New comic and all. I thought I'd be able to have this done by Saturday, but it just wasn't possible. I'm rather pleased with the final product though, and I'm glad I redrew it. It would have been up this morning, but my site decided to slow to a crawl and uploading anything was batshit impossible.

Old Home's almost ready to roll. Once I finish working out the bugs in the navigation and whatnot, it'll replace the artwork link at the top. I'm also going to post coloured pieces, something I rarely do. I feel motivated that way for some reason. Now then, time to get my day started (at 3:30... whee).

Yeah well, no comic until later today. I was aiming to wake up early and finish this morning. Funny how that ol' sandman plays tricks on you, making you think you need more sleep. Well, class is in session at noon, so I'll work on the comic during lunch, then post it sometime in the evening. Sorry the delay folks, I know you're dying to find out how that table wound up on Matt's noggin. In other news, I actually started playing Ragnarok Online. The game's old news, but I was never compelled to play it before now. Ark and Ross handed me a passkey for vRO, so I'm all good. I can't say much about vRO, other than it's free though. If you really want to know about it, ask Ark. His e-mail's still on the front page. Don't tell him I sent you though. He'll probably hate me.

Anyway, it's almost time to head out. I leave you with a picture of Hidoshi, my avatar in Ragnarok Online. Enjoy.

Saturday, March 27, 2004

Old Home is going to be open soon. If you didn't catch the last update, Old Home is, in fact, where my artwork will be going from now on. I wholly dislike DeviantArt, and while I appreciate the service it provides to other artists, I'd prefer having my own layout. That and being able to upload more than one item at a given time is nice. Really nice.

I've been playing this obscure MMORPG again. Not that I ever cancelled my account or seriously considered quitting, but my hiatus' have been many and frequent. It has nothing to do with the game itself, it's just that I can't play a game for more than a certain period of time without my attention drifting. It's like a banquet: The appetizer is great, the first course is nifty, but by the time they're shoveling the 5th serving down your gullet, you're about ready to kick the waiter in his junk and tell him you've had enough.

Speaking of that, I should probably mail back Tim his copy of Disgaea. Lovely little game that.

In other, but related news, I will be playing both World of Warcraft and Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle. If you're an RPGFanner, you may have taken note of my preview of Lineage II. If not, go read it now. The game has me, in a word, stoked. I suppose the part about World of Warcraft doesn't sound surprising, but it's a reversal of what I said was going to happen. You know, not playing World of Warcraft. I honestly still hate how the game looks in many parts, but I can't ignore the fact that a lot of "think-alikes" adore it (Yes, I just made up a word. Go and spread it around). I'll probably wind up playing a female Night Elf. If I'm going to run the EXP treadmill, I'm at least going to be sexy while doing it. I made a severe mistake by being a male Elvaan in that other obscure MMORPG by Square-Enix.

Now then, enjoy the Liz art. It's not a finished version, but we're getting there.

Friday, March 26, 2004

It's an OTL (Out To Lunch) day for me. The comic'll run Saturday and Monday this time, then again on Thursday and Saturday as usual. Sorry folks, but I have a lot of stuff to catch up on for school this week. In fact, I should be reading "Of Mice and Men" right now but procrastination has me in its vice-like jaws at the moment.

I'm going to be creating a separate website for my artwork too by the way. It'll be called "Old Home" and feature a spartan design for the most part. Still, I'll try to make it pleasing to the eyes. For now, check out this piece of fanart I did for Tim Duong over at Lores. It's Ambry and Latyan in schoolgirl outfits, so I think you fanboys (and some girls) will be quite amused. I'll do a less clothed piece sometime. I rather like Ambry, and I think Tim has something special going with Lores. Now if only he'd update more often (He's almost as lazy as I am...).

Additionally, this is downright incredible. It's hard to imagine it exists in Russia of all places. It does however prove that Russia wasn't always the land of stunning incompetence. They may have imported some French or Italians to make the pretty stuff though, you never know.

Thursday, March 25, 2004

I think I got the shading right nicely on this one.

I'm starting to think the four panel format is too constricting, but there's not much I can do about it. If I enlarge it, I won't get my work done on time, so I'll just muddle through until I become proficient enough to actually draw six panels on time.

I know the story may seem a bit slower than the last time around, but it needs to be that way. This is, after all, going to be somewhat of a romance, despite the sci-fi setting. The first envisioning of the comic made me rush. I wanted to introduce too many characters at once, and I was pandering to what my friends wanted. I can't do that anymore. That's not to say I won't listen to advice, or occasionally make a little allowance for fanservice now and again, but I won't be as submissive about my own work.

I've been watching Haibane Renmei recently and I'm very, very happy with it. I'm on DVD #3 right now, where Reki's childhood is revealed and Rakka gets her first real job. The way it's done so far has been a real treat, and I'm happy to say that I think Yoshitoshi ABe has finally found out what storytelling is. To say the least, I was not pleased with Lain or Niea_7. Niea_7 had its charm, but it wore off quickly, and the loose storytelling didn't appeal to me. Lain was just a mess. It went nowhere, said nothing significant, and wasn't even fun to watch. I know its fans can go on for hours about how much symbolism it holds, the meaning of things, etc etc, which is fine. But I really don't like it. There's no need to be so vague and backwards about things, especially when you create something for the mass market.

Anyway, that's all for now. Episode 5 will be a bit delayed I think due to school resuming, but I'll put up some nice Hoshi art as filler.

