Yes, it’s true! Starting today, “Ryan’s Dad” is going to be all color. I had originally planned on changing at the beginning of next year, but a little figuring showed me it wouldn’t take that much longer to color the strips than to add the Duoshade effect, especially if I went to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday format without the extra strip every other week. So no more “Sunday” style strips for the moment. (Of course, if a strip requires a little more room, I’ll publish it “double tiered”, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet.)
I gotta say though, I liked the Duoshade look. The big downside in using it was that I don’t have a Cintiq or something like that, so I could only apply the effect with a mouse. Fine for flat areas, but I couldn’t actually draw in “shade” like I could with actual Grafix Duoshade (which I’ve done before, a long time ago). And with the announcement that Grafix was discontinuing the chemical paper line (http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2009/09/22/graphix-discontinues-duoshade-unishade/), going to color seemed like the best option. Anybody who knows Roy Crane’s work knows how good Duoshade can look (not that I ever got anywhere near THAT good).
More changes are coming, and I’ll be outlining them over the next few weeks. Let me know what you think about the strip. I’ve been doing this webcomic since February and so far it’s been equal parts exhilarating and frustrating. But I like to think that I’m learning.
