Catching Up - Part One

I've done some comics in the past but nothing ever published or shared on the net.  Just passed around the circle of friends is all.  About a year ago my wife got me a digital drawing tablet (it was a Father's Day present if you must know) - nothing fancy - not a real Wacom or anything.  A budget model for a budget dude.  At the time I was a few months into my stupid web comic "This Little Piggy..." which was originally put together with Microsoft Paint but at that point I had graduated to Paint.net[http://paint.net/] (a great piece of software if you're looking for a simple upgrade from regular Paint).  The tablet was a real step change for Piggy's quality and I think it's pretty clear if you go back where the change happened.  Anyhoo, at the time I was having some financial difficulties and was actively whoring around Piggy hoping to pick up a few clicks (and a few bucks) and started to get actively involved on a couple of comics forums.  I won't list them now, but I received tons of feedback from the wonderful folks there and a lot of really good recommendations for formatting, resolution, style and software.  It was then I became aware of GIMP [http://www.gimp.org/] the freeware equivalent of Photoshop - and the rest is history.  


There.  I'm done with the bio and the history lesson and the "who the hell does this guy think he is" stuff.  I'm nobody.  'Nuff said.


Here we are a few months later and I am haunted by what I think is a good kick off story for a comic series.  And I think it's good enough that I want to do it as close to professionally as I am capable.  So I do a little research (OK - I go to Wikipedia) and find out that since the mid-1970's comic books have been standardized to a page size of 6 ⅝" x 10 ¼" (17 x 26 cm).  Following these dimensions I make a quick page template and give it a 1/4" border:

I want the resolution to be fairly clean (in case it is ever to be printed or something) so I increase it to 1000x1529 pixels.  This makes my files much larger but the clarity of the line is worth every MB.

I quickly wrote out the story for the first "issue" and have a clear 'good guy' (the salesman) and 'bad guy' (the lab tech).  As I have sometimes had issues with consistency when drawing characters several times I know I need to do a character study - like those old Disney documentaries I've seen a hundred times.  First the 'good guy':

First Sketch

Ink Over Pencil

Ink And Airbrush

First Ink On Head Studies

Airbrush On Head Studies

Completed Study

I was trying to get this feel of gruff age - slightly disheveled but always dressed professionally no matter what type of horrific mutant he is battling at the time.

Next our evil lab tech.  I'll be honest and say that he is based on an actual person who shall remain unnamed (unless he wishes to name himself - at which point I will gladly confirm):

First Sketch

Ink Over Pencil

Ink And Airbrush

Final Ink And Airbrush

For posterity I've saved every iteration in multi-layer format (the sketch is one layer, the ink another, the airbrush yet another).  This is really meaningless in the big picture, but I'm excited enough about this that I want to revel in every nuance as though I will someday go back and do an epic re-mix of it from the master layers when I attain more skills or technology progresses to the point that there is a comic auto-tune or something I can use to clean it up a bit.

Tomorrow we'll discuss my breaking of the golden rule of comics and the beginnings of page one as our story unfolds.  

In Progress...

Volume One Cover - In Progress

So, hey... I've started working on a new (non-Piggy themed) comic.

I have been stuck with this sequence:

"An aging salesman calls a meeting with the Production and Development group of the cosmetics he shills.  There have been reports from his customers that they have seen shocking side effects (which are presented as photos in a Powerpoint presentation). During the meeting, one of the lab techs starts to get agitated and eventually jumps up and starts shouting his twisted manifesto. The lab tech races out of the room and dives into a tank of the latest batch of his evil concoction - and is transformed into...

Afterwards, the CEO or Chairman of the Board or something pulls aside the aging salesman and hands him a shipping manifest that he is to use to track down all of the tainted product before more mutations occur."


This is the basic outline of Volume One that is now in progress.  I thought it would be cool to present the process publicly and I have begun to do so on Facebook and Google Plus (much probably to the annoyance of my friends and family).  To take it a step further, I'll also post progress here - where ultimately the finished form will reside.

For the record, I'm a hack amateur with a regular day job no allusions of grandeur.  This will not be the greatest comic ever. It will be done in fleeting free moments when I'm not working on actual work work or This Little Piggy... or (gasp) spending time with my gorgeous (and endlessly patient) wife and three (sometimes aggravating but mostly wonderful) sons.  But I'll do my best to present thoughtful dialogue, frame things in a cool way and render things to the best of my ability.

And don't hesitate to tell me when I screw up, continuity is off, the story doesn't quite jibe or something just sucks.  I'm also open to your good ideas and will gladly steal the best ones.

Watch here for  character developments, early sketches, page layout frames and any other progress as we go.  I may put out early drafts of dialogue and revisions, story arcs and loose ideas.  Again feel free to criticize and provide advice or input.

I'll shut up now.  I just hope someone digs this.