Here's What I've Been Working On

So I managed to get some seasonal work for UPS. Nothing major, but at least now I have the boost of confidence I needed to start working again.

In any case, it's been going slowly but I've finally started making progress on my (What is it? Fourth?) new attempt to launch Metafiction. Though I haven't written down anything yet (and I probably won't, given the nature of the comic), I've got almost everything for the first chapter worked out. And as you can tell by the cover, it's gonna be a huge clusterfuck. But at least this time I'm not concerned with it being anything more than a clusterfuck, and a fun one at that.

So yeah, a lot of familiar faces. On my last attempt at this series (the Personal Accountant Joe attempt), I racked my brain trying to think, "How am I gonna get Joe, the Zweihander gang, and the characters from Dark Arts in here?" This time, my answer is, "I sure love drawing these guys punching each other!"

Also, that's Meta front-and-center. For the record, this was Meta last year:

She was designed as a kid with a hormone deficiency to play on the fact that she really didn't have a whole lot of control over her powers, and without them, she'd be helpless. Not so this time around, as Meta is now more of an administrator over the comics than a character. Still, the design above was a total accident. An awesome accident.

And last but not least: drawing on an 11 x 17 canvas, then resizing it before saving? Looks fucking GOOD.

I'd Have to Be Crazy Not to Have Priorities

At the risk of making this sound like one of my angstier (more angsty?) posts, things haven't been going very swimmingly for me lately. I got fired from my job a little while ago for a rather minor rule violation (forgot to fill in the log book), and haven't had a whole mess of luck when it comes to finding a new one.

Let's face facts here. I'm lucky if there are even three people that check out this blog. And while I do appreciate those that do (don't get me wrong), I can't be spending about seven hours a page on making comics that, for the most part, are for my own benefit. This means that there won't be anything here for a while.

Sorry about that. Wish me (better) luck.

Faith Shall Save Thee (Page 18)

Okay, so the reason I was holding back is this: it started when I asked myself whether I should just make Ace and Meta two different people (Meta was supposed to be the real person, and Ace was just a surrogate). This brought up a lot of problems. I was worried about what that may cause when the over-arching plot kicks in, and it caused all sorts of trouble when I considered how it might affect the time skip.

"Whoa, time skip!? Wasn't this just supposed to be a quirky series about breaking the fourth wall!?"

I've heard that the true measure of a writer is when he's satisfied with his work not because he's found that he has nothing more to add, but because he has nothing left to subtract. Things got WAY out of hand in the conceptualization phase. I realized this, and I have a solution.

Three stories. One about Ace and Meta. One about Fahl's Harbor (starring Keefe and Machete). And one about Richter, covering what would have happened post-time skip. I'd really like to work on them simultaneously, but we'll see how that goes.

All in all, it won't actually affect this chapter of Metafiction. It just means that I have more freedom with it for upcoming chapters.

I Already Used Keep In Gates, Dammit

Drew this as a request from a namefag at 4chan's /v/.

The request was made months ago, and came up offhand in conversation. I jumped on the suggestion, since it was extremely bizarre. Being that I was going through one of my "I can't draw for shit, woe is me," mindsets at the time, I wasn't feeling confident enough to ink it and just gave him a quick red-line sketch. Yesterday, I see that the picture was still getting reposted, so I elected to finish it. Incidentally, the person who originally requested it was in the same thread, so here we are.

Alright, so I've been stalling on the comic. Intentionally, actually. I have absolutely no idea what to do for the next few pages. I know what to do, but not how to pace it or present it in a visually interesting way. So I've been kinda holding out. I only have two panels left to do in the page I'm working on, though, so when I finally get around to doing it, it will be fine. It's what comes after it that worries me.

Dogs on the Run (Page 16) (AND 17)

I intentionally plotted this whole series out to take advantage of the fact that I can experiment with different styles. The "margin sketches" style is actually much easier to do than the previous, "clean and simple" style that I've used up until now.

