Comic Report #106 - Thumbs Up (Patreon)

Hello again on a brisk, chilly Friday afternoon!  This week I've got an early stage comic layout to share, as well as a batch of old thumbnails.  Thumbs are an important part of the comic process but one I don't usually talk about on here because showing them would spoil what's coming, but since I'm at a break point I can share the previous batch with you.

When I first started this comic I was working as a bowling alley mechanic, so I would thumbnail my comics on the clock on the backs of worksheets and keep them in my pocket until I got home, as a way to turn work time into comic time.  I made a habit of thumbnailing in batches, so I can work out the flow of a stretch of pages, make sure each one ended in some meaningful way and that they all moved towards specific intentional goals- this last point was very important, as I like to decompress scenes a bit, so laying them all out in blocks lets me trim a bit of excess and make sure things stay reasonably steady.  This chunk-at-a-time process also saves me from committing to stupid plot directions by giving me time to plan things out, digest what I'm doing over the course of making all those pages and then reassess where I want to be; there are definitely some bad ideas I had early on that I am thankful I avoided, and that's entirely due to both batching my thumbnails and, later, taking a long time to make each page.  But anyways, thumbnails are the genesis of all story arcs in this comic, and they tend to just look like this:

This batch of thumbnails covered from the beginning of the chapter to now, plotting out Monday's flashback scene, Liz & Alice meeting up after work and introducing Lou and his boys.  Now that I've reached this point, got all my details in order and have everyone about where I want them to be I have been working on blocking out the next batch of thumbnails, getting the story to the next important truck stop.  And the first step on the way there is the next page I'm sharing with you today.

With Lou back in the main spotlight and this batch of the gang all together again, it's time to hook back into the main plot thread.  The opening panel of this page is a short jump in time, skipping over a bunch of chitchat to start off with Lou being like, so you want to talk to old man Mulgrave?  What for?  So we can get right to the meat of things.  The girls are probably not going to loop Lou into their secret mission so they will be wording their intentions like, we found a book with his name in it and want to return it to him.  Them leaving him out is probably not out of any disrespect to him but more because, as these pages have established, he just loves to share interesting things with everyone he knows.  This is Lou's arc, the plot is merely visiting his sphere.

Over the past few pages I haven't been too happy with all the shots I've been setting up- I've needed the overhead space for dialogue but I felt like I was doing too many head-level camera stuff, so as part of their walk-and-talk together I set up this third panel shot looking down on the street from the rooftop.  A flood lamp in the bottom left corner means the lighting comes from the direction a reader's eyes scan and I can put nice long shadows behind my figures, I think this panel will have some nice depth and atmosphere to it when it's all buttoned up.  

In the panel set below that shot I have Lou blocked in looking at his watch.  This page is basically setting up Liz and Alice asking Lou to bring them to see his boss, but that on its own doesn't make for a really juicy page.  Since this is Lou's time we get to enjoy the full breadth of his personality, and that means he's going to share as much cool and interesting things as he can with his beloved friends.  He's checking his watch to confirm that yes, in fact, Marty Mulgrave is gonna be in his trailer for a little bit, so lemme show you all about how Tombstone generates its electricity!  It's right on the way!!  Ending the page with Liz and Alice looking kinda pulled-around by Lou's enthusiasm is a better ending point than Lou saying "okay" and them all just going straight there, I felt.  They love their friend but they need his help so they just gotta put up with it.  Lou does have one more friend he gushed about to Monday on page 598, a Frankie, so you can expect to see him pop up in the next page or so.

That's it for this week's report.  I have a bit of gamedev progress I'd like to share but it's in pieces at the moment, so it will make for a better presentation when we button it up and get it ready for next week.  Up here in New England we seem to be out of the thick summer heat so if you share this climate, enjoy the onset of autumn!  Until next week, take care.