Here are pages 50 and 51. Click to enlarge. Right click to see it full size in a new window.
These pages went through several changes before I finally figure ‘em out. For example, the first panel used to be Victuals at the doorway of his mom’s house and he was in peasant clothes. All the detail in the room was added after the fact and with a Wacom Cintiq. I think it blends pretty well with the pencil drawings. The beads are also all digital. The third panel use to be 2 frames. One with Victuals giving her a ring and the second with them kissing. The ring idea was bad from the start. I mean why would lizards be giving each other rings like humans? Then the kissing panel just looked silly so it got cut. When I think about it, most of the time when I can’t figure out how to draw a story point, I just cut it out and let the narration speak for itself. What a cheap trick. Anyway, I hope this conveys the story I was intending.
If you want to see thumbnails, sketches, pencils and the first coloring pass of these pages then vote HERE!
6 Month Milestone
Today is a special date for me and reMIND. Six months ago I published the first 2 pages of reMIND. I had no idea what would happen when I started this blog and I had no idea what I was doing either. But now after six months, I can’t imagine trying to finish reMIND without it. I had concerns and doubts when I started but now I can’t stress the benefits enough. I’ll talk much more about this in the future because it’s a fairly new and misunderstood path for publishing. I also hit a few milestones that I want to share real quick:
- I just hit 200 RSS subscribers about a week ago. For some reason I had 200 as a goal for myself. Not sure why but I’m pumped that I hit it!
- According to ComicBlogElite, reMINDblog has had over 50,000 unique visitors in the last 6 months. That’s cool!!!
- I colored a complete spread in an hour and a half yesterday. This is really fast for me. When I started reMIND (4 years ago) it took me about 3 days to color a spread because I had no idea how to even start. I’ve refined my coloring over the years and started using a flatter and in turn, whittled down the process to a reasonable time. I’m not saying every spread takes me 1.5 hours now, some may take a good 6 hours until I’m happy but the fact that I don’t have to kill myself to get this done is very relieving.
T-Shirt Update
I just talked to my brother-n-law who is also the one making my T-shirts and he told me that I should have my first batch of shirts this Saturday. So it looks like I will be packing up all the Gorilla Packs next weekend to ship out.(assuming all goes according to plan). I still have a few left to move. I have 3 small, 10 medium, 10 large left. So jump on it if you want it for $10. Once I finish selling these I think I’m going to raise the prices to $15 (plus shipping this time). I’m basically selling them for no profit this first batch just to get the word out there. It also leaves me with the bill unless I sell them all. So yeah, buy a shirt so I can pay my brother-n-law. haha
Also, thanks to all who donated a little extra to help me cover the shipping outside the US. I’m really excited to know that reMIND shirts will be seen around the UK, Netherlands, Germany and Belgium! In fact, I’ve almost sold as many shirts in Europe as I have in the US. Maybe it’s because I like European comics better than most US comics. Interesting.
Rock Stars and Comic books
In my career as an artist I’ve noticed some strange things. One thing that keeps surfacing is famous musicians making comics. In my article about Agents, I talked about an unnamed famous rock star who hired me to draw his stupid comic and never paid me. Yeah, talk about a looser.
I have a good rock start story though. It’s about Rikki Rockett. You know, the drummer of Poison. He’s pretty much the coolest rock star I ever met. When I was at the San Diego Con back in the 90′s I showed him my portfolio and he immediately wanted to hire me. I was invited to Rikki’s private party that night for his new comic company called “No Mercy Comics”. That was cool.
Later that year my friend, Brian Brethauer and I planned a road trip to LA from Idaho to see Rikki and show him some more work. Needless to say, nothing ever panned out. Rikki was awesome but it just wasn’t the right timing. Talk about a surreal moment seeing Rikki Rockett color one of my comic pages in Photoshop. I’ve never seen Photoshop before that day either. Remember, this was 1996.
Rikki coloring one of my pages.
Here’s another picture of Rikki Rockett and Brian Brethauer. I’m not in the picture because I was the one behind the camera. Rikki was eating a giant sandwich.