UPDATE: Holy hell, I just got done another page. Two in one day without even trying? I think I'm in love!

Kinda went all Hellsing on this, not that I meant to. Funny how that works out. I'm glad I made the character designs for this chapter as diverse as I did: I don't really even have to worry about keeping them on model right now, since you can't really confuse Ace with Joe or anything.

Suck a Sage (Pages 9-15)

Jesus, I have just been abysmally lazy about this lately. Turns out I won't be getting a tablet PC for a while (I ordered the wrong thing), so inking six pages back-to-back on the tablet I had now turned out to be such a huge pain that I just didn't want to deal with it.

Hm, probably should have touched this up on my desktop. I don't remember the last time I got this into an action scene.
Pure fanservice. I figure you can't tease something for several pages and not pay off. The dialogue irks me a bit.
I should have redrawn this page, but this was the last one I inked, and I was way past the point of caring by then. This is actually the first time I've ever drawn anyone kissing, which I probably didn't have to point out.
I like to make a script so that I have something to ignore. Ace's old design got way out of hand, so I had to streamline it. Inking his bangs is a phenomenal pain, but they turned out looking pretty good.
The bottom panel looks absolutely nothing like the pencils. I had to completely redraw it, and it took hours since I was doing so straight from the tablet. It's hard for me to do anything complex on that thing.
This entire page had to be redrawn, but since I rushed it, I don't like how the bottom panel turned out. There's no real composition or sense of motion to it. Lesson learned.

I'll be working harder on this in the coming days, mostly because the plot gives me an excuse to go for a more dynamic presentation. Also, though I know I sound bored writing this right now, I've been getting a little more pumped up about drawing lately. It tends to go in cycles for me.

Keep in Gates (Page 8)

I was waiting for my tablet PC to be delivered before I finished this page, but it ended up taking too long.

Haven't You Got Eyes in Your Head? (Page 7)

Okay, yeah. That's much better.

I was worried that it would take forever to finish, as was the case with previous ventures into an all-digital format, but since I had done the pencil work by hand, that wasn't the case. It only took about an hour more than usual, and that's because I could fix my mistakes and even alter the pencils if I wanted. So it looks like this is the new status quo.

The GOD bites own lip in chagrin (Pages 5 and 6)

I'm going to try and ink the next one digitally. The stuff I've been posting is pretty unpolished-looking, and I'm not really sure how to fix that. It's probably my scanner, but it's not like I really know. After all, most of the above pages are digitally inked anyway (I do a lot of touching up before I'm finished), so it's no big deal, really.

Another reason I want to give it a shot is because I've been looking at some of my older stuff, and the last chapter of Author/Newtrul surprised me a little. It's more... well... see for yourself.

There's really no denying that I'm a better artist now than I was at the time, but it still LOOKS good- maybe a bit better than the current chapter. That's the main reason. If it turns out that the end result is much better than what I've been doing up until now, awesome.

Kill DOG As a Sacrifice to DOG (or, Page 4)

I actually lost a few pages for a while, so I've been sitting on new pages for about two weeks, now. I didn't have enough time to touch up all three of the pages in one sitting, so I'll post one now, and post the other two tomorrow instead.

Metafiction I: Pages 1-3

I had to wrestle with these for a while. I had a bunch of screentones and whatnot, but then I realized that they looked pretty crappy. I have five more pages penciled, so it shouldn't take long for those to get up.

Was it really necessary to have a splash page? Eh, whatever.

Dammit, I Should'a Known

As soon as I stopped caring about inking, it was like I had a revelation. Since I can't NOT ink and color the cover to the damn thing, I found myself making another attempt at inking anyway- to surprising results. I was trying too hard to make it look like Transmetropolitan, but I'm no Rodney Ramos. Actually, Transmet's the only comic I own that consistently draws the lines in thick, so that approach was only hurting me to begin with. Plus, I realized I could just do the "secondary inking" digitally so that screwing up won't kill me.

