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I do realize that having never written, drawn or dreamt of doing something like this, there is a learning curve involved. I've been able to write and storyboard this whole project with an alarming ease, and now I'm up to the tricky part: the actual work.
I spent an entire day with three pads of Bristol Board measuring and drawing out each page's layout, and then started back over every one of those pages drawing in the action. Using a host of reference photographs I took of East Austin, I've penciled in most of the finished drawings and now it's time to start inking.
I chose to do the comic in black and white because I like the simplicity and drawn qualities black and white possess. A few friends wondered just what the finished product would look like, juggling my painting style with comic books in their head. I'm trying to walk the line between a drawn, almost fine art style with the reductive simplicity of comic books.
I've also found out there is no room for fudging in comic books. The drawings have to be crisp and to the point, hands must look like hands, feet have to look like feet and shadows on flowing capes have been keeping me up at night.
In the middle of drawing out each scene, using the storyboards as a foundation, I've had to keep in mind each panel needs space for text, and as each page starts to come together, I'll lay the pages side by side to give me an idea of just how they'll look when they are facing each other in the finished book.
The whole process hasn't seemed too far removed from the act of painting. The narrative is obviously more explicit and drawn out, and the open addition of humor hopefully will take the guessing out of the message. Each panel and every page, combined with the process that I've chosen to follow in drawing and inking, has felt just as labored and thought out as a painting.
I'm still amazingly on target to have this whole project finished and printed relatively on time (mid-late October), which would be a stunning achievement in itself. Here are some pictures of some of the work I've been up to:
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