I have no idea what prompted the color pages recently except perhaps the fact that I am now working as a colorist for Dark Horse with the new ElfQuest series slated for January of 2014. I wanted to increase my understanding of Photoshop so as to have as many choices as possible for the work. I have been soaking up YouTube tutorials like a thirsty demon sponge. Also I just wanted to experiment so why not kill 2 birds with one stone and experiment right on the web comic?
And speaking of this particular bird (the webcomic site before you) those changes I once warned you about are here. It is very important to stay on a regular schedule with webcomics, so I have been wondering how much I can regularly guarantee with my new schedule (which also includes recording at Funimation, several conventions and a new project I am working on with my pal William Foster called “The Sex Gophers”). The fact is I can’t guarantee much. I can guarantee I will do SOMETHING during the week that I can post here but what projects and what days is pretty much an impossibility to predict.
So here’s what I decided..every Sunday I will post whatever I have been doing during the week that I am contractually allowed to post. Of course, there will be some OLEO (it may only be in the B&W stage one week then the same comic, but colored, the next). There may be even be excerpts from The Sex Gopher project.
“What the hell is The Sex Gophers?” you ask. That is the first comic series I worked on back in 1988. William Foster and I have been talking about turning it into an animated series. So I may be posting some of the model sheets, storyboards etc here to get your feedback on them. We also considered doing a one-shot comic book with it as a way to promote it. If that happens I’d like to post those pages here on Sundays as well.
Of course, some weeks you’re going to see a bunch of stuff on Sundays. Wendy doesn’t draw ElfQuest in a 9 to 5 manner. We have 2 months to produce each issue of 20 pages so she waits until she is inspired to work. Which to mind is the best way to produce anything worthwhile on a consistent quality level. Which means some weeks I have more time to kill than others. Those weeks Sundays here will have a more material.
Regardless, I appreciate the continued support and feedback I get from you guys here. Please, stick around, there’s a lot more to come.
See ya next Sunday!
Sonny
I feel like Maab was the first Discord, with those eyes.
Well, she’s had millennias to develop that crazy
This definitely shows the advantage of the weekend wrap-up. Some things look clearer, but now it seems like something is still missing to the right of the last panel. I thought it was a full splash page. Oh, well. We’ll see… next Sunday if not earlier.
I was wondering what was up with all the Sex Gopher sketches. We live in interesting times.
There are 2 complete comic pages up there and the first panel of the next page.
On Sex Gophers. William Foster sent me an awesome script in the mail. So I had to give it a shot.
What a wacky dream! That’s one where you wake up and wonder what toxins your brain in makin’!
Can’t wait to see Goat waking up!
When Goat finally wakes we all better watch out!
hmn, if the Fae often represent aspects of humanity, then Maab is quite the statement. Oberon and Vogue both represent naked ambition – der will zur macht (hope I spelled that correctly). The will to power. Titania – love… and its opposite, hate, though perhaps the desire for revenge would be more accurate. Goat represents Naivete, existential angst (not to be confused with teenage angst, though she has a touch of that) and honesty. Mushroom is… to a point, the protective urge. Vigilance. Puck? Desire for a challenge. A search for fulfillment. And a certain balancing of the scales. Then you have Maab. She is clarity incarnate, foresight, and a madness so pure its lucid – a lunatic aware of their own madness and absolutely enamored by it.
Beautiful assessment. As I have mentioned, at this point I am letting the characters write themselves. Although sometimes I think I know what they will be like before I start…and I am usually wrong. Maab is so much more interesting than I thought she would be. I thought she’d be this silly character used as a simple plot device to explain the meeting of Oberon and Titania. I don’t know where I read Maab was mad but I thought it would be portrayed in my comic as complete lack of control but in a funny way. As soon as I put her down on paper her genuine personality started exerting more control than any of the characters. Even taking control of the format of the comic that she was presented in. I do now know what her main motivation is and it surprised me as well.
I agree with all of your assessments which is cool when you look at art as representing those aspects within the artist. Or at the very least, their opinions of these specific archetypes. Which I love seeing…like meeting people at a party who instantly get you. That being said it’s not necessary for me that everyone gets everything the same way I do.
Another way to look at art, a more metaphysical way, is that art is a living thing and as such presents itself to each person differently. Which is why most artist would rather have a range of love to hate when people see their work. Hate is an emotional response. If someone hates your work then you have come very close to approximating the creation of a living being that can incite emotion from others. Your baby has grown up…and even has enemies. Indifference is the thing to fear.
hmn, I tend to agree. Hate can be a good thing. If you create something to hate, then you are at least, to be remembered.
Also, I know what you mean about characters and their tendency to grab hold of the story, claim their own personality. You call it laughing at convention, while I on the other hand? I have done a bit of writing, and met many very talented writers, and its a common trait. The best characters they write become lives unto themselves, standing up in the mind and saying “This is mine, and this is who I am. You will not force me to be otherwise.” So I’ll call it the nature of the creative demons.
I believe that is true of all writers as well (well good ones anyway). As I tell people who are having writers block at conventions, “Figure out how the story is going to end. If you know your characters and you know where they are going, they will take you there themselves.” If I am flying in the face of convention here it is in the fact that I do not know how this is going to end but I am following my characters anyway. It really is an experiment for me. And it’s kind of hard for me to call it writing since there is no structure. It goes against everything I’ve been taught about writing and creating comics.
the master teaches the student who teaches the master. Have you considered that what you have been taught, while valid, may not be so complete? If all we do is follow within the lines, do as we have been taught, we do not grow beyond that teaching. Computer programs do that, functioning only within their parameters, and thus they become obsolete. Stagnation is death. Maybe your experiment will fail in the end, but my, what an experiment it is. You’re running blind to a hypothesis, and producing some truly impressive work. Perhaps, the conclusion isn’t the point, but perhaps, experiment itself, is both good and valid.
Exactly. I am always more about process than product. Just like at Funimation, what makes the greatest impact on me personally? Having a DVD in my hands that I was a part of or the actual experience of being in that booth and living the life, albeit in short bursts, of a cartoon character? Product is a nice marker but it is merely another laurel to rest on. Process is where the growth lies. No teaching is ever complete. The word “course” has many meanings. It can be a class or simply a direction to take.
Uh-oh, the 3-11 strip from October 11 is missing.
Hey, Sonny. I must thank you for a great comic or rather two (let’s not forget the long gone strip you used to post about the elderly punks, also excellent) so, if it has to end here (or enter a long hiatus or a trickle of new pages or whatever), well, we’ll miss it and is kind of unfinished but it was still very well worth it.
Do what you must and enjoy it all you can.
It’s in no way at an end…just going to slow down to a snail’s pace for a bit.
Ah, OK. Glad to hear that. 🙂
It’s 8am in Arizona so I’m not exactly expecting anything when it’s 10am on the east coast. Everybody needs their coffee and so-on. I just figured I should point out a small error in your explanation about your comics and such.
In your fifth paragraph mathinger, it says, “Which to mind mind-“. I found it kinda silly, as well as kinda strange that I felt drawn to check comics today given the rest of it, but eh. Things happen.
Will check back in a few hours. =3
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
-Sneaky editor Sonny
🙂