Since I have no pictures of myself and Rikki to prove that I actually met him. Here is a picture that has Brian and I so you can at least see that I know the guy sitting next to Rikki.
From left to right: Jeremy Barlow, Me, Jon Barlow, Brian Brethauer. Brian’s face is half covered but it’s really the same guy. Seriously. Brian, help me out here! This proof would never hold up in court. Brian?
I bet Rikki and Brian are off somewhere playing golf right now, laughing.
Anyway, so the point of this rock star memorabilia is this.
Last week, I was contacted by someone who works for the singer VV Brown. I guess VV is really into graphic novels and is making her own called The City of Abacus. I was asked to do a feature review of her book but instead I just want to say how fascinating it is that everyone is in the same boat when it comes to making a graphic novel. They might have more fame or money but in the end, they are the same as you and me, just trying to make a cool comic. It’s kinda encouraging when I think about it, I mean the fact that someone famous is asking me to plug their book? Me? I just have a blog and a comic that’s not even published.
I wish VV Brown all the best in her new venture as a graphic novel creator. When I cut my first thrash-metal-country-opera album I’ll know where to go for some press.
Excellent spread. I am really enjoying where this story is going man
Thanks my friend.
nice spread. i think you should trust more of your gut on those kinds of things. A legendary magazine/book designer once told me “people aren’t stupid, you don’t have to spell everything out for them” (or something to that effect) sometimes when you don’t show it, it has more power. yup. I think with comics, readers are already visually sophisticated. They can figure stuff out on their own.
thats rad about rock stars. ha.
Great point again ck. I’ve heard the same thing with film and directing. So much stuff is spoon fed to viewers and it’s a relief when the audience is able to think for themselves. I’m glad you think it’s working in this case too.
Do you design your two-page spreads mainly with web in mind or mainly with print in mind? Many of your spreads have seemingly important details down the center that look like they would get clobbered by the gutter in a printed version (this page is not one of them).
I design it with print in mind only. I never considered putting them on the web until 6 months ago and I’ve been working on it for 4 years now.
As far as the information in the gutter is concerned, I am purposely leaving the gutter somewhat full of art but it’s the parts that are not as important to me. I’ve seem some books that use the gutter as part of the layout and I’m tying to do the same with this. It’s been something I’ve been very aware of from the start though.
I’m also going to print it hard bound so that the pages can be folded completely open. Perfect bound comics are hard to see in the gutter but I don’t plan on printing it with perfect binding. If all goes according to plan, it should be a unique book in this matter. I hope anyway.
jason,
are you talking about binding the book into signatures like you might find on a higher quality omnibus or deluxe $60+ trade (a bit like a staple bound magazine) so that it lays flat?
The standard graphic novel/trade binding is a stab/smythe sew which binds single sheets together close to the edge. It totally devours the gutter and i hate it, but its much cheaper.
if your’e going signatures, its much nicer, much more permanent and another selling point =)
Yeah it sounds like what I’ve been getting quotes on. It’s almost like a library bound book. They fold nice and flat and don’t break the bindings when you try to look into the gutter because the binding is sewn together instead of just glued.
When I was at the Ape con in 2007, I noticed that all the nicely bound books were actually selling while the cheap thin comics were harder to move. So instead of starting with a cheap version, I want to start with a nice hardcover version. If I can get the Xeric grant then most of my printing costs will be covered too. Fingers crossed.
well the way that you are doing it is the good way and the proper way to bind a book. Its the new philosophy of books in the digital age…the book as desirable object. Cheaply produced junk is a dime a dozen. People are willing to spend money on books if they will last for a long time.
FYI, fee free to ask me when you’re close to that, but signatures require your pages to be in multiples of 4′s. Depending on how many you have it changes things. Thats something you should talk to the printer about. Its an easy fix, just add a sketchbook section to fill it out. =)
Sorry about my thumb. I suck at taking pictures. =P
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Rand! My IT guru. He is the reason reMIND blog is sooo nice looking!