Looking ahead to jumping back into my comics work this week. I ordered a few books from indyplanet.com to check out how their printing is, and browsed a bunch of online comics to see what’s out there now. I’m about half way finished with the next issue of Shanghai, and I’m not quite sure I want to do that as my first new shot in publishing.
I did about 10 pages a few years ago of a story called The Heart of the Wizard that I’m actually more excited by. It’s the same 3D art, but I had heavily filtered it to give it more of a traditional comics feel, so that it looks like it could be hand drawn, and I have to say, I like that better.
I started expanding the story yesterday, but am still keeping it very simple. It’s a fantasy sword & sorcery setting, but no highbrow plot as of yet. Just basic fun and action. I re-worked the main character last night, and gave her a more acceptable outfit, and I’m feeling pretty good about it. I tossed together a test cover, which is above. The actual cover will have more thought and time in it.
The style has bold outlines, over-saturated colors, and dot tones & flash lines like the comic art I grew up with. Some people really like the clean look of the straight 3D art better, but I think the more stylized stuff is a better fit for me. I’m going to try and get some new pages of this done and see how it strikes me. I think the characters lend themselves very well to a one-shot book, with the chance to come back and tell a lot more stories, as opposed to one grand story arc that I lock myself into.
We’ll see. Either way, I’ll have something new in print soon!