Ringing in the new year with more comic planning

Hello and happy new year.

It has been a busy and difficult couple of months.  I came down with a bad cold in early December, that turned into pink eye and then a sinus infection. And then, while I was vacationing with my family, I caught a stomach flu, which I just got over earlier this week, and now I have a cold again.  All of this, of course, means that my recreational activities have been rather curtailed, including working on my upcoming (planned) web-comic.

However, I did not stop entirely. I am still working on concepts for the web-comic,but I have changed the idea for the theme yet again.  If you've read my past ideas, you'll note that this is the third concept I have come up with.  Why have I been so fickle?

Well, the #1 reason has been that my ideas have often been overly ambitious and this has led to stories that will be unworkable in terms of the DAZ resources and creating the art for the panels.  I started with a thousand-year-plus old character, but found that the resources did not exist to do all the flashbacks and historical scenes I needed.  I then shifted to an Asian-themed martial arts idea, which had some better support in DAZ. However, there still were not enough resources to pull off the idea that I had come up with, and I became frustrated by having to constantly compromise my creative vision because of the lack of 3D resources.

Comic Series Planning - Part 3: Developing Theme, and some concept art

My current series of articles on this blog chronicles my efforts to come up with a story idea that I can develop into a digital comic-book series. The series will use DAZ Studio renders for artwork, which means I will need to buy resources from DAZ or build them myself in Hexagon or Blender before I can produce the panels of artwork.

But before doing any of that, I need to develop the theme and story of my comic. And that is what I have been working on for the last couple of months -- I've sunk many an evening and weekend into it, in fact. 

Comic Series Planning - Part 2: Choosing a lettering typeface

In this second part of my series on producing my own digital comic-book using computer graphics resources, I will be focusing on something most readers probably don't think much about consciously -- the lettering typeface.

Traditionally, of course, comic-books are hand-lettered.  And using my comic-production software, Manga Studio 5 EX, I could, in theory, with a digital pen and digital tablet, hand-letter my comics. But, in the first place, that's just far too laborious, and in the second place, I'm a lousy letterer these days. (I was pretty good in my day, having taken drafting in high school, but by using computers so much and hand-writing so little over the years, my writing has become appallingly sloppy.)  So actual hand-lettering is a non-starter.

Of course, Manga Studio comes with the ability to type words into each panel using the keyboard, which technically obviates the need for any sort of hand-lettering and also allows one to use any typeface one wants -- from Georgia to Trebuchet to Courier.  However, because comics have always been hand-lettered, using a mechanical typeface that resembles something from a typewriter or a printing press dramatically changes the look and feel of the word balloons, and, in my view, diminishes the overall result.  In short, comic-books should at least look hand-lettered, even if they are typeset on a computer these days.

Comic Series Planning - Part 1: Concept Art

As the handful of people following this blog know, I have been fairly quiet of late.  Other than mentioning a few Supergirl fanfic comics I've made, and making a couple of posts about how "busy" I've been, I haven't been updating this blog very much.  I discussed a few of the reasons why that's so about a week ago, but now I'm going to reveal a little bit of what's kept me so busy all this time. It's not that I didn't have any spare time... it's that I was working on something I wasn't ready to make public yet.  And I'm still not ready to make much of it public, but I thought I'd post a small glimpse.

First a little bit of history.  I've always loved to write, and particularly to do creative writing of fiction -- usually either fantasy or science fiction. I've also loved comic-books for many years, and when I was a kid, I wanted to write my own comic-book. The problem, of course, is that I can't draw worth a darn.  Oh sure, I tried as a kid, and for a 10 or 11 year old, my drawings weren't so bad.  But when it comes to the human form, I'm terrible at it.  And so, although I always wanted to write my own stories in comic-book form, I never could.

Supergirl: Last Daughter of Krypton #3

Today I release the 3rd issue of my fan comic series, Supergirl: Last Daughter of Krypton.  This issue is the third and final part of the 3-part story arc "The Supergirl from Krypton" and is called "Trouble at the old mill."

Following the events of issue 2, Linda Danvers and her father, officer Fred Danvers, investigate a series of young-adult disappearances and livestock killings in the Smallville area.  As Supergirl, Linda patrols the area, eventually discovering the abandoned old sawmill where the crazed Dr. Pendergast is conducting his evil experiments.  She learns the truth about why he is creating these superhuman creatures, and has to figure out a way to stop him without hurting anyone.

This 28-page digital comic is fully rendered using DAZ Studio Pro posing software, including hundreds of dollars of premium, high-quality art content.  Because this project is a hobby done for personal enjoyment, I do not make the comics generally available, but anyone who would like to read them should contact me and we can work something out.

The entire story arc has also been collected into a single, 87-page "digital trade paperback" with a new back cover and all the content contained in the three-issue arc.

Back from the great beyond...

Greetings, readers.

It's been a while, and first, I want to apologize for not having made any posts in 2 months. I have been extremely busy with a variety of things and have not been able to keep up my regular posting here. I'm going to briefly explain why.

Supergirl: Last Daughter of Krypton #2

Today I release the 2nd issue of my fan-fiction comic series, Supergirl: Last Daughter of Krypton.  This issue is part 2 of "The Supergirl from Krypton" and is called "Evidence of Things Not Seen."

Coming on the heels of issue 1, in which Kara revealed her presence to the world, we discover that Fred and Edna Danvers, Kara's adoptive parents, have learned the truth about her hero identity -- and they aren't happy. They feel they have been manipulated by Kara and the Kents, and Kara and Superman must find a way to defuse the situation.

Meanwhile, in an abandoned old lumber mill, a strange, mad-seeming scientist continues his plot to transform unsuspecting teenagers into monstrous creatures.  Can Supergirl and her police-officer foster father put aside their differences long enough to figure out what is going on in Smallville? And what will happen when Supergirl comes face-to-face with the strange creature known only as "Subject One?"

This 28-page digital comic is fully rendered using DAZ Studio Pro posing software, including hundreds of dollars of premium, high-quality art content.  Because this project is a hobby done for personal enjoyment, I do not make the comics generally available, but anyone who would like to read them should contact me and we can work something out.