MATEO #1

MATEO #1

This is where the whole thing began. The characters (If you couldn't already guess) are MATEO and FLOYD (you should be able to acquire this information after reading the whole thing). Anyways, this probably isn't the greatest "initial" strip to run, partly because the main character isn't introduced until the end, but also because I never really give any firm indication of what these characters are or who they are, they just appear out of nowhere. In fact, even to this day the characters still remain as a sort of amalgam, not really well defined or anything. However, whenever I write for them they all have a clear, strong voice, and I can anticipate pretty much what each character is going to say before they even say it, for the most part. Therefore, writing the characters is pretty easy, even if they aren't defined at all (by most people's standards).

The art itself, well I went through a few phases. Looking back on this strip is pretty strange to me, because the characters are HUGE by comparison. The camera is really close to both of them, and I felt like I really had to cram them into the panels. As I worked on the strip, I became lazier and lazier and my characters, while still retaining their basic look, began to lose a bit of the reality they have in these strips (as well as most of the rest of my art).

I colored this one for God knows what reason, realizing that, later, coloring each of the strips is a pain in the ass and something I never want to do again. However, I'll probably continue to color the strips, though the colored strips will fall far behind the black and white originals pretty quickly, especially by the time I begin to employ black and white photoshop techniques.

I really don't consider myself too funny, and in fact there haven't really been that many people who look at my strips and laugh out loud. However, I find my own sense of humor rewarding, and the fact that I can come back, day after day, and still enjoy the punchline to most of my strips is great, to me. My written humor plays strong off of irony and predictability, while, like most humor, the constant is the timing. Again, I don't think I'm particularly funny, nor thinking that my timing is great, but I enjoy them and I hope you do as well.

Matthew Randall.