Coming to Grips...

I love my new tablet. Wacom makes good stuff. I've enjoyed using it since I got it (even through the time when I felt like I was learning to draw all over again). That's why it saddens me that I've realized that if I'm to do a comic for more than one day a week, I'm going to have to ink by hand. The problem is that inking digitally and inking directly on the paper takes the same amount of time. Unfortunately, that means that I can only ink when I'm around the computer, which I'm not most of the time I have available for drawing. As it is, I'm not sure how or if I'll be able to do "(title forthcoming)" more than one day a week ANYWAY. Cricket and I have spoken about doing that Zendariel thing and as soon as he starts churning out script pages, I want to start drawing it (though I may get a bit of a buffer going before pages start hitting the site). Sadly, this is not like back in the day when Dim Bulb was almost fully offline. Two comics once a month is SO much easier than three comics a week proved to be, and since I'm putting a lot more work into the comics now, "(title forthcoming)" will suck at least as much time up as Vapor Lock did in it's final storyline.

That was a considerable amount, kids.

Actually, if it was much more than before, I didn't notice. I'd learned a few tricks for speeding up the process by then, so maybe it wasn't so bad, but actually drawing the pages DID take longer because there was more there and I don't think I would've been able to keep up the schedule AT ALL if Troubled Times hadn't passed off the scene.

If only I had all the time in the world...*sigh*

A Valentines Gift...

I was going to save this for next Tuesday as the teaser drawing, but...it's Valentines Day, so I thought I'd throw a bit of love your way. This is another character from the superhero comic I'm working on.

I just need to hammer out a few details and maybe we'll actually see this thing happen!

Clarifications and Sketches

First of all, I want to make it clear that I didn't mean a slight to any of the comics I mentioned earlier. I rather like what I read of The Green Avenger (Ye Olde Snarky thinks its rather keen as well), I just haven't actually read it all. And as Mindmistress goes...I just haven't read it. No particular reason. Just haven't.

If you're wondering about whether or not Abby (the force behind GA)'s post having anything to do with this clarification, the answer is yes. I might need to get some of her expertise at some point and I don't want her thinking I was being a jerk. At least, not where she's concerned...I'm kind of a jerk otherwise...like that whole FTP business a couple months ago...

Anyway, this sketch was going to be another preview teaser, but I thought that Cricket would like for people to actually SEE his late comic. So I'll post it here, then maybe do some color-y things to it and repost it next week....

...To a Theater Near You

This (Tuesday Feb. 7th's update) is what you call an official sneak peek at my next project. I think I mentioned before (farbeit from me to check) that Chuck's seen the project I'm working on, but in an earlier incarnation. Here's a hint: it's a superhero thing. Yeah, I know the genre's been done to death in print, but there are precious few straight superhero webcomics. Of superhero comics that do come to mind, there's Blank Label's Evil, Inc. by the guy who did Greystone Inn and ComicGenesis's The Green Avenger and Mindmistress. I'm sure there are some out there I'm not thinking of, but that's all that I'm readily aware of. The thing is, Evil, Inc. is really more of a humor strip with superheroes in it and The Green Avenger is more autobiographical with powers added in. To be truthful, I'm not THAT aware of any of them. I've just seen the ads for Evil, Inc. while reading Real Life and Starslip Crisis (two other Blank Label Comics) and the authors of the CG comics would pop in and out of the CG forum at times. What I'm going to try and do is play it straight. No autobiographical storypoints, no humor for humor's sake. If something funny happens, it'll be because it's in the flow of the story and in character for whoever it happens to. I'm shooting for lots of action. Character development is all fine and good, I'm going to put as much in as possible, but first and foremost, there'll be stuff happening. Why? Because it's more fun to read AND to draw when it's not just talking heads. The character designs I'm throwing up right now are just to whet you appetite. Rest assured, I'm putting a lot of work into this before I actually do the comic so that it won't suck.