Shane (00:00):
[Intro]

Rob (00:06):
Hey there. Uh, I’m Rob Lisle, AKA Spedsy and creator of The Devil’s Toilet. I am here with Shane, from ComX. Who’s putting together an awesome calendar to support, not only me, but a whole bunch of Australian artists. Um, so support Shane by supporting us so he can support just everyone’s support everyone. Let’s make some cool stuff. All right, Shane, let’s talk about that.

Shane (00:32):
Okay. So this piece is the cover to Vamoose number One, uh, Too Many Chooks. I love the title. So what do you like about this piece?

Rob (00:42):
Um, well, I like, I like a lot of things about it, uh, that don’t necessarily come straight from the artwork, but the whole, just the concept of this book. Um, it’s a team up with a friend of mine, Nick May, who, um, is the brother of my best friend, basically a friend who I’ve been friends with for like 30 years.

Rob (01:03):
Um, and Nick always had drawings everywhere all over his house. He’s an amazing illustrator. And me as I was, you know, I’m a couple years younger than Nick. And so I would see his drawings and they would be like, everything that I wanted to do Nick was doing. And, um, so he didn’t realize, but he taught me a lot about how to draw just by me, always, uh, you know, stalking his drawing table and going through his drawings. So this book is me and Nick teaming up to do, um, each issue we’ll tackle, a different, um, concept of this one – concept or theme or whatever. This one is too many chooks and so we both interpret that however we like.

Rob (01:50):
Um, so the only instruction you have is make a comic that’s got something to do with too many chooks and he’s done his, I’ve done mine. And then we’ve got a few guests I’m also contributing Peter Wilson and the Haydn Spurrell. Um, and then, so I was tasked with doing the cover and so what I wanted to do much like the Devil’s Toilet sort of vibe was so some ridiculousness, um, and hopefully get people to open the book, then go, what’s all this about.

Shane (02:21):
Well it makes me want it.

Rob (02:23):
Oh, cool.

Shane (02:23):
Hold on. I’m going to get up to, yeah.

Rob (02:29):
Yeah. Well, that’s Old Man Biscuit. He’s a character I’ve had for a long time. Leroy Biscotti “Old Man Biscuit.”

Shane (02:36):
Oh, nice. I like the name character. So it was just, um, the, the theme of the book itself that inspired you for this piece or was there more?

Rob (02:48):
Yeah. So, um, to try, like, it’s got a similar sort of shading sort of thing to the Devil’s Toilet cover. Um, I just wanted like sort of an ominous sort of, you know, these chooks mean business sort of look, and it was a bit of a challenge to, like, to have that many sort of characters on the cover in one piece and, and getting all those shadows right. I don’t know if I nailed it, but I got near enough to where, what I was, what I envisioned in my head. So,

Shane (03:19):
No, it looks good. It looks like he’s got the spotlight on him, so.

Rob (03:23):
Yeah, that was kind of the idea. At one point I had a literal spotlight on him, but I just couldn’t get it to work. So that’s the idea is that he’s kind of highlighted a little bit and, yeah.

Shane (03:35):
Cool. So the challenge was, um, the number of characters for example, or anything else?

Rob (03:40):
Yeah. Yeah. And lighting and, and just making a dynamic cover. Like when I was a kid, um, my favourite I’ve been making comics forever, like, but, uh, comics that not many people were seeing, cause I do would just make them for my own enjoyment when I was a kid. Like I would, I had hundreds of comic covers, very few comics cause I just loved making the cover. Um, and now if I actually find it more challenging doing the cover, then doing the interiors, I mean, because just trying to get something to just launch off the page and make people open the book, is it picking the right sort of vibe and everything is a challenge.

Shane (04:21):
Makes sense. Um, I guess that would be a bit of a challenge, so yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Um, did you have to learn anything new to do this particular piece or was it same old, same old?

Rob (04:32):
Yes. Kind of. I, um, the shading of his skin is a technique that I’m so not good at. Like I am trying to learn it, but I just can’t wrap my head around it. Um, I, how do I explain it. So if you look at the, like the shading on the chickens, it’s all very like, um, is the bright bits and here’s the dark bits. I couldn’t get the, I couldn’t get the bright bits to work on him without look making it look like he had like a shadow on his chin, made it look like he had a bead and light on his head, made it look like he had white hair. So I tried to shading technique that other people are awesome at. I just can’t wrap my head around it, but it kind of works through the skin wider at the top and lighter on his shoulders. That’s kind of the vibe I was going for. Yeah. I need to study up more on that sort of shading of skin and stuff. Hi.

Shane (05:28):
Yeah. Well it worked. I can see, I don’t see a beard or a white hair, so.

Rob (05:32):
Oh, good. I mean, they probably should be more shadow on his chin and stuff, but I just couldn’t get it to work without making him look ridiculous.

Shane (05:42):
Well, what works is what you did. So that’d be helpful. Thanks. Thanks. Right. So, um, is there anything about this piece that would connect with your fans? I mean, you’re saying how it’s going to pop out is, is that mostly what you’re thinking or….

Rob (05:57):
Yeah. Well, so, um, it’s sort of like I wanted to do a comic in-between the, uh, so Devil’s Toilet too is about to come out, um, maybe in a week or so this will come out in about, in about a month. So I wanted to do something, uh, that was different to Devil’s Toilet, but still, you know, if I have people who know me for Devil’s Toilet, I wanted something that thinks like that it’s equally ridiculous. So Devil’s Toilet is a talking toilet. This is talking murderous chicken. So yeah, I think my serious stuff to writing for Torn and Rick McClune for Reverie when I’m drawing it’s ridiculousness, because that’s what my style lends itself to.

Shane (06:39):
I like it. So it’s good. Excuse me.

Shane (06:43):
Thanks very much, Rob. It was great to talk to you today. Um, it was good to learn about your art. Um, so, um, catch your, either in the next video or you can check out the next person’s video.

Rob (06:53):
Yeah. Cheers man. Thanks for having me.

Shane (06:59):
If you’d like to see more of Rob’s work, go to psychojanitor.com to see what Rob has contributed to the calendar. Go to ComX.link to register your interest and just sign up with a Kickstarter and register to get a reminder when the campaign starts, uh, thanks for your support. Have a great day.

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