Jamar Nicholas's Blog, page 3

JAMAR @ BCBF: TOMORROW! JANUARY 16

Come see Jamar at the Black Comic Book Festival tomorrow!At the Schomburg Center in Harlem, NY!

DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP-HOP COP DAILY | WHAT'S THE HAPS?

One thing that changed from the original strip to the new dailies was Boogaloo's 'voice' which originally was a font made out of my handwriting, became my handwriting--freehanded right on the digital strip.

Boogaloo is the only character in this universe with a different font for their dialogue--a small visual cue that he is different, so don't compare him to another.

Cuz' they can't hang! Word to the mother.

DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP-HOP COP DAILY | LET IT YO LET IT YO LET IT YO

One of my favorite sequences, where we get to play with some mood and play in the snow. E did a great job setting the tone in this arc of strips.

DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP-HOP COP DAILY | SHE WATCHES CHANNEL ZERO

One of my favorite strips - I really wanted to take a peek into BLING CITY from the perspective of a Man on the Street--What does a citizen of BLING CITY think about Ice Tre', or better yet, have you noticed how quickly some people want to jump in front of a camera? Fame comes any way you can get it sometimes.

Also, peep my man BRENT BROCKENSMITH, my favorite newsanchor, rocking the BLING CITY GLACIERS jersey. Ice Tre's reach is far-reaching.


COLOR NOTES FROM E:

I always got excited whenever there was snow in a strip because figuring out how to layer it was a really fun process. And this strip had so many textures in it! The camo jacket, the emergency lights in the background, the snow – it was really busy color-wise, which is the sort of challenge I really like dealing with. Especially the camo – I freehanded that pattern off a couple of different references and ended up kind of winging it. It’s also the only color in that panel that isn’t a variation of blue or red (or purple) – besides the gold ice cube tray on his hat, of course, which really helped center him as a focal point despite the chaos around him. I ended up doing a lot of red/blue color schemes throughout the strip.

DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP-HOP COP DAILY | BOOM BOOM BOOM LET'S BLOW UP THE ROOM

This is the first place we see a glimpse of ICE TRE's powers. E and I went back and forth over the third panel for the longest time. This was probably the most leaning I did when we got started on the project.


Color comments by color-aide, E:

From the beginning I was playing a pretty tricky balancing game between how I personally approach coloring and the vibe of the original Boogaloo strip. I wouldn’t say this one is the turning point – it’d take me a few weeks to really get the hang of what I was trying to communicate, personally – but it was, I think, a definite stepping stone. Mostly though I wanted to note that I did like almost 10 totally different variations of the BOOM sfx, which was silly but I was still a little nervous about the gig. Boom.

DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP-HOP COP DAILY | THE GRAVY MAKES THE SAUCE

DOSSIER NOTES
(After the jump!)


Conflicting voices becomes a line that runs through the strip as it goes on.

DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP-HOP COP DAILY | IN THE BOOTH TRE SPEAKS TRUTH

DOSSIER NOTES:

(After the jump!)

I expected more people who weren't into/versed on Hip Hop to NOT get where I was going with the strip–moreover I was dealing with people who were waiting for Marmaduke to happen--what IS a comic strip supposed to be, anyway? How much tolerance does one have for something as wide-open but easily misunderstood as Hip Hop?

I consider DETECTIVE BOOGALOO a serial strip, a continuing story told a day at a time. "Hip Hop Dick Tracy" is a nice elevator pitch, with a strong but silent main lead, dealing with a world of off the wall villains. Not that much of a stretch, unless you're not interested in seeing that. 

As the strip goes on, we see how we return to places in different points in time, and how people change and grow in those spaces. Ice Tre's producer, SHAWN is one of those people. His character to me, is a person who happens to be employed by a true gangster rapper-cum-super powered villain, and also your boss, which in my mind, sounds like a toxic work environment.

I think about, would you REALLY want to serve on the Empire's Super Star Destroyer ship where Darth Vader walks by you on your way to your post? Hope you didn't forget to get his receipt, because HE'S NOT GOING TO BE HAPPY ABOUT THIS NEWS WHEN YOU BRING HIM HIS BAGEL TOASTED.

Assistant and colorist ninja E really began to get where I was going with my colors in this strip. The machine began to roll in earnest around the end of week 1.

#boogalooboomboxselfie | Last METRO Ridealong w/ DETECTIVE BOOGALOO

memories from the METRO Newspaper run. Love it!

Here's some reader love from the last day of the paper. Will post more from the summer. Go see my dude Jesus Marquez' cartooning at his Tumblr.

DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP-HOP COP DAILY | COLD AS ICE

DOSSIER NOTES
(After the jump)


Was still figuring out how I was going to remix the strips at this point. I love MONOTONE'S feet here.

DETECTIVE BOOGALOO: HIP HOP COP DAILY | WELCOME TO BLING CITY

DOSSIER NOTES:
(Behind the Jump)




From the original webcomic, I believe this is the only original page I don't have, remembering I sold it to one of my famous webcomic pals because I needed to pay my electric bill, several years ago.

One thing that I was especially happy about that was lacking in the original strip was that I had to cut Boogaloo's badge off in the panel because I needed to fit in text. I wanted to make sure that it was prominent and full flush. Addition of little graffiti flourishes on the badge (the graf arrows) would hopefully inform those paying attention that this was a different universe than you were used to seeing.

Another big marker is that I kept the strip frozen in the original time period--2002, where we reference that major bad guy ICE TRE' has a distinct look that is familiar with the rapper archetype of that era of hip hop.

ICE TRE's gold ice tray medallion was a pretty on-the-nose pun, but also a great 'tell' to his powers, that we'll see later.  I remember being asked if we'd ever see him topping off someone's drink with cubes from his medallion--nope, he's way too mean to ever care if you need to freshen your drink.