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Comic Creators Thread: Ways to Stay Motivated, Creative, and Productive?

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Posts

  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    Solar wrote:
    It looks cool, but I think it could so with some white, yeah. It's quite dark looking, so maybe brighten it up with a more yellowish brown and some white? Just a thought.

    I actually started off with really pale colors, and then kept gradually darkening it. I think a lot of the stuff I color tends to look a little washed out, so I wanted to try some darker, warmer colors. I may take another pass at it, though. One thing I wanted to incorporate, but couldn't quite find a way to, was adding some swirls of white here and there, which would kind of blend into the purple and orange.
    munch you are coloring a metamorpho instead of drawing proper wendigos

    this will not do

    Geez, fine.

    6rr4gj.jpg

    The crappy middle and top left sketches were my feelings-things-out drawings. The inked one is what the idea evolved into.

    Oh, and for any artist types, Manga Studio is running another one of their sale, with MS Ex marked down to $99, from $300. If you're like me, and find Photoshop kind of intimidating, try Manga Studio. It's very intuitive and user-friendly, and has a bunch of comic-specific tools like speed lines, word balloons, Kirby Dot brushes, etc.

  • WildcatWildcat Registered User regular
    Hmm, is there a Doomlord inspiration there Munch? If so, I welcome it.

  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    I actually didn't know about Doomlord. But upon Googling, he looks pretty awesome. British people get all the cool, crazy comics.

    I was thinking of D&D's githyanki, when I was drawing the inked sketch. Something about their beady little eyes, and emaciated forms always creeped me out when I was a kid, reading through old Monster Manuals.

  • WildcatWildcat Registered User regular
    One of the benefits of getting early Alan Grant work in our comics, Munch.

  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    the only things I'd change from that headshot is to make the ears less pronounced

    almost as if the cartilage has shriveled away

    actually exactly as if that happened

    also exposed gums from the lips receding/thinning from the emaciation

    however the eyes, jaw, chin, and what looks like slumping is aces




    7656367.jpg
  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    edited September 2011
    @munch read above post





    The Lovely Bastard on
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  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    @munch

    POST THE PROPER WENDIGO

    7656367.jpg
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    You have the same art I do, TLB.

    34zwzz4.jpg
    also to answer your design sheet's question:

    wendigos probably would talk funny without lips

    but this is a comic so eff how things should be
    Munch wrote:
    No. They all get funny lisps now.

    Because I'm guessing you ain't gonna learn to letter.

  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    muuuuuunch

    7656367.jpg
  • CrimsondudeCrimsondude Registered User regular
    Have you considered outsourcing to Brazil?

  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    who wants to letter so munch cannot ruin my pristine vision

    someone that isn't a brazil hitler, preferably

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  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    edited September 2011
    also no one who wants money

    The Lovely Bastard on
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  • CrimsondudeCrimsondude Registered User regular
    Munch wrote:
    edit: Write it, Crimsondude. If you can tell a story I like in ten pages or less, I'll find the time to draw it.
    I am writing Dibny Detective Adventures with a living Sue as soon as I finish these last assignments. Nothing like getting an irate e-mail from your editor to light a fire under one's ass.

  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    also no one who wants money

    This is a very important condition of working with TLB.

  • Ronin356Ronin356 Nowhere MORegistered User regular
    Cut down watching Tv or surfing the internet.

    Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.
    Georgia O'Keeffe
    Be sure to like my Comic Book "Last Words" on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Last-Words-The-Comic-Book/458405034287767
    and Magenta the Witchgirl!: http://www.drunkduck.com/Magenta_the_Witchgirl/



  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    Munch wrote:
    also no one who wants money

    This is a very important condition of working with TLB.

    the most important

    also where my art munch dogg

    where my garou at

    7656367.jpg
  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    also where's frank

    I need frank

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  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    edited October 2011
    I wrote a thing! Spoilers for pages.
    PAGE ONE

    1st Panel: Mike's perception from a hospital bed, being rushed into a hospital. A paramedic, doctor and nurses are above him, the light's in the hospital

    ceiling are bright and make everything blurred and indistinct.

