1. Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Kevin Parham. I am the cartoonist of Another Comic Strip; however I make my living as a Project Manager in the field of power generation. I have only recently taken up the mantle of āwebcomickerā ā the result of a self dare to challenge my insecurities and fear of the Digital Age of art. I am a 14 year veteran of marriage to the same amazing woman who happens to have an uncanny tolerance for the āArtist Quirksā (youāre all smiling because you know exactly what I mean), and we get to raise three super smart and talented children. We are in cahoots together on an āin-progressā childrenās book which I will illustrate, tentatively titled āFinnigan Frogmoreās Daring Dayā. Some of the concept art can be found in the āOther Doodlesā section of my website:
Other avenues where my art is shared:
Facebook - Another Comic Strip
My comics are most often one panel posts, which is an art form Iāve always respected tremendously. To me, drawing a picture that effectively sets up and delivers in one clever panel is an amazing feat, and really satisfying when accomplished. I also enjoy drawing faux comic book covers and fan art (also found on the site). I will soon be moving everything to Comic Press with Comic Easel.
I would like to be able to say that I live as basically as possible because it sounds cool. The truth is that if I had an autobiography it would be titled āThe Reluctant Minimalistā, which leads me toā¦
2. Whatās your hardware setup?
Itās as minimal as one can get and still produce a webcomic. I have temporarily abandoned pencil and paper and exclusively draw everything I publish digitally in order to catch up with the curve (although I still do basic sketches on paper for my own enjoyment). Interesting to note is that the Smash Master 3800 (Highlands Edition) robot is one of my only published digital drawings that actually began on paper (you may pick up on it's slight presence in one of the process pictures).
Production of āAnother Comic Stripā begins with a 5 year old Dell Studio 1535 laptop equipped with Windows Vista that Iāve āFrankensteinedā with a new motherboard and new power circuits. It runs on the Core 2 Duo at 2.16 Ghz with a 250 GB hard drive. Graphics are driven by the ATI Mobility Radeon 3400 series. This is connected to an ancient Acer flat screen monitor (you did in fact read āAcerā). However, I see Apple products on the horizon.
3. Whatās your workspace look like?
I was recently bumped up a class, moving from one end of the love seat with a T.V. tray supporting the monitor, to a small desk behind the love seat. Now the T.V. tray supports the laptop. The television is still in my line-of-sight, which is important because a movie is running in the background 100% of the time I am drawing at home (usually movies I have seen hundreds of times) ā I donāt know why it helps, but it does. This is a top shelf set up I tell ya!
In all seriousness, with three kids, two dogs and an understanding wife all sharing the same space, I am happy to have a small corner of our home in which to work.
4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?
When I first started drawing digitally, I was using a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with the LayerPaint app. Most of my first published digital comics and/or drawings were done this way. I think 'Another Comic Strip #4' was the first to be done by using the following (which is now the set routine):
Everything starts with a Monoprice 10ā X 6.25ā drawing tablet. I read a review by someone I trust immensely and was sold on the tabletās performance. My comics are all created with it, so Iām satisfied. Everything I publish as of now goes through the same process. Sketching, inking, coloring and bubbling are all done in Manga Studio 5. If there are multiple panels for a particular comic, it is also done in MS5. I do my lettering in Photoshop CS2. Itās an old version, but honestly I know how to use it and it gets the job done. I will even occasionally do backgrounds in PS.
