Second Issue: The Lessons Learned

Learning to create is an ongoing process. Here's what I learned making the second issue:

Pencils- You just got to get in there and do it. This was my first time drawing for an actual comic in 13 years and I just had to start drawing to get over the intimidation factor. Don't think something is outside your skill level until you actually try to draw it. You'll often surprise yourself.

And doing sketches before you try to do it on the page and working off models helps. I used a lot of photo references off the internet for objects and photos of myself to get anatomy, poses, etc correct.

Inks- First off never say, "I'll fix it in the inks" and then hack the pencils. Good precise lines are a lot easier to ink. You can make a straighter line in a computer, but it really helps to start off with one that's practically straight to begin with.

Secondly, inking digitally has a lot of advantages. Computers are awesome at making straight lines and geometric shapes. Inking overlapping objects on different layers allows you to erase lines of one object without worrying about messing up what it's overlapping. Plus you can transfer identical portions of panels (backgrounds, bodies, static objects, etc) instead of re-inking them every time. And erasing is a god send!

Digital inking is easier but it's not a cure all and still takes a long time. I'll be getting better as time goes on.

Colors- Like inks, transferring colors between panels on identical character bodies, objects and backgrounds is a real timesaver.

Letters- Lettering can be an important part of storytelling and making the art look good. The logos, labels and even the numbers on a clock are as much a part of the composition and look of an image as anything you draw.

  

Next up, I'll be doing that video I promised on issue two and then...on to issue issue three!

Second Issue Uploaded!!!

This is how I feel right now....

 

 

I'm tired. But it's a good tired. I just finished the final round of proofing and uploaded the comic to Amusedom. I got positively giddy when I saw it in virtual comic form. The second issue is now "done done!"

 

I don't have a release date for it yet. After I hear back from Comixology on if they want to carry College Follies, I'll be making release plans for the series.

 

I'm super excited issue two is done and I'll will soon be beginning issue three, the first new College Follies story in 13 years!

Letter Column and Teaser Finished! Second Issue Complete!!!

Alright so I just did the editorial on the letter page and laid in the teaser for next issue, so now the second issue is done!

Now it's not yet ready to uploaded yet. I'm still going to do one last round of proofing on it first. then it'll  be uploaded to Amusedom and I'll have the PDFs ready for if Comixology picks me up. I'm still waiting on Comixology to get back to me before setting any release schedules.

So I'm going to leave you with the teaser for issue three. I'll discuss it more when I begin work on the issue, but let me just say if you ever want to truly appreciate the design of something, trying creating a parody of it. It forces you to examine every little bit of design work to mimic it, even in a superficial way. Even the subtle shape of a visor can speak volumes. The amount of work that goes into this stuff is tremendous.

And it's not always easier to do something in shadow. It can be harder since there's so little visual information to communicate with and getting the shadows and highlights right can be challenging. I'm actually glad it's the only time you'll see these guys in shadow but I couldn't resist lampoon this particular image.

Anyway, just designing the helmets for this got me super excited. I can't wait to get started on next issue!

Issue Two...The Random Tribute Variant Cover!

A variant cover for a digital comic??? I'm not sure if that even makes sense, but inspiration hit me and I just had to do it.

So when I was creating issue two's cover, one of the references I used was the Captain Power card

back pictured to the right. As I was doing the cover, I spotted a font in Photoshop Elements pretty darn close to the Captain Power logo. I'm a huge fan of the old show and toy line and the idea of doing the cover styled after Captain Power packaging just popped in my head.

It was an irresistible force, I found myself just fumbling around with the cover one morning changing the  background color to red, redoing the logo in that font and making a few other minor changes...and it looked great!

I wanted to take it further and actually mimic the circuit board and sparks in the background.  I put that part off because it would be time consuming to do so, but I knew if I didn't complete the variant, it would feel like I was leaving the issue unfinished. So there it is below. I got to say I love it to death. Say what you will about Mattel in the 1980s, but their package artists and designers were second to none.

I'm calling this a "Random Tribute Cover" since it pretty much makes no sense with the series or story for the issue...just like most variant covers! I've got an idea for a variant for the first issue too I'll do at some point. I'll try to do one per issue as a way to lampoon variant covers.

I should be able to put it up on Amusedom at the very least for anyone who'd rather have this cover when it's released. Even if no one buys it, it's still too much fun not to publish.

Page Five Finished! Second Story Complete!!!

Well, I finished lettering page five of issue two, so I'm done with that story! Not much I can show without spoiling the end, but how about this panel? Dino has an idea!