I call it "Aria of Sorrow Syndrome." You can kill those goddamn Red Minotaurs for five hours and get nothing, but as soon as you give up on it, you get the soul from the very next one you kill. What should be awesome is frustrating.

So here's the cover in question:

Hm. Come to think of it...
People have been telling me that I've been improving at a ridiculous rate. Since I end up throwing out almost everything I draw, I thought they were exaggerating.

EDIT: I've posted the image on Image Shack, and it looks fine. I don't know why it artifacts so badly when I display it here, but I won't take chances with it when I post it on the site. I don't think it'll matter if just the cover is a PNG- the rest is black-and-white anyway. Also, the first two pages are done. After they're lettered, I'll post them.

Delay Close.jpg

(UPDATE: Chapter 1 script available here.)

You know that comic that I've been working on? The one that I finished? Well, fuck it- it's not going up. I've been lettering it, and I've decided that it sucks. Really sucks. It's not what I want to use to start off the series. Sorry to keep jerking you around like this, but I'm onto something here, and I'm not getting off it just yet.

So I'm starting over from scratch. This time the goal of the comic is to establish the world of Metafiction and how it works. I'm writing a script- actually, I wrote a script, but I'm ditching it to go in a new direction. The previous script followed an ordinary man who tried to figure out what caused his coworker's suicide, and stumbling upon Meta's (that's going to be Ace's name in the one-shots, by the way) gallery, to discover that life as he knew it was one big comic book.

I was on the right track, but when I started drawing it, I realized that the parts before getting to Meta's gallery were pretty boring. And besides, I want this to be a quirky, fourth-wall breaking series, not Grant Morrison's Animal Man (which I should really read one of these days). The plot this time will revolve around a concept so ridiculous that even the characters in the story can't suspend their disbelief, leading them to discover Meta's gallery. I haven't written up the script yet, but that'll probably be done tonight. Then I'll get right to drawing and lettering.

And since I've been such a jackass with this so far, I'll post the pages here as I complete them.

That leads me to the second thing I wanted to talk about. I'm a freaking lousy inker. Now, I bring this up a lot, and that usually stems from a lack of self-confidence or laziness. This time, I'm adamant about it- I'm going back to pencils.

While I was on vacation, as I normally do, I picked up a small pad of paper and a set of mechanical pencils to busy myself when I wanted to draw. I discovered something- I'm a whole lot better off with a 60 cent pencil than I am with artist pens. I didn't notice when working on the comic because I knew that I would erase/ throw away the pencil work, so I didn't really go into detail with it. But there's a whole lot of energy to my sketches that I'm just not capable of getting in ink. Let me show you some examples.

Here's Angela, Richter's niece- Origin's replacement. (Part of the reason the chapter sucked was that he didn't seem to care or even think about what happened to her since I didn't plan on putting her in until I had to make the story go somewhere)
And in pencil:
It's on lined paper and I didn't clean it up at all, but you can still see how much more energy and emotion there is in it. So that's that. I'll leave you with a few more samples. Expect to see comic pages a few days from now.

The inking here turned out a lot better than usual, though. (Paper on the left sucks- smudges fucking everything)

And here are some designs (which you may not have to wait too long to see):
Okay, so Keefe's exactly the same, but I always liked his design. I finally have a Machete that I like, something that's been bugging me forever. Leena's jaw's a little fucked up here, but you get the idea. And Isaac looks so cool that I want to write a bigger part for him. Rosalie's image is based on the cover to Sia's Some People Have Real Problems CD. I still haven't designed a Vanessa that I'm happy with, yet. I need to get cracking though, because her character is pretty different in the series' context, and I can't wait to use it.

Maybe I should team up with someone to ink, but if I were you I wouldn't count on it. Besides, I can pencil three pages a night with no problem. So that's always a plus.

And if Megatokyo can get away with it, anybody can.

So I Was Lying

I figure I can probably use this for previews and such, so I may as well since I still can't get on my main site from this goddamn computer.

