If you follow me on facebook, or on by BRAND NEW tumblr, then you know I've been talking about THIS comic for awhile now!
Yes indeed, this was supposed to be done about two weeks ago. My initial concept was for this to be another one of my pencil adventures... but lord help me, it just did NOT look that good in pencil. So i did what any good cartoonist would do in my situation.. I STALLED!
No, I didn't just stall, I also went in and inked it, and you guys know how much I hate inking. But I did it anyway, for YOU... for Christmas~... ^__^ in SEPTEMBER!
This was actually an idea I had way back when i was at Gaymer X, an introductory comic or something like that, just to let new readers know who's who and what's what. I kinda start off issue #1 right in the middle of the action without too many tedious introductions, honestly, because I loathe that in comics! I was figuring it would be a lot more fun for the reader to come into the story in the middle and learn the details of each character through dialogue. I want my comic to be like Final Fantasy 7, not Final Fantasy 13.
So this comic, which I actually wound up absolutely loving, serves as the buffer zone between interesting plot development, and instant gratification. It introduced a few of the important main characters from the first 4 issues of the book and lays down some ground rules about TransCat's abilities. I also took an opportunity to throw in some education in the last three panels, because waste a good opportunity? I want this comic eventually to become something that trans youth can identify with and feel strengthened by, and in my experience, that's best done when the subject in question isn't purely fantasy. There's gotta be at least a LITTLE truth whipped in there.
So yeah, here we are!
On another TransCat related topic... I have to keep on apologizing for TransCat #2.
That was ALSO supposed to be out like, two weeks ago. More like three, actually.
I finished it, and tried to make an appointment with my publisher, but then I got terribly sick and had to stay in bed for a week. By the time i was better and trying to reschedule with my publisher, HE had gotten sick and was out of commission for awhile to. By this time it was like, the 17th, and when he got back to work, he had like, a week and a half's worth of work to catch up on, so making an appointment was not easy.
I actually saw him today, and he told me he was gonna take my files to a printer today hopefully. But he also told me that yesterday, so... please keep all your fingers crossed for me. I hate being so late on what's only my second issue. I promise you it will be worth it. I don't want to give away too much, but this comic kinda spoils some bits for you anyway :P In this issue, Knave meets her first crush! This meeting also opens up a multi-issue story-line and introduces a concept that becomes a main theme in the story from here on. ^__^
Ohhhh I'm so excited to show you guys the rest! :D
And when I say "multi-issue" I mean, I'm currently penciling issue issue #6 and we're still feeling the effects of issue #2.
I remember watching an interview once with one of the main writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation and he was talking about how when they first started the show, there was kind of an unspoken but understood moratorium on any scripts that involved any kind of need for continuity, but they found it harder and harder to avoid as they ventured in the 3rd season. They resisted it as much as possible, but it was Worf's story that finally tipped the scales. His son, his discommendation from the Klingon Empire, and the power struggle that ensued in the Empire as a result, a power struggle that spilled into one of the movies AND into Deep Space Nine... that made a richer continuity between episodes impossible to avoid. The excuse they gave for avoiding it for so long was they wanted to get the show syndicated as soon as possible, and they worried that fans catching storylines that spanned multiple episodes out of order without context would kill the show. This exact problem would go on to kill the show "Firefly" fifteen years later, a loss that the fans still cannot seem to get over. Can you imagine if that was Star Trek? Can you imagine what an uproar that would have caused? The show that would revitalize the franchise cancelled in its first season? Lord almighty...
Anyway, I was trying to make a point somewhere back there. This aversions towards continuity isn't isolated to Star Trek, I've heard many creators and storytellers extol similar sentiments about the direction they want their stories to go in. Hell, even the guys who make Penny Arcade seem to be allergic to long running stories, and they release 3 to 5 panel strips! Either way, I dunno if it's just my situation and HOW I release my comics, but not only do I have no aversion to serialized storytelling, but it is one of my single favourite challenges to tackle when it comes to writing. A very vain part of me would like to think that it's just because I really do think I learned how to perform that kind of storytelling the RIGHT way (most likely from being such a huge Star Trek geek). Or maybe I just really like trying to put pieces of a story together in complex ways and it will wind up driving my readership totally crazy!! :D
I guess we'll see, won't we???
But I digress. I cant apologize enough for the delays. Trust me that when this book finally comes out, it will be a big fat deal.