 

Actually a good bit of the last page focuses on her and has little or no dialog so the page was relatively easy to do and had the quickest turn around thus far. It wasn't planned to be an easy page, but it is sometimes nice to coast over the finish line after a long sprint.

And so after 13 year I can FINALLY say the second story for College Follies is done! Well, the story is. If it was 2000 and this was still a back up story, I would be "done done." But since this will be released as its own short issue digitally I'm not quite done yet. I got the cover, title page and backcover done up front, but there's still the matter of the letter column, which I'll be doing a teaser for issue three on. So I've got one last image to create for this issue that I'll be knocking out this weekend, announcing the first completely new story in the series since 2000!

And then I've also got to look over the pages, make corrections and do some other odds and ends before it's complete. So still a little bit to go before shawarma time (or however I'm celebrating this time).

And so I'll leave you with the first panel I drew when I started the work to finish this story, which is now complete...

 

Just eat the damn fries already!

 

While I still got a little work to do to wrap up the issue, I will say it's good to finally have Dino walk out of the exit of Super Happy-Mart. It took a little time to get there. but it's been worth it.

Page Five Colored!

Page five is colored! Almost done with the story, just got to letter it. 

Page Four Done!!!

So page four for issue two is done. Since it's so close to the end of the story, I don't want to give it all away, so I'll just show you this little bit....

The nameless cowboy cashier is based on my real ex-girlfriend's ideal man being a cowboy. I'm sure there's at least one working at every department store. You'll have to get the comic once it's released to see what transpires between these two.

The page was much faster to put out. There was again a lot of stuff repeated between panels I could just copy, since it's just a few characters talking against a fixed background and foreground. It gives it a very animated feel as you move between panels, which should translate well to guided view as a digital comic.

Next up, the final page for the second story, as we get to see...Dino's lunch break!

Page Four Colored!

Finished coloring page four last night. I'll be lettering it today.

Coloring Page Four

I'm in the middle of coloring page four for the second story. It's going quickly and I should be able to finish the colors tonight and wrap up the page tomorrow if my work schedule permits.

Page Three Done!!!

Page three for issue two is done. Since the story is only five pages I won't show the finished page so as not the spoil the story, but I'll show enough of it to give you the gist...

 

 

I love this panel. Bed Hair Dino. It's unintentional, but between this and the first story we actually see the beds and bedrooms of each of the main characters I introduced. A bedroom can say a lot about a person. I wish I had a bit more in the background here, but I got a feeling I just didn't have the time for it back when I drew this in 2000. The Chiggy doll is a nice touch. Can't remember my logic (if any) for putting it there, but it seems likely Stickboy gave it to Dino (or vice versa).

Next up, what's worse than a mom that hates everybody you date? One who likes them too much...

 

Dino's mom is based on the mom of my real life ex-girlfriend. Nice lady with a wicked sense of humor. I didn't really think much about the smoking when I drew the panel in 2000. It was pretty common to smoke just about everywhere in my state other than a hospital room, school, ect. It's very different now with smoking banned in restaurants (and most other public buildings) and the harm of smoking and second hand smoke being so well known. Not sure if smoking at the breakfast table like this is taboo now, but I present it here without judgment.

 

Not sure if Dino eating the killers' favorite cereal from the first story was intentional, but it's a nice in joke nonetheless.  

 

 

 

So by now you're probably seeing a pattern forming. Chances are if you've ever tried to be friends with an ex, you've experienced some form of this. The scenes on this page with Dino's mom and the greeter have my two favorite lines in the story, but you'll have to get the issue to read them.

 

 

I love that panel. Sometimes you can say a lot with few words. A pause in the story can communicate as much as the action.

 

 

That's also one of my favorite lines in the comic, I'll give you that one for free.

 

 So there you have it, page three in all it's glory. I knocked it out faster than the first couple pages.  The transferring of identical elements (colors, inks and letters) done in  previous panels helped.  The next couple pages should go just as well as I begin to wrap this sucker up.

 

Page Three Colored!

Finished coloring page three and did some of background lettering on it. Still got to find a good alarm clock font for panel one. I'll be lettering and wrapping up the page on Wednesday or Thursday.

 

Currently Coloring Page Three...

Currently coloring page three...

 

Page Two Finished!

So page two for the second story is done. This has the most objects and characters of any page in this short story, so now that it's done, let's just say it'll be much easier working on the rest. I created it the same way as page one, except I used Illustrator to letter it, which works better than Photoshop Elements.

 

Panel one completes the gag from page one and we basically have them walk out of the store, showing some of the characters that'll come into play later. The gags here are again based on the size of the new Super Walmart back in the 90s and the work culture there. My real ex-girlfriend worked there and this story is inspired by me walking her to her car one night when I came home from college.