So here we have the uncolored version of the cover of this chapter. I got the idea to do this just a little while ago, when I was in a very "Fuck it," attitude about the comic.

Oh, and by the way, all of the inking is done. I'd like to have the comic done and online in two weeks.

The Last One

I'm pretty sure this'll be my last post, anyway. Think I'll hold on to this for a rainy day.

So I never did post those practice pages, but who really cares about them, anyway? I'm a comic artist; all you want to see from me are comics! Well if that's the case, I guess you're in luck, because I've been working on one!

As I said, I'm doing a couple one-shots before I start working on Author again. But I think there's a lot that can be done with the Author setting that I won't be able to touch upon in the story proper. That's why I've decided to set these one-shots in that universe, even though they aren't connected to each other save some similar concepts and a familiar character here and there. For this one in particular I've decided to make Richter the protagonist so that the change isn't so jarring, and because I really wanted to use his new design.

The series of one-shots is called Metafiction. It was what I wanted to rename Author after I had already restarted it. It's a lot less generic-sounding, isn't it? Basically, the stories are connected by the theme of characters that are aware or become aware that their current setting is really someone's form of entertainment. For instance, in this first story, Richter unwittingly becomes part of a family sitcom from the 1960's, and tries to get himself kicked off. Speaking of which, I should probably post some pages!

I need to redo that logo in vectors. It was a rush-job, so I guess it was bound to happen. Anyway, would you look at that? It's my first proper splash page! Really only happened because I was so rusty that I didn't really think of the page layout, though.

The Producer looks so much like Gary Callahan in that fourth panel that it makes me want to punch myself in the nuts. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have him in mind, but he's really supposed to be based on the archetype, not a specific character. I think there's someone similar in that Kirby anime... Well, I'm having some trouble creating proper depth of field. I'll see what I can do about it, but hey, I'm still practicing! Think it would look better with color? Not that I'm in a rush to open that can of worms again.

Yeah, he's different. I have to say, I love the third panel. It's one of the best, "Just try me, motherfucker," faces I'm aware of.

This page would be a lot funnier if I put a censor-bar over his curiously shaven pubic region with the word "DONG" written on it. But I'm an artist, and I will not stoop to such low-brow humor! Yeah, I didn't have a whole lot of trouble creating depth here, but look at how much room I had to fuck around with! I'm just squeamish about putting black anywhere on the figures. This page already saw tracing paper once. I guess I'll practice with it a bit.

And that's all you get! If you want the rest, you'll have to check the main site every once in a while. But like I said before, I'll post it when I damn well feel like it.

Good day.

Come Back Down to Earth, Major Tom

Wow, what the fuck was I talking about down there? I really shouldn't write when I'm angry, it makes me sound retarded.

You know, when I said that I'd write a post on April first, I didn't take in to account the possibility that I wouldn't have access to a scanner, but my broken hand brake saw to that. So I'll just give you an explanation of my plans today, and post what I've been working on later. I've made up my mind and decided to go back to black-and-white, ink-and-paper like when I first started /Newtrul, except now I have a better grasp of what I'm doing. Want to know why the pages had been taking so long after I went digital? Because drawing on a tablet is fucking boring. I'm on a machine that can boot up Super Metroid or show me any number of a billion vaginas, and instead I'm drawing the same contour over and over and fucking over again. No thanks.

I thought a lot about why I started drawing comics in the first place. Did I think that crap looked any good? Well, considering that I was a sixteen-year-old wapanese faggot (and good GOD was I a huge wapanese faggot- you heard it here first), so probably yeah. But more to the point, it was fun as hell. I didn't give a shit whether or not I could draw a sword fight, I did it anyway because I never was able to do that in the margins of my math tests. Only when it became SERIOUS BUSINESS did my attention in it begin to wane, and despite what I've been telling myself for the past few months, that has nothing to do with the tone of the comic itself. It's all in attitude, and as I've started teaching myself to use ink effectively, I find myself drawing random shit completely useless to the comic because it's fun. Before that, I never drew a damn thing unless it was either a panel or a character design.

