Attempts at the sample scripts

[Emperor]

Sparkonaut: Really impressive work and (like everyone else) I eagerly awaited the inked version. It is really great to see someone bring a different style to Dredd and make it work. I also think you made a good pick on the story - something like "Cycle of Violence" is a bit dark and the PF one a few pages back might be a little too... obvious given your style, while this one really gives you a chance to show what you can do.

The good stuff:

Not afraid to draw backgrounds. There's a couple of panels that look like you've glossed over the pencils, but as it's pencils for yourself to ink that's not a problem. But many of the panels are really nice and tight and filled with life - I especially love that second from last page, panel 2- with the guy with the TESKO bag. Lots going on but none of the story telling is lost. great job.

The flipside to this is that if you aren't careful you can lose the characters in the background at the inking stage. Colouring it would fix that but the sample pages have to be in B&W. Using colour holds on the inks would work (black and grey are still colours) - it'd help the characters pop against busier backgrounds and would give you atmospheric perspective in some of the panels like the big first one. Or just a lighter line perhaps. You are probably already all over that angle anyway but I thought it worth a mention as it might be something you want to have in mind when you start inking. Although you can take that with a pinch of salt, as I can't draw for toffee, although if toffee was on offer I'd give it a go, it just wouldn't be any better

Thaks very much, Staticgirl

Ok,last page and that will be the last of me before the inks are done.
Btw, does anyone know if Tharg will be doing portfolio reviews at the London Super Con? I think I read on here that PJ said it's no good going the slushpile route, so I was hoping to take the direct approach.

I think RELYING on the slushpile route was the act of a madman. Much better to get a straight forward portfolio review, and back it up (if tharg is ok) with further samples.

Also you can't go wrong with a bit of small press work, you never know who might be reading them - the Nerve Centre gets a copy of Zarjaz and Dogbreath, Hell I think the legendary shark managed to get John Wagner interested in picking up the next issue of Zarjaz!!).

In general just get your work out there (stick it on DeviantArt, for example) and, given the state of the British comics industry, a bit of small press success can't hurt either - if you look at the last 10+ years then quite a few showed what they could do in the small press first: Arthur Wyatt, Adrian Bamforth, Simon Spurrier (with PJ on art duties), Nick Dyer and Michael Carroll. Also Al Ewing's first Dredd was in Zarjaz, although he'd had some Future Shocks published beforehand.

[Nick Shepherd]

Thanks Emperor for all of the useful info.  I am currently working on page 2 which will need alot of references so thats a big help. 
Also, that would be great if you could merge this thread with the submissions thread.  The reason I posted this piece on this forum was to get as much critical feedback as possible.  I really want people to tell me how I can improve.
Thanks,
Nick

[Karl Stephan]

As I say, I don't normally micro suggest like this, but this is the sort of lettering pass I've often done on my own pages, keeping the art as intact as possible but giving letterers room to do their thing. Which is why I'm called LL Cool PJ*.

Thanks, yo  Seriously though, I'm grateful for this. I'm used to doing my own indie comics where I'm the writer and letterer and get to shuffle things around, but I get that I don't have this option when working as a part of a team.  I just need a wakeup call.
Cool, I'll get on it. It'll be easy enough just shrinking and filling in more detail in Photoshop.

Sparkonaut: Really impressive work and (like everyone else) I eagerly awaited the inked version. It is really great to see someone bring a different style to Dredd and make it work. I also think you made a good pick on the story - something like "Cycle of Violence" is a bit dark and the PF one a few pages back might be a little too... obvious given your style, while this one really gives you a chance to show what you can do.

Thanks, Emperor. I couldn't resist drawing heads being blown off 

The flipside to this is that if you aren't careful you can lose the characters in the background at the inking stage. Colouring it would fix that but the sample pages have to be in B&W. Using colour holds on the inks would work (black and grey are still colours) - it'd help the characters pop against busier backgrounds and would give you atmospheric perspective in some of the panels like the big first one. Or just a lighter line perhaps. You are probably already all over that angle anyway but I thought it worth a mention as it might be something you want to have in mind when you start inking. Although you can take that with a pinch of salt, as I can't draw for toffee, although if toffee was on offer I'd give it a go, it just wouldn't be any better

What I usually do is adjust the line weights for images in the foreground to distinguish them from a busy environment. What I also though of doing for the bigger city scenes was to lower the opacity of objects in the distance to them a greyish look. What I do with my own comics is to use dotted half tone on certain objects to create more contrast.

Personally I dig this effect, but I've been wondering whether it'd make the art look a bit too retro for the newer progs. What do you guys think?

Also you can't go wrong with a bit of small press work, you never know who might be reading them - the Nerve Centre gets a copy of Zarjaz and Dogbreath, Hell I think the legendary shark managed to get John Wagner interested in picking up the next issue of Zarjaz!!).
In general just get your work out there (stick it on DeviantArt, for example) and, given the state of the British comics industry, a bit of small press success can't hurt either - if you look at the last 10+ years then quite a few showed what they could do in the small press first: Arthur Wyatt, Adrian Bamforth, Simon Spurrier (with PJ on art duties), Nick Dyer and Michael Carroll. Also Al Ewing's first Dredd was in Zarjaz, although he'd had some Future Shocks published beforehand.

Hey, I see Rufus Dayglo also started on Dogbreath! To be honest, I've never checked these out. Might be an option. Some really good work on there.

