I finished 2 new chapters of The Stoner Saga
Check out issue 13 (part 1) and issue 6 (part 1), plus some thoughts on the future of the Stoner Saga
Issue 13 was about getting back to the roots of The Stoner.
It was meant to be a rambling, chaotic comic that continually subverted the readers expectations and sucker punched them right in their sense of decency.
I also wanted to evolve the ongoing Stoner experiment by making comics that are native to Instagram. Pages are square and standalone; the viewer slides through the comic instead of flipping through it and they only see 1 page at a time, where as print comics show you 2 at a time.
I’ve got a part 2 in mind for issue 13 that pulls this thread a little further. It adds a lot more story in just a few pages and does a little fuckery with the format once again.
In creating issue 13, I figured out it’s ultimate final form. After part 2, it will evolve into an Instagram native web comic with standalone stories that are very brief— maybe 1, 2 or 3 slides— which insert Stoney and Fred the Fed into satirical situations with the lowest hanging fruit of internet discourse.
Think Fred and Stoney interacting with Greta Thunberg and Andrew Tate, or Harry Princeroni and Meghan Merkin.
I also published part 1 of issue 6 on Instagram.
I made these illustrations with Midjourney AI then used photoshop to add the text.
You can read more about that here.
Where does The Stoner Saga go from here?
Issue 7 is drawn in pencils. It’s a traditional comic book and my goal for this one is to give it time and effort. Issue 13 was meant to have a chaotic, frenetic style, so consistency in style, perspective, and character design wasn’t important. But issue 7 is meant to be the best comic book I’m capable of writing and illustrating right now.
I’ve also got a story in mind for issue 29. It’s a repurposing of a magnum opus I’ve had rattling around in my brain for years. It’s an introspective little story about psychedelics, storytelling, and self love. Set in Amsterdam in the dead of winter. Ink link art and water colors, but muted— a cold and depressive palette. 2 characters— Stoney and an ex-girlfriend— spend a long weekend together, catching up and telling each other stories. The stories they tell each other come to life through different styles of illustration. They are unreliable narrators. They’re helping each other figure out who they are in context of who they were. Their drug use also plays out on the illustrated page. It’s a three act story that tells the story of a physical, emotional, and spiritual journey through a series of moments in time and imagination.
If you need any more evidence that Issue 29 will be a heady, self-indulgent work of illustrated autofellatio, I’ll call it a love letter to comics.
I’ve got an idea for issue 47, too. It’s a horror-comedy about the Stoner and his son, who has inherited Stoney’s werewolfism, or maybe his bipolar disorder, or maybe both.