I’m Back… from Outer Space
I’m back!!! I haven’t posted much on Medium for a while now. I was trying to figure out which platform to use… Medium or Substack.
I decided on…
Both!
My purpose: build interest in my YA comic, Baby Barbarian, so that I can get it out to the broadest possible.
With that in mind, let me share some art from the first comic. Hopefully, you’ll find it fun and interesting.
Here’s the second page of Baby Barbarian & the Player’s Throne.
This is what is known as a Splash page and usually occurs in the first one or two pages of a comic to set the tone. Note that the location is established, the characters are established, and the inciting event is hinted at in this page.
This is why I love comics!
You can convey so much using the intersection of a) the art b) dialog c) captions and d) gutters (the gaps between panels).
Comics are also an excellent medium to show irony, dramatic irony, and foreshadowing with little effort-but a lot of cleverness!
I’m a maximalist when it comes to my comic and script writing because I like to have concurrent story arcs going, one of which is almost always silent and in the background.
I don’t know if anyone remembers the old Popeye movie directed by Robert Altman and starring Robin Williams, but there was this silent character in the town who walked around trying to grab his hat from off the ground while invariably kicking it further on down the road. Even though he was just a bit character, he had his own character arc and dramatic conflict. Ergo: would he ever be able to get his hat? That character in that movie accomplished something because all these years later I still remember the character…
The third page from Baby Barbarian issue 1.
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For this one, I had a discussion with my artist friend Ian Webster about what part of the panel should be shadowed. This page also features two characters created by Igor Wolski, whom I took to calling Bear Pants and Antlers. They become recurring silent characters throughout the comic, even being featured in the newest comic that we will be Kickstarting very soon.
#comics #comic #fantasy#barbarian #babybarbarian #graphicnovel
Page 6 of Baby Barbarian & the Player’s Throne. Compare this with the original flatted (meaning colors without gradient) picture in the next post.
I had found the letterer, the incomparable Lucas the Lettering Bear before I found the very talented colorist, Mariam Yassar, which is why we had it lettered first.
Regarding the composition, it was fun trying to figure out how to show that the first panel is a ‘flashback’ panel. We accomplished this by using the brown color scheme.
Mr. Mountebank, the character in the second panel, literally embodies our inciting event. On this page, he brags about how his prized possession, the Player’s Throne, will take “whosoever sits on it” off to a land of fun and games.
As is typical for our barbarian family, both dad and son are enticed, while mom keeps a cool head.
The next picture shows the page with watercolor finishing added.
Now the finished product…
Note the “shadowy figure” in the cloak in the bottom right panel. Who is he? Why is he spying on our plucky family? Or is he there because he’s also interested in the Player’s Throne? Only time will tell…
Spoiler Alert: when I put that figure in the script, I had no idea who it was! This is the fun thing about exploratory/freeform writing. The author is as surprised as the reader!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little stroll down memory lane. If you are interested in the comic and want to back the next Kickstarter/Backerkit campaign, please join my newsletter!
#writing #books#yagraphicnovels #illustration #graphicnovels #comics#familybooks #familyfun #healthyfamilies #barbarians
#fantasy #asterix #bone #amulet #dnd #kickstarter#projectwelove #perfection
