Back To It… Again

Getting this thing back into gear - and the first issue completed will be my own personal #nanowrimo ... This story has been burning a whole in my head.  I've made some OK progress but it's stalled due to fucking work and such.  

So here's what I'm thinking... I buried myself by spending SO MUCH time on the final rendering on these frames.  I think I need to simplify and just get the fucking thing done.  Re-boot?  Maybe, unless I can figure a way to maintain the previous pages quality yet churn it out a bit quicker.

Game on.  Watch this site.

Finally... The Meeting Begins

OK. I'll admit it - this is taking FOREVER.  Between a rather critical time at the day job, a weekly web comic and trying to be something of a Dad to my sons MANIFEST has been low on ye olde priority list.  At the pace I'm moving, Volume 1 will be complete sometime around the time my oldest son is starting to think twice about leaving me alone with his kids for fear I will forget to shut off the stove or something.  So, I've decided to get this motherfather moving in high gear I'll change tactics.  I've found that once I get sketches done, I'm motivated to finish up a page so I can start inking the next.  

Over the next week or so, I'm going to put together rough sketches of several pages at once.  Previously I've been nearly completing a page before getting the next one started.  Once we all start getting a feel for where this thing is headed, there will be momentum... 

So you know I'm not completely full of shit I've done the sketch for page 4.  See?  It's right there.  I'm not kidding.  This thing will happen.

Page 4 Sketch

Now's about the time I start gushing about how awesome this whole thing will be and if you stick with me you will have many opportunities to tell me I suck and ruin my confidence and make this whole project fall apart and won't that be fun and all that.  But instead of that, I'll just say: "Stay tuned, true believers."  Because Stan Lee's voice is always there in the back of my head telling me even if I suck I can do something great.  Then he tells me to get off his God damned lawn or he'll call the cops.

Plugging Away

Reports of Manifest's death are greatly exaggerated.

Yeah, the stresses of everyday life have slowed progress over the past few weeks.  Happens to the best of us. But anyone who follows me on G+ has seen fairly regular (though usually tiny) updates to page two - and have now seen the beginnings of page 3.  So I guess I should catch up here as well.  I won't drag you through the minutiae of every iteration with excessive text, but here's each revision with a few comments as necessary:

Note: In the small left triangle segment, the door is open. I decided it made for a better visual flow to start with a closed outside door, and end with a closed inside door.

So you can see - about 3/4 done.  I need to shade in the coat rack and add some tones to the last two segments.  And of course some text.  There will be a security door buzz on the left and a disembodied welcome from the secretary on the inside.

And to get you completely caught up, here's how page three is coming along:

So we have a caffeinated welcome, a friendly tie straightening (I like the awkwardness) and finally getting to the conference room where our first bit of action will occur. Unbeknownst to our hero, the evil master-mind of Manifest is in this room - and soon his plot will be revealed and things will really get moving.  As long as I can keep real life at bay.

   

Page Two–Under Surveillance

Now that I’ve got a page under my belt, I don’t want to waste the momentum.  So I’ve jumped straight into page two with a vengeance.  I had the idea that as the salesman (who has now been named by the way – Jim Randall – everyone calls him Randall) enters the Production facility, he is observed via security camera.  In this entryway I have placed a coat rack directly beneath the camera and a world map on the opposing wall.  There is the main glass door entrance from the outside on the left and a glass door entrance to the lobby on the right.  To create a sense of movement, I thought I would fracture the frame into a series of camera moves – the perspective of the area changes as the camera follows Jim from left to right.  The action is the entry through the left door (with a BUZZ as the door is remotely unlocked), removing his hat, removing his coat and finally stepping through into the lobby.  I thought I would also have an unseen receptionist welcome him over an intercom.
Here’s the first sketch:

I am making an attempt to show the extreme perspectives and slight ‘fish eye’ you would see from an overhead camera.  I then created a separate layer for the final frame template and filled it in:

And have now begun the first ink on the middle section:

Any thoughts?  Feedback?

Page 1 - Complete?

I'll look at it again in the morning, but I'm feeling pretty good to call page one done.  For the dialogue, I did as I said - short with the wife and pissed about the weather:

Page One - Final Rendering and Text

My handwriting sucks so in turn my lettering skills suck.  So a canned font I must choose.  I didn't want to go with a generic 'comic book' font... I've got a little more CLASS than that (bullshit).  So I went with a font called 'Iskoola Pota.'  I know nothing about the history of this font and for all I know it was developed to write Al Qaeda bomb-making manuals... I like how it looks - that's all.

