Molly's Comics Blog

Continuing Progress

2011-12-20T19:44:00.000-08:00

I think it's better if I make smaller updates, or else I'll always be deterred from posting anything for fear of not having enough, LOL. I made a new comic page before my last Game Design class to show to the class, but since final projects were going on it turned out extremely rushed and much lower quality than I want ;_; So I'm gonna fix it all up and pretty much re-do it, but still wanted to post the thumbnails for the page. I was too rushed to finish the new first page of the comic (new intro) I'm working on, so I continued on with the second page that will follow after the old "first page" I posted. It's in the smaller format I was thinking about using, but I'm not sure if I like it, so I might add more panels.

Thanks for your patience, guys! Some day I'll have a whole lot of content for you, and then all will be good qvq

A New Start

2011-12-05T03:26:00.000-08:00

So sorry for not updating in forever 8( I've been wanting to have a lot of content when I finally did get to update, but it's been hard getting to that point given that I've been so busy - but mostly, after I had to restart, I got pretty stuck for awhile. I came up with a bunch of ideas for new beginnings, but none of them felt right - the way I drew up the first page was how it was written in the original story, like the start of a movie, how I had always imagined it. I got frustrated enough at one point and just wanted to keep working on it that I sketched out the next couple pages as it had been intended to continue, so I still have those to show eventually, but I'll post them when I catch up to that point. Finally a couple weeks ago I came up with a new beginning I was satisfied with and wrote out its entirety. But before I got the chance to make any pages, crunch time for final projects began and I haven't had much free-time since 8(

I just wanted to update to let everyone know what's been happening, and that comic pages WILL be coming this week! I want to get back into it and get on a consistent schedule, especially since this is the last week of finals and then I'll be heading back home for Christmas break, which I plan to be really productive over, haha. So YEAH nothing new to show as of right now, but just giving an update on upcoming pages! Thanks for reading and checking by! 8)

Masked Site Updates

2011-10-24T02:20:00.000-07:00

I've re-coded and fixed up the entire Masked website, cleaned up the layout, and finally finished Cyrus' "Cast" picture for the Characters page, which can be found here: http://masked.smackjeeves.com/characters

Here's Cyrus' finished profile picture:

Toby will be next on the Characters page - but first, onto redoing the first few pages of the comic!

Masked - Feedback and Changes

2011-10-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

I told my Lit. of Comics & Graphic Narratives teacher about this web-comic project a couple weeks ago, and finally got to show it to him the other day. He gave me a lot of feedback and critiques/suggestions, so I wanted to write them all out here, because I'm going to be making some significant changes to the comic, starting with pushing the “First Page” I just posted back a few pages within the comic, and re-making a new first page/intro to the comic. I thought that if I were to make some drastic changes, now's the time since I only have one page done. So this post is for documentation purposes.

     I showed the comic to him from this website and the first thing he said to change was the name at the top, because it was "Molly's Comic Blog" and he said that made it sound like it could be a funny, comical kind of blog, so to change it to Comics - so I did that. One thing he told me a couple weeks ago was that when starting a comic, it's a challenge to make it look like you're starting on page 40 for example, where the art and characters are consistent, because if you start and then improve a lot, you have to go back and redo the first pages to make them up to standard.
      The first critique he gave me after reading the comic page was that nothing really happens on this first page. He said the intro needs to hook the viewer and show what's special about the comic, because you have 2-5 seconds of the viewer looking at your page before they decide whether or not to continue. He asked what the essence of the story was and wanted me to find a specific point, so we discussed that for a bit and he said I need to decide on that and that's how I should start the comic - with an interesting catch, whatever makes this story special - and that'll be what draws readers in. I told him I was afraid of giving things away, mentioning how I had planned to reveal my character's powers in a cool way, and he was like, "It's not really a give away to find out that a superhero has super-powers in a superhero comic." LOL. That kind of hit me, but I explained how Cyrus has a main power as well as secondary hidden ones, and finding out about his powers throughout the story is a big interest point, so I didn't want to start off with a fight scene that gives a bunch of stuff away. He said I don't have to start with a fight scene, and that I shouldn't be afraid of giving anything away if it's a good story.
     So he gave me some suggestions on ways to start it, like using a future or past event, or a dream. Then he went back to talking about my page and said it could be used a few pages in, because it has the right pacing for that and is setting the scene really well, but I shouldn't START with that because it's boring. I told him how I've always imagined the story as movie in my head and that's why I started it like this, but he pointed out that the difference is that for a movie, people sit down to watch something they know will be an hour or two. Because of the nature of movies you have to set the scene first before something happens to change it, while this is a comic and people will just close the window if they aren't hooked right away. The viewer needs to be given something that keeps them reading.
     The next thing he mentioned was how many panels there were, and how I could cut it down after the first four and start the next panels on the next page. He said that the viewer shouldn't have to scroll to see the whole image, and that the way I formatted it was for print, and that I have to think about the screen format. I explained how I read a lot of web-comics and the formats I always see are either comic-strips that're just 4 or 5 square panels going horizontally - and I knew I didn't want that - or this kind of layout that was more like a print page. He reiterated that print is dying/dead, so I should make something that fits the screen format better, and maybe even format it for the iPad or smart-phones. I don't really care to format it for either of those platforms since I know people will be looking at it from their computers, but it's still interesting that he thinks that's the way to go.

