My new comic project - Goldskull

Sean C

Okay, so I've pretty much written off my current comic, due to a very irregular schedule and technical problems, and am starting a new comic, titled Goldskull.

It's different from my other work; I'm trying some new things, and a lot of this is experimental. It's been a while since I posted, and one of the things recommended was to brush up on my anatomy. Well, I've been working on it, and hopefully it will show despite the exaggerated, cartoony style.

The comic itself is probably going to update several pages at at time. Aside from the little blurbs at the bottom from the main character, the flow of the story won't always permit a joke every page.

So here's the first two pages. Fire away.

EntrY

Those lines on the joker's nose look really weird. What are they for? Has he got a very wrinkly nose? (Same thing goes for the gnomes)

Synthetic Orange

The colours could use a lot of work. Right now it looks like everything's paintbucketed from the default swatch.

Sean C

Synthetic Orange wrote: »

The colours could use a lot of work. Right now it looks like everything's paintbucketed from the default swatch.

Color's always trouble for me. I didn't use default swatches, by the way. I am colorblind, so that part of the process can be a real bitch.

And the lines on the noses are for texture. I want to make my villains a tad grotesque.

rts

Sean C wrote: »

Synthetic Orange wrote: »

The colours could use a lot of work. Right now it looks like everything's paintbucketed from the default swatch.

Color's always trouble for me. I didn't use default swatches, by the way. I am colorblind, so that part of the process can be a real bitch.

And the lines on the noses are for texture. I want to make my villains a tad grotesque.

I have a friend studying fine art who is colorblind. It must be really annoying.

PeterAndCompany

You could always try working the comic in grayscale. It would solve the problem of color choice and is a perfectly acceptable way to tone a comic.

I've known several people who were comic artists and colorblind, and only one of them managed to stick with actual color for their work. I still to this day don't know how he did it (and did it WELL).

MagicToaster

This guy reminds me of Deadpool.

Sean C

PeterAndCompany wrote: »

You could always try working the comic in grayscale. It would solve the problem of color choice and is a perfectly acceptable way to tone a comic.

I've known several people who were comic artists and colorblind, and only one of them managed to stick with actual color for their work. I still to this day don't know how he did it (and did it WELL).

Tempting, but I feel like I've avoided color for too long. Believe it or not, I do have a bachelor's in Art (It's a bitch taking all those painting classes and working through a near-inability to distinguish between some colors - I can tell them apart individually, but mix up some of them, and it's all over for me.) To avoid that part of art just feels like an easy out now; like I've given up on that challenge. I used to comic in b+w, but that got old fast. So, for now, I'm working in a way I can handle - bold and clear. It might not be the best choice, but it feels personal, and I should eventually get a better handle on it.

anable

I agree that that the colors are a bit bland. All of the tones seem really...safe, I guess. Nothing stands out.

Also, several of the backgrounds are very bare. Spice that motha up.

NibCrom

Is the superhero naked except for a belt?

Big Luke Nasty

By the power of Gold-Skull, I have the POWER!!!


Sorry. First thing that came to mind.

EntrY

NibCrom wrote: »

Is the superhero naked except for a belt?

He has boots too.

However, I think he's wearing a very tight tricot. You know, like Spiderman for instance.

NibCrom

If that's the case, I think you should go a little easier on the shading. I thought the guy just had gold skin.

KalTorak

In the punch panel, Goldskull punches Mr. Sunshine with his right hand across his body - towards Mr. Sunshine's right side. Mr. Sunshine is reacting to his left side, however, going by his arm and face placement - as if he had been punched towards his left and had spun, dragging his right arm behind him. On top of that, the blood/tooth flying from Mr. Sunshine's mouth is acting as if he was reacting the opposite way - spinning all the way around to the right. It's visually inconsistent.

That said, I like the style. Except for the nose lines already mentioned, it's got a nice look.

Grim Outlook

wait..does he have powers?
or does he just threaten people with handguns and then punch them in the face?

Sean C

No superpowers - just very athletic and a good shot.

EntrY

Sean C wrote: »

No superpowers - just very athletic and a good shot.

Like Batman?

Big Luke Nasty

EntrY wrote: »

Sean C wrote: »

No superpowers - just very athletic and a good shot.

Like Batman?

Like Batman, yes, except batman never shot Robin.

Sean C

Yeah, I'm going for the average, very athletic guy as a superhero deal.

The concept is this:

Goldskull is a fairly popular, mid-level superhero (think d-list) who has a decent reputation withing the superhuman community. He essentially operates out of his apartment, which he shares with his brother.

However, all this is a cover. In between fighting supervillains and busting crime syndicates, GS is a big money hitman. I'm going to be lampooning a number of things - the Willy Wonka parody here, for example - and covering some ideas that I think are largely ignored in comics, such as hygiene practices for heroes in spandex, "signal ettiquette", (Think Superman responding the the Bat-Signal when he's not welcome.) etc...

It's lighthearted at its core, and the most important thing I want to convey is a sense of fun with this.

Adrien

I kind of want to write something about how to draw guns, but I guess that might be overly pedantic.

I only bring it up because I dig the style, garish hues be damned, but too-cartoony firearms kinda leap out at me.

D90

If you're colourblind, you might want to think about getting someone else to colour your work, like a friend/colleague who's also an artistic/comic kinda guy.

Sean C

Adrien wrote: »

I kind of want to write something about how to draw guns, but I guess that might be overly pedantic.

I only bring it up because I dig the style, garish hues be damned, but too-cartoony firearms kinda leap out at me.