[John Caliber]

Or put out a sizeable graphic novel rather than a pamplet - it's more likely to attract a wider body of interest than a fanzine. If you can work at speed and can write and draw, go for it. I'm doing exactly the same thing this year.

[Karl Stephan]

Or put out a sizeable graphic novel rather than a pamplet - it's more likely to attract a wider body of interest than a fanzine.

Been there, done that  Only, it's just coming out, so I'm not sure how much interest will be garnered yet.

[John Caliber]

Ah, good stuff! Is it going to be featured on various publishing platforms, or just as hardcopy?

I'm experimenting with a story told in 6-panel pages to allow them to easily be pulled apart for iPad media. My writing method will also benefit from this page layout. I write a draft, a continuous narrative with no mention of panels. I then start drawing it and break it down as I draw, also performing story edits as I go. Much better to be able to write & draw at the same time, although a general overview of the plot has to first be in place.

My Wulf Sternhammer comic strip Where Wulf  was based on a draft that was four times longer than the 8-page final version; I enjoy writing dialogue, but in this instance it dominated what was supposed to be a fast-paced story, so something like 100 speech balloons of yakkety-yak was discarded.

[Emperor]

The flipside to this is that if you aren't careful you can lose the characters in the background at the inking stage. Colouring it would fix that but the sample pages have to be in B&W. Using colour holds on the inks would work (black and grey are still colours) - it'd help the characters pop against busier backgrounds and would give you atmospheric perspective in some of the panels like the big first one. Or just a lighter line perhaps. You are probably already all over that angle anyway but I thought it worth a mention as it might be something you want to have in mind when you start inking. Although you can take that with a pinch of salt, as I can't draw for toffee, although if toffee was on offer I'd give it a go, it just wouldn't be any better

What I usually do is adjust the line weights for images in the foreground to distinguish them from a busy environment. What I also though of doing for the bigger city scenes was to lower the opacity of objects in the distance to them a greyish look.

Yep that is the kind of thing I was thinking of - it should work very nicely.

What I do with my own comics is to use dotted half tone on certain objects to create more contrast.


Personally I dig this effect, but I've been wondering whether it'd make the art look a bit too retro for the newer progs. What do you guys think?

Its a good old school effect made so much easier in these digital times. The key is to use it sparingly as I can often be a bit put off by the overuse of things like graytone. I think tinkering with the opacity will do most of the work for you but I'd like to see a version with that kind of screentone/letratone effect added too, to compare and contrast.

Also you can't go wrong with a bit of small press work, you never know who might be reading them - the Nerve Centre gets a copy of Zarjaz and Dogbreath, Hell I think the legendary shark managed to get John Wagner interested in picking up the next issue of Zarjaz!!).
In general just get your work out there (stick it on DeviantArt, for example) and, given the state of the British comics industry, a bit of small press success can't hurt either - if you look at the last 10+ years then quite a few showed what they could do in the small press first: Arthur Wyatt, Adrian Bamforth, Simon Spurrier (with PJ on art duties), Nick Dyer and Michael Carroll. Also Al Ewing's first Dredd was in Zarjaz, although he'd had some Future Shocks published beforehand.

Hey, I see Rufus Dayglo also started on Dogbreath! To be honest, I've never checked these out. Might be an option. Some really good work on there.

Yeah definitely look them up, there might even be or or two of the FQP chaps around here somewhere.

[pauljholden]

I'm experimenting with a story told in 6-panel pages to allow them to easily be pulled apart for iPad media. My writing method will also benefit from this page layout. I write a draft, a continuous narrative with no mention of panels. I then start drawing it and break it down as I draw, also performing story edits as I go. Much better to be able to write & draw at the same time, although a general overview of the plot has to first be in place.

DC recently released a Justice League Beyond comixology comic, 69p for 22 'screens' - really half pages - adds up to about 13 pages of actual comic. The pages are displayed in landscape format, which looks really lovely on the ipad - nice wide screen and full colour. Format of the future...

-pj

[Karl Stephan]

Ah, good stuff! Is it going to be featured on various publishing platforms, or just as hardcopy?

CBZ, CBR, Pdf and hard copy. I'm curious to see what proportion of sales will be digital. I've been skeptical about the appeal of these. But then again, I am old fashioned where it comes to comics.

I'm experimenting with a story told in 6-panel pages to allow them to easily be pulled apart for iPad media. My writing method will also benefit from this page layout. I write a draft, a continuous narrative with no mention of panels. I then start drawing it and break it down as I draw, also performing story edits as I go. Much better to be able to write & draw at the same time, although a general overview of the plot has to first be in place.

That's probably the way to go. You can update more frequently and the pages fit the dimensions of most readers.

[John Caliber]

What I forgot to add: having a uniform panel size also makes it easy to cut, swap, delete or insert panels if the strip needs new story material added.

[Karl Stephan]

halfway with the inking. Taking way longer than usual because I'm getting lost in the details. Hope I finish in time for Super Con.

[Emperor]

That is looking very nice indeed. Looking forward to the rest.

[Judo]

Really nice stuff how long did this take you? x

[Van Dom]

That looks great Sparkonaut. You're characters are all so unique-looking and full of personality, I really like that. Crazy amount of detail going on in there too. Awesome stuff.

[Karl Stephan]

Really nice stuff how long did this take you? x

Too damn long (6 weeks?), but I've had a lot on my plate. Looks like I'll only be finishing it up to page 4 for the Con - not going to have time to do the rest before Saturday.