Salt & Battery

Salt & Battery got its start as a small comic strip commissioned by and printed in The California Aggie, the student newspaper of the University of California at Davis, where it ran for 76 strips over a year and a half. Though no longer affiliated with the Aggie or the university, the reincarnation of Salt & Battery carries with it the same brand of reality-inspired, wandering humor as its predecessor. This time around we get to witness Hunter and Super, the frantic heroes from before, join forces with a whole host of new folks as they all attempt to deal with the (ir)responsibilities of adulthood after the days of university living are done and through.

There are actually two editions of Salt & Battery available via this site; the first being those strips which ran in the Aggie, and the newer version which is currently being updated (just about) every Sunday and Wednesday. You can start reading either edition from the beginning here.

Materials:

Since the first strip back in 2005, Salt & Battery has been drawn using a variety of black and white media and computer software from Pilot V5 Rollerball pens, No. 2 pencils, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Copic Multiliner pens, Sakura Pigma Sensei pens and, most recently, Manga Studio 4.0.

Currently the strip is done exclusively in Manga Studio where I can take advantage of the versitile pen tools, tones, and layering capabilities. After completion, it is cropped and re-sized in Photoshop. To draw, I use a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet that I bought some years ago back in college, and it has served me well despite having recently developed a conspicuous divot in the drawing surface.

Salt & Battery currently uses the free font ‘LetterOMatic!’ for most copy, as well as various other free fonts found at www.blambot.com.

Hunter Lower

That’s me! I’m an Art teacher by profession, and I do this pretty much as a hobby. I got my start by earning a BA in Technocultural Studies from UC Davis, followed by a single subject teaching credential in Art from nearby CSU Sacramento. A few years went by and I found myself engaged to my wonderful fianceé, Natalie, and living in (for now) a nice town in California’s East Bay Area. For a while I tinkered around with other pursuits like Flash animation and website design, but recently I’ve begun to focus more on physical artwork and illustration. That isn’t to say I don’t dabble in other forms of media, but for now I’m content with getting my hands messy.