    Mike (Caption): I remember the light more clearly than anything else.

    Paramedic (small and faint): --Car crash victim, severe trauma--

    2nd Panel: The lights have changed into those of an operating theatre, the hazy figures are now surgeons in scrubs.

    Mike (Caption): Maybe it's because of the trauma, or what happened afterwards. I don't know. But I remember the light. Sometimes when I dream, it's of the light.

    1st Surgeon: Jesus Christ-

    2nd Surgeon: Hey, cut that out. We need to be focused if we're even going to have a chance

    3rd Panel: Everything has gone grey to black, the bright light becoming a distant star surrounded by shadows.

    4th Panel: Blackness
    PAGE TWO

    1st Panel: A man in his late middle age, balding with glasses, is holding his wife, a woman of similar years with sandy blond hair, also with glasses. Both are dressed like professionals but seem also haggared and sleepless, rumpled shirts, stubble on the man's jaw. These are Michael's worried parents. They are standing in the corridoor outside Michael's room, the door is open and the end of the bed is visible inside.

    Alison Wiseman: I can't go in there again Jason. I can't look at him like that, not like he is.

    Jason Wiseman: I know. I know. He's sleeping now.

    2nd Panel: Jason has taken a step back from his wife, holding her by the arms, he looks at her directly in the face.

    Jason: I-I need to know if you'll let me do it.

    3rd panel: Alison has pushed away from her husband, turning from him, despairing. He is begging with her.

    Alison: Oh God Jason. Please. Please don't ask me that. He's our son, I-I can't decide this...

    4th Panel: Jason is sitting down, head in his hands

    Jason: The trauma is too much Alison. We both study this very subject. His body is simply not capable of correcting the damage that's been done to it, organs will start failing...

    5th Panel: Alison stands in front of him, tears on her cheeks, angry now

    Alison: Don't say it! Not like that! Michael is not a piece of data he is OUR CHILD!

    6th Panel: A zoom on Jason's head, his face obscured.

    Jason: I know he is. I know that.
    PAGE THREE

    1st Panel: Alison is now sitting next to Jason, her arm around him, head on his shoulders.

    Alison: We don't even know if it will work. It's never worked before. We're relying on pure chance.

    2nd Panel: Jason has sat up, looking ahead into no-where.

    Jason: We are. But Michael is going to die if we don't do this. This way, at least we are giving him a chance. However small.

    3rd Panel: Alison is still lying her head on Jason's shoulder. Her eyes are closed, but she has stopped crying.

    Alison: We will almost certainly be arrested for this.

    4th Panel: Jason sits in silence, still staring into middle distance. Alison is also still leaning against him, head on his shoulder.

    5th Panel: They both get up.

    Alison: I'll get the car.
    PAGE FOUR

    1st Panel: A large, darkened room, filled with shadows, with a single black table, smooth and clean. At the table sits a man wearing some sort of armoured bodysuit and a cape. In front of him, instead of a wall, is a floor to ceiling window which shows a stunning view of the curvature of the Earth. It glows a soft blue, streaked with white, and the black sky behind it is spattered with stars.

    2nd Panel: The armoured mask up close, expressionless and ark, yet it and the stance of the sitting man suggests a sense of being lost in thought.

    3rd Panel: The man's view of the Earth, beautiful and serene

    4th Panel: The same view, except the Earth is now an incandescent fireball, it's atmosphere igniting, it's surface covered in cracks as the very tectonic plates shatter. Earth is dying. The vision is edged with red light.

    5rd Panel: Once again, the Earth, just as it was.
    PAGE FIVE

    1st Panel: The man stands up, reaching into a pocket on the inside of his cape, the world behind him.

