Take a look and leave a comment.

[Red-Dog 3]

http://red-dog.synthasite.com/

 

Is this heading in the right direction......

[RAF_Louvert 101]

I'd say so Red-Dog, but remember that the little clouds with bubbles indicate what a character is thinking, while the little clouds with hooks indicate what they are saying. Keep plugging away at it Sir, I am anxious to see the finished results.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[OvS 8]

I'd say so Red-Dog, but remember that the little clouds with bubbles indicate what a character is thinking, while the little clouds with hooks indicate what they are saying. Keep plugging away at it Sir, I am anxious to see the finished results.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

 

Also, can you use a font like 'Sans Comic Strip', or Arial, or something else that is plain and readable in the ballons. The circa fonts are OK in the descriptions, but again, for reading, it's best to leave the artwork to the story and not the text the user reads. :)

 

I used to draw a comic strip for my college newspaper way back in the day. So I have a little insight on this stuff.

 

All the best,

 

OvS

[Olham 164]

Yep, as OvS says about the fonts. The pictures are good, have a characteristic own style.

Very good so far!

[Hauksbee 103]

http://red-dog.synthasite.com/

 

Is this heading in the right direction......

COMICS? TURN BACK, RED-DOG!! THEREIN LIES MADNESS! And... a lot of fun too. One of the first things you find out is that every square inch on the page is precious. When you start fitting narrative and pictures together, there's always more you want to say, another dramatic camera angle that 'just has to' go in. You are embarking on the ultimate jig-saw puzzle.

 

Word balloons: Steer clear of exotic, or antique, typefaces. People gravitate to them because they are unusual, or have a period feel. They're great for headlines and chapter titles, but they become unreadable when set in text. I've used Comic Sans MS. It was designed to look like a hand-lettered comic book face and comes bundled on all Windows machines.

 

Page Layouts: There's as many ways to do this as there are people. As you'll note, I came up in the Olde School. The Young Turks of comics these days like to stretch page layout into shapes that most nearly resemble destructive testing. The Japanese Manga artists like to vertically stack four or five page-width panels.

 

[well...it's taken a few trips to the computer to get this all written, and I see that others have covered the main points. Push on, and good luck.]

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Defo a font rethink Red-Dog...but it's looking very good so far!

[OvS 8]

I've used Comic Sans MS.

 

Yes, that's the font I was talking about.

 

:)

 

OvS

[Hauksbee 103]

Here's another Comics Benchmark: start with a dramatic Splash Panel. It sucks you into the story and sets the stage for where this is all happening. When I started drawing for the Undergrounds, my first problem was, 'how do I get these big pictures into those little boxes?' because I was trying to get [for example] a pilot, a plane, some clouds, the other two planes and some background into each box. Then I realized that the artists were creating a panel with background [like a city] and for the next ten panels they showed only faces, or partial figures, or a car [if the characters were riding]...and memory filled in the cityscape.

 

Another thing is the 'cimematic-slice shot' [my term] The planes along the bottom are all chopped out of a single pic., but with the pilot's face inserted, you get a sense of time passing while he thinks.

 

Somewhere in my comics portfolios, there's a page I copied from a fanzine. It was drawn by Wally Wood and had somewhere around a dozen panels. Each panel was a technique for making the minimum amount of artwork give the maximum amount of information. Like a single object in a white panel [a car] with a speech balloon. Or a very close sillouette. I'll look through the archive in the coming days and send it on.

 

EDIT: Just realized, that with today's computer printing, there's no real need to go black-and-white unless it's an aesthetic decision.

Edited May 10, 2009 by Hauksbee

[tttiger 0]

Other than your font choice -- think simple and clean and easy on the eyes -- it's heading in the right direction!

 

Great idea!

 

Tony

[JohnGresham 0]

Busy with work and have only dropped in quickly, so apologies if I'm just repeating what's already said.

 

I think the fonts issue has been addressed.

 

The layout and composition of the panels is quite weak. You need to maximize your page space, maximize the dramatic impact of the panels and at the same time, keep the narrative clear. It's quite a trick to pull off, but I'd suggest you need to look at more examples of graphic novesl and draw inspiration from them.

 

The photoshopped images of the characters really makes it impossible to identify them and you need to be able to distinguish between them, so this also needs thinking about. Try to think of this a little like a movie and vary the scale of the images more. So think about close-ups, medium shots, not only to show us who's who, but also to foreground expressions, emotions, reactions, this will really bring the action to life.

 

Got to get back to work, so...good luck with it.

Edited May 10, 2009 by JohnGresham

[Red-Dog 3]

Thanks all for the comments, i will take them all on board and it will start to look something like what i hoped.

[Olham 164]

Hahaha! Hauksbee - are you sure your "comics days" are lying way behind you?

In my youth, I also did some (but never had enough good picture material).

When I see your enthusiasm, I wished I would live in Massachusetts.

Then we could meet, and draw Comics, and in the breaks, fly BHaH!

[Hauksbee 103]

Hahaha! Hauksbee - are you sure your "comics days" are lying way behind you?

In my youth, I also did some (but never had enough good picture material).

When I see your enthusiasm, I wished I would live in Massachusetts.

Then we could meet, and draw Comics, and in the breaks, fly BHaH!

Now that would be livin' large! In fact, it is probably the only thing that could tempt me out of comics retirement.

Edited May 10, 2009 by Hauksbee

[Olham 164]

Thank you - big compliment!

I just played with Photoshop and Corel Draw, and got carried away with this Comic idea...

A one-pic-comic. But then it's a postcard rather...?

[Hauksbee 103]

Thank you - big compliment!

I just played with Photoshop and Corel Draw, and got carried away with this Comic idea...

A one-pic-comic. But then it's a postcard rather...?

I'll take a copy! Where do I send the cheque?

[Olham 164]

Haha! That would perhaps be the first time I REALLY earned something with my stuff - Lol!!

You and everyone can click on it, copy it and do with it whatever you like.

 

RedDog - I hope we haven't hijacked this your thread too much? Carry on and show us some more!