NEW! World’s End Quarterly Review.

Greetings All! This is the first public round-up of activities I’ve been working on for the graphic novel project World’s End Detective Agency…

…And I’d love to catch you up! World’s End Detective Agency is about a young bear named Avery who opens a detective agency in her home village of World’s End. She hires Bob Honkensnoot (a pig) as her assistant, and together they solve their first big case, which involves a missing suitcase that might save or destroy an entire town.

In 2021, patrons have glimpsed an inside look at my process from head to toe. Stuff from idea generation to character development to worldbuilding. I anticipate World’s End Detective Agency will take a couple years to complete and will end up being @200 pages in length. Here’s where I’m at so far!

Story
I have a complete synopsis and outline of scenes. I've started the script based on the scenes, where I'm making choices about layout and page design as well as dialogue.

I made a big mockup of the future book. I draw rough thumbnails on 8.5 x 11 paper which I can cut, paste and rearrange as panels in the mockup. I am enjoying the sensory part of having and leafing through the mockup and making corrections/changes that way. Up next: Continue work on the script.

Characters
I’ve mostly chosen final designs for the main characters (Avery, Bob, the villainous Dragon and Shank, Dragon’s chamberlain and a shifty-rat) and most of the supporting characters. I’ve been making model poses of them as well as incorporating them into sketchbook work, in various circumstances, so I can get to know them and see how they’ll behave in the story.

World
So much to figure out about the world! The terrain and environs are gradually unfolding, and I am documenting as it happens, via mapmaking and researching areas such as Scandinavia and other inspiring forest-mountain-sea places. Lots of sketchbook work on botanical and decorative elements.

Production
How will this look in the end? You’re probably familiar with the flat, colorful style I used for 30-Second Bunnies Theatre, but I want to try a different approach to World’s End. Thus I am experimenting with new-to-me software (Clip Studio Paint) and other mediums like watercolor, gouache and colored pencil. I share most of the experiments with patrons and some sketches on the Instagram feed. So far I am undecided.

Upcoming events
I’m participating in a cool Women’s Art Collective show in the Bay area on International Women’s Day (August 26. ETA: I will post specifics once I get the full venue info), so I’m thinking about what to bring for the World’s End project. I think I’ll make a quick zine as well as some postcards and display placards for identity materials.

In conclusion
I’m a beginner at long-format storytelling in comics. But I am really loving hanging out in the World’s End world and find it interesting to share the development process. Feel free to join as a patron to follow along and get blow-by-blow details! Next week I’ll share progress on the script as well as continued experiments in art style for the final look. Maybe I’ll see you then!

—Jennifer