploded. The fate of the Miizzzard is unknown. Bya the Space Yeti runs towards the burnt chunks of the hypermollusc with the remnant of the slime secretly hitching a ride.
The exploding hypermollusc.
The slime riding on the Space Yeti’s back.
This is the final part, except for an epilogue that I’m saving for a hypothetical print version. You can read the previous parts here.
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April 26th, 2016
Skew Part 3 Has Ended; I’m Working on Part 4
All of Skew Part 3 is now up on Study Group. Here are four of my favorite pages:
I’m working on Part 4. I’m about 30 pages in. Here’s a potential cover:
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December 11th, 2015
Skew Part 3 on Study Group
Skew Part 3 has debuted on Study Group.
Here’s the cover for Part 3.
We’ll post new pages every Tuesday.
Here’s Page 122.
The first ten pages are already up.
Here’s what the characters are doing at the beginning of Part 3: The Miizzzard, still trapped in the digestive system of a hypermollusc, has subdivided to isolate and destroy an invasive microdrone, planted by an unknown enemy. Meanwhile a Space Yeti named Bya is traveling to the find the Miizzz and a slime-meteor-mech gleefully stomps across the planet.
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February 17th, 2015
End of Skew Part 2
The end of Skew Part 2 went up on Study Group yesterday.
Skew Page 114, the last page of Part 2.
Part 3 won’t start until this summer.
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January 27th, 2015
Skew Part 2 Ending Soon; Part 3 Starts in a Few Months
More Skew pages were posted yesterday. Part 2 is almost done – I’ll finish it up in three to four more updates.
After that, it’ll be a few months before Skew Part 3 begins. I’ve already got it plotted in my head but I need to finish up the Kickstarter rewards and take care of some other projects before I get back into a weekly Skew schedule.
P.S. Vortex is now available in the Birdcage Bottom Books online shop.
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August 12th, 2014
9 Rules for my Comics
Skew is up to page 55 on Study Group and I’ve got a pretty good buffer built up. I set Skew up so that I could crank out the pages quickly in the limited studio time that I have now that I’m a father. One page per panel, three colors that mix for a total of seven colors plus white. I always try to make things easier for myself by creating rules and layouts for a project before I began.
Skew spoiler. You can see the layers that I reuse for every page.
I decided to generalize my comics-making rules, if any of y’all are curious:
- Don’t proscribe. These rules only apply to my current comics project. I’m not trying to delineate absolute or universal rules for anyone else’s comics practice (including my future self).
- Decide on the parameters of a comic before I begin (size, colors, number of panels).
- Start each page with the same grid, which can be modified (for example, two panels combined into one) but can’t be supplanted (an eight-panel page when all previous are six).
Vortex template. I keep the horizontal and vertical panel lines in separate layers so that I can easily delete them to combine panels.
- Draw on the computer. I want hard-edged bitmaps. I want to control whether each pixel is black or white. Plus, drawing on a computer is much faster because it cuts out scanning. The final comic is the art object, not the original page.
- Draw with an expressively wavy line and turn off any line-smoothing effects. Computers can draw perfect straight lines or smooth Wacom-drawn lines for me so I should zoom in on my human imperfections.
- Don’t dwell on the past. The trap of drawing on a computer is the infinite malleability. Once a page is finished, keep revisions to a minimum. This rule is the hardest for me to follow but I try to remember the words of Chögyam Trungpa: “First thought, best thought.”
One-page comic template (originally developed for my Smoke Signal submissions). I drew vertical panel lines that split each row into thirds and a second set of that split each row into fourths.
- Don’t outline my plots. The story will come to me as a draw. To outline is to kill the idea by pinning it.
- Show what happens as clearly as possible. Keep narration to a minimum. Use as many panels as is necessary to show the beats of an action.
- Challenge my subconscious assumptions when designing characters. Even when I’m designing aliens, I unthinkingly default to light skinned and male. Rethink these assumptions.
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March 27th, 2014
Read Skew on Study Group
I’ve started a new serial webcomic, Skew, on Study Group Comics.
Click the cover to go to the comic’s page.
A new page for Skew will be posted every Monday. I’ve standardized the pages so that I can draw them quickly because my studio time is haphazard now that I’m a father. Each page is a single panel. I use the same three colors (forming four additional colors by overlapping multiplied layers) for every page. I’ll increase the pages per post if I get a good buffer and studio schedule going.
Like Vortex, Skew features the Miizzzard. There’ll be incremental and instantaneous transformations, monster wizard battles, mechs, slime, and journeys through planes physical and meta. I’ve got some fun ideas cooking in my sketchbook so I hope you’ll check back to simmer in the Skew stew. Thanks to Zack Soto for this opportunity.
P.S. My friend and collaborator Josh Burggraf has also started a serial on Study Group, Typhoon 99, starring Floyd, who some of y’all might remember from Shaman Thunder. New chapters of Typhoon 99 will appear fortnightly.
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