2000 AD Online Forum

2000 AD => Website and Forum => Topic started by: John Caliber on 06 May, 2003, 06:56:48 PM

Title: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip Online
Post by: John Caliber on 06 May, 2003, 06:56:48 PM
Hopefully this link will take you to 'Gun Love', my first strip for this site:

http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=input&page=thrillviewer&choice=sd

I hope you enjoy it!

- JC
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: Tu-plang on 06 May, 2003, 07:42:08 PM
I'll even make it a link!

Gun Love
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: paulvonscott on 06 May, 2003, 07:42:22 PM
Enjoyable stront stuff.  Glad they are locking up the sicko who likes his meat well done.  Ack!
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: Tu-plang on 06 May, 2003, 07:48:01 PM
Good stuff.

MORE FANFIC!  It's just as good as the prog.
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: Gubbins on 06 May, 2003, 07:58:44 PM
Looks O.K, sounds O.K, it must be O.K.
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: John Caliber on 06 May, 2003, 10:53:44 PM
There will be a Judge Dredd strip in a fortnight [in colour - I think], based on a script by a friend. It's a bit kinky, so either put up your crosses or start drooling! :)

- LC
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: Oddboy on 06 May, 2003, 10:57:16 PM
More kinky then calling a story "Gun Love"? Sheesh!
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: John Caliber on 06 May, 2003, 11:20:48 PM
How does 'Debz Does The Big Meg?' sound?

- JC
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: Bolt-01 on 07 May, 2003, 02:37:52 AM
Nice, loved the way you sized the page to the screen resolution!

Good story, well told.

Rotts
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: paulvonscott on 07 May, 2003, 03:29:18 AM
I thought the proportions of the comic was a good idea, no scrolling or anything.  I'll be nicking that concept for future stuff.
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: John Caliber on 07 May, 2003, 04:08:37 AM
Something I had a few problems with Paul; though the screen image is not that much smaller than the original, it does lose something during the jpeg compression, which means that typefaces have to be larger than you might ordinarily use for a printed comic strip. I had to rethink dialogue blocks on a regular basis, stripping down the text to its minimum. Not a big problem as I said, but its worth taking account of.

Regarding the lettering, I first attempted to create speech ballons in Photoshop, but they came out jagged [see page 1]. All other pages were lettered in Adobe Illustrator and came out a treat. I tried to make many speech balloons irregular, rather than forcing text into perfect ellipses, which look boring and lack that organic touch I enjoyed from the handcrafted era of comic strip creation.

- JC

- JC
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: Tu-plang on 07 May, 2003, 01:51:43 PM
If you need someone to colour it...
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: John Caliber on 07 May, 2003, 02:23:16 PM
Fortunately I am rather well versed in colouring and will do so for the JD strip - but thanks for asking!

I feel that the SD strip looks nice in b/w, what with the crosshatching, and has a nice, cosy nostalgic look.

- JC
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: ukdane on 09 May, 2003, 03:26:32 AM
What about Krape?

I was expecting a pancake joke... *sigh*
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: Something Fishy on 09 May, 2003, 03:29:16 AM
Good stuff John, i really like the style of artwork.
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: Bart Oliver on 09 May, 2003, 09:36:17 AM
Speech balloons posed a problem for me too. In the end I used what I could in photoshop (elipse markee)
however if there's a next time I'll sketch the more problematic balloon shapes and tails with the wacom tablet.

I also have to confess that I checked your strip via a link on your site when I was fishing around for those top-draw PDFs you put together.

Great work.
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: HiEx on 09 May, 2003, 10:35:48 AM
Nice work John, very pseudo-Ezquera-ish art style.

A small bit of constructive criticism, some of the faces still need a bit of work as in a few frames, both Johnny and Wulf have some very strange expressions.

HiEx
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: John Caliber on 09 May, 2003, 02:08:50 PM
True true; takes ages to get faces exactly right, though I think the images in that strip get the gist of the desired expressions. I actually have  a reference book dedicated to facial movements which I - ahem - did not use for the strip....

I've also used a completely different style to my norm, this time adding a lot of crosshatching detail. On hindsight - in some instances - I was more concerned with getting the shading right than the faces. I've got at least two more strips to draw - both in colour - so hopefully there will be an improvement.

- JC
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: John Caliber on 09 May, 2003, 02:11:18 PM
'I also have to confess that I checked your strip via a link on your site when I was fishing around for those top-draw PDFs you put together.'

I posted it up there for a few days for JDSS players who are not members of this site; they've been deleted now [pictures, not members!]

All the PDFs [barring Shades Of Death, which has been moved to this site's fan fiction section] are now in HTML format, and can be found on the JDSS's Database page.
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: John Caliber on 09 May, 2003, 02:17:55 PM
'Speech balloons posed a problem for me too. In the end I used what I could in photoshop (elipse markee) however if there's a next time I'll sketch the more problematic balloon shapes and tails with the wacom tablet.'

I have a devil of a time with the my Wacom tablet; apart from colouring, I find it hopeless for fine line work. This I would assume is because it is A5 size, the movement of my hand not relative to the degree of movement up on the screen. I'm anxiously waiting for wafer-thin, tabletop monitors that you can draw directly on, just like drawing on a flat piece of paper.
Title: Re: New Strontium Dog Comic Strip ...
Post by: Gubbins on 09 May, 2003, 07:31:32 PM
Meat well done?  Yuk!