    Man: Begin wormhole teleport protocols

    2nd Panel: The Man holds up a cylinder, metal at the end, glass around the sides, emitting a warm golden glow

    3rd Panel: The Man then takes out a small injection device, and fits the cylinder to it's back

    4rd Panel: His masked face again, this time illuminated with the light, as he studies the small cylinder.

    Man: It's time to give this world a hero.
    PAGE SIX

    1st Panel: A secure laboratory, clearly highly advanced, sits in darkness, the lab techs and scientists having gone home for the night.

    2nd Panel: Alison's hand slides a pass card through a reader, the light on the pad has turned green.

    3rd Panel: Alison and Jason walk into the lab, looking around.

    Jason: You get the equipment, I'll grab the sample. We've only a few minutes until the guard comes around again.

    4th Panel: Jason is in front of a secure looking box, sealed with a "HAZARDOUS MATERIALS, AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" label on top. He is looking around nervously.

    5th Panel: He opens the box and is greeted with a soft, blue-green glow.

    6th Panel: Alison comes back, holding a heavy, sealed briefcase.

    Alison: I have the equipment...

    7th Panel: Jason has turned to look at his wife. In his hand he is holding a cylinder, steel at the ends but with glass on the sides, from which the glow emanates, throwing up stark shadows on his face, emphasising them grim nature of his expression.

    Jason: Let's do this.
    PAGE SEVEN

    1st Panel: General Isaac Johnson's bedroom, lit only by a sliver of moonlight coming through the blinds over the windows, and the light from a mobile phone on a bedside table as it buzzes an incoming call.

    2nd Panel: The General, a powerfully build black man with salt and pepper hair, rubs his eyes with one hand and wearily answers the phone with another.

    Isaac: This is General Johnson.

    Phone Voice: Sir, I think you need to hear this.

    3rd Panel: Isaac sits up in bed.

    Isaac: Well I hope so, since you called me. What is it.

    Phone Voice: I just registered somebody correctly accessing one of our secure labs.

    Isaac: You woke me up for that.

    4th Panel: Isaac is leaning forward, stretching his back, he looks somewhat irritated.

    Phone Voice: Well sir, you know how the Wiseman's child was involved in a car crash today.

    Isaac: Of course I do. I went in just a few hours ago to see him, poor kid was nearly torn to pieces. What are you getting at?

    5th Panel: Zoom on Isaac's face as he realises what is happening

    Phone Voice: Sir, the security system says that it was Alison Wiseman that went back to that lab tonight. Just a few minutes ago.

    6th Panel: Isaac's wife, Helena, wakes up and blearily watches as her husband hastily dresses.

    Helena: Isaac? Honey?

    Isaac: Go back to sleep baby. I need to head out, it's urgent.

    Helena: Is it Alison's boy? Has he...

    Isaac: No. It's fine. I'll see you soon.
    PAGE EIGHT

    1st panel: Alison and Jason are in the front of a car, driving through heavy, spattering rain. Alison holds the briefcase, Jason is driving. Alison's phone rings

    2nd Panel: Alison answers

    Alison: What is it

    3rd Panel: Isaac is also driving, his phone on speaker, rain lashing the windows.

    Isaac: Alison, please, don't do this! You have no idea what could happen.

    4th Panel: Alison on the phone, visibly upset

    Alison: It could save his life!

    Isaac: Where are you now? Is Jason with you?

    Alison: Nearly at the hospital. And yes, he is.

    5th Panel: Isaac swerves to avoid traffic

    Isaac: For the love of God, Alison, we don't...

    6th Panel: Alison shouts into her phone, then turns it off

    Alison: I can't stand by and watch my son die! I can't do that! You stay out of our way!

    Isaac: Wai--

    Phone: BEEP
    PAGE NINE

    1st Panel: Isaac's car comes screeching to a halt in a hospital parking lot.

    2nd Panel: He jumps out and begins to run inside, arm raised against the battering rain. A man sees him and calls out

    Man: Sir? I'm over-

    Isaac: They're already here. Get inside.