Oh, and I'm going to update with full chapters, and whenever the hell I feel like it. Fuck off up a mountain, it ain't your comic and since no one ever read it before, I'm sure as hell not about to start giving a shit. I'll post the results of my practice in inking later. It's certainly not art-school-chic, but it's serviceable for what I need. It kind of reminds me of old newspapers' political cartoons or something.

And if it wasn't obvious, I spent my shift reading Transmetropolitan. Why does every character in that comic talk the same way? Because that way is fucking infectious, that's why.

A Refusal to Compromise

I'm pissed off.

Every day I find myself fighting to get motivated into drawing the very comic that I want desperately to finish, and when I actually manage to post something, I piss and moan incessantly about how it's not up to my standards. I spend hours awake at night thinking how to resolve this. Do I go back to pencils? Do I post rough drafts and finish them as I move along? How can I avoid the mistakes I've made time and time again?

Well, thinking about it isn't good enough. I need to bleed on to something before I can put some fire back in my veins. I need practice. I need space. Let me have my fun, give me my freedom, lend me some time. I'll be putting out a few one-shots, turning my entire process upside-down and inside-out. I'll be examining a number of different styles and stories. I'll be finding out what works and what doesn't. And when I've grown sufficiently, I'll give these characters and events, over whom I have toiled for years to design, their proper treatment.

This is not a cancellation. This is not a reboot. This is the first step. I will post one more time, exactly fifteen days from now. Yes, on April first, but know my resolve when I say that this is no joke. Then, I'll post here for the last time, but I won't be going anywhere. Thank you for your time, and your patience, but for now I'll simply say as always, "Expect it later."

V1 C1 P7

Finally found my damn flash drive. This has been done for a few days.

I suppose I am just over thinking matters, this coloring would be fine if not for the shitty backgrounds and inconsistent light sources, but I've put myself in a bit of a corner in those regards by having this entire chapter take place in an environment that I had not conceptualized in the least bit. I'll have to wait for the next chapter to work out my muscles in this area since I don't want to create continuity errors the size of Saturn's moons by altering it just yet. Since I've drawn and redrawn designs for Fahl's Harbor over and over again despite my immense hatred of drawing architecture, the results should pay off.

More Coloring Woes

Man, I'm really in a bind here. I'm going about coloring all wrong; it shouldn't be as shiny and colorful as it's been, but when they were more muted I had trouble setting apart the characters from the background and it looked too noisy. I'm probably overthinking this, but right now color seems to be a huge waste of time. I know that in the end, all of this experimentation will pay off, but MAN it's a pain in the ass.

I've thought about going back to black and white. I mean, I was getting pretty good at that. But With some of the designs I've created with color in mind, taking away the color would hurt them. I mean, how would I show how unique Icxthys is? Suddenly he becomes "That thing with no outline" instead of "That solid black-and-white thing with no outline." One is a LOT easier to recognize immediately. Also, cool scenes that I had envisioned, like Ace peeling off her outline, causing her color to fall out and making her look like Icxthys would be impossible. Is her SHADING supposed to splatter onto the ground?

I guess I'm just ranting here, but I had to get it off my chest and explain why this chapter is taking so damn long when it's so damn short. But while I'm here, I may as well ask any so inclined what they believe are good examples of a simple coloring method so that I can learn from them. First of all, I know I need to lighten up on the fucking saccharine, but "soft" outlines seem like a pretty good idea.

So, to sum it up, please help me figure out how the hell I can make this look better.

V1 C1 P6

Don't mind me; I'm still dicking around with the coloring. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it (right now I have some kind of Chugworth Academy thing going) but I've still got a lot to learn.

