Xmas Books/Cards Repost

A couple of years ago when I finished my 2013 Xmas Card/Book, I swore it would be the last one. And I've kept that oath— there won't be a card/book this year. 

It's not that I don't enjoy making them, you understand. They're fun to draw, but they're an enormous amount of work. Every year they take longer and longer to create. I started 2013's book in August and worked on it virtually every day for five months and still barely finished it in time for the holiday. I just don't think I have another one in me.

One of these days I ought to look into selling a collection of these stories.

Since there won't be a card/book this year, enjoy this look back at previous efforts.

Santa Claus Vs. Anti Claus

This is the first card I did, way back in 2008. This one actually is a simple greeting card rather than a book, consisting of a single sheet folded in half.

Obviously the front is based on vintage boxing posters, the kind you'd see in the early 1900s. I had a lot of fun writing the old-time copy. 

Anti-Claus' choice of weaponry still bugs me. Why a crowbar? I still don't know. Maybe I was trying to find a weapon that kind of looked like a candy cane? I should have painted stripes on it to sell that idea better. As you can probably tell I'm never satisfied with my own work.

I guess the aging effects were successful. I sent one to my boss at the time, and when he saw it he accused his wife of bending the corner when she took it out of the envelope!

Gronkorr, The Monster Who Hated Christmas And Stomped On All The Shoppers He Saw

A terrifying tale of man vs. nature in the style of Gozilla and other kaiju films. Or maybe it's just a story about a monster who's not all bad, I don't know.

This was the first card/book that I did, in the style of Little Golden Books. It's the shortest of all of the books, consisting of a scant eight pages. 

Originally it was going to be just a card like the Anti Claus one, and I was going to draw the cover only. Then I thought up an actual story and it grew into an actual book.

I burned off a week of vacation days at the beginning of November 2009 (I always end up with a surplus of time off at the end of the year) and spent the whole time working on this card/book. Those eight pages took a long time, mostly because I didn't know what I was doing. I learned to streamline the process in subsequent years.

Gronkorr Paper Craft Model

I also made a paper model of the Gronkorr character, which you can print and assemble. This was my first attempt at such a thing.

Santataur Is Comin' To Town

An unsettling and unflinching look at body horror and mutation, as Santa Claus transforms himself into a half human, half reindeer chimera.

This is my favorite of all the cards/slash books I've done. The story and art really came together this time, if I do say so myself. 

Looking back, I honestly have no idea how I was able to finish this one in time for Xmas. I didn't even start on it until midway through November! This one was bigger than the previous card/book, clocking in at twelve pages. It was also much more complicated, featuring more characters and detailed backgrounds. 

And to top it all off, I had a second job in 2010 and was working around sixty hours per week. Somehow I managed to write and draw the entire thing in a month! 

Maybe it came out well because I didn't have a lot of time? I couldn't afford to screw around and had to make art and writing decisions quickly. Quite often stress fuels creativity.

I wish I had the time and resources to make an animated holiday special of this story, like the Rankin-Bass shows.

The Space Dweebs Vs. Space Santa

It's Xmas meets technology in this wacky story of irresponsible science nerds run amok!

Like Santataur, this one started out life as a drawing, and I later wrote a story around the characters and turned it into a card/book.

Unfortunately I had way more story than space. The original version clocked in at twenty pages. I had to do a lot of slashing and condensing and rewriting to get it down to a more manageable twelve.

I was also going through a downsizing trauma at the time, which kind of put a damper on my enthusiasm for the project. But I started on it anyway, and it turned out to be good therapy. Working on the Space Dweebs kept my mind off my job woes.

Santa Claus, The Yeti And The Really Bad Decision

An apocalyptic account of Man vs. Nature, as the Earth is doomed by one man's hubris.

I sound like a broken record, but this was another card/slash book that was finished at the last minute. It's a well known law of graphic design— a project will always expand to fill the available time. 

Adding to the lengthy production time was the fact that I went on a family vacation in the middle of it, in addition to working on a massive freelance project at the same time.

I remember I started drawing the pages before I had all the details nailed down, so a lot of elements were created on the fly. Things like the hot young version of Mrs. Claus, the violent Elf names and the Yetis' ability to shoot ice rays.

It's dangerous to work that way, but it all turned out OK this time.

Dr. Killdeath & Count Gothula's Venomous Christmas

A sordid saga of revenge and brinkmanship as two powerful titans battle to the death as the rest of the planet looks on helplessly.

Last year's card/book was a massive twenty four pages, the longest I'd ever attempted. I knew it was gonna be a whopper, so I started extra early. Didn't matter. I still barely finished it by Xmas.