    3rd Panel: Alison and Jason run inside their son's room. The view is such that Michael cannot be seen.

    Jason: I'll calibrate the sample, you prepare the injector.

    4th Panel: Alison is standing there, hand on her mouth, looking at her son

    Alison: Oh my poor baby...

    5th Panel: Jason has turned to his wife, the concern and emotion clearly evident on his face

    Jason: Alison! We need to hurry!

    6th Panel: Isaac and his subordinate take the stairs several steps at a time

    Isaac: Please let us not be too late.
    PAGE TEN

    1st Panel: Jason kneels next to the bed, and takes the injector

    2nd Panel: He carefully slides the cylinder into it's reciever at the real of the device. The illumination shows the sweat droplets as they drip down his brow.

    Jason: Careful, careful...

    3rd Panel: A nurse steps into the room

    Nurse: What is going on here?!

    4th Panel: Alison spins around, and jabs a finger at the nurse

    Alison: Get the hell out of here!

    4th Panel: The Nurse steps forward towards Jason

    Nurse: Stop that!

    5th Panel: Isaac and his subordinate burst out of the stairwell, just in time to see Alison tackle the Nurse outside the room
    PAGE ELEVEN

    1st Panel: Jason slides the needle into his son's arm, depressing the injector. A side panel shows a heartbeat monitor, beeping at a normal rate.

    2nd Panel: Isaac rushes down the corridor, blue-green light streaming from the room in front of him.

    Isaac: Alison!

    3rd Panel: Zoom in as Jason continues to depress the injector, now halfway down, the skin around it glowing. The Heartbeat monitor speeds up.

    4th Panel: Alison and the nurse roll apart, staring, eyes wide, at the entrance to the room, as the light intensifies

    5th Panel: Jason finishes depressing the injector, the light from Michael's arm now shining even brighter, the heartbeat monitor now at incredible speeds

    6th Panel: Jason looks down, in wonder and amazement, tears on his cheeks
    PAGE TWELVE

    1st Panel: Outside, in the rain, the man hovers, and in front of him, halfway up the hospital building, light burns from a window.

    2nd Panel: The golden cylinder/injector device hovers above his palm

    Suit Computer: Target Locked. Event occuration within expected temporal perameters.

    3rd Panel: The Man stares at the light.

    Man: Fire

    4th Panel: The cylinder/injector streaks towards the target, whipping through the night.
    PAGE THIRTEEN

    1st panel: The Hospital, as seen from above, glows in one corner from one window.

    2nd Panel: The same corner seems to explode with incredible, golden light that turns night into day.

    3rd Panel: The hospital goes dark.

    4th Panel: Alison, Isaac and the Nurse, all stare at what is before them, a soft golden light highlighting their features.
    PAGE FOURTEEN

    1st Panel: Michael crouches naked on the floor of the room, his skin and eyes glowing. Held in his arms is Jason's body. He looks at the group lying on the floor, a look of fear on his face.

    Michael (Caption): The light

    Michael: Somebody get Dad a doctor!

    Michael (Caption): How could I ever forget it.

    Solar on
  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    I understand that fourteen pages is a lot, so if people just want to flick through and give me impressions, that's fine too.

  • CrimsondudeCrimsondude Registered User regular
    Cool.

    Hey, Munch. I was planning on having this last piece done on Tuesday. That has not happened, but as soon as it's done I'll PM you. I wish I had something to take with me to NYCC, but oh well. My fault.

  • Garlic BreadGarlic Bread i'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm a bitch i'm a Registered User, Disagreeable regular
    I haven't really ever read a lot of scripts, so I don't know if I can be much help

    The descriptions seemed pretty good, but the dialogue could use some work. As far as the overall idea, it doesn't sell me on having any originality (based on just those 14 pages). I think Page 4 breaks up the tension and would work better as the end of the issue, although that would require reworking pages 12 and 13. Page 12 also confused me because "the man" is not a unique enough descriptor and didn't make me think of the guy from the moonbase or whatever (if it is the same guy)

    Was that a script writing exercise or an idea you really want to work on?

