Inking Rush

Spent Friday and Saturday on the computer inking.  The plan is for a Thursday visit to the 2nHd graders with a finished book but the finishing touches and editing are taking far longer than I had hoped.  Watched Firefly season 1 a couple times now while working.  Love joss! Using simple shapes for inking, Manga lasso tool with fill mostly. Work is picking up at the office keeping me busy most week nights.  But I am really looking forward to KRC I hope the kids get a kick out of this little book!

Inking last page

This is the final page for SUPERCOW 1 comic.  I hope to unleash on the 2nd graders as a coloring book edition. The editing process has been longer than expected but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It has been a challenge to find quiet time that isn't at 1:30 am.  I am starting to get a better workflow with less backtracking on story or art style. I can see changes in inking styles over the 28 pages.  My roughs had much more energy then the finals so I started to use them more.  Text edits are next...

Editing pains

Almost finished until I gave my wife a job to edit the text.  She texted me asking if she could cut my pages apart to rearrange frames.  She took an axe to my 28 pages and I didn't take it well. But as usual she was right.  Her suggestions on page flow, text, character development and more have brought out a much better story.  It means a step back, maybe two, from where I thought I was in my timing.  It's well worth the effort.  It has made me rethink just when is it the perfect time to bring in a critique.  She saw the earlier stages in rough, but at those stages intent was still unclear.  In the rough it is very difficult for a critiquer to know really what you are planning on changing vs. keeping. If you wait until your intent is clearer, changes can become more painful.  But the input is often more focused and valuable. Still learning that sweet spot in my development process to share. 

28 pages of edits..... 

Super Cow Page 24

The point at which every villain must take their own medicine.  Just  a few more pages to ink, then I need to go back and look at darker blacks.  This comic will not be color, just black and white. I will be very happy if I can just finish it to that level.  Pages are coming a little faster I just hope my story is making sense.  You look at something for so long and it seems logical to you but when someone else sees it, out of context, all bets are off. I have been showing it to the kids and Lorene but not a very wide or critical audience yet. Not looking to win any prizes just hoping it is mildly entertaining.

Super Cow Page 23

With the Kids Read Comics June 21 date getting closer an closer, I need to get this moving.

I was able to finish a little more of the prelim inking so far. Here is a sneak at page 23 with prelim text.  I plan to do a quick and rough text to leave space for balloons and sound effects.  My biggest worry should be story but I am more focused on consistent character and facial expressions. I am getting more comfortable with my characters and am anticipating a number of page redos to match the feel of my later pages ...I really liked this page in that regard. KCR (Kids Read Comics) is getting closer...

Notes from the Trail — Trooper Treehouse

Here is another update on the Super Cow 28 page book.  Page 22 features the EVB (Evil Villain in Black) who is challenging our Hero to a food fight!  All dialog is still preliminary and working  out the page.  This is the only page I really changed the frame shape to something a little more dynamic. I have to play with this more in the future...keep moving forward...

Page 20 Update

Here is an update on page 20 light inking is done.  Still trying to stay on schedule for the June 21 show. Had a pretty productive couple days.  Fun showing the kids, they are really good at critiques. They come up with great ideas on how to tie the story back to school and happenings that are specific to their class.  This is so much more work than I thought. Every step seems to take longer than expected. I haven't even got to deep into the editing and rewriting yet.  I just want to get 28 pages complete to see the whole thing together. I am noticing that the line work done on the computer doesn't always print well. Because I can zoom in I am adding detail that does not translate when I print it out on test pages. Learn as I go.

Frame 8

It was all for the love of candy!

Been gone a while...work has kept me busy...more SuperCow in the works....just having trouble finding time and motivation lately:(

Super Cow Frame 7

Here is our next frame in our Super Cow story.  I dropped off the full comic to the second grade class just before Halloween.  I left them the challenge of finishing the story on their own. I promised to come back after the new year to see what they come up with.  Some started to sketch even before I finished handing out the books to the rest of the class.  I would not be surprised if many will lose the book over time but I plan on showing my next pages to them as I go.

Super Cow frame 6

Munch! Munch! The Gopher-bot is out to steal Halloween