Tuna Carpaccio P.I.

Let me begin by saying that Josh and I attempted to first approach marketing our comic in a way that we figured would work best for what we were trying to achieve.  You see, I originally wrote the entire first year in a furious blaze based on simple descriptions of Tuna, Pam and De Jesus.  But we knew that we weren’t going to bait anyone into reading 20-strips into Tuna Carpaccio P.I. without amazing artwork, and I can’t say enough how grateful I am that Josh stuck to this online comic for this long.  I feel that my writing has generally been the same since we’ve started, but as you click through from the beginning to the most recent strip, Josh’s art has not only improved dramatically but he’s actually chosen to take some extra time on top of that to make backgrounds, character details or action sequences more intricate.  I actually try to keep most strips at around 4 to 5 panels, but once Josh is done they seem to average around 6 to 8.  And they only serve to accent the storytelling, make the images more dramatic and force me to come up with more dialog on the fly.

In the beginning, we knew that no one would care about the larger, more intricate noir storyline, the plethora or wacky, pun-filled characters or the greater motivations of Tuna Carpaccio’s higher-tier villains (some of which you’ve yet to meet), so we knew that we’d have to depend more heavily on Josh’s amazing art to draw viewers.  The way we both saw it originally, this comic would be “Josh’s portfolio, with a storyline,” and in a lot of ways it still feels like it is.  The way I see it, each strip is a series of mini-paintings and sometimes I feel like I’m ruining everything when I add dialogue that blocks even a small portion of his artwork, so I try to make sure the bubbles and sound effects lean further and further off-panel on purpose to keep from obstructing any of his details.

This being said, I wanted to make the larger point that I have a great deal of respect for what Josh does and, in turn, what online comic illustrators all over the internet do every week.  There are some amazing comics out there with mind-boggling art work, but for some reason comics online are seen as almost a younger brother in the greater comic industry web-sphere, and seemingly passé to the greater community of high art and design online community.

But why is that exactly?  Aren’t all online comics living, breathing and consistently-updating artist portfolios?  Doesn’t the design acumen of online comic developers count to the wider design community?  Didn’t Andy Warhol rupture society’s outlook from the notion that high art had unnecessary intrinsic value?  Or are online comics meant to be dismissed, simply by virtue of their statuses as both ‘free’ and ‘not part of a larger organization’?  Hypothetically, were Tuna Carpaccio P.I. to be the official comic of “FunnyorDie.com” or “Juxtapoz.com” would we somehow seem to have more legitimacy (however the concept of legitimacy is determined) than we do now?  If you say ‘yes,’ why is that?  Because FunnyorDie.com and Juxtapoz.com somehow seem more official than developing your own website?

Really though, there’s no correct answer and we could debate that issue forever.  You just have to enjoy doing what you’re doing, whether you’re making godzillions of dollars doing it or not (not that we’d reject a godzillion dollars though, except maybe to be sure that it was a real number).   Regardless, we knew when we jumped into this that we were taking a shot at something that might not be for everyone, and that’s just fine.  It may be a comic full of inside jokes and stupid one-liners, but it’s our comic full of inside jokes and stupid one-liners.  As I go back over it, I sometimes can’t believe how far along we are and how long Josh has been willing to keep this up without coming to his senses and finally saying “This is totally ridiculous” and “I’m outta here, jerk!”  So I want to thank Josh for working tirelessly on his days off to make sure that our comic looks the way it does.  Because seriously, I’m even in awe of the guys sketches… it’s pretty much the reason I slap them up here on the blog.

And all rhetoric aside, it’s really nice hearing from people out there that appreciate what we’re trying to do with the story, the infinite canvas, the jokes and the detail of Josh’s art.  We’re not stopping any time soon, but I just wanted to personally thank everyone who have taken the time to read all the way through the comic and somehow still want to stick around to find out what happens next in the Tuna Carpaccio P.I. online saga.

So to be as direct as I could ever possibly be, thank you so much for reading.

Okay that enough talk!  Back to posting wacky sketches!