Monday, June 25, 2012

Billy's in the dog house now!

And back into the story we go. The last post about the nuclear survival handbook was in keeping with part of my mission for making Smithee - that is to give real world survival information.
Well, folks, I'm getting closer to wrapping up this issue. But as I begin to think about that, a whole new bunch of issues rise up. I figured out the only way to format these comics in a book is in landscape format.Won't that be unique? Also, I have learned alot about comic writing since I began Smithee and see things I want to improve.
Like I want to insert some panels where need be, add a Zombie character in issue 1, a splash page, etc. But, it is emotionally challenging to take those extra steps. I wanted this to be easier. But, I'm just a naive newbie and I have to suck it up and do it right. Growth doesn't always feel good. It's humbling to look at what you have poured so much of yourself into for months and gasp when you now realize "I coulda done it so much better" - had I known.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Nuclear War Survival Skills

I Found this nifty free guide to share with you all. Something Smithee wishes he had! Smithee cares about YOU'RE survival, so he shares this link with you all.

If you're new to my blog,click HERE to go to the start of the Ware-Wolf story.
Enjoy and SURVIVE!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

brewmaster

Finally, another Smithee page is done! I drew a couple of the panels this morning. Haven't had much of a chance for cartooning this week since I've been learning alot about comic script writing and doing the second draft of my script. The second draft was a major reformatting into something reasonable and script-like. I'm glad that script-writing involves multiple rounds of drafts. I can see that it takes time to whittle it down to the final mature entity your after. And I'm REALLY glad to have editors looking it over and showing me what I can't see all by myself because doing everything on my own limits how fast I can learn.
Anyway, Billy finally gets his soothing soda brew. I'm thinking Smithee added a 'special' ingredient to calm Billy down. We'll see.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

busy hand

I have recently take on the tremendous undertaking of writing a 6 page comic script for an ACC anthology and it is consuming ALOT of my time. And Smithee is at the point where I don't have pre-drawn panels to assemble any more. So I have to draw 4 new panels for this week ontop of doing the script! Rather than make you wait another week for Smithee, I thought I would satiate your need for line drawings with a practice piece I did a couple weeks ago.
I tell ya, it is a real steep learning curve going from being used to movie script writing to comic book script writing. It's a different format, and a different way of thinking. You have a limited amount of frames to pack a lot of information and emotion into. Also, learning about how to tell a good story by studying up on script writing is benefiting me in terms of knowing what makes a comic have substance and meaning.
I took on a monster when I took on doing a script like this, and that monster is very time-hungry. But I believe it will be a very meaningful monster when at last it's various body parts are sew together into a living thing.