Here’s a little comic I did for Doc Pop’s Comics Minus Comics Text-based Challenge. I’ve been wanting to use this idea for a while, but kept pushing it aside to work on other things. This challenge lit the proverbial fire under my ass. I originally planned on drawing it, but I think it actually works better as a pictureless comic.

Click for the nice big easy-to-read version.

Little curlicue on one of the word balloons there. I stole that idea from James Powell (see?) Sorry, James.

Anyone who’s read False Witness: The Michele Bachmann Story knows that it’s sort of a group effort. Obviously, the lion’s share of the credit goes to Bill Prendergast for writing, producing, researching, and taking great pains to provide citations for all the direct quotes used in the comic. The text is precise, but he gives us artists some latitude when it comes to the images–we all work in our own styles and sometimes add visual gags or embellishments. So I wanted to use this post to give a shout-out to everyone who worked on it, and share some of my favorite bits, in order of appearance. This is only a small sample, and it was hard to decide on just a few panels to post here. If you want to see more, the books are reasonably priced and available online.

First up is this panel which Dan Olson drew and inked (or maybe Bill drew it and Dan inked it…I’m not sure). Anyway, it’s Captain Magritte! Need I say more? Ceci n’est pas une pipe.

This next one is from the segment Danno Klonowski inked. There are lots of really funny images in that portion of the book (look for Mr. Peanut on page 8 if you’re following along at home), but this one stands out to me because the tin foil hat with twinkle lights (a running gag in these comics) is soooo much cuter than the tinfoil hat I drew in my segment. (click to enlarge)

Oh, speaking of my segment, this is my favorite part of the pages I drew. Not because of the art, but because I think the writing here is very effective. I like the way Bill took something loony Bachmann said and matter-of-factly smacked it down in the very next panel using basic info that’s readily available to…oh, everyone except Michele Bachmann. (click it!)

Next up are a couple panels from the section James Powell drew and inked. I think these caricatures are just brilliant, and don’t you love the little curlicues on Michele’s word balloons?

Last but not least is the technicolor back cover drawn by Ryan Dow. (Click to enlarge)

Aren’t you dying to see #3 now?
Click this link to buy #1 and #2.