This story is based on classic Looney Tunes cartoons, the kind where the characters try to kill one another in an ever-escalating series of attacks. Even with the extra page count I still had more ideas than space, and had to pare down the number of attacks. Ah well.

Dr. Killdeath Paper Craft Model

I also made a Dr. Killdeath paper model. It's probably the most complicated one I've done so far. I'll probably make one of Count Gothula one of these days, as soon as I figure out how to construct a decent round head.

So there you go, a rundown of all the Xmas Card/Books I've made the past few years. Apologies to anyone who was expecting a new one this year. Who knows, maybe after I've had some time away from them I'll get the itch to create some more.

Dr. Killdeath Paper Craft Figure

Now that I've finished my 2013 Christmas Card Slash Book I thought I'd try my hand at making a paper craft figure of one of the stars of the story, Dr. Killdeath.

I meant to have this finished and posted around Christmas, but that didn't quite work out. Stuff happens; whaddya gonna do? Besides, even though he was featured in a Christmas book, there's nothing particularly Christmassy about him, so I don't feel too badly about missing the deadline.

Feel free to download and print out the image and make your own Dr. Killdeath figure. I recommend printing it to card stock, as regular copy paper would be too flimsy. Use an X-Acto knife to cut out the pieces too; it'll be easier than trying to use scissors (even though there's a scissor icon on the sheet above!).

So is it hard to make these paper craft figures, I hear someone asking? Eh, it's not so tough. I generally start by drawing a front view of the figure in 2D, and once I've got it looking the way I want, I deconstruct it and start adding sides and backs to the various pieces. They're pretty much just boxes, so it's not all that complicated.

The hardest part is trying to fit all the pieces onto one 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper. That generally requires a lot of rearranging and rejiggering and cursing. I managed to fit all the Doctor's pieces on this sheet, but it was a struggle. I wish there was some computer program out there that would arrange this stuff at the click of a button.

And before anyone asks, I'd like to make a Count Gothula figure to go along with this one, but I don't know if it'll ever happen. The Count is a much more complicated figure than the Doctor is. I've done some preliminary sketches to try and figure out how to do it, and there are some major technical problems I need to figure out. Namely his head-- I've never made a paper craft figure with a round head before, so I'm not exactly sure how best to go about that. And then there's his collar-- it works fine in 2D, but 3D is another story. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on him. 

This is a vector illustration, drawn all in InDesign.

If you assemble everything properly your Dr. Killdeath figure should look like this (except yours probably won't be standing on a cool vintage formica kitchen table like mine). Enjoy!

Dr. Killdeath & Count Gothula's Venomous Christmas Step By Step

Now that my 2013 Xmas Card Slash Book is finally finished I thought I'd post a step by step look at how I work for the two or three people out there who may be interested.

I picked a page featuring both the main characters, so you can see how I drew the two of them.

It all starts with a sketch of course. Sometimes I sketch with pen and paper, sometimes I sketch right on the screen in Photoshop. This is a pen and paper sketch. I scanned the pen and paper sketch, then dropped it onto a page in Photoshop. I then typed in the text below.

The entire book was created in Photoshop, by the way (with the exception of the cover logo, which was done in InDesign).

The original sketch of the characters looked a bit wonky (artist's term meaning not very good) so I did a second, digital sketch. This one came out a lot better, as the characters are much more on-model. The sketch is on its own layer, so I can change its transparency and turn it off when it's no longer needed. 

I use a lot of layers on these drawings. A lot. Like 75 or more for a page like this. Layers are your friend. When you use a lot of layers, it makes it easier to change elements when you inevitably decide to do so.

Next I added a background color, complete with a sloppily-painted gradation in the center. Don't worry, I made it sloppy on purpose, to mimic the feel of a painted kid's book.

I then started blocking out Dr. Killdeath's shapes, starting with his head. I added shading and other appropriate details as well.

In actual practice I would lower the transparency of the sketch layer and then use it as a guide to draw the colors underneath it. I thought that would be too confusing here though, so I deleted it. If you want, just pretend you can still see the Dr. Killdeath sketch.

I then blocked out the Doctor's body and legs. All these elements are on different layers, of course.

Next I added the Doctor's glass dome and the rivets that fasten it to his skull. The dome is on a layer underneath his head.

I drew his brain next, on its own layer.

As I mentioned in the Behind The Scenes post, I seem to have a lot of trouble drawing brains and getting all the fiddly little folds to look just right. So once I drew the Doctor's brain once, I copied and pasted it on every page. Yep, Dr. Killdeath's brain is the exact same piece of art throughout the entire card slash book.

Next I added the fiddly little brain folds I just spoke of.

And then I added the bubbles, to help sell the idea that his brain is floating in some sort of nutrient tank. The bubbles were on their own layer of course, and I dialed down their opacity so they'd be semi-transparent.

