Hey, I made another talkie! It's a YouTube update!

Fans of moving pictures with sound, rejoice! At long last I've done my second YouTube video! This one features completed images from the comic with commentary about my progress and pace in putting it out thus far. It's nothing new for those who've been following my blog, but it lets people know in a different way how it's been going and will hopefully reach a few people who haven't been on the blog.

I can't say I'm any better at speaking into my computer's built-in microphone than I was in the first video, but the sound is louder and better quality, at least. Once again it's HD and closed captioned. And I've tried to monetize it. I did get ten second commercials in front of it a couple times I watched it. Let me know if the commercials are an issue or a deterrent for any of you.

It is very short and put together relatively quickly. Squeezing it in on top of work, doing the comic, blogging and social media has been very challenging. I planned to do more videos by now but it's hard to find the time. At the moment, I'm planning to do another update when I'm done with the comic  and, if all goes well, they'll be a video announcing something special before then. Videos on how I make the comic and other extras are still planned but have been pushed back until after I finish issue one. Once I get this first story done, I plan to slacken the pace a little on putting out pages and hopefully that'll give me some time to do more outside of just the comic itself.

Second page...done!

So I completed the second page. I used the same techniques as the first one (still haven't figured out anything better on the coloring), but I did letter it in Illustrator, relearning the program thanks to a wealth of YouTube videos I found. Once I learned it, it went by pretty fast. I even went back and re-lettered the first page for consistency, and was able to do that relatively quick. I'll probably go into more detail on how to letter in a later post.

This page continues Stickboy's viewing of shooting coverage from page one. Love the gag with Rivera pestering the sheriff.  It's a scene that's even truer with media coverage today than it was back in 1999.

And then we switch over to watch Rev. Jesse Jackson. Between leading the Civil Rights Movement alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and wanting to cut Barack Obama's nuts off, Rev. Jackson had a show on CNN.

This is a take off  on an episode I watched where he was single mindedly on the topic of gun control, making every segment about it, regardless of the guests. There was a Columbine parent on there he kept asking about gun control even though the father had no interest in the issue, and instead wanted to talk about how the shooting made him realize people should come together. It was just a bit odd. It's one thing if you experience something like that and it drives you to become a gun control advocate like some of the Newtown families but, if not, then it's just damn weird to try force feed the issue to someone like that.

And so here's page two. Next on the agenda: Page 3...with actual on-panel appearances by the main character! Amazing!

Page One, Part 2: Now that's a damn fine peacock!

Now let me say that while I'm touching up the artwork for the first comic, I'm not altering it. I consider this a comic book time capsule. There's no better way to do a comic about the 90s than to actually have made it in the 90s. So I'll be smoothing out and straightening lines, fixing eyes, etc. but I won't be altering anything. This isn't going to be a "special edition" of the first story (Uncle Sam still shot first), just a better edition as true to the intent of my original pencils as possible.

Same goes for the script. Even though I could probably word a few of the gags better now, they're staying the same. With one exception. In the original I actually referred to the "club" the Columbine killers belonged to by its real name. I actually didn't want to do that originally, but I couldn't think of any name that was more absurd than "Trench Coat Mafia."

On this page I've altered it to "Trench Coat Gangstas." This is partly because I didn't want to use any real names associated with the killers, because it sort of offends me their names are still famous for contributing nothing to society other than pain and death, so I want to do as little possible to keep that going. Another reason for the change is that I later found out that they did listen to Marilyn Manson, which screwed up a reoccurring gag in the book, thus the shooters mentioned in this story become fictional parodies of the killers.

But that's it for the script altering other than a line I've added at the beginning to let the reader know it takes place (in what is now) the past. I don't plan on adding any musical numbers or Boba Fett cameos, just color. Lots and lots of color.

The colors on the first page were easy to pick out. Though never planned for color, I always knew approximately what color everything on the page would be except the bar across the screen with the guest's name on it, which after some deliberation, turned out to be red.

One significant touch up is the CNBC peacock logo. Originally, I drew it so small I couldn't put the bird's head/beak on the symbol. This bothered me, so I redrew it and laid it over the old ones. With my knowledge now, I knew how to turn my black lines white and emulate it precisely. And, I don't knock my own socks off often, but even I can't tell it apart from the real deal! See 20-year-old-self? That's how you do it!

Another thing to note, everything the hosts and guests say in the first few pages of the comic is based on things that were really said at the time, just with some exaggeration. So, yeah, there was a gun rights activist advocating for arming teachers, an activist who felt the killers were picked on because they might've been gay or perceived as gay and, yes, Jerry Falwell did have a hotline for suing the entertainment industry, uttering the words "Sue, Sue, Sue!" during a sermon. God bless the late Rev. Falwell, he could turn anything into a three ring circus of the absurd.  You can't make this stuff up, kids.

So page one is down, 14 more to go!

First color page....ever!

So page one is done.

 

It took forever to touch up and color the original art and then combine it with letters pulled from scans of the printed comic. Working with the art I did back in 1999 for hour upon hour, you get to know it well. Sometimes I wanted to high five my 20-year-old self for awesomeness. Other times, I wanted to take the hot tube time machine back to my youth and slug young Todd for being a moron. 

 

Before this, I drew everything free hand with just pencil, so doing my first inked comic with straight lines, lined up items, etc, well, lets just say it required lots of touch ups. Later pages will be easier in that regard, at least, as I got better. 

 

I had lots of technical challenges and problems I had to overcome, which I'm going to have to find better solutions for to speed up the process. I'll go into detail on that in future blogs.    

 

Right now, I'll just say it was a lot of fun to do and a thrill to see completed.

 

I won't be posting the full completed page every time, but I've always liked this one. One thing that I forgot to put that will be added, is a word balloon running across the top of the first panel saying "Sometime in the late 90s..."

 

To put the page in context, the story begins with a couple pages of television footage (remember when TVs were that shape?), flipping through coverage of a high school massacre and a series of talking heads using it to promote their issues. Then on page 3, we see Stickboy turn off the TV and go home from college for the weekend and the real story begins.  

 

This particular story is inspired by the aftermath of the Columbine tragedy, and the media and special interest feeding frenzy that followed, with Stickboy and Psychoboy caught up in a world of censorship and paranoia. It's humor with a bit of depth, but it's still pretty wacky, featuring a light gun game with mutant space chickens, an action figure of OJ Simpson, a bazooka, a crazy clown and more 90s references than you can shake a Clerks laser disc at.

 

So without further ado, page one...