September 23rd, 2009
SnowBuni and DustBuni page 1 of 1
SnowBuni and DustBuni page 1 of 1 by guest artist Mike Curtis
Back in the early 1990s, cartoonist Mike Curtis (of Shanda the Panda fame) submitted layouts for a one-page vignette introducing SnowBuni‘s southern cousin, DustBuni. MechANImoids characters Andiron and a slightly off-model Geralderson were also included.
As far as I know, this was the only appearance of DustBuni.
May 1st, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Mike Curtis scripted all his stories this way. The pacing and composition is worked out ahead of time, which made it easy for an artist to dive right into the fun part and just draw. (I find breakdowns the most tedious part of drawing comics, yet it is critical in avoiding problems later.) I suspect this one reason why Mike could get artists to draw Shanda for so long.
May 1st, 2010 at 9:10 pm
The biggest problem I always had in layouts was the placement of the word balloons… they add no artistic value to the panel, and so they should be minimal… however, the temptation is always to write too much dialogue for the scene.
That’s a skillset that I’m working to improve.