So yeah…been a while since last update. I’ve been seized by another comic: Dungeon Minds!
Essentially they are the same kind of comic. FRPG inspired fantasy about groups of characters wandering the underground. ZD is more of a focused story (I like to think so anyway) while DM is faster and more concerned with punchlines. But in truth the two are converging in my mind a bit. Not that I’m abandoning this comic, just that the energy is going elsewhere right now.
More later…
You know, I think I’ve been so paranoid about exploiting the sexy side of my characters that I’ve ignored one of my favorite things to draw…pin-ups!
Now, in some of the other stuff I do, I don’t worry about the practicality of attire or the realism of proportions. Not that much anyway. I will draw a woman wearing three rings of metal and call it armor because that is the genre I’m working in. But Zyn Dweomer is a bit different. It isn’t primarily about sexy warrior babes, so I do consciously think about the function of what my female characters wear and how they look. I am still a great lover of the pin-up tradition and obviously I am a fan of curvy ladies so that stuff is still going to shine through if I’m to be honest in how I do the comic.
I’ve said before that I really want to get this comic into a printed format. Now, for me anyway, this is the ultimate condition for a comic to be in. I love webcomics, no doubt, but I cut my teeth on paper just like a lot of you did. And this is something I want and need to do.
So I just finished laying out the first issue. It is standard, U.S. comic book format, which is six-point-something x ten-point-something. The first issue will include the first fifty strips. It looks nifty, I think. the first half or more is very complex-looking. Thick with panels and dialog and such. Then it thins out a tad as the format of the webcomic shifted.
Issue #2 will have a different look, naturally, as you can see by the flavor of the more recent strips. Also, the newer strips were drawn specifically for standard comic book format.
So the first issue is laid out, sans the covers. But there is more to do. I plan to have a Worldbook section where you can read about the various spells, magic items, monsters, and characters you encounter in the story. My inspiration for that is, of course, old RPG manuals and tomes. And I do plan to emulate that vibe as much as possible.
But you know the one thing that scares me the most is doing a cover. It is a weak area for me, I think. The big picture. I’m not as comfortable working in a large format like that. But I love a challenge and nobody else is going to draw for me!
As I get closer to having this complete I’ll post some updates and eventually put up some kind of store where you can purchase ZD junk.
I was thinking of putting the Monkey God idol on a tee shirt with the slogan “Convulse with the fabled rage of the monkey god!”
Summer begins today, Google tells me.
Had a great weekend. Spent time with good friends and family, ate well, and felt pretty good. That’s a nice way to finish off Spring.
Creatively, I did ok. I finished two pages of the new comic (to be announced later). It looks good. It’s just the way I draw. I’m learning to love it despite my raging inner criticisms.
Drawing is fun and it makes me feel good. The problem I keep running into over and over is not with the process of drawing but with all the shit I bring to it before the strokes are made. I obsess over how a comic should look and over how it should read. I spent far too much time deliberating and changing my mind countless times. There’s nothing wrong with planning, but there is something wrong with planning outside your realm of expertise. And that’s what I do. I see a comic in my head finished long before I start working on it. And that sets up an expectation for how it needs to look. And frankly I’m not able to deliver on those expectations very often.
I draw the way I draw, not necessarily the way my inner critic thinks any given comic should be drawn. I’m trying to come to peace with that fact and to stop obsessing over the planning stage. Its self-sabotage to the extreme.
Still not on track, so I’m going to post some of the black and white pages I had finished earlier and convert them to color in the next couple of weeks.
Just got back from a short famdam vacation, much needed. My wife has a new job starting this week and there are lots of other things going on around this joint so there will be no updates this week. Next week I will probably go back to a once-per-week update schedule for a while until I get settled back into a nice routine.
But not to worry, it’s all good!
Site needs a minor overhaul. So I guess “overhaul” is the wrong word. Tweak, maybe. Tighten some things up here and there, add a gallery of some kind.
Ferb, make a note.
Yeah yeah yeah. I tried black and white for a while. And I like it very much. It gives me a depth that I wasn’t getting with color. But at the same time it stripped away a lot of valuable depth in other areas. I like using color to designate certain things…like goblin blood. You need a good yellow-green for goblin blood. And I like color coding spells.
So let’s face it. It was a heartfelt effort with some good results, but in the end this comic works best in color. It is a bold, colorful kind of comic book. It is inspired by colorful comics of yesteryear. When I imagine future issues, I see them in color.
So color it is.
I should begin to re-post the color versions of the black and white pages this weekend, if all goes well. Household is sick at the moment. Strep throat, dammit.
Color, my lover, I am coming back to your bed. Brown chicken, brown cow.