Anyway, I did most of this page at work, and a good half of it in one shift. This bodes well for the frequency of my updates from now on. As I said on the main site, the penciling is just about done, and this chapter's looking like it will end up being fifteen or sixteen pages, so now I can really get the ball rolling.

V1 C1 P5

My computer's been acting weird lately, most likely because I downloaded an obvious virus. I was looking for a keygen for Dreamweaver because paying $400 for things is one of my weaknesses, along with bullets and several diseases. God, it was so obvious. It even tried to install on to System32, but I said, "No no no, my friend. You will not make a fool of me this day," because that's how I talk. "...I'll install you to My Documents. Now I guess you'll think twice before trying to outsmart R Will!"

V1 C1 P4

I had figured this from the beginning, but the daily content thing isn't going to work. It distracts too much from the comic. That doesn't mean it's all I'll be doing, as I still hope to frequently update with other stuff, but piecing together crap in order to do so is lame. I'm up for requests.

I spent a lot of time dicking around with the color for this page, and I think it's an improvement, but I would appreciate feedback. I was stuck on what to do with the last panel for a while, but when all else fails, go for fucking goofy.

Richter Haywood: Final Design

I've been kinda strapped for ideas for this blog, which has been leading to missed updates. I should do some short comic strips or something.


Richter's changed quite a bit. Like in /Draft, he's not supposed to be taken seriously, but this time it's because of his personality, not because he's a dimwit. In an effort to separate him from his drama-llama persona from /Newtrul, I'm basing him somewhat off of The Comedian from Watchmen, and the button on his jacket is reminiscent of him, though its design is actually taken from Transmetropolitan.

I sort of based the whole outfit on his hat. Upon realizing that none of my characters wear hats, it seemed a logical step, but it came to serve a purpose. It allows Richter to keep his hair out of his face when fighting. In other words, he's a better fighter this time.

Color Test: Vanessa

I'm still new to using color in this stuff, and I've realized that, more often than not, the color is a detriment to the inking, at which I've been getting better. After noticing that the opposite happened in the second panel of the latest page, I wanted to see if I could replicate the effect of making color enhance sloppy linework. I had a colorless version of this saved just in case, but I think this taught me enough.

My major problems stem from the fact that I've been ignoring light sources, and my palette is way too bright and colorful. I still need to work on light and shadow a bit, but just washing out the colors a bit makes it look that much more pleasing to the eye. I'll see what I can do to enhance the pages I've done so far now that I know this; maybe I can get away with a levels adjustment.

Also, this isn't indicative of Vanessa's final design. Honestly, I haven't given either her or Isaac much thought since they don't appear until Chapter 3.

V1 C1 P3

Man, I have no discipline. This really could have been done yesterday, but I ended up playing Oblivion for hours on end instead. Since I couldn't work on it over the weekend, after seeing it with fresh eyes I guess I kinda lost interest. I recognize that I'm not a great artist, so when I end up working on something after looking at it objectively I usually end up pissed off at it. This just means I need to draw these things in one or two sittings.

This Is How I Apologize

I don't see a reason why the whole blog should be flagged just yet, so for now, you'll have to go to this place in order to see the uncensored version (18+ yadda yadda). I'll have to upload that to Newtrul before Imageshack deletes it. I think that this is a sufficient way of making up for multiple missed updates, so at least you have something to anticipate if I flake out.

The skin is a weak link, so I'll have to look into how to improve that. It came out looking a bit weird. I'll have to consider studying poses. As for the subject, I wanted to do something obscure, but something that actually does have a fan-following. I am ashamed to say, though, that I don't know a damn thing about Spoiler. I thought she was Taskmaster's daughter, but it turns out she's actually Cluemaster's. And Cluemaster is essentially The Riddler except even more lame.

Well, Crap.

No digital pen and no scanner. I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to catch up on four updates like this without feeling like I'm cheating somewhat, so forget it. I guess I'll make up the absences later.

Hm... I think I know how.

