Hairbook Sketchbat

Larry Powell

Larry has spent the last 12 years locked away in an asylum while the world has moved on without him. What awaits him (and Oscar, his manipulative hairbat) beyond the hospital's walls?

LARRY 2.0

Here's Larry after he's spent some time in the real world. I think he cleans up pretty well, all things considered. But that doesn't mean he's suddenly Mr. Popular.

"Herr Doctor"

The years have not been kind to Dr. Sachtler, Larry's shrink. Some say he's crazier than his most infamous patient.

ARI THE UBER GOOBER

Not sure yet what this guy's role will be. I've envisioned a scene at the beginning of the first issue of HAIRBAT LIVES that has "Ari the Uber Goober" coming into a neighborhood comic shop to haggle over some new Larry/Hairbat merchandise. It's clear he's a frequent visitor, based on the merchant's lack of enthusiasm for the subject.

"Maybe," says the proprietor, "just maybe, if Larry Powell ever got sprung from the pistachio penthouse--maybe your collection would finally be worth something."

HAIRBAT IN 6 WORDS OR LESS

6 words or less, and drawn in less than 10 minutes! Next up--a Hairbat haiku! (A Hairku!)

MORE ARI

Again, I don't know what this guy's role will be, but as of now he's a collector/Hairbat conspiracy theorist. That's a really weird mix. Ari is the type to publish his own 'zine, even in this age of the Internet.

Let me tell you, he may be a goober, this one, but he can also be a little too smart for his own good.

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' HAIRCUTS!

The funny thing about this sketch is that I did it while sitting in a meeting. I actually did a few Hairbat sketches on the same spreadsheet, but this one struck me as a self-contained gag.

Again, I wonder if inking the new comic in this style will work. The good thing about this approach is that it's fast. One might also argue that the line quality leaves a lot to be desired, were this drawing to be presented as an actual comic book panel. The original drawing itself isn't very big--it's only a couple of inches high--for whatever that's worth.

Another interesting thing is that I drew Larry with the head bandage that pretty much serves as a de facto headband. I kind of prefer him that way, with his hair as 3 distinct shapes, rather than a big Pangea-like mass of long hair as depicted in the LARRY 2.0 image.

$%^#&*@ NOR'EASTER!

Like many of the new illustrations created specifically for this website, this drawing was sketched out with a good ole ballpoint pen. This drawing in particular was done on scrapped greeting card paper. (The handwritten note about not being "the worst dad in the world" was a rejected greeting card caption.)

The next step is usually firing up the computer and scanning the image into Photoshop where I proceed to clean up the line art before adding color.

In this case I used my new ZedHead Comix TrueType font in the empty word balloons (also added in Photoshop; I'm not crazy about Illustrator and I'm not familiar with InDesign yet). Like I said in a recent Hairblog post, the font isn't perfect, but it'll do for now. I don't think it looks too bad in situ.

Anyway, for this Sketchbat entry I decided to show what the initial sketch looked like after a bit of tinkering in Photoshop. And to think--I used to abhor computers, luddite that I was.