a new hope

so, look dev is done - this is what i've decided on for the new adventure = a little darker and edgier, hope's outfit is a little sexier (unless she's in disguise, which might very well happen), the petbot is a little clunkier, overall there's just a little more ... grit to it.
I think it'll work well with kind of story i have in mind, which will mix slapstick humor with high adventure and a healthy dose of science fiction - in the grand tradition of spirou and tintin (yeah, i know - that's not a lofty goal AT ALL!!)

;)

m

it's a matter of character...

in addition to the handful of characters i've incorporated into the gag-strip version of hope, there are a handful of friends and villains that still need to be adapted to the 'cartoon universe' of hope - one of the major ones is jacob jacobson, and if you stick around, you'll find out why he is so important - from a stylistic standpoint, not only did i have to adapt his features to work with the other, already established really cartoony characters, but i also wanted to test the heavier inkline, suggesting more shadows and thus a darker tone overall...



soon: a new hope (no, not episode 4!!!)

;)

m

a new beginning!

spent most of my weekend running around the emerald city comic-convention here in beautiful seattle - lots of inspiration, a bunch of great guys (and gals) doing a lot of cool stuff!!
mostly though, everything on display once more reaffirmed my conviction to get my ship into shape and finally use this fantastical sequential story-telling-device to tell one of the many hope-stories i have lying around in embryonic form since, like, forever!!

i may disappear for a couple of days to (re-)read a bunch of really interesting stuff about sequential art, storytelling, character development, script-writing etc etc,just 'cause that's gonna be the first order of the day, writing a script - but nevertheless, here's the more serious look that hope and her pals are gonna take on when they enter the world of high adventure.
A strong overall palette of more muted colors, coupled with the use of bold shadows, give the story more impact. The use of dark hues reflect the more serious mood of these more mature storylines.

i'll try and keep this blog updated, though, with more exploratory artwork, until i get to the actual script/thumbnail/layout phase

stay tuned!!

m

done and done!!!

this is the last strip for a while -

i REALLY like the format, and the four panels are a great way to divide the art chores over a manageable period of time - but i really want to tackle a serious piece of sequential art, of storytelling, and get a piece of the hope-saga out there at the same time - so that's the challenge for this year: to take one 'episode' of the 'hope' tv-series proposal, turn it into a script and then go and illustrate that said script in the form of tabloid format, sunday color pages. Let's see how that goes: I will keep on posting all work in progress and keep everyone up to date...

thanks for you continued interest

m