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    A bit of both I guess

    The ideas behind that script are, I think, some of the better ones I've had, but they don't rely specifically on that piece of work to be used. I know that dialogue is my weakest area, which is kind of unfortunate since with comic books it's kind of the biggest thing you have to write! But I am trying to work on it.

    It is the same guy, which I should probably specify in the script for easier understanding. Page 4 was specifically put in there to try and break things up a little and keep the tension building, I guess that had the opposite effect I intended! I'll give the plot layout a rethink, see if I can structure it more like you suggest

    Thanks for reading man!

  • gredavingredavin Registered User regular
    Hey creators! I'll be doing a signing at Jim Hanley's Universe Pre-NYCC party Wednesday night from 7pm until whenever it shuts down. There's a stack of creators there, lots of people to talk to about the creative process, might be some great info for you there.

    Also, I've been doing a bi-weekly podcast called The Process where me and two other writers talk about the comic writing process and we have guests (an upcoming guest is Scott Snyder) every so often. Here's the page:

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Process/147353675342657

  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    Hey, Munch. I was planning on having this last piece done on Tuesday. That has not happened, but as soon as it's done I'll PM you. I wish I had something to take with me to NYCC, but oh well. My fault.

    Whenever dude, no rush.

    Solar, I'm just going to echo Keith. The dialogue is a little weak in spots, perhaps a little over-dramatic. And the sequence where the armored man re-appears outside the hospital, is a bit confusing.

    Other than that, my only real criticism is that the whole thing is set-up. It has a nice structure, introducing a problem, ratcheting up the tension, and culminating in an ending that encourages the reader to read the next part of the story. The problem is that the events in the story are just kind of boring, and things most comic readers have seen many times over. If this was the first installment of a comic, I don't think I'd come back for the next part.

    My suggestion would be, if you're actually trying to develop this into a comic, to jump straight into the action, and clearly outline what the story is going to be about. Then you can rewind, and give the origin.

    I was reading through the first three volumes of Criminal last night, and it's amazing how, despite being very slow, tense reads, Brubaker always manages to kick them off with something that immediately grabs your attention. The first volume starts with a bank heist, in which the protagonist explains his personal credo to the reader through a series of inner monologues. The first line of the second volume is, "Tracy knew he didn't have to kill him," with the hero strangling an unknown man, and only later does Brubaker rewind and show us how that situation came to be. The third begins with two men in an open field, one holding a gun on the other, before a quick montage sets up the story to come.

    These are all really tense, exciting ways to outline the story to come, before allowing the story to slow down a bit, and unfold at a reasonable pace.

    John Rogers, the writer of Blue Beetle, said that he always wrote issues with a simple philosophy in mind; Start on action, end on action. A lot of old comics (as well as some current Marvel Adventures books) followed this formula, commonly opening with a splash page that teased the coming story. And that doesn't necessarily mean you have to open with a big punch-up. It can just as easily be something that grabs the audience's attention, in a different way.

    Like, for your story, I'd probably open with Michael driving down the road, maybe having a conversation on his phone, so the audience gets to know him a bit. Nothing much, just a page or two where he can spout some exposition, before he suddenly gets into his car accident, so the audience is a bit more invested in his fate. Then you could segue directly from that, to your current page two, with his anxious parents talking to one another.

    That'd kind of muck with the foreshadowing about "the light," by removing the scene with the bright hospital lights. But you could just as easily have his car accident caused by an oncoming motorist who won't turn off their high-beams, blinding him and driving him off the road, or something like that. You could even have the narrative flipping back and forth between him, and the opposing driver, building tension before their paths ultimately collide.

    Just some thoughts.





  • DouglasDangerDouglasDanger PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
    When I play around with scripts, I try to start and end with action scenes

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    Thanks for the advice you guys, I appreciate it. It seems like I need to focus on making my dialogue seem more natural and also tightening up the pacing. The idea of starting with some action is probably a good one, and yeah introducing a couple of pages before the accident and having a big, dynamic splash page of the crash itself would be useful in terms of grabbing the reader and also proving a few lines of dialogue which let the reader know a bit more about Michael.

    The arching story idea I had was in some ways inspired by Fringe, in that it starts with a sense of people not really knowing what is going on, only that something is, and reading to learn what is really goin on behind the scenes. That's why the man in the mask is there, to add a sense of mystery regarding his motivations etc (incidentally, I wanted him to be somewhat ambiguous, maybe his "time to give the world a hero" line is too explanatory?)

    And yes, the script isn't clear regarding the masked man. I think that can be cleared up if I simply codify him as "The Masked Man" and that makes it more obvious that it is the same guy.

    Well, I am going to go back and make some changes, run through the dialogue and the pacing again and see what I can do. It was enjoyable to write and the ideas I have had around this are quite fun, so I'd like to stick with it. I'll post a revised version up in here when I'm done with it, so you guys can see the changes and possibly comment if you have the free time. Again, thanks for reading, it definitely helps!

  • CrimsondudeCrimsondude Registered User regular
    If you are super late on a project don't be surprised when you are volunteered for several thousand free words after the first project is done.

  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    edited October 2011
    my rule of thumb is simple: open your story with something good enough to be the climax, the write a better climax, then fill in the space between.

    The Lovely Bastard on
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  • GustavGustav Friend of Goats Somewhere in the OzarksRegistered User regular
    Ah! So I finally got the proof for Backwood Folk. Like... I feel professional. Also got Skip Solomon to be carried by our local comic shop.

    Anyways here is a crappy cell phone picture of the book. My camera has decided to get really good at hide and seek.

    bwfolkcover-1.jpg

    It's safe to say I'm recommending Ka-Blam. They are pretty slow, but man the color stuff the do looks pretty damn good. Even got around the problem of the borders being cut kind of off with Skip. Shipping can get pricey, but that's to be expected.

    In other news, I'm kind of going through a redesign kick. Nothing monumental, but reshaping the characters so that their builds are at least more differentiated. Also trying to just escape a problem with head shape being way too similar across the board.

    315993_2342043303619_1026030011_32651249_858324120_n.jpg

    On a completely different front, I'm doodling up some strips that are only partially related to the above stuff. I took a children's writing class a ways back and really had a blast coming up with illustrations based around a younger audience. So I've taken my ideas from that class and I'm trying to turn it from a children's book to a sort of comic strip based adventure story for kids. Something a lot more webcomics appropriate than what I've been doing.

    The initial cover created for the class-
    182706_1773656214297_1026030011_32005632_7585056_n.jpg

    Later on I wanted to make the style different from the stuff I've been doing, just so I don't go crazy.
    316669_2285171801867_1026030011_32617846_1096385965_n.jpg

    And here is where I'm at now
    Page1-4-1.jpg

    The final one needs a lot of cleaning still, but that's generally where I'm shooting as far as the look. Super stylized characters with digital coloring to make them pop a bit more, while backgrounds are still watercolors with altercations. That way the characters pop out a bit more.

    Story wise I want to just cover a lot of the sillier aspects of folk tales and stuff that my more grounded stuff might have to shy away from. Giants, talking animals, stuff like that. So far it's been a lot of fun to plan out. I'm still not down and out decided on the visual style though.

    aGPmIBD.jpg
  • SiegfriedSiegfried Registered User regular
    I'm pretty impressed with those environments, I must say.

    Portfolio // Twitter // Behance // Tumblr
    Kochikens wrote:
    My fav is when I can get my kiss on with other dudes.
  • herojoeherojoe IndianapolisRegistered User regular
    Yeah the thing I hate the most is seeing white backgrounds so great job on those lush backgrounds.

    My artist and I are getting crazy busy with our regular lives, but now that I have a regular job I think it might get easier for me to get back into the grove of writing. When you have no job it's easy to just sit all day and watch movies, but with a job you know you have limited hours so you think "damn I gotta get some work done".

    At least that's how it seems to work for me.

    steam_sig-400.png
  • GustavGustav Friend of Goats Somewhere in the OzarksRegistered User regular
    Thanks! I basically make myself try and have a background in every panel (with some exceptions of course) Kind of force feeding practice on them.

    As for the real life invasion. If you don't have a regular job (I pretty much am just an illustrator ((and I guess recently a co-writer on a sequel to a documentary I did artwork for ((don't ask how that happened, I have no idea))) it is so hard to not just sit and pop on Netflix. Especially when all of the X-Files is on there.

    You really just have to structure it like a job, or at least I do. I try my damndest to work at it like it is a 9-5. Granted, I think this is way easier for the illustrator. I can totally pop on podcasts, or a movie, and mostly still work. Drawing rules like that.

    When I try to write it's got to be a vacuum. So on that angle I can see it crazy hard to just sit in front of a computer for hours and get words to pop out.

    aGPmIBD.jpg
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    Being in the holiday spirit, I decided to do a little two-panel comic, to serve as my avatar/sig through the the next month or so.

    BeetleXMAS2Panel.png

    Incidentally, if anyone wants me to draw a comic-and-holiday themed avatar/sig for them, just let me know.

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    If you have time Munch, I'd love a Christmas themed avatar/sig! I'm thinking maybe the Flash? I'd prefer an Iron Fist and Luke Cage one really, but I dunno how I would do them in a christmassy way.

    By the way, that looks great. I love your Beetle design.

    Solar on
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    Thanks, Solar.

    I should have something for you, tomorrow. I've got a couple ideas, already.

  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    Awesome!

  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    munch

    for christmas

    I WANT CHUPACABRA PAGES

    7656367.jpg
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    Hey TLB, post some of them layouts I did.

    The ones where I wove your straw into gold.

  • The Lovely BastardThe Lovely Bastard Registered User regular
    never

    it is your job to post the art

    7656367.jpg
  • MunchMunch Registered User regular
    never

    it is your job to post the art

    Hate.

    Anyway, here's an example of the collaborative process, between TLB and I.
    First, he sends me this.
    PAGE 9

    Panel 1

    EXT. SEEDY ALLEYWAY - NIGHT

    (I want this panel to be a giant rectangle on the top of the page. It should look like a freeze frame from your standard film noir movie. Make it as dark as possible.)

    UNLESS STATED, ALL SCENES TAKE PLACE IN THE SEEDY ALLEYWAY ON PAGES 7 - 9

    A dark corridor where light is a rare commodity. Graffiti and garbage litter the passageway, and a SHADOWY FIGURE is at the very end. In the foreground, flanked by two massive, decaying buildings is Juan. We only see him from the back.

    CAPTION BOX

    To find scum, sometimes you need to take a plunge into the grime.

    Panel 2

    The once SHADOWY FIGURE leans against a wall, now half-way down the alleyway. He is wearing a trenchcoat, with a garish TEAL silk shirt peaking out. An afro haircut and a glint of fangs give the hint that he is not human. We can't quite make him out, but he is hunched over. He looks like a dog standing on its hind legs.

    Panel 3

    Juan is now face to face with our mystery man. For the first time we have ever seen it, Juan is actually the same height as someone else.

    JUAN

    A gambler's gone missing. What do you know about it?

    Panel 4

    CLOSE-UP ON MYSTERY MAN

    We see that the mystery man is actually the GAROU. A mixture of Huggy Bear and Gambit. Only a wolf-man. Only, instead of the bulky Lon Chaney aesthetic, he is more a Dogs Playing Poker. Just a wolf standing on its hind legs.

