Behind the Scenes: Pretty John Bishop part 1

So it's been a month and John sure is looking pretty. I figure it's time to give you guys a little more behind the scenes content. I've been in the art mines for a month and a half. Forgive me for not updating you on my thought process. There kind of hasn't been one. 

Origin

Around December of last year, I was in between projects and trying to figure out what came next. I started writing down ideas, most of which you've seen already this year. Among those was the sequel to Ballad of Scaredy-Cat Red that I knew people would be craving. Scaredy-Cat Red has done very well for me on the social medias, so a follow-up was inevitable.

I knew the approach had to be different. I wanted a more epic tone to things. More romantic and a stronger focus on character. So I invented the narrator and started playing with concepts. I hit on one that I really liked: "What if there was a guy who kept being put into different life circumstances where he was expected to be in drag? What would that look like?" And the name The Many Lives of Pretty John Bishop came into my head. So I wrote it down and kept it to myself. I knew that I would eventually have to make this comic, but I had so much on my plate coming up in the new year I couldn't touch it until summer started.

Head Empty, Comics Only.

I knew I wanted to start posting Pretty John Bishop on July 1st. That way I could keep up with the daily schedule numbering more easily. My goal was to get as many pages done by the middle of the month as I could, while maintaining my FeMail pages as well. Production started in mid June, with sketches and lots of reference and research. I think I'll make that stuff available in part 2, coming after the comic finishes. Why the middle of the month, you ask?

In mid-July I moved from my old city to a bigger city in California. It was only an hour drive, but that move was still super intense. I'm still getting my bearings in this new environment. Anyway, I  ended up having about a week of buffer that I could rest on with PJB. As soon as the move was over, however, it was back to the grind. I had a buffer to build after all.

Dress Code.

John's various designs come from referencing clothes of the period and then freestyling on them. Nothing is exactly accurate to the reference photos I used, but it carries the same spirit. John's most recent costume change with the curly, poofy hair is partially inspired by Patricia Quinn from Rocky Horror Picture Show and partially inspired by Isabelle from Animal Crossing. I wanted a very girly, very cutesy hairstyle that wasn't too far in the traditional "sissy" direction.

An early change I made from the original script was that I knew I wanted to keep John in drag as long as possible. Originally John was going to be on his own in the West and he was going to become a trapper with a big bushy beard. Eventually he would have taken some tonic and his beard would have fallen out, etc. Then I realized that part of the comic would have been a lot slower than I intended. So the Captain became a more central character and drove events more directly. That way John gets to be in more frilly things and we get to see their dynamic at play.

That's all the BTS notes for now. I'll post a big follow-up to this one after the comic is done. That one should have sketches and maybe even a peak at part of the script-writing process. 

If you have any questions you'd like me to answer, post them in the comments below. I'll do my best to answer you in the comments or maybe expand on them in part 2!

Thanks for reading!