Saturday, March 20, 2004

I really, really don't like this comic. It took too long to go, and the last two panels look awful. I keep drawing Sera's chin wrong for some reason, and I haven't quite figured out Tim's hair. If you're a long time site visitor, and you remember that awful, horrible piece of garbage webcomic I did way back when called "Intermissions", then you may remember Gabe. Gabe was, in fact, based off my friend Bryan, and it was sort of our pet project until we figured out we didn't want to do it anymore. Tim inherits Gabe's hairstyle, albeit with a ponytail. Unfortunately having rushed his creation, I have inadvertently given him Dragonball Z hair, which is something I shall correct very quickly.

The wonderful part of all this though, is that it's a flashback, so Tim's hair may have changed and de-DBZ'd itself over the years. I do in fact keep a chart of characters the way most pro's do it. Unfortunately I was rushed for time and didn't think to sketch Tim out first on the sheet. Thank God they wore dress uniforms to the graduation, or Tim may indeed have been dressed funny (I don't have a standard costume for him yet).

Overall though, I'm happy with this start. It's a good tempo, one that isn't relying on gags or cheap humour to roll it along. In all reality, this is "sci-fi romance" more than a "romantic comedy", so I hope it appeals to both male and female readers. If you do like the comic and have anything to say, please go vote in the poll that we've got up in the extras section. By the way, thanks to Dave for all his help with this update.

Thursday, March 18, 2004

A lot of the lore in the comic is about to be reworked, but rather than explain how, I'm just going to go ahead and show it. Here's a hint as to what may have changed: Sera cannot heave tables of that size onto people and substantially crush them without a great amount of difficulty. No one, save possibly professional wrestlers and people silly enough to participate in Most Extreme Elimination Challenge would dare try. More on table-heaving in the next few issues.

I was asked twice how I make the comic, so here's a quick run-down (one day I'll make a FAQ and get you all to leave me the hell alone): I start with a layout I made in Adobe Illustrator, but since not all of us have Illustrator, any program used for graphics that can print on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper at 300 DPI or so will do. If you don't know what DPI is, I suggest you look it up. After the layout has been selected, it is printed off. This layout is usually a single-panel, wide-screen edition setup, with THX enhancements up the wazoo. Not really, but I'd like to at least dream of such things.

I print off four copies of the layout, and use each for a seperate panel of the comic. Below the layout (since I work horizontally) are four boxes, three small, one quite long and thick. In the box that is long and thick, I write my name. In the three small ones, I put down the date, episode, and chapter numbers respectively. When that's done, I start sketching. Once I'm done my sketches, having resolved them to a point where most everything makes sense, I scan those in at 300 DPI, greyscale. Then in Photoshop (again, any program worth having will substitute quite well) I set the sketches to Mode > RGB Colour, and adjust the tint using Edit > Hue/Saturation. I make the sketches a very nice, light blue. This is a process I like to call "bluelining". Then I print those off.

The printed copies, which I like to call "bluecopies", are the ones I ink. The originals never get a drop of ink on them if I can help it. That way if I screw up the inking or decide I need to change something, I can just go back and correct the original sketch, rescan, blueline it, and print it. If you do in fact suffer from shaky hands as I do, you may want to print off two copies, maybe even three. If you require four, I would consider returning to art school and seeking professional help.

Inking is a tedious but rewarding process. Just remember to close all your lines and section off the different parts of the character. Hair should be closed off from the flesh, shirts from the flesh, etc. This way when it comes time to use gray (or colour), and you just want to plop down a colour in an area, no problem. Otherwise you'll start having colour spill into areas you don't want it. I use Micron Pigma ink pens made by Sakura. I use an 01 and an 05 usually, with an 005 and an 08 on hand just in case. 01 is for all the basic work, 05 for thicker lines, 005 for small, teeny details, and 08 for really thick lines.

When the inking's done, I scan the copies in and open them in Photoshop (or equivalent, once again). Before we forget, remember that scanning is always done at 300 DPI. In Photoshop, I add gradients in the background, isolating objects from it using the magic wand tool. Any shading necessary is accomplished using the polygonal lasso tool on a layer above the ink work with the blending set to "Multiply". That done, I merge the shading and panel layers, then set to work on balloons and lettering.

Everyone does these differently to some extent, but my favourite method is this: Draw an object on a new layer using the polygonal lasso tool. Then use the polygonal lasso tool to make a small tail aimed at the character speaking. After that, fill both with white, then use Edit>Stroke to apply a black outline. If you're using Adobe Photoshop 7, you can do this using the Effects menu as well. Add whatever lettering you require and so forth. Save a large copy for editing work if required, then flatten it and save a copy for the web at 72 DPI. Voila, it's done.

Friday, March 12, 2004

All the old comics can be found here. Now for the explanation.

When I started the comic, having just retired Knightwatch, I had a plan. This plan was simple: I was going to write a comic that was close to home. A shoujo/shounen romantic comedy series. That got waylaid the minute Rich showed up, because I hadn't defined the other characters well, and things were suddenly moving too quickly. The audience barely knew Matt or Sera, and the only character who was remotely interesting was Liz. She was exaggerated enough to be memorable. Everyone else was just there.

When I realised this, I took it under my belt and considered trying to force the issue, and make it better as I went along. Ordinarily, this works. However, the foundations for the comic needed re-mastering, so I said "Hey what the hell, keep the general idea and space things out a little more". Then, I got rid of the comic I was working on and started thinking up episode 1 from scratch. Lo and behold, that's what you've got in front of you today. I know it's been a long time coming, but I'm going to try to hold the course this time and keep up with frequent episodes. The cast page is sparse at the moment, but it'll get an update as warranted. Matt, Sera, and Liz will all return. There'll also be some substitutions and additions for the rest of the cast, but I'll let you find out who's in and who's out as we go along.

Thanks for sticking with me. Liz'll be here to comment once in awhile as well, so keep an eye out for when she posts.

Tuesday, March 09, 2004 | Archived Commentaries