Yeah, I did screw up the gun. I've tweaked it for the next strip, losing the diamond-shaped barrel and some other slight changes. I'll post that once I get that page done.

Tremling

An alright concept that definetly could use some tweaking tho. Experiment around w/ it and see which feels more natural, than forced, like this opening sheet.

Adrien

Sean C wrote: »

Adrien wrote: »

I kind of want to write something about how to draw guns, but I guess that might be overly pedantic.

I only bring it up because I dig the style, garish hues be damned, but too-cartoony firearms kinda leap out at me.

Yeah, I did screw up the gun. I've tweaked it for the next strip, losing the diamond-shaped barrel and some other slight changes. I'll post that once I get that page done.

Keen. Just so you noticed it

Since I'm looking at it anyway, I have another nitpick. I don't think the action in the third panel registers intuitively. You have the fast event of the bullet flyin' by, and the slow event of the relatively static hat flyin' off, apparently happening at the same time. From an effects standpoint, I'd want to merge them into one, more dynamic event.

If I may take the liberty?



I'm not sure if that fits in with the rest of what you have going on, but it's sort of what I'm thinking.

Sean C

That's...not bad at all, Adrien. I think I'll go back and tweak it to get that effect. Thanks.

Adrien

Don't mention it. It's sort of what I'm into now, really just wanted to try my hand at the effect. Heh.

Anyway, keep it up.

hijinksensue

I dig the style. The Grunka-Lunka....Chumba-Wumbas have a nice menacing look. They should dogpile the guests (charlie and grandpa joe, etc) and devour them. The "exposition" narrative at the bottom throws me off. If you did that on every page it would distract me from the story.

Sean C

Page 3 - tried to fix the gun a bit, giving it a better shape. Background's still a tad lacking in some panels, but I'm working on improving that.

Awk

lol funny comment at end... whats with the shot fired from the gun? It looks like an electric whip.

Sean C

Awk wrote: »

lol funny comment at end... whats with the shot fired from the gun? It looks like an electric whip.

Just a crazy energy beam.

r-jasper

it's a yellow phantom!

i want more!

Steels

Well, Well well, if it isn't Mr. C?

Heh, alright. I wish I had a little more insight on if some of the things you did were intentional but I feel like they were. I love the whole willy wonka look Mr. Sunshine has, plus the spoiled girl, really nostalgic, and in a good way. Right off the bat I felt like the dialogue was a bit campy but after giving it a read over, I think it was intentional which made it all the better. I wish I had a little bit more background on these characters, and the fact that I do wish that (and these two pages being the first two) it must mean you've got something good going on, simply because I want to know more about the characters and therefore I will read more comic strips to figure out who the are.

The little character excerpts at the end of each page are excellent and I hope you keep those up for every new comic, because they made me chuckle. Though I do hope you won't stick with a single image of the character each time because that may get a bit old, and if you change it up every now and again or every time that specific character has an excerpt you may get your readers excited to see what he/she/it is gonna do next... Sorry if this doesnt make sense, I swear it does in my head.

I can't exactly give you more critique on that portion without some more background knowledge on the comic. So I hope you would post a little something more on it.

Plus Deadpool being one of my favorite comicbook characters, woohoo yellow guy

Edit - I'm not much of an artist so I will refrain from critiquing that since I don't really believe I have the right to... not being an artist and all

Sean C

Steels wrote: »

Well, Well well, if it isn't Mr. C?

Heh, alright. I wish I had a little more insight on if some of the things you did were intentional but I feel like they were. I love the whole willy wonka look Mr. Sunshine has, plus the spoiled girl, really nostalgic, and in a good way. Right off the bat I felt like the dialogue was a bit campy but after giving it a read over, I think it was intentional which made it all the better. I wish I had a little bit more background on these characters, and the fact that I do wish that (and these two pages being the first two) it must mean you've got something good going on, simply because I want to know more about the characters and therefore I will read more comic strips to figure out who the are.

The little character excerpts at the end of each page are excellent and I hope you keep those up for every new comic, because they made me chuckle. Though I do hope you won't stick with a single image of the character each time because that may get a bit old, and if you change it up every now and again or every time that specific character has an excerpt you may get your readers excited to see what he/she/it is gonna do next... Sorry if this doesnt make sense, I swear it does in my head.

I can't exactly give you more critique on that portion without some more background knowledge on the comic. So I hope you would post a little something more on it.

Plus Deadpool being one of my favorite comicbook characters, woohoo yellow guy

Edit - I'm not much of an artist so I will refrain from critiquing that since I don't really believe I have the right to... not being an artist and all

The camp is indeed intentional. Irreverance is my goal with this comic. I'm poking fun at a lot of different things, and it's hard to be serious doing that. Character development will begin to occur after the opening fight scene. It'll get into GS's home life, secret life as a hitman, and will introduce a fairly big supporting cast, which includes at least twenty other superheroes that will have recuring roles.

However, I'm only three pages in, so it'll be a while. I'm still technically in the development stage. I do plan to have more images for the blurbs at the bottom; I just have to make 'em.

DMAC

If you ever find yourself thinking "Hey, this background looks a bit sparse, maybe I should draw something there... No, wait! Difference Clouds!"

Just stop.

DMAC

Also, that revised panel still doesn't read well. Something like this probably describes the action better:



He's in the middle of talking when he's interrupted by his hat being shot off his head. He then reacts in shock.

Agoodz

hey guys



does this remind you of anything?

sorry