What's Behind Nestor's Dock

Ever wonder what's behind "Nestor's Dock"? We don't mean literally, like a sneaky 'gator waiting to snatch some lunch. We mean all the steps it takes to get the adventures of Nestor and the rest of the kids into each issue of Ask Who makes it happen, and how?

Meet Tom LaBaff

Like any illustration or piece of art, "Nestor's Dock" begins with an artist. That's talented Florida guy Tom LaBaff. Tom loves telling stories through illustration. And he's had a way with pens and pencils and colored inks since he was a kid.

Before becoming the creator of the Nestor comic, Tom spent 13 years as an artist for Disney. There, he first did animation, then moved on to creating storyboards-comiclike drawings that reflect how movie scenes will look when they're filmed.

Borrowing from Real Life

How did Tom come up with the location for Nestor's Dock? Look no further than the town where he grew up, Port Charlotte, Florida. There, he spent a lot of time playing on-can you guess?-a nearby dock! Starting to get the picture?

Planting a Story Seed

For Tom, ideas for "Nestor's Dock" come from everywhere. For example, his brother recently had a rowdy encounter with kids outside the hardware store he owns. When Tom heard about it, he recognized its potential. Keep watching. Tom's pretty sure the incident will evolve into a future "Nestor's Dock."

Most of the time, Tom's good ideas begin with listening. For each issue of Ask, he receives copies of the stories that will appear in the magazine. Tom's wife, Stephanie, uses the Garage Band computer program to read the articles aloud and record them as computer files. Then Tom downloads the files into his iPod and heads out for a walk.

"Anytime I get a chance to go outside and still get work done," Tom says,"I'm all over it!" He walks the beach, listening to the articles until an idea for that month's comic pops up. Sometimes that means walking and walking . . . and walking!

"I'm not going to turn around until I have some idea hammered out. But sometimes," Tom confesses, "I come up with nothing!" When that happens, he brainstorms by phone with the Ask staff in Chicago until an idea gels."But I like to beat them to the punch," he admits.

Putting Pen to Paper

Once the basic idea's there, how does the actual strip come together? First Tom draws a very rough thumbnail sketch using stick figures. Usually, nobody sees this first stage. He also writes the script, a kind of short screenplay. Next, Tom creates rough pencil drawings. He draws the panels about 2½ times bigger than they appear in the magazine. "I can't work too small. It drives me batty!" he says.

After the final pencil drawings get the okay from the editors and art directors, it's on to the ink stage. He goes over the pencil with waterproof ink to finalize the images. When the ink is dry, he erases the pencil. "Once the ink is down," Tom says, "there's no going back." Next, Tom dunks the pages into ice water and then stretches them nice and smooth to dry. Time to paint!

"I savor the painting stage," Tom says. "It takes about three hours to paint the whole strip. I love listening to a good story on an audio book while I'm painting."

Like a lot of people, Tom sometimes puts off his work till it's almost due. "Then I frantically whip through it. But I like doing it that way," he says. "It keeps the art full of life."

Finally, Tom's kids, Jeremy, 9, and Bridgett, 8, get to check out their dad's latest finished comic in the pages of Ask!

Copyright Carus Publishing Company May/Jun 2007
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved