Image Dump #2

Hello, friend

Ch-ch-ch-check it out! Prints of things I like and you might too.

Click on the GREEN £ on the left to get one. Or all three. Maybe two?

The Trolltooth Wars

Hello, my old friend.

Been 9 months since my last post. Probably will be another 9 before the next one. 

Anyway, PJ Montgomery (he's one of the writers for Stiffs) collared Steve Jackson, one of the co-founders of Fighting Fantasy, and demanded/threatened him into giving us the rights to butcher Steve's first novel set in the Fighting Fantasy universe. After PJ bought the rights and wrote up the script (which is excellent and I will change almost every word) he flung it my way and said "I won't pay you but it'll be great exposure!" to which I replied "I'll do it!"

So this is where I'm at. In all seriousness though I am super jazzed for this book. I've wanted to do a "Fantasy" comic for a while now and this is perfect! PJ really has done a great job updating and adapting the story whilst keeping it true to the original book.  Also I'm colouring and lettering it. I'm going to really tire myself out but that's the price you pay for having an ego unable to cope with relinquishing creative control. Here you can see the first 3 pages (one below is a double page spread). 

It's going to be 130+ pages, it's going to take a while and we're kinda self financing this (self published and distributing) so we're going to have a Kickstarter set up soon. I'll post more details about that when we're ready but suffice to say we have some sweet rewards planned.

Process.

Not that you're interested but here's how I do a page of Out to Sea.

I've decided to write about this because it's a new process for me and also it's my first personal project where I'm doing EVERYTHING on it.

First things first. I start with a loose plot and break it down into beats. I seem to find it easier if I'm working within a confinement of X amount of pages per beat. So I'd have around 7 main beats/plot points of the story (it's a short story) and each beat will be broken down into 3 pages. 

 

 I once tried to plot out a script like a proper writer with page breaks and everything but it wasn't for me. My logic is that I'm doing the lot so I don't need to try and show myself what I want in a scene with words because I've already got the pictures in my head. I also don't really plan out the dialogue till I'm doing the thumbnails and even then I tend to leave it till I'm ready to ink.

 

 Like most artists I know the thumbnails are just a shorthand for the flow of the page and placement of speech bubbles (which is really helpful when it comes to lettering and should be common practice). Daniel Clifford (his blog here) said to me that every page should have something funny or interesting (at least that's what I've remembered) and that has always stuck with me and has informed the way I have approached this project.

 

I pencil up the thumbnail on A4 and get it as close as I can/bothered to how the final page will look.

at this point I'm still ad-libbing it to a degree, especially with dialogue. Some details, like the centre panel there, I leave blank 'cause I'll be adding detail using photoshop. It's better at straight lines than I am.

  

Then scan that page in and put it into photoshop. After faffing about a bit making a template (so all the pages look uniformed) I add in panel borders and erase any bits that might overlap the borders like speech bubbles. I also add the text, which is generally finished at this stage, so I can draw speech bubbles around the text.

  

NOW WE INK! No. Not just yet. After the tweaking I print out onto Deleter paper (lovely smooth paper slightly smaller than A3). All the line work that I ink is printed in blue (including text) and the panel borders are left black. This is because with one click of a button in photoshop you can get rid of the blue line work! (I'm not sure how it does this but it's MAGIC!) then I ink.

  

Once the inking is finished, including the speech bubbles (I like the hand drawn look), I scan that in, lose the blue, tweak the levels and then begins colour. Because I already have a saved version of the page as pencil with the text I can just plop the finished inks into that and the text will be already set up and in the right places! It's so easy! Then colours. Fairly simple, use a limited colour pallet and a colour overlay (ties the page together nicely!) LASTLY! I make sure I have no spelling errors by making my girlfriend read it (her twitter here. I think she's funny but I'm biased)

I'm bored of typing now. You can read the first 3 pages now if you like.

p.s. The dialogue font used is one I made with the help of Kris Carter (his blog here) and that was a long evening! Not perfect but I kinda like the way the letters are jumbled a bit.

Santa Claus Vs. The Nazis

I've realised that I've never put up any pictures from Santa v Nazis.

this is a double page spread (one of 4/5) depicting the nazi occupation of santas village. Grim.

Out To Sea

This is the first official announcement(?) for my own personal comic project. Not 100% sure what it's going to happen but I have a few stories and these fun guys to play with so at least I won't be alone!

(Clockwise form top) Maron, Albert, Lupin & Ross.

Basic Premise: 3 Shipmates (of the Bloated Narwhal) go in search for their lost crew mate, taking them to out to sea and beyond/below.

Image Dump!

Here's some thing's I've done (seeing as I've not been on here for some time I thought I'd make up for it, please forgive me.)

First off we have some STIFFS!

 The cover to issue three, so look out for this! (out next month)

 A new print of Kenny McMonkey enjoying one of his favourite past times

And finally, a page from issue three (uncoloured and unlettered). A zombie here sporting a lovely Demented Are Go t-shirt, lunging for Don.

Please do go visit the shop HERE where you can buy the issues (both hard copy and digital) and that lovely Kenny print.