Folks, I am getting dangerously close to having all the components of a finished comic in my hands. As it stands, this is what the to-do list looks like:
Production
Concept Art
Pencils
Inking
Colouring
Lettering
Cover Art
Formatting
Launch Planning
And, as you can see above. We are very close to striking off another part of that list. I've been really pleased to bring Buddy Beaudoin on to letter the comic and he's doing a fantastic job with it. With this being my first comic, I wasn't sure what to expect when the lettering came through but the speech and SFX being there is immediately making Vicky's art breathe and flow in new ways. Having those little SFX touches to suggest the sound or the vibe of a place relieves some of the work I suppose you're doing as a reader to bring a still image to life. It's something I've understood at a kind of academic level to be important, but seeing it applied to work that you're actively involved with really drives it home.
I'm expecting finished lettering in a couple of days now, which means my self-imposed limitation of only thinking a few steps ahead at a time can no longer protect me from the dreaded launch planning. I knew it was going to come, but I was also happy to keep my head firmly in the creative and project management work.
I'm dreading something, it's probably because I feel there's something missing. And in this case I think I know what that is... The the rest of the story. This comic was written (and can stand) as a vignette that captures a single moment and does a little world building. But in writing it I pretty naturally started wondering what happens next. I have an idea for a six or seven issue story, but it's still rough around the edges enough that I wouldn't feel comfortable using it as a selling-point for someone thinking about picking up this comic. So perhaps putting together a proper story outline for what comes next should go onto the production list after cover art and formatting.
Oh, what's what? Launch planning's now too far down the list for me to think about? What a crazy random happenstance.
Reading-wise, I've got volumes 2 and 3 of Home Sick Pilots arriving in a couple of days time and I'm pretty hype for that. The way that story was arranged and translated to images in vol:1 really spoke to and energised me. So I'm looking forward to hopefully more of the same with the rest of the story.
That's all from me for now. I'll have more to say about the lettering process once that's complete, and a couple more panels to share - at least in part. One of the side-effects of only having a 13-page comic is I have to be a little more skimpy with the sneak-peeks than I would like. For now, here's a glimpse of the sweetest fuel pump you've ever met.
More soon!
Alex.