<3 nbsp="" p="">
Yes indeed, this was supposed to be done about two weeks ago. My initial concept was for this to be another one of my pencil adventures... but lord help me, it just did NOT look that good in pencil. So i did what any good cartoonist would do in my situation.. I STALLED!
No, I didn't just stall, I also went in and inked it, and you guys know how much I hate inking. But I did it anyway, for YOU... for Christmas~... ^__^ in SEPTEMBER!
This was actually an idea I had way back when i was at Gaymer X, an introductory comic or something like that, just to let new readers know who's who and what's what. I kinda start off issue #1 right in the middle of the action without too many tedious introductions, honestly, because I loathe that in comics! I was figuring it would be a lot more fun for the reader to come into the story in the middle and learn the details of each character through dialogue. I want my comic to be like Final Fantasy 7, not Final Fantasy 13.
So this comic, which I actually wound up absolutely loving, serves as the buffer zone between interesting plot development, and instant gratification. It introduced a few of the important main characters from the first 4 issues of the book and lays down some ground rules about TransCat's abilities. I also took an opportunity to throw in some education in the last three panels, because waste a good opportunity? I want this comic eventually to become something that trans youth can identify with and feel strengthened by, and in my experience, that's best done when the subject in question isn't purely fantasy. There's gotta be at least a LITTLE truth whipped in there.
So yeah, here we are!
On another TransCat related topic... I have to keep on apologizing for TransCat #2.
That was ALSO supposed to be out like, two weeks ago. More like three, actually.
I finished it, and tried to make an appointment with my publisher, but then I got terribly sick and had to stay in bed for a week. By the time i was better and trying to reschedule with my publisher, HE had gotten sick and was out of commission for awhile to. By this time it was like, the 17th, and when he got back to work, he had like, a week and a half's worth of work to catch up on, so making an appointment was not easy.
I actually saw him today, and he told me he was gonna take my files to a printer today hopefully. But he also told me that yesterday, so... please keep all your fingers crossed for me. I hate being so late on what's only my second issue. I promise you it will be worth it. I don't want to give away too much, but this comic kinda spoils some bits for you anyway :P In this issue, Knave meets her first crush! This meeting also opens up a multi-issue story-line and introduces a concept that becomes a main theme in the story from here on. ^__^
Ohhhh I'm so excited to show you guys the rest! :D
And when I say "multi-issue" I mean, I'm currently penciling issue issue #6 and we're still feeling the effects of issue #2.
I remember watching an interview once with one of the main writers of Star Trek: The Next Generation and he was talking about how when they first started the show, there was kind of an unspoken but understood moratorium on any scripts that involved any kind of need for continuity, but they found it harder and harder to avoid as they ventured in the 3rd season. They resisted it as much as possible, but it was Worf's story that finally tipped the scales. His son, his discommendation from the Klingon Empire, and the power struggle that ensued in the Empire as a result, a power struggle that spilled into one of the movies AND into Deep Space Nine... that made a richer continuity between episodes impossible to avoid. The excuse they gave for avoiding it for so long was they wanted to get the show syndicated as soon as possible, and they worried that fans catching storylines that spanned multiple episodes out of order without context would kill the show. This exact problem would go on to kill the show "Firefly" fifteen years later, a loss that the fans still cannot seem to get over. Can you imagine if that was Star Trek? Can you imagine what an uproar that would have caused? The show that would revitalize the franchise cancelled in its first season? Lord almighty...
Anyway, I was trying to make a point somewhere back there. This aversions towards continuity isn't isolated to Star Trek, I've heard many creators and storytellers extol similar sentiments about the direction they want their stories to go in. Hell, even the guys who make Penny Arcade seem to be allergic to long running stories, and they release 3 to 5 panel strips! Either way, I dunno if it's just my situation and HOW I release my comics, but not only do I have no aversion to serialized storytelling, but it is one of my single favourite challenges to tackle when it comes to writing. A very vain part of me would like to think that it's just because I really do think I learned how to perform that kind of storytelling the RIGHT way (most likely from being such a huge Star Trek geek). Or maybe I just really like trying to put pieces of a story together in complex ways and it will wind up driving my readership totally crazy!! :D
I guess we'll see, won't we???
But I digress. I cant apologize enough for the delays. Trust me that when this book finally comes out, it will be a big fat deal.
<3 nbsp="" p="">
No comments:
Post a Comment