Jason Badower/Past Experience

Jason Badower shares his original art and comments about his work on Past Experience.

Page 1

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  J.T. Krul gave Jason some very specific scene directions, including the first direction which was to begin with a closeup of Kimiko and end with a closeup of Hiro. Jason thought of the transition like a camera focusing on Kimiko's hands, zooming out and slowly shifting the focus to the right, and ending on a closeup of Hiro.
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  "I wanted to draw the pants off this piece. I can't imagine how much drawing one would have to do to get someone to take their pants off, but I'm guessing it's a lot." "C'mon, look at those flowers! That's a LOT of flowers! I also had great fun drawing all the characters, but especially enjoyed drawing George Takei. It was fun de-ageing him! Welcome to the magic of comics!"
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  Since the story is set during three main time periods, Jason decided to mimic the style of the flashbacks in Company Man for the flashbacks of Hiro reading about Kensei and Kimiko doing ikebani. Jason made sure to use blown out whites and deep blacks. This left him with whites that "were really white. Like white-white!" So Jason heavily airbrushed the page to achieve his desired effects.
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  During the creation process, Jason's new laptop began to misbehave, and Jason worried he wouldn't be able to get the comic done in time. He called his friend, Xander Black, who figured out what the problem was, and Jason was able to finish the comic on schedule. Hiro's shirt has a shout out to Xander.

Page 2

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  J.T. Krul suggested that this flashback sequence could either be drawn like Hiro's picture book in the style of the tapestries. Due to time constraints, Jason opted for a more "cartoony colouring style inspired by Josh Middleton."
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  Jason loosely based the two fighting samurai after some of the characters from Kurasawa's The Seven Samurai.
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  Jason felt it was important to differentiate this sequence from the other sequences since it took place many years ago and is essentially a story from a picture book.
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  To distinguish the scene from other scenes, Jason employed a coloring style he hadn't used since he colored Killeroo: Book 2" years years ago. "I dig the heavy shadows and harsh fill lights. I also got to play with a really bold colour palette."
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  After adding toning to Kaito Nakamura's face, Jason says, "It's amazing how it goes from well, some dude, to being George Takei!"
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  "So inspiration finally struck! My idea was to change the panel borders (or boxes) to scrolls. I wanted to give the feel that this story was very old and add a mythic element to this enjoyable fable."
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  To diminish the harsh white background, Jason added some faded arrows. He also added some subtle airbrushing and color mixing.