Now THAT'S what I call RESULTS.

THIS WEEK!

• The results of some recent patron polls!
• On the topic of cover design, please read Dan Wagstaff's blog…
• and a look at some Chapter Three pencils and inks.

As ever, I've posted the Chapter Three images above AND below for your viewing convenience. But first…

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN

I asked you for your votes and opinions on both a "cover" for PRACTICAL DEFENCE as well as a design for the flag of the pirates who will (hey spoiler alert) pop up. Let's see what happened.

The Cover

Here are the options I offered for voting…

…and here are the final results:

In total, 79 patrons voted. As you can see, "SKULLMIST" won the most votes. That surprised me a little. "WINDMILL" took the second-highest number of votes, which surprised me a lot.

My personal favourite, "BIG CROSSBONES" received the second-fewest number of votes. I thought the bold, iconic shape of the crossbones would make it the strongest option, but that didn't translate into votes. This is why, when it comes to things like this, I like to ask for outside opinions.

Thank you everyone who took the time to make comments, too. I say this not only because I saw a little more support for my sweet baby BIG CROSSBONES, but also for some other sharp insights.

I particularly liked Andrea and Lisa's comments saying that Option C is very "Buffy." I know exactly what you mean.

I've previously mentioned Claire Bendix's comment that "the covers read a little static to me." I agree, and that is definitely something I'll be taking into account moving forward. 

Mike and Neha both pointed out that the windmill elements of option B compete with the title. Looking at it now, I wonder if that's something that can be massaged away. Like, will tweaking the details of colour and composition be enough to let it read properly, or is that a futile fight? I'm not sure. In addition to the windmill being a good symbol for the setting, Chris suggested that, "the windmill also does a nice job of evoking a parasol, which subtly touches on the society/adventure dichotomy," which is exactly the kind of ingenious nonsense that gets me in trouble, so thanks Chris. ;)

But SKULL MIST is the democratically-chosen winner. And I'm glad, because you're right, it's cool. It still needs A Little Something; in my eyes it's not quite there yet, but I look forward to working on it. My goal will be to bring more dynamism to it, clarify the silhouette some more, and give it a bit of balance that it's missing.

And you know what? I think I'll finish up WINDMILL, too. WINDMILL will be more appropriate for some uses and SKULL MIST will be useful for others—like, I might expand SKULLMIST so that I can use it as a "landscape/widescreen"-format image.

The thing that unites both WINDMILL and SKULLMIST is that they feature DD's silhouette (with her relatively unique hair business) dark against a light background. I wonder if that's what gave them the edge.

TRUE COLOURS

I also asked for your votes on some pirate flags…

… and even though there's still more than a week to vote, let's talk about the results as they currently* stand:

I appreciate everyone who took the time to vote, and I appreciate the votes for my hourglass concepts, but the tone of the comments makes me feel like, hmm, I am possibly overthinking this.

Pirates need big scary skull flags.

And you know what? The story needs a big scary skull flag. Because as Chapter Three concludes, we see some sort of ship approaching, and then the flag unfurls, and I need you, Dear Reader, to say "OH NO PIRATES," not "HMM LET'S TAKE A CAREFUL THINK ABOUT THE SYMBOLISM HERE." I mean, you already know it'll be a pirate ship, because it's in the frigging title of the book, and what I want to say is, "YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT IT'S A PIRATE SHIP." It needs to be perfectly clear.

So: thank you! Thank you for saving me from myself, and thank you for taking the time to share your opinions.

* the afternoon of Monday, Jan 30 (due to this week's schedule).

ON THE TOPIC OF COVER DESIGN

I have long been a fan of Dan Wagstaff and his website/blog, The Casual Optimist. The idea is simple: Dan has good taste and he occasionally makes collections of noteworthy book-cover designs.

Here's his post on 2022's YA covers. One thing I noticed? Lots of ladies straight-up staring out at the reader. Very static. But lots of interesting variations on that theme.

Go browse his site! It's like walking through a bookstore, but one where only the pretty books get to hang out.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS WEEK'S DRAWING TABLE

A lot of the compositional strength for this week's pages will be achieved in colouring, just because light plays a big role in this sequence.

^ First, the panel as "pencilled." Then, the inks. Finally, a separate "actual pencil" layer. I started doing this on some panels in Chapter Two and it's a nice effect. It gets scanned in, then overlaid on the inks and cleaned up.

^ Same deal. The inked panel, plus the "shadow" overlay. Hopefully this underscores the importance of light in the scene.

Part of me feels like this sequence looks too "sparse." But another part of me insists that if I stick to my guns it'll be one of the stronger-looking sequences in the book… once I colour it all. This aspect ("wait for it all to come together") is one of my least favourite things about making comics.

You might say, "Tony, why don't you render the lighting using ink?" The answer is twofold: I've been using this "ligne claire" up until now and it would be weird if I changed it up now. The other reason is that I'm scared to commit too heavily to the lighting choices. The boldest I'm willing to get is blacking-out the foreground trees below, because I know they're going to be blacked-out anyway.

^ Nice, yes, but does it have central heat?

^ I'm happy with these poses (all of them), plus: I like the texture that the window panes make.

- - - - -

Okay! Back to drawing. I have less time than usual this week.

Still definitely coming:

• a big free-for-all post on writing dialogue (my favourite topic)
• I recorded 150GB of video as I inked a page. I'm not sure when I'll get around to cutting that process video together, but I gotta do something with all those gigglebytes.
• and of course more inked pages from Chapter Three!

Happy February, everyone. Many thanks for your continued support of this project. I hope it brings you as much joy as it brings me.

TC