The Making of True Grit

Behind the scenes of Jeremy Gregory's creative process

Jeremy Gregory at work

The True Grit comic for March titled "It Takes Money to Make Money", came from this drawing (below), which I did for a show at Mad Hat Tea Co. called "Love, Crooks, and Creeps."

At first I thought I would make the actors a couple. A girl with her new "Bad Boy" boyfriend, i.e. The Fonz, or Dallas Winston (The Outsiders)

-first frame-
Bad Boy: Wanna grab a bite to eat?
Girl: I only have a couple dollars.

-second frame-
Bad Boy: Listen sweetheart, when you're
with me...

-third frame-
Bad Boy: ...that's all you need!

I didn't like the way the couple idea was working out, so I switched the story to three homeless guys. Whenever I think of homeless people, I think of "Blanketman." At the time this picture was taken (above), this was Blanketman's home. He would sleep on these stairs. I offered him one of those twelve-hour heat packs one night in the middle of winter, and he solemnly declined.

At first I was going to place them under an overpass, but why would a businessman be walking in that area? I decided to forget about the setting for a minute, and figure out the characters.

I sketched out all the characters, and laid out the composition first. Then I colored each piece separately on black paper, scanned them in, and arranged them in Photoshop.

See the finished piece in the March issue of City Arts Tacoma.

You can also follow Jeremy's other work on his blog, The Art and Antics of Jeremy Gregory.