Today wasn't a page day, it was a character day as well as a 'talk on Facetime with an artist buddy' day. Mikilo I think I have down pretty well. Almost too well. He's more fun to draw than Ghiroy at this point, and that can be dangerous. The mage came about from one sketch. Sometimes it works like that. I think I'll change her outfit, make it a little less baggy but otherwise, I like her. She needs a name. She will NOT be a 'sassy black lady.' She will likely be the brains of the outfit. Mikilo will be the sex appeal, for some turnabout. They're going to be appearing in a page or two. We're currently in the prologue and I think there's just one page left of that. Then we'll get to the meat of the story. There is some structure here; I'll be pulling stuff from the old version of Ghiroy and all the work I did with Delve Deep. I feel kind of bad that I'm not using the rabbits or any of their backstory, but in the end, that project was going nowhere and this one has produced 20 pages in less than 30 days. I don't work well with too much fore planning. I need to have some spontaneity. If -I- know everything about the story, it's no fun for me to basically just repeat it. Took me a couple years to figure that out, but I finally got it. Pretty much how I learn everything.

Haven't really drawn anything in a week because of a heavy work schedule and some social stuff. And then we had a three day power outage. Today was my first day back in the chair WITH power and then... the transformer blew and things looked bad. Thankfully, it was a short wait, only a couple hours and I was back in business. Got a quick warm up of Mikilo done and then page 20. Ideas for the comic are flowing into my head faster than I can draw them which I take as a good sign.

Page 19. Another sign that this is the thing I should be working on is that ideas are starting to roll in, almost too fast for me to catch up with them. There's just a couple more things I have to crowbar into the current sequence and then Ghiroy can 'wake up,' though even that will come into question. While before I was using more British and French style middle ages type stuff for reference, I think I'll likely use a lot of the photos I took in Italy instead. Great architecture and not the usual Tudor style stuff. And really, that's how I always imagined D+D towns to be; small, walled villages on tops of hills. On top of this, I get to use my own photos which makes me feel better about it all, as usually I have to lean on others' work.

Page 18. This is kind of a milestone for me as this comic now exceeds the length of the last comic I made. Since I haven't had a long form project since Tamino, and as I can now see fairly far ahead for this one, it feels pretty good. The fun part is that I still don't know where it'll end up though I'm starting to get hints of that as well. So far, whenever I'm set to do a new page, I look at the ones that proceed it and just visualize things. Then I start drawing. So far, there's been no thumbnails or sketching other than occasional pin up stuff. This is probably the worst way to make comics, at least for most people. Seems to work ok for me. Planning is, honestly, dull. I mean, sure, filling in the details and all that, but I just spent five years trying to make a comic using that tried and true method and I got nowhere. I started this based on nothing at all, and I'm 18 pages in. We'll see how it goes.

Character design for later in Ghiroy where he actually meets other people. I've got a lot in mind for him. We'll see if it comes out or not. Also, it's about time we had one of the guys wandering around half dressed instead of it always being the women characters.

Had to work a long weekend so wasn't able to draw since last week. Which sucks. But it happens. So now I'm back on track and even have started to design other characters for the comic. We'll see if they actually show up or not. I think this comic is going to end up more light hearted than I originally saw. Which is fine. I'm letting it do what it needs to. Perhaps watching a bunch of Disney movies has something to do with it.

Page 16. This is just the beginning of what will be chunk of the comic that deals with my aversion to violence while living with it in popular culture as well. Can you have a hero story without it? I don't know. I don't think so. But I really hate violence. Even as I mash that 'B' button, I'm cringing somewhat inside. I can't deny that we're a violent species at heart. In real life, I know there are plenty of ways around it. It's just that violence is at the heart of nearly every kind of our stories. Even love stories often have violent moments. So we'll soon see that while Ghiroy has access to a sword, it doesn't mean that he HAS a sword...

Page 15. Coming along. No page tomorrow most likely as I have a long day at work. Drat.

Page 14. The most laid back page. But I felt some time needed to pass. Also, wanted to emphasize how stubborn Ghiroy can be. He wants his toy!!

Latest page. This is, so far, the LEAST popular comic I've ever done. I think I have no more than three people reading it, maybe four. My partner isn't one of them. And yet I really enjoy drawing it. I can't wait to do the next page even when I don't know what they're going to be. Oh well. Fame, it was not meant to be.

Managed to get another page done today. Wasn't sure as I wanted to take some extra time with this one. I was more careful with the figure drawing, both at the pencil stage and the Illustrator page. Also did most of the background with the Yiynova so that things would look more organic. I'm pretty happy with it. The lettering still bugs me. Don't want to use a digital solution as I'm afraid it might clash with the rest of it, but we'll see. Right now, I'd redo all of it. It's the only part that doesn't look right to me. Otherwise, onwards!

Page 10. He's very cranky. I -think- he's my muse, that part of me that loves adventure stories, the part that tells myself tales to get to sleep every night. He also represents, or will represent a lot of the different characters I've role played over the years, though one in particular. Dunno. So far, I'm really enjoying this. I look forward to being able to draw and work on it. It's the same kind of joy I felt when I was in the middle of working on Tamino. This one's a little more obviously me talking to myself but can there ever really be enough comics about that? :"D

Page nine. Pretty happy with this one. I think this will be a comic about writer's block...

Most recent page and cover/title image for the new comic. Though he hasn't appeared in clothes yet, I decided to recycle Sharp's outfit from Delve as I really liked it. I think that might be the death knell for any actual finished version of Delve Deep. I guess I won't put it completely to pasture, but for the moment, it's just not in me to work on or really approach. It hasn't been for the last five years either. I think I was just working too hard on it. Too much prep, too much trying to plan, or whatever. I like the characters, I like parts of the story, I just don't know that I have it in me to make that kind of comic. So I'll make this kind instead; the introspective, idiosyncratic kind that I like and few other people do. Doesn't really matter; people were sick of the rabbits anyway. And this way, with people, there's potential for a wider audience. Sort of. Maybe. Eh, whatever. This is what's in me to make, so I'm going to make it. I have no idea where it's going, how long it will be. One page at a time. And that is NOT the way to make comics. :"D

Seventh page of Ghiroy. Argumentative protagonist.

Six pages in and I think I've finally found my next long term project. It came out of nowhere, or out of nowhere as anything does. It will be called "Ghiroy," which is a name I was going to use for a comic that never came around and which is my spelling of the Russian word for 'hero.' I'm making NO plans for this at all, no sketches, thumbnails or scripts. I think with the other attempts at comics, I was trying too hard, trying to do something in a way I don't tend to work and trying to hard to make myself do something against my own flow. Will this be successful? Who knows? I'm not projecting things ahead, I'm just trying to take it one page at a time. I've already had some things suggest themselves to me and I do have a direction of sorts. This is how I worked with Fite and Tamino. Harlon was autobiographical, so I had real life incidents to use as my script, but even that wasn't planned ahead. Each strip was done in one sitting, one a day. So perhaps this is me, this is how I have to put things together, to trust in my head and what's buried there and that, somehow, in the end, it will all make sense. I guess we'll all see.

Page 4 in this thing, whatever it is. The lettering takes the most time. It can drive me away from the computer. I hope I become less verbose during the course of this... wherever it's going.

Did another one of these. Don't know where the story is going. I think I might work better that way.