The Robot and The Sparrow

A 20 year long history of a short comic

Issue 198 (Archive Here)

Hello,

First off, I thought I’d make a little banner for the newsletter. These are a couple characters from my sketchbook I call the One-Eyed Jacks. They’re an oddball alternate universe version the 1950s Hanna Barbera era of Tom and Jerry characters. We might be seeing more of them around here.

Second, SVSlearn.com, my online art school launches the 2.0 version at the end of the month! New website, new community, and a special proprietary illustration starter kit for all members that evaluates your ability level and shows what to work on. It’s incredible. Sign up here to join the waiting list: LINK

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The Robot and the Sparrow turns 20

From the Making Comics Division

It’s been 20 years since I wrote and drew this story and had it published in FLIGHT. I would go on to publish a children’s book of it through Roaring Brook Press in 2016.

Every year, when the leaves start to change and the air gets crisp, I think about this story and how the people we love don’t always get to stay with us. But that’s ok because we still get to be with them in our dreams.

I thought I’d share it with you this week:

I remember working on this story in my free time and originally had the idea that it should be about a robot and a duck…but it never quite clicked for me until the idea of a sparrow popped in my head.

Here’s the notes from my idea journal where I nailed down most of the story:

Eventually, I’d go on to make a children’s picture book about it. That was it’s own set of challenges to translate the comic into large full page illustrations, and flesh out the story a bit more. I love how it turned out. Here’s a few images:

The year this book came out I decided that during Inktober2016 I’d come up with the story of the Little Bot before and after the events of the book. Here’s a handful images from that.

You can see all the images here: LINK

At one point I even pitched this idea as an animated film to a big time talent agency in Los Angeles. They were sort of interested. They had a bunch of notes, the kind studio executives give that tell you to chase a current trend. I decided not to take the notes and put the project on the back burner, but I did make a pretty cool looking movie poster for the pitch that I like:

And that’s my Robot and Sparrow story about a story. I love these characters and there is a graphic novel idea swimming around in my head that I’d like to get to some day, but for now I’m happy with what I’ve been able to share with the world.

-Jake

If you want to pick up the original comic it’s in FLIGHT 2: LINK

The children’s book is available here: LINK Or a signed one here: LINK

And the Little Bot poster is available here: LINK​

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Weekend reading:

Lawrence Alma-Tadema: At Home in Antiquity

Gotta study the masters!

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