Hey Everyone! Just wanted to give you an update on the Mini Comic I'm doing for the Art & Story Supreme Mini Comic Challenge. In the last update i talked about the fact that i needed to re boot with a quicker and simpler idea for the comic and I shared some character designs i did for the new Glyf project. Next step was to get to the thumb nailing stage.

All Thumbs

Now this is my first ever comic im creating but from what Jerzy Drozd (from ComicsAreGreat.com) says thumb nailing can prove to be the most critical stage of comic making for the independent creator. It becomes the blueprint for everything else and is in fact where much of the storytelling gets layed out. So here goes nuthin!

The Spark

Now even before i went into the character design I actually did a real rough version of some thumbs and script. The image to the left shows my note book where i sort of scrawled out the loose idea of what this mini comic would be from sudden inspiration which conveniently happened one work night right before bed when i should have been getting my beauty snooze! Typical ;) Anyway in this inspiration session I discovered that I could do a pretty cool story with just two characters with a simple plot and, most importantly, a gnarly fight scene!!!!! Basically I built this ship from the outside in.   Yep an amateur  move but hey what do you expect? I'm an amateur.

Fleshing it out

After I did a little character design I then turned back into the all important thumb nailing stage. I decided not to make this too complicated and gave myself a lot of leeway. My 10 page simple thumbs turned into 18 pages and much more dialogue was added. I also expanded on the all important fight scene!

There were points I came to where I felt like I may need to do more research or where I could go a few different directions with the story but I resolved to not dwell too long on these things and I forced myself to be decisive. I can't learn from my mistakes if I never give myself a chance to make them U suppose.

I also kept the thumbs extremely small using mostly stick figure type design and a permanent marker so i wouldn't get sucked into drawing pretty pictures. I suppose if you take the time to examine my thumbs these images spoil the whole story but that's ok. Just promise you'll give me lots of money next time you see me ;)

Penciling Paradise

So whats next? Finally the moment we've all been waiting for. Or at least the moment I've been waiting for for most of my life. Penciling some comic pages!!!! Below is my progress so far. A half penciled first page. Get Excited!!!!! :)

Stay Tuned....  more coming soon!

And Thanks for stopping by!

God Bless,
-Marshall aka Calmplex

Also Find me on Twitter, Facebook,and YouTube or email me at Plex@PlexHop.com

Alright it's on again!!! Was inspired by all the talk on the Art and Story Supreme Forums of putting a big project into smaller steps and now i got my whole mini comic mapped out!!! well roughly mapped out.

Ditching my initial idea for something simpler.

I'm not 100% sure of the title of the comic but its going to be featuring a character ive loosly created called Glyf (to the left). The comic may just be called called Glyf and the episode is going to be titled "Elephant in the room". The main dialogue is written. Literally 8 small lines. There will be a 2 to 3 page fight scene YES!!!! :) where there may be some small dialogue added.

There are only two characters. So that should help with simplifying things!

I guess the next step is some character design turn arounds and thumbnailing. Then i think I'll attack actually drawing it. I can't remember which podcast it was but somebody explained the way they attacked there comic was all the pencils first for all the pages and then all the inks then colors and digital clean up etc. instead of doing it a page at a time start to finish. I think that's how im going to try it out. Can't wait!!!! :)

Also below is some sketches for the villain of the story "Tusk". Still not settled on a final design but its enough to move forward onto the thumbnailing stages.

Very excited to get this progress going on my mini comic. The due date is coming up in less than three months and there's a lot that goes into creating a comic from start to finish so i better get crackin!!!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my progress!

God Bless,
-Calmplex

Also Find Calmplex on Twitter, Facebook,and YouTube or email me at Plex@PlexHop.com