adamwarren
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DIRTY PAIR: QUICK & DIRTY, part 2 (a 2003 layout-page-only story)!
🕑 Added 2020-03-12 13:00:05 +0000 UTC(You can check out part 1 of this story here.)
Folks, here are (layout) pages 7-12 of an unpublished, 48-page story titled Dirty Pair: Quick & Dirty that I wrote and drew back in late 2003.
Below, I'll cut & paste my notes from the initial installment of the story:
My reasons for creating this story—and for drawing it in this rather odd, proto-Empowered "tight layout page" format—now seem hazy and unclear to me. At a time when my (ahem) "career" in comics was not going well at all and I was flailing around desperately for work—as opposed to nowadays, when I'm still flailing around desperately for work!—I believe that I was trying to interest Dark Horse in doing more Dirty Pair comics, around the time that the DP license was about to expire, or possibly already had.
Ah, but did I intend to have Quick and Dirty eventually published in some more finished form? Almost certainly not, as I'd abandoned any attempts at creating comics in a conventional comics format after 1999-2000's miniseries Dirty Pair: Run from the Future. My godawful work technique back then—loose roughs, extraordinarily tight layout pages like the ones above, then recopied and even tighter pencils on Bristol board, then finished inks, then color guides for a separate colorist—had become so maddeningly slow and repetitive that I swore off drawing comics after Run from the Future's miserable work experience.
I think my intention was to show Dark Horse that this was the sort of Dirty Pair story I would write for other artists to draw, but nothing came of this admittedly rather puzzling effort, as I'm fairly sure I just couldn't get any other artists approved by the Japanese license-holders to draw these (theoretical) books.
I wound up paying dearly for not investing in myself and creating wholly creator-owned comics earlier in my career, folks; let this be a lesson to all and sundry! Work-for-hire at handsome mainstream page rates is one thing (which I'm still interested in doing, from time to time), but investing decades of my life on a pseudo-creator-owned property that, importantly, I didn't actually own was an incredibly foolish choice on my part.
What does seem clear to me now is that I still wanted to write and draw comics, but without the stifling repetition of my old work approach. After Quick and Dirty, I began to realize that, hey, maybe a comic's art could be reproduced from tight layout pages along these lines—and by the summer of the next year, I started scribbling the first stories that would eventually evolve into Empowered, my (still-)ongoing, creator-owned "sexy superhero comedy" series.
I'll never draw another published Dirty Pair project, though in theory I wouldn't mind writing one. In reality, that's really not likely to happen, as Dark Horse hasn't been able to get approval to reprint my old DP work, let alone get new projects rolling. I do hope to write and even draw new SF-oriented comics down the road, though.
No time right now to add commentary on the pages, but I might later try to do so in an UPDATE-type dealie. (Or maybe not, as such commentary is very, very time-consuming.)
Tomorrow on this here Patreon: A bunch of Clip Studio Paint sketch sets based on Patron art requests have started to pile up, so I'll break with routine and post a few of 'em here on a Friday.
Comments
Tony Frickey
Thugboy's first appearance...lol
Burninator
Man, I've spent most of my career doing intel/strategy/analysis work for various Reasonably Sized Conspiracies, and all that's amounted to is lots of reports/meetings/Excel/PowerPoint and precisely zero Lovely Angels blasting in and abducting me. I feel cheated, yo.
Adam Warren
Any amount you can manage is very helpful, believe me! (On a related note, if you could pass along a good word to anyone else you might think would be interested in this Patreon's veritable cornucopia of material, that would be very helpful as well!)
Adam Warren
Worry not, as this story definitely does reach a conclusion on p.48! Unlike the damsel-in-distress commissions, QUICK & DIRTY is emphatically NOT just a story fragment.
Strypgia
A pity that copyright concerns will prevent us from even funding a finish to the story here.
Wayne W
I’m happy to give you my hard earned cash each month just for the enjoyment of your amazing work over the years. But, the content on here (Especially the story fragments like this and the DiD work) has made me wish I could afford to give you more. Thanks! And keep doing what you do.
Luke McKinney
No lie, was trying to find any format of "Run from the Future" again recently (gave up my originals to friends two cross-ocean moves ago), at least now I know why not. Glad to be supporting your own creations now, AND still seeing this fun!
Warren Beall
We may never see another actual DP comic. But it sure is nice to breifly get to see them in action again. Thanks!
