Advance Team Tuesday: A Tale of Two Couches

Here, for no reason in particular, I thought I'd share a couple of comic book panels. One is from "The Advance Team," that graphic novel all the cool kids are talking about that you'll be able to buy in just a couple of months. The other is from a long-lost issue of "Violent Man," my own mini-comic, that came out way back in 1994. The only thing in common? The both feature rudderless young men slacking on couches.

First, from "The Advance Team"...

,Our hero, one Zack McKinley, lounges after a hard day of delivering pizzas and watches some TV. There's a cheesecake element (that poster on the wall), plenty of junk food (get a load of that coffee table) and a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars visible somewhere in the panel. It's drawn by German Torres, by the way, which is one reason it's a big improvement over this panel...

That's the one from "Violent Man," written by, drawn by and (yeesh) starring yours truly. As before, we've got the cheesecake element (a reference to the 1990s "fitness" show "Bodyshapers" (actually, as I've since learned, it was called "Bodyshaping," meaning I got it wrong all those years ago), some junk food (the Violent Man Snaps cereal -- hey, I thought it was clever joke) and, barely visible (but I assure you they are there) a pair of Chuck Taylor All-Stars. We've also got a pair of jeans with ripped knees and a shirt from the Linus collection, but after all, it was the 1990s.
Also, notice German took the time to drawn an actual background. I could barely make the effort to draw my own couch and a big meaningless spotlight on the wall behind me. Art like that -- meaning the top panel -- is just one reason you need to put "The Advance Team" on your shopping list.
By the way, you can buy that issue of "Violent Man" -- it's part of my complete self-published small-press collection, "Late Nights at Kinkos." Just click on the link to the side of this blog post. Who says I'm not shameless about self-promotion?