Page 105 done. An easy enough page but necessary. I can understand why this comic is even harder to read than others I've done. Try reading the lyrics to a song at the speed of one line a week. This song is almost done. One more line of this verse, then the refrain. And then I have to design new characters for a different crew for the next one. Eventually, Silas comes back.

When planning doesn't work, it doesn't mean it can't be saved. These were sketches and even a WIP of what was supposed to be page 105. And as I went along, I got a lot of graffiti down in AD and finally decided to scrap almost all of it. The second sketch has a "STR" that is in the final, but not of page 105. It will be page 107 as I needed more images of the mice creating this mural before we see it. It gives them time to bitch/sing and isn't so sudden. 

I was watching a live video of cartoonist Jeff Smith being interviewed last night and it made me both excited and sad. I remembered being in the comics world, of having dinner with him three times. I was excited because I really think I'm doing something new and different here, and worth something, but also sad because I felt so far removed from the whole thing. Still, moving slowly forward.
 

 After a lot of last minute and last-last minute changes, page 104 is done. The major mistake was that the center hand was originally pink, denoting it belonging to Smatt. Thing is, on the page before, had I bothered to pay attention, I -might- have noticed that Rooster was aiming a paint can right at the 'camera.' So, changed the colors of the hands and the letters. Then, only then I noticed that the top hand, now Smatt's, was the only one without a sleeve. So I had to redraw that. And recolor it. Planning. I hear it's a thing.

 Changed my mind (and likely will again). The original set up was too complex, too confusing. And there's no reason to have more than three hands as there's only three characters. This also leaves more room for text, which will come later. That's what happens when you don't plan ahead. And I plan to do this the same way next time, too.

 And so it starts. Spent the morning taking photos and drawing three fingered hands. With only a vague idea in mind, composition will be going on until the last moment. Will I need to draw a fill in image or can I make this work as is? No way to know but I do find that, while still challenging, especially because of the missing finger, I like drawing hands.

 I have no idea what this is. I was sketching in the sketchbook, made something weird with Smatt, tried different ways of inking it and ended up doing this shaded thing. Not at all my usual style. But that's ok, too.

 Haven't done one of these in awhile, but this is a 'quilt' of the current track. Very bright colors and doesn't flow as well, this way as some of the other sequences. This is an artificial way of looking at the comic as it would never be seen this way. Still, overall, I like the sequence. It's been fun, loud and pretty much exactly what it's needed to be.

 City Silent page 103. Rooster, the mouse that won't stay dead. I killed him off in "Smatt's Odyssey," a comic I wrote when trying to deal with the death of my mother. One of my friends, when I told him where the genesis for the comic was coming from said, "You should have made a comic about THAT. THAT sounds interesting." Then again, this friend was always trying to tell me what I SHOULD do, never commented on what I was doing or what I wanted to do. Rooster won't stay dead, though. He's shown up since that story here and there. Of the three, though he's the youngest, he's the most tenacious. Somehow, he's even angrier than Smatt, and that takes some doing. I have NO idea why I'm writing this. But it's my blog so I'll write what I want.

Had some fun with the word balloons here. When are word balloons not word balloons? When they're not word balloons. I've learned to hate word balloons. To me, they just stick out and say, "I wasn't given as much thought as the rest of the page! Look! Comic sans! Ovals!" Big, white discs that are there for no other reason than because that's what's expected. Well, my comics would be almost impossible to translate into other languages but since no one's even reading them in English, who cares?

Anyway, page 103.

 Thursdays are busy days. I have to do the grocery shopping, record the podcast and get a nap in there all before dinner! That being said, I can often get some art done in the evenings. After realizing I had to fix page 100, I started work on 102. I couldn't just use the graffiti as done in page 100 as AD still has no warp tools, something I hope they fix very, very soon. So I took the original sketch done in Procreate, warped it there and exported it again. The lettering was very tough to get right so it would fit that weird space. at the last moment, I felt there needed to be something else so warped the cinder block wall I'd made for page 100. Came together rather well, I hope. Small steps.

 I changed my mind again. It had more to do with the lyrics than id did anything else. They describe the graffiti in this part of the song as being rather large and originally, it just felt too small. So I enlarged the whole piece and cropped most of it out. It's far more abstract this way, but it will be revealed a little bit more in following pages. And then, when this act is done and I go back over the pages, I might change it again.

 Ok, this was just for fun. I noticed the silhouettes of Smatt and his gang and suddenly thought of MST3K, my favorite TV show. I reached for a movie they would have LOVED to riff, added the mice, threw in some seats and here we go. Feels totally right to me.

 I knew I'd have to go back and make a page between the last two. There needs to be a pause and Smatt needs a reason to start spouting off. The comic is hard enough to read without me making sure the motivation is actually THERE. The first thing I had to do was design the graffiti which I wanted to be different than things I usually do. Somehow, it worked. Then I had to get the mice in there somehow and decided that silhouettes would fit the bill and they did. The simple, flat colors and accent stripes, to me, are more effective than I thought they'd be. My favorite part is the little word balloon surrounding Rooster's flipping off the graffiti. It's subtle and totally something I'd do. Not -totally- sure that this will work in the flow, but at least now I can move on.

 Another quickie sketch, this one called "The Ugly Truth," as I drew Smatt in a less attractive style and because he believes it's all about him. Almost looks like a naked mole rat. :D

 Just a late night sketch. Felt like drawing, didn't want to make a big production out of it and wanted to mess around with colors a bit more. So, this. Used a different brush than normal to ink; Inkka. Trying to remember it for later.