Just a Tad

Building a World

I used to say that I knew when I was really in production when I had to approve color on a toothpick design. That emphasizes the reality of an animated show, that everything that moves must be designed and colored. I've written 23 pages of script for my comic. I have the detailed outline for much more. If this was an animated series, I'd be at the point where I get to hire a half dozen incredible designers to turn my imagined universe into awesome visuals. But when you're the writer/artist of your own comic, there's no one else to turn to.

"Turns out I'm really crappy at spaceship design which is not a good thing for my little science fiction project." I posted that on Facebook and well-meaning posters pointed out public domain model sources and artists I could pay to create my space armada. I was surprised at that response. Maybe it's because I often posted about hiring artists to work on my TV shows. But this comic is my own. I can see hiring a color artist if it was to be published by an existing company.  So for now, it's me pushing myself out of my comfort zone and trying new things.

As I do that, I will be analyzing my weaknesses and where I'm frustrated. I'm not looking for shoulders to cry on or fishing for compliments. I'm documenting my creative process which was the original purpose of this blog. I will probably showcase my self-doubt which many artists share. I will share what I consider successes while acknowledging that it's all a work in progress until it isn't. Then I will want you to buy it. So back to my spaceships.

I'm creating a comedy/adventure comic. Ideally, the ships should be just as caricatured as the characters. I like the speeder bike thing in my banner. It seems to be part of the same universe as the kids. The ships are not sleek fighters or massive star destroyers. They need to be the space traveling equivalent of campers, RVs and semi-trucks. They fly through space then serve as habitats. I'll get there. It's just more work which, when solved, will be part of the fun. 

I kept scribbling weird shapes to finally get the one above that I like. This is the ship of Rocket and his archaeologist parents so that gun looking thing on the bottom sends the wrong message. It could be a sensor or some sort or a communication array but why draw a confusing message?  I constantly struggle with making the ships believable in terms of the size of living quarters, space needed for engines, etc.. Here I'm finally loosening up on all that because I'm not doing Star Trek or even Star Wars. This comic will be closer in spirit to Darkwing Duck, if a little more adventurous. I decided to redraw this on a fresh sheet and ink it by hand. I knew I'd just be hitting the Undo button again and again if I went digital.

I should have switched to a pen for some of the details but this is just a rough to see what the technology of the Rocker Wylde universe might look like. The big size proportion problem to me is the suggestion of a cockpit. That makes the ship feel like a fighter instead of something that includes living quarters, labs and vehicle storage.  But again, this is rough. I scanned this into Photoshop with the idea of enlarging those lower wings and distorting the ship in general.

   

This will be a colorful universe although these may be too saturated. I started with the red but those are Rocket's colors. It's not like I'd keep all red out of the book except for Rocket but he'll be hanging outside the ship a lot. I want the reader's eye to go to him, not his home. Those rectangular things are good candidates for pen instead of brush. I did the design no favor by giving them gray frames. I like the basics of this. Still have to shring the cockpit drastically and maybe skip the reel to reel tape deck over the engines. Technically the hull should be bigger but I'm taking cartoon license. Besides, a lot of clowns can fit into a car like that.  Next time, aliens!

                                                                                                                                                --Tad 

Scheduling Work

There are two views of working on a labor of comic book love in my household. The first is to acknowledge that retirement is a thing to be enjoyed and besides there's a ton of crap that needs doing around the place that I've been putting off...for years. The second is that if I don't produce a certain amount of comic work each week, I'll feel like a fraud who's just kidding himself. I won't say which sentiment is more me and which is my wife. But I'm being pulled in a lot of directions that really have nothing to do with either of those views.

The normal "obstacle" to churning out some pages is about characters and story. My thought is to create the graphic novel equivalent of a pilot and two episodes of an animated series. The first introduces the main characters and sets up the situation, the second two hint at the variety of stories possible. On top of that, these three stories should feel like one complete story that shows the characters growing. If I was literally writing 22 minute episodes, I'd be done with at least one of them and the other two would be in outline. In general, this is the fun stuff. It's learning the characters as I write them.  But the design issues are daunting and that mountain of work ahead is very distracting.

It's not just these guys who I've been tweaking for years. It's Rocket's teacher. His schoolmates. They're only in the comic for the first few pages but any alien student designs should work as a race that plays a bigger role later on. Well... the teacher can be a one-off visual gag. I've never been a continuity purist so why start now? Then there's the planet natives. The fauna. The flora. Rocket ships!  So. Many. Rocket ships. And his parents! Rocket's parents are major players in the book. This feels especially overwhelming because ...

Because, usually, I don't have to do it.

If this was an animated series, I'd be casting the artists for the show or working with my regular artists and talking about the look of the show. This is the awesome part because all sorts of cool art is generated that I don't have to do. do. I get to see how each artist puts their own spin on the ideas of the series and any visual reference I've collected. But in this project is a comic, so it all comes down to me. I'm sure it'll be fun addressing all of that when I get to it. But I keep worrying about it as I'm trying to write.

Obviously, I'm used to a certain order of creation, input and excitement that comes from working with great writers and artists. I have to disengage from that and convince my subconscious that's it's okay to jump from writing to design to layout, etc..  I've stopped my detailed outlining at the point where Rocket meets the three Zydatars and brings them home. Now I'm writing the actual script, breaking things down into panels and dialogue. A little unofficial thumbnailing here and there to make sure I'm laying out something doable. But I'm aware things may change as I layout the pages. In that chunk, I'll be mostly drawing the family at the center of the adventure: Mom, Dad, Rocket and the three Zydatars. I'll also need to design their ship which doubles at their planetside home and the design motifs of an ancient alien civilization. That's plenty.

But here's the last "distraction" that's actually the meat of the thing. This isn't an animated series. Reading a book or comic is a different experience. So a lot of Rocket stuck on the ship with his parents might play like a collection of connected comic strips. I'm doing that on purpose to emphasize humor but I know I have to weigh it against the need for forward momentum. It's scary but my overall goal is entertainment. The story will accelerate dramatically once they land/crash. We'll see.

                                                                                                                                    --Tad