Homestead Attack - Page 7

So I think he should be making some sort of sound or something as he runs. Don't know what though. What's a "breathing hard because you're running and freaked out" sound?

I've been waking up a six every morning so far and working on my book for at least two hours each day. It's been helping me to feel like I'm actually getting somewhere with this. Hopefully this will continue.

Homestead Attack - Page 6

Cue Freaky Music.

So...

Here's something I've been thinking about recently. What does the term "All-Ages" really signify?

It seems like, many people think that you either do grown-up stories, or kid's stories. They think that the All-Ages stuff, while fun for adults, is still ultimately considered kid's stuff.

The reason I ask, is that I wanna make sure I'm not doing something wrong or classifying my book as something it's not. For me, I guess I'd always thought of "All-Ages" being more about the absence of objectionable content, than about "kiddifying" something. I'm not writing for a certain age demographic or a perceived audience really. I'm mostly just writing this for myself. I want to make the characters, ideas and themes pretty complex. The story itself will even get quite intense or scary at times (as the current page has begun to hint at).

But through it all, I hope to keep the content fairly "All-Ages". Y'know, it'll be the kind of book that hopefully a grown up would wanna read, but one that they can let their kids read too. I feel that too many comics have become exclusively adult. In the process we're losing the younger audience. Just because the content is safe for kids doesn't mean the story can't be compelling.

Just my thoughts.

Homestead Attack - Page 5

Holy--?!! What does Brandt see?! What happens next?!

I hate that I've been so slow lately. I've had a few problems with the computer and RSI symptoms in my right hand. I think the problem was that I didn't have my Wacom tablet at an angle and so I had to hold my pen tightly in an unnatural position, causing strain. I made a slanted support for my tablet and immediately felt a huge difference. Hopefully this fixes the problem so that I can continue to do computer stuff. Kinda scary though. This also means that I may be able to pick up the pace a bit. I hope.

Wow, so aside from not having a job right now, my life is pretty much going good. I mean, money is tight and I hate feeling panicky because of my unemployed state, but the upside is that I am really making some strides in accomplishing my goals. I've wanted to tell this MYTH story for a long time and would THINK about doing it someday, but never actually did it. Now I am. I'm also working out, jogging and eating super healthy (lots of chicken, fruit, carrots, whole grain stuff, whey protein shakes).

And as embarrassing as it is to admit, when I'm not looking for a job, my days pretty much now consist of working on my graphic novel, and lifting weights...while watching Smallville.

Yes...I know, I know...Smallville. I've always been a Superman fan and used to watch Smallville with a group of friends every week when I was younger. Good times. Then the show got sort of weird and too far-fetched and we stopped watching it. I still bought the seasons though, just because it was Superman. Well, since I started drawing my book, I've watched nearly ALL eight seasons and I guess I've secretly become obessessed with it again. Insane I know. But it's I have to admit, it's been fun to make my way from Season 1 all the way through to Season 8 over these last few months. It's like one HUGE epic movie. It's still increasingly too far-fetched as the seasons progress, but I put up with it and just turn my brain off and laugh.

Anyhow, life is pretty good overall. I feel like I'm getting to where I ultimately want to be, and improving myself along the way.

Homestead Attack - Page 4

So I've been noticing that my color schemes from page to page are differing quite a bit. Not really sure if this is a bad thing or not. But I think I'll most likely go back and modify everything. Y'know, create an overall color scheme that I'll follow from panel to panel and page to page. Anyone have any tips on how to do this, or how to keep colors consistent? I'm still kind of new to the whole color comic thing. When I drew comics back as a teenager, I worked almost exclusively with black and white.

The good news is that I'm figuring out a method for coloring pages that will probably take a lot less time. Pretty excited about this.

Homestead Attack - Page 3

So here's the next one. Only 9 left to color for this first set of pages before I can get back to drawing. I'm really still a newbie when it comes to color, so a lot of this is trial and error for me. I'm sure I'll be going back over these pages at some point and make corrections. Mainly with making the color schemes consistent from page to page, I think. I'm happy though with my improvement. I haven't done a great deal of digital painting up until now and I think these comic pages are really going to help me to get better at it.

I've been reading Kazu Kibuishi's Amulet lately and I'm really inspired by it. I love stories that take place in totally made up worlds. But more than that, I love the storytelling style he uses and his method for drawing/painting his pages.

Comics and Graphic Novels are an awesome artform. They're the only medium where a person can tell an epic story and show what it all looks like. In movies, you'd need a $180 million dollar budget to do this kind of stuff. I'm excited to show everyone what the rest of this world of MYTH looks like. The Homestead stuff is just the beginning...

Homestead Attack - Page 2

Here's Page Two. I'm probably going to switch the sound effect fonts eventually once I find some better ones. Anyone know any free comic SFX fonts? I'm really getting a kick out of coloring this thing, though my hand is hating me for it. I can't figure it out, but I can draw all day long with no problem. However, coloring and especially drawing with a Wacom Intuos gives me Repetetive Stress symptoms.

So, it's looking like I'm going to need a colorist, which is kind of sad, but ultimately okay by me. Coloring is one area I don't mind turning over to somebody else eventually.

Homestead Attack - Page 1

So originally the plan was to draw and ink 6 pages at a time. However, the problem I've had with this method is that I don't have nearly as much FINISHED work done as I would like. I have a bunch of pencilled and inked pages; but showing them to people in this unfinished state is kind of painful. And when it comes to publishers and agents, showing them unfinished material is kind of pointless.

I want to update regularly, but I want the stuff I show to be finished. I'd also feel a lot better about my progress if I could start printing out finished pages, rather than have a whole bunch of half-finished ones. So I'm switching gears and taking each page to completion before I move onto the next.

Also, I'm considering making the move to drawing comics completely digitally. In the past, I hadn't drawn with a Wacom much because I didn't feel that I had as much control with it that I wanted. I'd usually end up gripping the pen so tightly that my hand would start to hurt. However, I can see how drawing digitally would save me a lot of time as well. So, I'm at least going to give it a try once I get back to drawing new pages. Might decide I still hate it, but who knows?