V1 C1 P2

I was too tired to finish this last night. In order to make up for missing the update, I'm working extra hard to get another page ready. I tried to have them both today, but despite my efforts I don't think that'll happen. I'll catch up tomorrow.

Yes, Distraught Woman is Richter's teacher from the last chapter of /Newtrul.

Volume One Rundown

I'm still finishing up the next page of the comic, so for today I think I'll give a brief summary of the chapters in Volume 1: Introduction

Chapter One- In Medias Res
This is the current chapter, and the title refers to a literary device that occurs when you start a story in the middle of the action. I'm sure the relevance of this must be pretty clear. Ace, Keefe, and Machete storm an office building while Ace investigates the likelihood of the existence of another with the same powers as her.

Chapter Two- Deus ex Machina
Upon learning of threats to Ace's life, Colleen's ragtag group of vigilantes vows to protect her, but only after Ace learns how to improve her power to levels previously unimagined can she defend herself.

Chapter Three- Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes
Vanessa, new to the city and its customs, begins training at her new job, but it would seem that keeping the most powerful being on the planet under control is more than she can handle.

Chapter Four- Justitia Suum Cuique Distribuit
Ace decides that something must be done about Colleen, and in an effort to make her less dangerous, Ace attempts to force out her deadly programming, and ends up endangering everyone around her.

Chapter Five- Non Sequitur
Ace and company are trapped in an alternate world where they need to learn the rules in order to survive.

Chapter Six- Experto Crede
In order to discover more about Ace's nemesis, Richter and Colleen are sent to Ace's hometown, a city built in an enormous glass tower called Infinite Heights. There, they learn of Ace's past as well as the secrets of the Power of Existence while attempting to save the city from its imminent destruction at the hands of the sun itself.

From there, things really start to heat up as Ace's unseen foe begins an endless assault against Ace and the rest of the cast. But I guess that's why it's called Volume 2: Rising Action.

Author/Sharp Pages

I've got three things to post today, since I missed yesterday's update and because two of them are only what I'd consider "half-an-update."

First page of Author/Sharp. Took two weeks to do this, due to a break I took to gain perspective. Perspective on this:
I made this version in one sitting, so I needed to stop what I was doing, take a break, and look at it after I had forgotten how I even made it. This helped it to not look like the lame version you see here. You'll notice that I did eventually realize the error in taking this the serious route, and on the redo, I fixed the monologue to actually make it sound like Ace talking. Voice isn't hard, it's just easy to forget about.
Unfinished second page. My laptop's screen is half-busted, so you can see why it's a bad idea to color on it without first making myself a template on my desktop.

I should talk about the decision to place the setting in another world, since this is its first occurrence. In short, it allows greater liberties and a greater importance on the secondary characters if the world has different rules. Also, it was a bit strange that a series about a character whose power is only limited by imagination took place in an environment that seemed to stifle imagination. Also, I can't trace buildings anymore, so it forces me to grow.

Author/Sharp Cover (abandoned page)

This was my first attempt at relaunching the continuity. Too serious, too dark. I got two pages into this when I had to hit myself and realize that Ace was originally designed to parody self-insert characters like the Author from Bob and George and decided to approach the series from a different angle. You'll notice that I use a much brighter palette in the current continuity.

I was just experimenting with those monster things, since I had never done color work to any large extent.

Richter's Tentative Design

We're really talking rough, here. This is just to give you an idea of what the reboot effects, since Richter is probably the most different. Again, though, his personality is more or less a combination of his /Draft and /Newtrul personas.

I think I'm on to something with the clothes, but the face needs work. He won't show up for another chapter, though, so I still have time.

V1 C1 P1 Redux

It's not very often that I fix a page I didn't like, but I forgot to put Icxthys in, so it gave me an excuse. I hadn't planned on redoing the background at the time, so I designed Icxthys' form to take up most of it.

V1 C1 P1

By now, color in an online comic is the standard, and I wouldn't want to look like a lazy bastard. I'm not too fond of the deep background, I suppose I did end up getting lazy after all.