The pencils on this had been finished for two years.
This is the end of the pages I could get from the original sketch I wrote. The fifth page introduces the girl before she got all wolfy. It’s a bunch of exposition pages in a flash back. yeah cliche, I know. I dont care. Fuck you.
I spent a stupid amount of time on this page and probably redid it about five times. I finished it about a week ago adding details like the trees in panel two, the back ground in panel three, and the letters in panel three. The last two panels I feel are the worst. ugh. cant look.
Things I realised:
heres the page I was working on as a proof of concept for a new comic. It’s about a girl who is the half fairy daughter of a fairy king in a world about 40 years after two world wars fought between humans and fae. it’s kind of epic. I havent gotten a goddamn thing done in two weeks because I turned forty and my little sister got married. oh and my computer died. the death of forever.
it really has been a learning process so far.
I made a mock-up of a twenty (thats 16 guts and a cover) page comic today to see what more I need to do and to see who it looks reduce and imposed and all.
for the most part, it looks pretty good. especially for a first comic.. I am redrawing the first three panel strip in to a full page and splitting the first two bob and jeff landscape pages into four portrait ones. Thats gonna bring it up to five new pages to draw and ink. Theyre redraws and I ddi the thumbs tonight so I dont think it will take that long. A lot of stuff needs to be relettered. It should be pretty cool. It will be for sale on this site and at a couple of local comic stores. I’m gonna go to bed now before I fall asleep on my face.
Hiya, Long time.
How are you?
Really?
wow.
and your Mom?
man thats great.
Me, well I’ve been buried under seven feet of snow for months now! I took a couple of classes. one went well and the other, not so much, but I still managed to get something out of it. There was a death in the family after a prolonged illness. I grew a beard. Production got all fershnagled on Deth Bunny but I have a new page, another one for next week and enough to finish the first issue!
so things have been good and things have been bad. so it goes. with any luck we are done with the season of death and move into the season of life and rebirth. Lots of folks gettin hitched this year. And babies!
Anyway, here’s some shizz I’ve been working on.
so, yeah. Stray Bullets by written, drawn, and lettered David Lapham, and published by him and his wife. Not sure how I missed this.
The first issue in like nine years came out recently and all the comic blogs I read flipped the fuck out. So I picked it up.I also found a hand full of back issues for pretty cheap. Well, I read every issue I bought. This says something when I have a stack of new releases that I’ve had for a month or two that I havent bothered with yet.
The premise is a series of standalone crime stories set in a shared universe that when read together form a larger story arc. They are set in and around the late seventies and the eighties. Ultimately it feels like a crime noir version of freaks and geeks, or a seventies gangster movie crossed with the bad new bears, or John Hughes making a detective story. It is extremely cinematic. It also takes it’s time with the characters but in that each story is self contained you don’t get that “last cookie” feel of the tune in next week bullshit.
The art is solid and expressive but doesn’t compete with the story telling. Only after closer inspection and divorcing your attention from the story itself do you realize that David Lapham is a really talented and solid cartoonist. Comic artist can be really “show-off-y” but the best are the ones who are both brilliant and almost invisible.
I kinda understand the collective freakout, now. It’s a title that now will forever be in my pull list.
Read the first four issues for free here.
EYEM ON THA VACATIONS.
Actually I just got a couple of extra days off. I don’t get vacations, I’m poor and didn’t finish college. But It means that I got the new Deth Bunny Page up! In actuality I took it and split it into three strips. It seems like it might read a little better that way. I will also have the full page up ( and for sale). Today I will finish up I think its page six? and start work on inking a couple more. My lettering is slowly improving. I have about another month of stuff already done and I’ll be making more pages. I think I can average about a page a week. thats my current goal.
I’m contemplating mimicking the format of this. It seems like a pretty smart way to handle webcomic stuff with out getting tied down to a limiting format. I believe the ratios they use also allow them to translate to print with relative ease. And you know ITS A COMIC BOOK A BOUT A HOT STEAM PUNK PIRATE CAPTAIN.
Since I have a small back log of the Deth Bunny pages, I am going to finish the animated Lessons Learned From Dreams page. I also started on the second LLFD page, also animated, which I expect will take a lot longer as it will be more ambitiously animated. I am going to be taking an animation class this winter which I hope will help speed up the process. My Primary inspiration for this is the quite brilliant MOTH comic and the equally impressive Thunderpaw.
I have to go back to work tomorrow and its weighing heavily on me. I spend almost the entire time working wishing I was drawing. This shizz by Brandon Graham gives me hope. Most shizz by Brandon Graham gives me hope. It’s like how I feel about David Bowie Only with comics.
Here is the full DB page:
MONSTERS GOTS PRBLMZ.
In actuality, the first page of the comic. Welcome to the shadow of the wet noodle.
So I have a couple of full pages done and I’m gonna post them one a week, cus I’m real slow at getting the done even though I have 10 penciled.
Anyway, here is the first Deth Bunny strip. its pretty basic. It was more a psychological experiment in finishing something used to build momentum. I also figured out how to put a title header on the pages designating which comic its from and how to link them so you can scroll through the different titles with out them getting all mixed up. woo hoo content delivery.
You will notice the first few pages are all different sizes and orientations. But I figure you are a tolerant bunch and will except them, no matter what size they are.
I have a few pages for the hunter too, and once I have a suitable backlog I will start posting those as well.
All the pages will ultimately be for sale and for each title I will also be making a small run of floppies after i produce blocks of story arc. They will be cool and you will want to buy them.
So read it, subscribe to it ( do i have that set up?) tell your friends, blah blah blah.
practicing digital coloring techniques using layers and shades and color holds. It’s nice to have a computer that works. Original drawing a sketch book thing I did from Sweet Tooth by Jeff Lemire. I’m not crazy about giving money to Marvel or DC these days but I have a couple of creator owned exceptions.