Issue 34

Issue 34 is finally up!  Here's the link: Issue 34

This issue was a while in the making.  At the beginning of January I decided to take a bit of a break, with a few things going on, but more so with the comic itself.  

I wasn't happy with the flow of the comic.  I've pretty much been doing the comic as to what would equate to a half-page splash for every single panel.   This led to some pacing issues, doing that much background was really slowing down my production and there was hardly an issue that went by where I didn't cut a scene because I was running out of time to get the issues out monthly.

I spent the better part of January looking over old comics from DC and Marvel and not reading them, but just looking at the artwork and how they told the story visually and realized I could accomplish a lot more each issue following their pattern.

When this issue starts, the first 3 panels are the old way of doing it, where are half-splash pages.  They were drawn the first week of January.  Then in early February I started to draw the rest and you can start to see the new method emerging, being fully realized as I gained confidence in what I was doing so that by the time you get to the last panel, it is more like reading a regular comic.  Of course, the cover and title pages will remain as half-splash panels for now.

For the border between panels, I am using a 'retro' comic paper stock appearance to give it a feel of reading a well-read comic.  I went with this route for now as one of the comments I've gotten many times is that my characters have a retro feel to them and I thought that would tie in nicely.

An added bonus is an improvement in my artwork.  I've had a hard time keeping things in the proper proportions, and by the time we reach the final panel of this issue I feel like I've come a long way toward consistency and stability in the artwork and hopefully it will just get better.

Normally I include some artwork with each blog, but in this case, I'm just going to include the cover and I'd rather you check it out for yourself.