Creating the first issue of my comic

-

The big question when writing a comic is: how long should it be? How many pages in total?

The truth is, I don’t know exactly. I don’t know how long the story will be and how many pages I need to draw. Based on the high expectations we all have about us and our creative stories I maybe don’t want to know.

This said, I don’t want to fall into this trap creating an overblown project that I start eagerly with motivation, but lose interest along the way and nobody gets to see. So I am trying to follow the Minimal Viable Story approach here, kind of. I actually want to finish stuff.

So I decided to divide the story in approachable chunks, more precise several issues that I produce and publish after another. This way I run the circle of writing the script, making layouts, pencilling, inking, colouring, filling in word boxes in smaller timelines and repeating it multiple times. Which means I even could learn from my past mistakes when preparing the next issue. Some of these thoughts came through inspiration after watching (and actually rewatching several times) some motivational videos by Jake Parker, I.e.: https://youtu.be/1z5fVDv_zAM  . 

For the first issue I planned to have 16 pages which are currently in the pencil/ink stage.


As you might see, I work in Procreate, so I don’t need to sit in front of the computer all the time. Not sure if being hunched over an iPad at a table is actually better for my body…

My story is not completely written at this time, but its beginning was pretty clear and I was very sure what to show in the first issue. We’ll see the main character introduced and the world he lives in, as well as his likes and character traits. The issue will end with a cliffhanger of course, to engage you as the audience even more and let you await impatiently the next issue.

I’ll keep you updated on the progress, hope you like what you read! Maybe you have some questions or proposals what I should write about. Peace out!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts

The Cheetah’s Hunt - Gag Comic

-
Image
A few of my brain cells worked together and came up with a little animal gag comic. I think as inspiration I can blame the Keeper Chat podcast where I learned about some interesting cheetah facts that are rarely mentioned in documentaries. Enjoy! I have been dreaming a while now about writing about animals and our relationship or misconceptions about them. But who reads blogs nowadays anyway, huh? So I tried to keep short, funny and a bit educational. Maybe, maybe this is the start of a new project. Thanks for reading and till next time, Andi Pasti
Read more

Woolly Wonderful Issue #1

-
Image
Hey folks, After what seems like an eternity I can finally present you the first issue of my comic Woolly Wonderful . This comic is a start of an idea’s realisation I had some years ago, I will post more about that soon. Let me just say, I gained massive respect for comic creators now that I experienced myself what a journey it is. But it is also a rewarding one. I started this project without a lot of drawing experience or let alone how to do comics. Some pages indeed took me more than 22 hours, with others I got more lucky by just 12 hours. But it does not have to be that way, a simpler style would do it for some people, or maybe even my future self. Enough of the long words, please enjoy the following pages. You can click on the first image and then cycle through the next pages with the arrow keys on your keyboard. Let's goooo... I hope you enjoyed issue 1 and please let me know. You can post a comment here or contact me on instagram at @andi_past_art. Woolly is looking forward ...
Read more

Woolly on a rabbit - illustration

-
Image
To bridge the gap between the published first issue of Woolly Wonderful and creating an engaging story, I used the time to draw some sort of concept that I imagined for a second issue. I tried a slightly different process this time, to find out if I could save some time in the comic page creation. Finished piece Usually after the pencil stage, the inking will be done, either over very detailed pencils or rougher pencils, depending on the artist’s confidence. But ink will not give you any variance in tone like pencils can give you. Thus, some artists only have a pencil stage and darken the pencils afterwards to make them more stand-out. Any thin or weaker lines will still be visible with a still lighter tone and might give it a bit of a rougher finish to it. This indeed can help to make the art appear less digital.  Main character pencils Pencils complete Pencils with shadow layer The picture in general has more of a children’s book feeling about it, especially through the lighter b...
Read more