The Saint, The Bear, and One Fallen Angel

[rohwer]

Here are the first three pages of a 12 page comic (sans word balloons).





Any and all crits are welcome.

-rohwer

[KidVideo]

Your inking looks really good. i need to work on inking.

[rohwer]

Thanks kidvideo, it takes forever.

I start with a small thumbnail (about 8"x4") in pencil on xerox paper (about 2-3 minutes). Then I draw it out on watercolour paper using a 4H lead (20-40 minutes). Then I use a pigment liner to define all the lines on the page (20-30 minutes). Then I use a black PrismaColor marker and fill in all the dark areas (10-15 minutes). Then I use a Hunt#5 tip and white ink to clean-up some of the very small areas (<5 minutes). Lastley, I scan it into Photoshop (CS3) and paint all the whites as white, and all the blacks as black (10-15 minutes).

So the entire page takes 1-2 hours per page, start to finish. But it seems quicker than that.

[Og]

Your Mignola is showing.

[andrew fulton]

Your Mignola is showing.

Maybe a little, yeah, but I wouldn't worry about that so much.
Couple things that bothered me a little:
On the first page the smoke from the cannon(?) runs into the dude's beard, kinda looks like he has a big curly beard. I love the smoke and 'splosions on that page though, the starkness of them is great.
Second page - I don't understand this spatially at all. I don't quite get where these two duds are in relation to each other. I thought at first they were on the same level but the guy on the right was behind, then I thought there are on the same plane but the guy on the right is on a raised platform. THen I thought it was maybe two panels of the same dude, now I don't quite know what to think.
In particular my mind really wants the smoke/steam from the pipe in the lower rhs to go in front of the other tube. It seems like the bottom pipe should be in the extreme foreground, but then then it goes all eschery on me.
I really dig the goggle guy on the third page, that stuff looks great. Mr wierd-beard looks a little funny in his panel though - I am not sure what it is but his face looks a little shmooshed or something.
I really do like the smoke.

[rohwer]

Your Mignola is showing.

Og, thanks, I love Mike's stuff.

Andrew- Your comments are why I post here. Everything you said is stuff that I had not noticed or thought about, thanks.

I'll try to get the next few pages up as quick as I can.

-rohwer

[rohwer]

Here is page four (lots of space because this page will be a bit text heavy):



-rohwer

[Scott Hallett]

On the first page, you might want to try thickening the line weight on the panel border, and maybe using a white panel border to contrast the black on black of beard to background.

I'll agree with Steve that you show some Mignola influence, but maybe only in the stark black/same line weight sense. Your characters actually show a bit of Scott Morse in my eyes. You might want to check out his ink work in "Soulwind" or "Volcanic Revolver" to get an idea of where you can push things a bit more.

[rohwer]

Thanks for the ideas Scott, and... should I have heard of Scott Morse before? "Soulwind" or "Volcanic Revolver," both are titles that I have never heard anything about.

-rohwer

*EDIT* I just got off his site (http://www.allenspiegelfinearts.com/cra ... index.html), not bad at all. I think you are right Scott, my style works well with his.

[Scott Hallett]

I've found it unfortunate that it is a bit hard to track down some of his books in shops. Some of your character designs reminded me of characters he had in Soulwind. By no means do I think you should just look to one source for style inspiration. I think style evolves naturally anyhow.

[rohwer]

page 5. Like page four, it is a bit text heavy.



-rohwer

[rohwer]

page six:


-rohwer

[Scott Hallett]

I think you really might want to think about putting a bit more framing around your panels, especially the inset ones. Given the amount of spot black you have, I think you'll find it would increase the readability.

[rohwer]

Thanks Scott, I agree. I plan on doing it when I add the word bubbles. In not sure how the layout of the wording might change where I place the boxes.

-rohwer