     Overall he gave me a ton of awesome feedback, so I'm going to implement most of what he said. I do plan on making less panels per page, because it'll make it faster and easier for me to churn them out. The scrolling thing didn't bother me, but on Blogger - because of the new layout - when you click on the image it comes up tiny so you can't read or see anything 8\ So I was thinking earlier that I wanted to make it smaller because you have to open it in a separate tab to even see the full-view, and I found that extremely annoying.
     It's going be really hard to start over, but I want the comic to have the best beginning possible, so it's necessary. I went back through all the web-comics I follow and looked at all their formats and thought about everything he said about starting with something happening and stuff like that, and all but three (out of around twenty-five comics) start with some major event or something interesting happening, and one of the three hooks you with visuals, and the other two I remember being bored with in the beginning but kept reading them because they were by artists I loved. I still want to stick extremely close to the story because I love it so much, but there will definitely be changes, especially in how it starts. I hope that everyone is excited for these new changes though, and that it isn't too much confusion. It's all for the better!

TL;DR: There will be some changes to the comic - the first page will be pushed back to a later page, and a new intro will be made. The page layouts will also be smaller from now on. Read above if you want the explanations why.

Masked - Page 1

2011-10-16T05:23:00.000-07:00

Finally finished with this page!

Fun Fact: This comic is being written with a font called "Unmasked." This makes me happy.

Things I have learned:
It took A LOT longer than I thought it would. Doing the lineart and just figuring out how I wanted to do everything took the longest, but I was also held up by mid-terms. For the next page I'm going to try doing the lineart in pen right over the pencil sketch to hopefully save some time. That way I only have to clean it up after I scan, and can get right to coloring. I also learned that I have trouble with putting in too much detail haha |D I knew I was really detail-oriented, but...I just couldn't stop myself sometimes, or else it felt too empty or boring. SO lots to improve on! I'm planning to churn out the next few pages much quicker.

Masked - Page 1 Lines

2011-10-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

It's taken far too long for me to finish this first page, even though I'm done coloring and almost finished with shading it now. I decided I would post a larger version of the lines now since I wanted to do it later anyways, and at least give an update. The word bubbles and text will come last, which is why there are some empty spaces and no narration yet, haha. The finished page will be up by the end of this week!

Masked - Page 1 Sketch

2011-10-01T01:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the sketch for the first page of Masked. It took a little while for me to decide on the exact style, color palette, and overall look of the comic, which are all things I decided on before and while working on this. I'm going to finish it digitally and post it up on the Masked website, as well as here. I'm also going to make some changes to the layout before this is finished (such as moving the bell-ringing panel and changing Toby's awkward placement in panel 4, hahaha), but I wrote that all in the notes, if you can read them. I'll also get some character "profile" pictures done for the Cast page on the website and finish that up pretty soon too 8)

Masked, Page 1 - Sketch (Pencil, 9x12 sketchbook)

Title page

2011-09-15T02:08:00.000-07:00

After many variations, I finally settled on the Title/Credit page's (fairly simple) design, haha.

I'm going to finish the Cast pictures first, and then get to working on the first few pages!

Starting Off!

2011-09-10T01:25:00.000-07:00

Today I made the comic website for my first web-comic called Masked. I'm hoping I'll stick with it and it'll become my main web-comic out of the three I'm planning out for my Game Art class, since this particular comic is based off of a story my friend and I have been writing for almost five years. Here is the very basic synopsis:
"Masked" follows the life of Cyrus Nevier, a troubled teenage superhero, through his everyday struggles with school, friends, family, girls, and the challenges that come with being a new superhero in a big city. Countless adventures await - and in a city like this, anything can happen.

It sounds so generic when it's summarized haha |D But YOU'LL SEE. It's very different from any superhero story you've seen ;)

Here are some super quick gesture sketches I did the other night of the main characters that I colored up to make a little more presentable, haha. I'm gonna use the pose that fits best from each character page as the sketch for their "Cast" page pictures. As more characters are introduced to the story and become more important, I'll update the Cast page with their profile picture and a blurb about them 8)

I'm hoping to update the comic weekly in the beginning, but as my workload increases for school, it'll most likely become every two weeks. Nevertheless, I'll be posting here to keep you guys updated c8 The first page or two will be coming soon, so stay tuned!