The Ballad of 'Ol Shootin' Jed: Page 1

So, I've been hyping this for awhile and now here it is, the beginning. Page one of "The Ballad of Ol' Shootin' Jed" is lad bare before you. I've been wanting to do this story for almost a year and a half, I reckon, and have had so many ideas about what I wanted to do with it, and where I wanted it to go. In all that time, I did not give much thought to how I wanted it to begin! And that's always the real kick in teeth, isn't it? I must have erased and re-drew these mountains at least five times.
The other thing I struggled with was whether to try and go more realistic with this one, or more cartooney. As you can see, I made my choice. My number one inspiration for this particular art style? Yoshi's Island for the Super Nintendo. These influences will probably stand out to you more as future pages are uploaded ;-)
At least it will only get easier from here, phew... I would hope.

Slightly off topic now. As always, I can't pick up on project without thinking about at least three others. Back when I was working on Dave, I was thinking about this. now that I'm working on this, I'm thinking about that magical girl thing I posted some pictures of a few months ago. Here's to refresh your memory.
http://herrdoktorknave.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4jqrek
I used to do Magical Girl stories (very much inspired by Sailor Moon) ALL THE TIME when I was in middle school and high school. Sailor Moon was (and still is) one of my absolute favourite cartoons. But, as cartoon addictions often do, my love for it kind of faded off by the wayside over time.
My inspiration to re-attempt the "Magical Girl" genre comes from two things.
Number one: The DC 52. I know, this seems like a long shot, but hear me out.
If you're like me, then you have a lot of really cool, hyper feminist, lady friends who really dig comics. ANNNNND if you're like me, then you had a front row seat to all the rage and hellfire that rained down when 52 hit and all the cool lady characters got transformed into fucked up sex dolls.
If at this point, you have no idea what I'm talking about, please take a quick break and read THIS because I don't feel like paraphrasing it.

Are you back? Okay, moving on. After this hit, I had a lot of conversations with my friends, and eventually the idea formed of a comic starring girls with realistic bodies and realistic personalities. you know, if wishes were horses kinda stuff. I turned this over in my mind a lot over the next couple weeks.

THEN! The next thing happened, I saw Madoka Magica! I saw it and I LOVED it and I remembered not only how much I loved Magical Girl stories and THEN I remembered the conversations about DC 52 and thought "what an amazing opportunity!"
I'm nowhere close to a story yet, and only in the very beginning stages of character design, I just know that if I'm gonna do it right, I'm going to have to out-dark Madoka Magica. No fucking around with this. If I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it RIGHT! I'm thinking of creating a theme, where every chapter is named after a Current 93 song. I'm thinking "Nature Unveiled" would be a great opener.

Buuuut enough of that! Stay tuned for a new page of "The Ballad of 'Ol Shootin' Jed" next week! Peace out, ya'll!