Capes-n-Babes

Hey, first up… just a little experiment here to see how well my pencil lines would show up. As many of you MIGHT know, I got laid off at the beginning of the month and right now, my full-time job is trying to FIND a full-time job. In the mean time, it’s been a bit difficult to keep up the motivation of doing Capes to say the least. But I’ve been trying and that’s good. I just didn’t have a lot of time this evening so I decided to see what the strip would look like in pencil mode.

What do you think?

But now on to something fun… 1977 the comic.
It is with great pleasure that I get to write up a big huge plug for my friend, W. Byron Wilkins, and his comic strip, 1977 the comic. Let me say this… I grew up in the 70’s. I was a young pup back then but that’s really where I discovered music… Rupert Holmes, Blondie, The Eagles, KISS (especially KISS), The Village People, The Little River Band, Niel Diamond (that was thanks to my father)… but anyway, you get the picture. That was the era of the Kroft Superstar hour, The Six Million Dollar Man, the ORIGINAL Battlestar Gallactica, the Bad News Bears… so when I discovered a strip that was dedicated to (at least one year) of the 1970’s, I had to check it out.

But not only is the strip all about 1977, it’s about THE MUSIC of 1977 as well. And it is written and created by someone who LIVED in that period – not just someone who’s a young pup IMAGINING what it was like. Now, I wasn’t a teenager in the 70’s but I knew teenagers like Bud, Jeff, Lorraine and Robyn so all of the stories ring very true to this tweenager of the 70’s. And the best part about the strip (again, for the musical fan in me), Mr. Wilkins (hey, I was taught to respect my elders… hee! Hee! Hee!) titles each cartoon based on a song title or album and then writes about that musical title. It really can bring back a rush of memories from my childhood.

And man, he does the strip large and in color too! Large and in color. Just like the 70’s, man, Just like the 70’s.

The strip follows the rock ‘n’ roll dreams and aspirations of Bud, Jeff, Lorraine and Robyn. So if you’ve ever been in a garage band, or know someone who has (I have), you will appreciate the story, the humor and the reflections of a not-so-innocent past filled with alcohol, sex (it WAS the 70’s after all) and some other things that were smoked besides cigarettes way back then (did I mention it was the 70’s? Hello! Cheech and Chong anyone???).

Anyway, you gotta check out Mr. Wilkins’ (there’s that elder respect thing again) stuff. The dude is a pretty alright guy – hey, he wrote a back jacket quote for my book. He can’t be all bad, right?

But seriously, go check out 1977 the comic and drop a buck or two in his donation link. From what it sounds like from one of his latest posts, him and I are kind of in a similar boat so, if you’re feeling generous, you can always drop a buck or two my way as well. Hey… us brother-dudes from the 1970’s gotta stick together, man!

🙂

-Chris