FAMILY MAN

GERMANY

1768


Family Man is hosted on Webcomics Nation, and is open to all.
I'm a young woman named Dylan Meconis. I live in Portland, OR, and recently graduated from Wesleyan University with a plucky little degree in lit, history, and philosophy. I'm a cartoonist, writer, and illustrator, but I'm in denial and will probably head for a career in books.
Family Man stands completely on its own, and present a considerably less cartoony world. My intention was to do other projects before this one, since it's always nice to branch out as far as humanly possible from your freshman effort, but sometimes you don't get to choose.
Pencils are done with mechanical pencils that I steal from my housemates and grey gum erasers that my cats find fascinating, inks with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens (mostly the brush tip, with some help from the technical tips for lettering and details), all done on smooth Bristol paper from Strathmore. Then I scan using my trusty old Epson Perfection onto a G4 Power Mac, and do the shading in Photoshop with the help of a bitty little Wacom graphire tablet.
I am working on another piece, but it's one which won't be well-suited to regular updating, and thus is on the Q.T. until further notice. I also occasionally do new strips for Oscar & Annie, a silly blow-off project I do when in desperate need of personal amusement, and I'm involved in commissioned comics projects as well.
Bite Me is currently making its way towards a print volume, like a salmon slowly fighting its way upstream. It's still available for subscriber reading at Girlamatic until I sign a contract. Check its website or my journal for any breaking news on seeing my work in print.
I've done a fair amount of research, although not exhaustive. Some of my sources include:
Grace, Talent, and Merit : Poor Students, Clerical Careers, and Professional Ideology in Eighteenth-Century Germany, bv Anthony J. La Vopa
A History of the University in Europe:Volume 2, Universities in Early Modern Europe (1500-1800), edited by Hilda de Ridder-Symoens
Germany in the eighteenth century:The social background of the literary revival, by Walter Horace Bruford
Of Wolves and Men, by Barry Lopez
Visual research for costuming, architecture, objects and the like come from wherever I can find information, through Internet databases, film, and the occasional print resource. Given the narrowness of my topic (and the desire to occasionally see sunlight), a lot of guesswork is involved.
TO THE COMIC -
http://projectkooky.com/dylan/familyman/