New Readers
About:
Nomad Tofu is a comedic, science-fantasy adventure series that follows Pub, a mysterious weirdo who fell out of the sky and into a world of monsters. The comic began April 6th, 2009 and updates every Monday – though the we hope to eventually expand to M-W-F.
Nomad Tofu is the darling of Harry Myland (IV). He is known to be able to play several instruments and has an undying love of Muppets. He also enjoys cheese and chilly weather. If you wish to email Harry feel free to contact him at HMFour (at) Gmail.com or drop a tweet @harrymyland!
F.A.Q:
So what’s with the title, ‘Nomad Tofu’?
Pub is the odd-man out. Pub never fits in, Pub never really belongs. Much like tofu, Pub has a knack for blending into his surroundings and taking on their flavor, but at the end of the day he’s still a piece of tofu floating in a pot of beef stew. And he’s always on the move, so, Nomad Tofu.
What is Pub? We don’t know. He does, but we don’t. For now we can take great pleasure in calling him a Weirdo, or a Whatever, much like the Great Gonzo. What can be said about Pub is that he is myysstteerious. Pub has-a-past and for now it’s better that we don’t ask him about it. But we’ll find out what his deal is one day… maybe when he gets a minute away from all the horrible scary monsters.
How is Nomad Tofu created?
Nomad Tofu is scripted and thumb-nailed in sketchbooks (usually at the local diner or Chinese buffet). Then it sits a day or two and is rewritten and organized in Scrivener. For most of Book 1 I would then lay out the panels in this amazing 9×12 Canson XL Series Mix Media Sketchpad and measure them to 7×11 with 1/32″ bleeds, which would then be drawn in pencil and scanned into a computer using an EPSON STYLUS CX4600 for inking. Recently I’ve switched completely to digital, doing both the pencils and inks in Photoshop CS2 CS5 using a 4×5 WACOM intuos4 small WACOM tablet. The dialog often gets a final tweak as its being typed in.
How long does it take to produce a single page?
The earlier strips took no more than a few hours. The later (and latest) pages clock at a going rate of about an hour per panel (to draw), give or take depending on the panel’s complexity and outside distractions. The comic is never far from my mind, so I can’t really give you an accurate measure for how long it takes to write.
Who are your influences?
Nomad Tofu’s main influence is probably Jim Henson. Artist influences are wide and varied, but include folks like Jeff Smith, Charles Schulz, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Meredith Gran, Bruce Timm, Mike Maihack, Bill Watterson, Cyril Pedrosa, Kate Beaton, the boys of Halfpixel and many others!
