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Frequently
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1. The strip is not updating? What's up, you bum?
For some reason web browsers don't like to update basic html pages sometimes. So I'm
afraid all I can suggest is to try and hold down "shift" or "control" while you reload, or go to another page,
empty your browers' cache, and then go back and try. Or if you go to "current week" that's a good tester to see if it's there.
Or, the strip is here, just put in the appropriate date:
http://www.brunostrip.com/2003pics/20030221.gif
The few times that the page has not been uploaded, I have pretty much always been able to post what the situation was. I upload the strip in the evening, it automatically updates at 6:00a.m. NYC time. I check it in the morning, generally about 10:00a.m. NYC time. Only a couple times was there actually a problem when I have recieved emails (the many emails) asking this question.
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2. What do you draw with?
I draw with a Pilot Precise V5 disposable pen in a Canson Basic 8.5x11 Sketch Book. I pencil in the outline of the strip with a ruler, as well as pencilling in lettering lines. Generally then I letter it in pen (same V5 pen) and then pencil in the characters and background. Then ink the whole thing, and erase the pencil lines. No rulers are used for inking. Once I scan it in, there is rarely very much to do, just clean up misspellings, facial expressions I feel are wrong, stray accidental lines, and dust picked up from the scanner.
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3. Stanley's jaw, Jeremy's head, Dana's mouth, and other's head/body parts are very unrealistic. You seem capable of drawing realism, so why is this so?
It's simply a stylistic choice. There is still a level of cartooning within the characters of the Bruno universe even though the backgrounds have become more and more real. I use it like a characiture, to emphasize parts to give them personality and resonance and all that.
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4. Where did you draw today's strip? The background seems familiar.
In the last several years, I've tried very hard to write the location in the right-hand/bottom margin of the strip (before that I have them only listed in the appendixes of the books). In the margin it's usually a shorthand of the location, and often get's blurred from size online, but it's there. If you really wish to know and can't read it, drop me a line and I'll try to find time to respond. Also, you could buy the books, much more legible there. :)
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5. How long does it take you to do a strip?
Generally a bit over two hours. I do the writing first, and it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to well over an hour, depending on how easy it writes itself and how quickly I find a punchline. The smaller strips, obviously, take a bit less time to draw, and the larger ones have take up to around 7 hours.
Beyone that base time, scanning and touch-up is an additional 10-15 minutes. The html/uploading generally only takes around 10 minutes, but if I "blog" it can take upwards to 45 or so.
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6. Why did you choose a woman protagonist?
I started drawing comic-books in 6th grade, and until college, every protagonist I had created had been a white male who generally resembled me in one way or another. A friend kept pestering me to do a daily strip for the school newspaper, and finally i started playing with ideas. Bruno was the 3rd idea, and she came about because I had been reading Dykes To Watch Out For By Bechdel, and more significantly, I had just gotten into reading Sylvia By Hollander. I started thinking about it and realized that at the time Cathy was the only "strong" female protagonist i could think of on the daily comic strip page, and her feminist politics were a tad outdated. And since a large number of my college friends were very strong and brilliant women, it seems an easy decision. Add to all that the rule about movies I learned from Dykes To Watch Out For, that is to try and only watch movies that had at least two women, who had at least one conversation with each other, that had to do about at least one thing that wasn't about men. Ity's surprising how few Hollywood films that leaves left. And i think the same holds true for comics.
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