A New Territory of Old Terrain.

I was doing some warm-up sketching (Which will be posted in short order once I can sit still again) that involved a goofy comic with Cinders and Berrand (which also will be posted soon).  A thought hit me as I was drawing both of them, however.

I have so much story and material on the pair of them, yet I've actively avoided doing a graphic novel/paint series on their story.

There were a lot of reasons and justifications I'd make to myself for this.  The fact that it would be 'too much work' or that 'I'd get to it someday'.  I worried that I was somehow exploiting them as characters somehow, and even telling myself that 'people wouldn't be very interested.'

It was all completely wrong, of course, but I think the prospect of doing a story of their travels through life in my own world was terrifying in some respect.

Well, that's going to change.

I thought about this for the last couple of days, bounced some ideas around in my head about where I could start, what I'd have to (collaboratively) write and even planned to bring this up with someone who's characters are actually a large part of their story as well (I'm nearly certain they'll be on board with this).  I'm going to start doing a long form, non-traditional 'comic' of this story.

I used to tell myself I'd get to it someday.  Well, I'm in my forties now.  This kind of has to be 'someday' or I just will never get to it before my limbs and eyes fail me enough to where I can't draw anymore.

I thought I'd announce it here first.  This is still in the ephemeral stages of concepts, and the project doesn't even have a title yet.  But the story is already there.  This is simply a matter of adapting it to the best medium of storytelling that I can.

What to expect

The comic will be in colour.  It won't follow traditional formats of having 'pages' in sets of 32.  These days everything is digital, long-form comics are becoming more and more abundant, and it leaves a certain open feeling to how a story can flow.  There will be chapters, side-stories, and other structures to keep it from being a 'run on sentence' of art however.

There will be a LOT of concept art.  Some of these characters haven't been drawn in over a decade.  Others are merely in written form and have never been drawn out.  I need to get comfortable drawing to a certain style that I want this whole thing to appear in.

All of this, of course, will be posted here without watermarks and at 150DPI and up for the concept sketches, with the comic pages themselves being at 300dpi for all tiers.

What will happen with the Tides comic

Tides has been a tricky bear over the last year to pin down in terms of story.  I can state emphatically that I'm not stopping or cancelling it, but its going to be a side-project to this one.  Its actually a great 'test bed' for practicing comic-work.  But its a story that I still haven't finished figuring out from where the last page stopped.

Still doing Patron Sketches?

Oh indeed!  Patron Sketches are a 'guarantee thing' for folks at the $10 tier each month.  They aren't a hassle, they help me keep sharp, and I like seeing all the character stuff you all come up with.  Those will indeed continue.

That said, there will still be some random 'world' art here and there along the way.  I still love the tribal wolf-folks of my world (I love all the varied people in the world, really) and the moos, and the birds, but I'm happy to say that many of those creatures will factor into this story project as well.  Its a win-win in terms of world development.  It means I can go in and fine-tune things about the places in this journey out of sheer interest to make sure they feel alive.

I'll admit to being a bit daunted and terrified by the thought of doing this story.  But I'm excited as well, almost giddily, and I know this won't be something I become bored with.  The sheer amount of story is going to mean that this is my project for as long as I'm able to put a stylus to a screen.  

Expect to see a lot of concepting going on over the next while, as well as colour treatments and ideas for places and environments.  The comic itself will be posted to all galleries I'm in, but a fair amount of these concepts and treatments probably will only be posted here.

So, one footstep onto the new territory, walking old earth as I go forward.

-T.J.