Next I added the inside of his head, behind the brain. It's a subtle thing, but it makes him look a bit more three dimensional instead of a flat cartoon.

Then I added some defining lines to his head and body. I let the shapes beneath the lines define their color. For example, the Doctor's lab coat is a light blue, so the coat's lines are a darker blue. 


Colored lines give the piece more visual interest than plain black ones would.

The next thing I added was a white glare to his glass dome. It's kind of hard to see here, so you may have to zoom in.

Then I added some red on his forehead, nose and cheeks. The red's on its own layer, so I could adjust the transparency. It's amazing to me how just a little touch of red can add a ton of life to a character.

Lastly I added a white outline around the Doctor. I started doing that a few years ago with the Santataur Is Comin' To Town card slash book. It helps make the character pop a bit and separate them from the background.

The outline is on its own layer, and I think I dialed down the opacity to 85%.

By the way, here are all the layers it takes to make Dr. Killdeath. 14 in all. Actually that's a pretty low count for me. Some of my characters are made of two or three times that many layers.

Still, 14 is a lot, and it can get confusing when you're searching through the menu for a particular layer. That's why I arrange all my layers inside folders. It takes a little extra time to set up, but it's worth it in the long run.

Plus you place all the layers inside a folder, it acts like a single layer. You can move the folder, scale it or change its opacity and all the contents will react accordingly.

So that's it for Dr. Killdeath! On to Count Gothula.

I started on the Count by blocking out his head (on a separate layer).

By the way, I had electronic model sheets of both characters that I could refer to, to help me draw them the same way on every page. I used the eyedropper tool in Photoshop to sample their various skin and clothing colors to make sure those were consistent as well.

Next I drew the Count's body and legs.

And then I added his red collar on another layer. I used the pen tool to draw the collar. It was a lot quicker than trying to paint the curves with a brush. With 28 pages to draw I had to save time wherever I could.

Next I added his right arm.

And then-- you guessed it-- his left arm.

Once again, by putting all these parts on their own layer, it's a lot easier to make changes. For example, if the Count's entire body was on the same layer and I decided I wanted to redraw his right arm and hand, I'd end up erasing most of his body in the process.

But because his arm is separate, changes made to it don't affect the parts underneath.

Then I added the colored defining lines to him. Count Gothula always gets two stray hairs on top of his head.

Next I added the Count's facial spots. I'm not exactly sure what these are supposed to be or why they're there. Maybe they're some kind of vampire liver spots? Whatever they are, he didn't look complete without 'em.

The spots were in a specific pattern that's the same on each page. Three in the lower left corner of his face, one in the upper left corner, and then two in the upper right.

I know what you're thinking right now: "Bob's got Aspergers!"

Then the Count get a bit of red on the end of his nose. It's on a layer with the opacity dialed down, just like the Doctor's.

And lastly I added the outline around the Count.

OK, so much for the characters. Now let's tackle the background.

Now that the characters were done, it was time to start on the background. I added a new layer and drew a floor.

Next I added another layer and painted in the shattered walls on both sides of the page.

I then locked that layer so that the brush would only affect the walls. Then I started shading the walls to give them some depth.

I wanted it to look like light was streaming in from outside, so I added wall shadows to the floor.

Next I painted in some rubble on the floor, to sell the idea that one of the Doctor's "gifts" had knocked a hole in the castle wall.

And then I added the shadows cast by the rubble.

And I added the shadows cast by the Count and the Doctor. All of these shadows are on separate layers of course, so I could play with the opacity of them.

We're in the home stretch now!

Next I added the dissipating image of Santa. The idea here is that Santa, who figured prominently on the page before this, has now teleported back to the North Pole, and what we're seeing here is his ghostly afterimage.

The Santa Cloud was drawn on its own later with a rough, scratchy brush. I made the Cloud orange to suggest fire and brimstone.

Next I played around with the Santa Cloud, using Photoshop to warp and skew it like it's made of wispy smoke. I also adjusted the opacity to make it look like it's slowly fading away to nothing.

Lastly I added yellowing and aging effects to the page, as if it were from a thirty or forty year old book. Needless to say, these aging effects were on their own layers. You have to restrain yourself when you're adding aging to something, as it's very easy to go overboard. In fact I may have gone too far here.

I have a confession to make: these aging effects-- the yellowish tint and the dark smudges-- are the exact same ones I first created for 2009 Christmas Card. I've been reusing them ever since. Hey, they work, so why waste time recreating them? Why not recycle them?

And voila! Only 32 simple steps from start to finish. Actually there were many more steps to drawing the page than I've shown here; these are just the major ones! Then I repeated the process 27 more times and before I knew it I had a book!