    His TRENCH COAT is open, and we see the silk teal shirt and bell bottom jeans that look absolutely ludicrous. His ears poke out of the sides of his afro. An afro of wolf hair. Silky, yet puffed out. He shuffles a deck of cards, and smirks as he talks. Clearly, this werewolf thinks he's hot shit.

    GAROU

    Mon ami. Gamblers go missin' all da time. It's all in the luck of the draw.

    Panel 5

    Juan PUNCHES the GAROU square in the stomach. The Garou's eyes BUG OUT. A look of genuine shock mixed with gasping for air.

    SFX

    OOF

    PAGE 10

    Panel 1


    Juan dusts himself off as the Garou lays crumpled in a pile in front of him. A blasé air about Juan. He knows this is business as usual.

    JUAN

    Perhaps I wasn't clear enough for you.

    Panel 2

    Juan KICKS the Garou in the ribs. A THUNDEROUS CRACK. The Garou WINCES. Something is broken.

    SFX

    CRACK

    Panel 3

    CLOSE-UP ON THE GAROU

    The Garou scowls.

    Panel 4

    Juan, standing over the hunched over Garou. He reaches into his coat pocket.

    JUAN

    The silent treatment, eh?

    Panel 5

    Juan now holds a BRICK of SILVER.

    JUAN

    I guess I'll just have to get messy.

    Panels 6 and 7

    A SILHOUTTED SCENE OF JUAN BASHING THE GAROU IN THE HEAD WITH THE SILVER BRICK.

    Have fun with this.

    Panel 8

    Juan has the brick of silver held high above his head, ready to smash it down onto the Garou, who is bloodied.

    GAROU

    WAIT!

    PAGE 11

    Panel 1

    Juan helps the Garou to his feet.

    JUAN

    Ready to talk now, eh?

    GAROU

    Your powers of persuasion proceed you, mon frere.

    Panel 2

    CLOSE-UP on the Garou

    GAROU

    There is one place I know. They say when you go in and lose, you never come out...

    Panel 3

    EXT. HAPPY HIAWATHA'S INDIAN CASINO

    A SPLASH that takes up the rest of the page.

    Happy Hiawatha's is as culturally insensitive as humanly possible. It is Vegas on crack. Lit up like a neon pink solar flare. Fountains spit water on either side of the doorway. The sign has a ridiculously racist Indian warrior playing roulette, flanked by buxom beauties. He is the Hugh Heffner of racist portrayals of Indians.

    There is a GREETER at the door. A straight up Indian Medicine Man that isn't a day younger than 300 straddled atop of a BUFFALO.

    PAGE 12

    Panel 1

    EXT. HAPPY HIAWATHA'S - NIGHT

    Juan SCUTTLES by the Greeter, who looks absolutely miserable. The buffalo, even more so.

    CAPTION BOX

    So, once you lose, you never come out. I think I have the perfect plan.

    MONTAGE

    (ALL THESE SCENES TAKE PLACE IN THE INDIAN CASINO)

    Panel 2

    Juan, playing blackjack, demanding a hit when he has damn near half the deck in front of him.


    Panel 3

    Juan, at the roulette wheel, betting a gigantic stack of money on a number that has just come up.

    Panel 4

    Juan, playing poker, going all in with absolutely nothing in his hand.

    Panel 5

    Juan, doing the exact same thing in video poker.

    Panel 6

    Juan, hurling the dice well off the craps table.

    Panel 7

    CLOSE-UP ON THE BACK OF JUAN'S HEAD

    Juan is ELBOWED in the back of the head by a PERSON or PERSON'S unseen.

    SFX

    THUD

    CAPTION BOX

    Mission Accomp--

    Then I send him this.

    5PYqW.jpg

    Then, we talk about why I made the changes I made, any changes that should be made, adjust dialogue if necessary, etc.

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