Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Two fer Tuesday

 My two favorite panels from Chubby Cheekers. Not yet "colored." And maybe a little too crowded...(as usual!).


UPDATE: It's a '56 Nash Ambassador!

17 comments:

MrGoodson2 said...

Beautiful. I love the little two tone car. Rambler? I should know that car.
Always dug seeing those and the Falcons.
Is that Mexican restaurant based on that place we ate one time? There in LA.
Characters and the information is nice. Not packed to distraction at all. Being packed makes the little car reinforce the life of the characters. Their choices.

Rickart said...

The aspect ratio of the pages that I do my my thumbnails on is a more squat aspect ratio than actual comic pages, so I end up with a bit of extra space to play with for word balloons and the like... it helps a ton to give my panels a bit more air to breath.

Rickart said...

BYT, there's nothing I don't love about these panels. Looking forward to seeing you and Tom soon!

Davis Chino said...

Ellis! You're too funny--you're spot on with the maker, a little short on the model. It's an Ambassador. The restoration shop I use restored this one, and I thought it just had an irresistible shape for a cartoon character to drive. Chubby's parting gift from Terrytoons when they closed the studio in '55....

Yes, we will see you soon, Rick! Thanks for the tip!

Davis Chino said...

BTW, I got to drive the car pictured--it was sweet!! Drove "like new."

MrGoodson2 said...

Very nice shot. If they come up with anti gravity, hopefully they use all the old car styles to do the airborne era.

Davis Chino said...

El, the restaurant is modeled on a place called Casa Vega out on Ventura Blvd....did we go there? Their covered driveway with valet was what I remembered and wanted to use--I wanted to showcase the Nash. Also, liked the way their bar looked...went on an internet search for some ref. photos...turns out the place is now some kind of hang out for the Kardashian clan (?!?) and some other C-list types...all kinds of paparazzi-type pix polluting the web. Which makes my choice of it appear too obvious (or trying too hard) to the casual observer, which is a bummer...but I couldn't give up the valet shot!

Maybe you're thinking of Don Cuco's in Burbank? Close to the Disney studio?

Last Mexican food we went for together was at the Pink Taco (!!) in Century City. Good times!! Wish you were still out here--we could go for a bite!

Rickart said...

Denise is checking out grad schools as I write this. Cal Tech is tops on her list so far... it seems possible that we will have an excuse to go to Southern CA occasionally... assuming that some other school she has yet to visit makes her an offer she can't refuse.

JMG said...

You done yet Chino????? LOL!

Tom Moon said...

Beautiful panels, and they don't seem too crowded to me. Even though there's a lot of visual information in them, they are entirely easy to read, which is the main thing.

MrGoodson2 said...

I looked at the Casa Vega on google maps. Pretty sure that is the one we met at. During one of your Bronze / Foundry sessions.

MrGoodson2 said...

I remember the covered car port aspect of the architecture. I would have guessed at a browner color. Maybe it was painted white by the time of the google street view picture.

MrGoodson2 said...

One thing I got from living in LA was an absolute phobia about getting out where I would have to find parking. I was 6 months living in Oklahoma City getting over the idea that parking was going to be a horror story every where I went. Here we have huge, empty, contiguous parking lots, shared between businesses, that you could use to land airplanes.

Davis Chino said...

That's a very disturbing commentary on the psychological impact of parking scarcity, El!

So we did meet at Casa Vega? That's cool--must've been before I came to work at Heavy Iron.

Rick, that's great news about Denise. She's one fantastic girl.

And Tommoon--thank you for the kind words! I've been struggling writing the ending to this story, and today Blair asked if while I write, I imagine a particular reader. I said I really just write 'em for myself (true)...but sometimes I'll draw something esp'ly funny, and I'll imagine Tom Moon seeing it and bursting out laughing.

For some reason the idea of cracking Tom up with comic work is particularly gratifying.

Anyhoo, it helps keep me going!

(And as Jimmy knows, I've been sick as a dog the last couple weeks and it's really nose-dived my schedule...feeling better now.)

MrGoodson2 said...

I read some Robert Towne on the subject of writing Chinatown. One of the things that made the story possible was the voice of Gittes. Towne and Nicholson were good friends and Towne was always writing Nicholson's voice.

It came very easily. Grew from there.

Make that rabbit someone you already know, that you'd cast as the rabbit, the same thing might happen to Chubby Checkers.

Tom Moon said...

Is the life of Chubby and his wife based on your and Blair's marriage? What is Mrs. Cheekers first name?

Davis Chino said...

Ha! No, I don't think it's so much like Blair and I...funnily enough, I did originally plan for them to be more adversarial/unhappy than they came out (their relationship per se isn't the focus of the story--just a bkg element)...but as I did each page, they kept getting along better and better.

I'd like to think the lesson is that I have a little too much "domestic harmony" to really write an unhappy couple!