I don’t want to make this a post about everything I hate about this comic (there is quite a bit), but I would like it known that that I am very unhappy with it.  But I’m okay with that.  You see, this comic is one big experiment for me.  I try and do something new every time I start a new comic.

Here I wanted to go with a more painted look to accompany the epic backstory and so I just went with it.  I redid the first painted pane about eight different ways before finally settling (key word) on the look I went with.

I will say that I am quite happy with the history and that the number 8,008 is hilarious.  Also, that is an inhaler if you couldn’t tell.

EDIT: Sorry about the typo.  It’s “plane” not “plain.”

I’m currently debating posting these on a set schedule, but if I do it’d probably only be every Friday.  What do you guys think–should I keep going at the sporratic pace, or try and even these suckers out?

I am a becoming a huge fan of the abstract background (seen in the triptych).  It’s nice to not have to worry about the details, and just focus on mood and color.  That being said, it doesn’t always work, particularly in wide shots.  The bottom panel was originally done without any details, just vague abstracty colors, but it just wasn’t working.  There wasn’t enough reference as to where they were, so it got changed.

I would also like to point out that this is the first time we’ve seen one of the blobs from behind, because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with their eyes.  I’m pretty happy with the result. Definitely still digging on the lasso and gradient combo for shadows and highlights, as you can see in the bottom panel.

Next comic will delve deeper still into the mythos of Dungeon Crawlers.

I am really proud with how this comic turned out, especially the art.  It was a total beast to churn out because of all the unique panels and overlapping things and such.  I had a total of 37 layers (not including text layers) which is kind of ridiculous.

One thing I wish I’d been doing sooner was cutting out the dead airspace.  The wide panels that I’ve been using this whole time have so much unused space above their heads, so I just cut it out.  And I think it looks dandy.

Another thing I tried was doing shading with the laso tool and the gradient tool (seen in the Guster close ups, particularly the toes) which I saw done on this comic coloring video on youtube.  I’m pretty happy with the results, and I think it keeps up the cartoony vibe.

And just so all y’all know, this is the first in a series–the next one goes up Friday.

As usual, here is my stream of consciousness/bad case of logorrhea (great word, look it up) all about today’s strip:

I’m really enjoying doing the smaller panels, as it constantly forces me to redraw things and figure out different ways to do things.  I also like how the smaller panel within the triptych turned out, and I’m interested to try doing more abstract backgrounds like it.

This comic took me forever to write because I couldn’t think of anything funny.  Both the Eric’s helped me (Eric A. gave me the name Mossy Pete which is going to be the name of every new character I ever come up with), but in the end I came up with a punchline that made me giggle.  Heh… poop.

On a website related note, I want to create better navigation throughout the site.  I plan on having only one comic up at a time and then implementing a FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT, CURRENT button type scheme, but I’m not sure how to do so on Blogger.  It looks like I can create a custom gadget through HTML, but I haven’t done HTML in years.  Any ideas?

With this strip I wanted to try and do more small individual panels, now that I’m working with a bit larger of an image.  I think I could go even smaller and be happy.  Another thing I’m realizing is that I should probably create more backgrounds for the alternate angles and such.

I swear this is the last comic about eggs… for now.

Another riff on the whole egg thing.  Stay tuned for part three next time.

When I was working out this page I filled up a few 8.5 x 11’s with doodles of different chaotic versions of Bo.  Lots of fun.

This idea was by my good friend Eric E., and it was good enough to steal and show as my own.

I had a lot of fun playing around with doing “action” here, and I’m pretty happy with how the rag dude came out, though I will admit that he is just a bit creepy.