For dialogue balloons I used a simple black rectangle for date/time/location stamps and classic white ovals without black outline.  Again, I just like how it looks.

I would appreciate any feedback you have.  All the pieces are saved as separate layers so changes can be tried/made with minimal effort.  Thanks for checking it out.

A Page In Progress...

On a dreary and rainy day an economic mini car pulls up in front of an anonymous professional building. A man climbs out burdened with a tattered laptop bag. He mutters to himself as he walks into the building.

Above is the quick description and original plan for page one. For this simple opening scene I chose to give the majority of the page to the act of exiting the car. Two small frames contain the car pulling in and the walk into the building. The two small frames have rain falling to the left and the main section the rain falling right (I love the idea of creating a texture separation with the opposing rainfall).:

Page One Sketch

As I started inking, I was thinking about this character - the salesman. I love characters with a weakness. I prefer my heroes flawed. Originally, I was thinking his damage would be his gruff attitude built up after years on the sales road; hardened by the disappointment of an ever elusive chased dream. But the challenge I have set for myself with this project is to create situations and characters that inspire passion and lead to extreme and powerfully unforgettable moments. So... I need a source of pain in his life. What better source for current or potential pain than a loved one?

Page One First Ink

Page One - Cell Phone Addition

I decided it would be interesting to set the tone on page one with a farewell to the salesman's wife. I have yet to finalize the dialogue, but my intent is for it to be a bit short and cold - as if his years on the road have led to a tangible space between him and her. They are polite and keep in regular contact but live truly separate lives. This also leaves open the opportunity for the wife to be put in danger in a later issue and the relationship to be challenged with an extreme circumstance.

From here I have become slightly obsessed with rendering. I may have done myself a disservice by spending so much time and setting the tone for a high level of detail going forward. But at this point I don't feel I can compromise on technique. Here is the progress to date:

Page One - Ink Two

Page One - Ink Three

Page One - Ink To Date

As you can see, the main section is pretty much complete with the exception of the rain. The top needs the lot and car filled in, the building windows rendered and the rain added. Then once I complete the bottom frame I have the all important task of choosing dialogue balloon style and font. I hope to be at the point of having to make these decisions by the end of the weekend.

I know I'm only one unfinished page in, but I'd love any input anyone out there has.

Breaking The Golden Rule

"You don't make an album sleeve before you write the songs" 

                                                                            - Bill's Golden Rule

Maybe it's an extension of my personal damage but in my head the cover of any book cannot be made until the story is complete, the editors have given final approval and the publishers are ready to go to print.  The cover developers have read the book and have chosen a moment to capture (or a tone to set) based on the content within.  Making the cover too soon dooms the project to failure and curses your fingers to cramp whenever you pick up a pencil.

So the first thing I set out to do was to design the title text/logo and draw the cover.  I knew the moment I wanted to capture:

The evil lab tech has just spewed his manifesto to the shocked members of the office meeting and raced off into the production area.  He climbs up to the top of an open-topped mixing tank and dives in...

This is the climax of the first Volume and a picture I've had in my head from the start.  I decided to go with a traditional comic cover format - a spot for the title, a block for the comics code of ethics and room at the bottom for the title of the issue:

Cover Layout

Now the sketch.  I start with the tank in the foreground and the lab tech leaning over the edge - poised to dive in.  In the background, our salesman is pushing his way through a pair of double doors and shouting for him to stop.  I was thinking that a chemical lab like this would produce some nasty fumes so I wanted a giant exhaust fan as a focal point.  And to join the fan to the action I placed a mezzanine with assorted pieces of non-descript heavy equipment:

Cover Sketch

I wanted some eye popping color and decided my light source for the page would be the sun shining through the exhaust fan:

Sketch With Light Source

Before I got too far along with inking, I wanted to finalize the placement of the title frame:

Cover Sketch With Title Frame

For the record, there is no official business entity called "Persuading Comics."  Many moons ago I was in a shitty punk band who only wrote songs about drinking and being angry called Chemical Persuasion.  I've set this raw expression of whatever as my benchmark of creativity and have kept the 'Persuading' in all the stuff I do as a nod to myself that I'm "keeping it real" or some such bullshit.

Over the past few weeks I've done some more work to the cover and to spare you a detailed description of every iteration along the way -  have gotten here:

Cover First Ink

Cover First Airbrush

Volume One Cover To Date

I'm left with defining the mezzanine and equipment, the room itself and some detail and shading on the tank.  But I've spooked myself out of breaking the Golden Rule for now.  So I've started work on page one - which will be next discussed.