 

Now again, you have to remember this was a different Walmart back then. People were still getting used to the sheer epic size of the store and parking lot at its "Super" locations. Greeters actually greeted instead of just checking to see if you stole anything and it was considered a cool, innovative way for retirees to make money. In fact, Walmart had a good reputation as a relatively decent place to work in the retail/grocery sector. The "no dress code" gag was actually inspired by a cashier I met who wore a clown wig for the grave yard shift just to make the slow night hours a bit more fun. Not sure if you can do that now, but obviously Walmart has a very different reputation now as the root of all evil that everyone loves to shop at.

 

So enough set up, next page we start getting to the story's punchline!

 

Page Two Colored!

Finished the colors on page two. I went ahead and did the background text too. I'll hopefully be lettering dialog today and wrapping up the page!

Coloring Page Two

Creating the video and the Happy New Year's image slowed me down a bit, but I'm chipping away at the colors on page two. I'm hoping to finish the colors tonight after work.

First page of the second story done!

Page one for story two is done!

I wrote and penciled it 13 years ago. It's amazing to see it finished after all these years. Like the first story, I'm not altering anything unless it was really screwed up. The only exception is the "Sometime in the late 90s" line I added, as I did in the first story, since so many years have passed.

First Panel!

It was completely digitally inked, which took awhile but looks pretty great for something I inked.
 Intended as a black and white comic like the first story, it was fun finding the right background colors.

My old notes intended for this story to have a greater reliance on doing things digitally since I'd discovered computers can do repetition and precession better than my meager human talents. So I took a slightly altered registered from issue one to put on Dino's counter and digitally created the slightly unnerving uniform cereal box covers in panel one. 

And I took the digital further than my younger self could've dreamed of. I used carbon paper copying to create as close to identical positions, bodies, etc. for the characters as I could when I penciled it 13 years ago. Because of that, when I digitally inked and colored it I could just transfer the identical parts between panels.

This was lettered in Photoshop Elements 10, which is great for background elements and just laying down text. The word balloons...are a different story. I used generic shapes I'd made in Illustrator and tried to resize them. It made it a far more difficult and convoluted process, but after a bit of work I think they look alright at least. I'll probably try to use Illustrator for the dialog when I have access to the program.

The first page here sets up our setting and characters. This is set in the College Follies equivalent of Super Walmart. This was back when the super stores were brand new and people were still in awe (or bewilderment) of combining a grocery store and department store into one massive behemoth of shopping. The story is based on real life events but exaggerated for humor (it didn't take THAT long for my ex to turn in her till, nor did I have a full bag of potato chips with me to comically illustrate the passage of time). So anyway enjoy the page below, the first unpublished College Follies material completed in 13 years!

Page One colored!

Coloring is finished on page one. I'll be lettering it and, if all goes well, finishing it today.

 

Still coloring page one...

Still working on page one's colors. I should have them wrapped up tonight so I can letter it tomorrow.

Coloring page one

I started coloring page one last night. Because of the holidays we've got an early deadline at work so I'll be working all day/night today but that should free up the weekend to finish the page.

Back Cover Done!

I finished up the back cover last night.

A vintage Star Wars
figure I used as reference.

The gags on there were part of the reason I did the action figure gag on the front cover. Of course, this is still the old school style of figures with limited articulation. I used a Lando Calrissian figure (one of the last survivors of my original Star Wars collection) to model the figures of Dino and capture the hand position common in those old toys.                                                       

The Masters of the
Universe card back I
used for reference. 

While the front cover wasn't based on any toy packaging in particular, the back one is inspired by Masters of the Universe packaging. I thought the gags I dreamed up for it would be exaggerated and funny. But when I looked at the Masters card backs I had in storage for reference, I found the gags I had for the "action" features weren't all that far off from the real thing. Still funny though. 

There's a lot going on here and this took almost as much work to produce as an actual interior page, so this was a pretty good dry run for the comic itself. I used carbon paper to create uniformity among the Dino figures when I drew them and then was able to just digitally ink and color one and transfer the identical parts to the other figures, which helped cut down the workload. Having a character wearing white on a white background also cuts down on extra coloring. The cereal boxes in the background of the top image were a little distracting when they were located right behind a character's head so I took a couple of them out.

The top image and different Dino variants here are references to the story. All the text on the last Dino figure has been obscured so as not to spoil the story's ending. The nice thing about a digital comic is that you know there's no way anyone will be looking at the back first, so you can put spoilers on there with no worries.

I hope readers will bother zooming in on the back cover to see the gags when the comic is released. If not, it was still a lot of fun to do and good practice. Next up...page one!