Computer
Paper Comics
Coming soon
to a computer near you
Introduction: This has been a long time coming, but I am happy to announce that the Computer Paper Project will soon become Computer Paper Comics. All of the blog updates and article posts will remain exactly the same, but will now be under the guise of Computer Paper Comics. This is something that I have been building to for a long time and I could not be more excited to share my first story with all of you. Hopefully, this newly finished product will be the start of a lot of upgrades for this site. I would like for these upgrades to include: an actual .com domain, items listed for sale in the shop, and a method for viewing comics as I finish them.
The purpose of this article will be to take a look behind the scenes at part of the creation process, talk about the upgrades for the site, and the announcement of my first comic - The Mountain and The Well.
The purpose of this article will be to take a look behind the scenes at part of the creation process, talk about the upgrades for the site, and the announcement of my first comic - The Mountain and The Well.
Behind the Scenes: These two images do not give too much away from the comic, but they do sum up my work process. For this comic I wanted to take it back to basics as much as I possibly could. I started with a 1 page outline with a bunch of random notes on it. Depending on the story this could include things such as an idea for a twist ending, the specific environment for a story, or a character relationship dynamic. These notes are generally pretty sloppy, and it is not uncommon for the final story to only take bits and pieces from this outline as I adjust them. After this I move to one of my favorite steps, thumb-nailing.
Thumbnails can be extremely telling for a story. For me, this is where I put a lot of thought into how the story will flow from page to page. This is where pacing, panels per page averages, and sometimes even color blocking can take place. This is where I think I really feel like I am telling the story. I start with 25 rectangles and add more pages as the story dictates. I put all of this on one page so that I can easily compare pages to one another, and that saves me a lot of time. I do not think that I would go over 32 pages for a single issue, if it was more than that I would probably consider re-working for a 2 issue story. I cannot even tell you how many pages of stories that I have laying around like this, but when it comes time to select one to work on; having everything on one page makes it a lot easier to choose.
From there, I make a tally of how many panels my story will require and then I print out a box for each panel on a separate sheet of paper. For The Mountain and The Well this was quite an intimidating stack of paper to stare down. However, the Computer Paper size makes all of the pages east to transport, and I can break the work down into a panel(s) per day format. While this may not work for you (I know that a lot of people still like to work on 11X17 Bristol) I had a great experience with it for my first comic. Once everything was printed out, I drew and inked directly onto the sheets of Computer Paper. I use Hammermill Copy Paper, and it held up fairly well. One thing to note, if you use a lot of black in your comics (like I do), you need to be careful about your paper curling. Once it was flattened out in the scanner it did not make a huge difference, but paper curling is something to watch out for. Especially if you are someone looking to sell originals, you want to make sure that your images are staying as high quality as possible.
After scanning, everything is level adjusted in Photoshop, and any loose pencil marks or other marks are erased. After all of this, which took me a couple of days, I was finally ready to composite my images together into pages. This is where it starts to feel like a real comic book for me. I use templates that I got from the Making Comics Class at SVS Learn, and they work perfectly. (Thanks Jake Parker.) Now, I am finally ready to color, letter, and finalize my comic book. Since this will be my first full-length feature book, it was a lot more work than these 4 paragraphs make it sound like. This process took a lot of hard work, and a lot of patience.
Thumbnails can be extremely telling for a story. For me, this is where I put a lot of thought into how the story will flow from page to page. This is where pacing, panels per page averages, and sometimes even color blocking can take place. This is where I think I really feel like I am telling the story. I start with 25 rectangles and add more pages as the story dictates. I put all of this on one page so that I can easily compare pages to one another, and that saves me a lot of time. I do not think that I would go over 32 pages for a single issue, if it was more than that I would probably consider re-working for a 2 issue story. I cannot even tell you how many pages of stories that I have laying around like this, but when it comes time to select one to work on; having everything on one page makes it a lot easier to choose.
From there, I make a tally of how many panels my story will require and then I print out a box for each panel on a separate sheet of paper. For The Mountain and The Well this was quite an intimidating stack of paper to stare down. However, the Computer Paper size makes all of the pages east to transport, and I can break the work down into a panel(s) per day format. While this may not work for you (I know that a lot of people still like to work on 11X17 Bristol) I had a great experience with it for my first comic. Once everything was printed out, I drew and inked directly onto the sheets of Computer Paper. I use Hammermill Copy Paper, and it held up fairly well. One thing to note, if you use a lot of black in your comics (like I do), you need to be careful about your paper curling. Once it was flattened out in the scanner it did not make a huge difference, but paper curling is something to watch out for. Especially if you are someone looking to sell originals, you want to make sure that your images are staying as high quality as possible.
After scanning, everything is level adjusted in Photoshop, and any loose pencil marks or other marks are erased. After all of this, which took me a couple of days, I was finally ready to composite my images together into pages. This is where it starts to feel like a real comic book for me. I use templates that I got from the Making Comics Class at SVS Learn, and they work perfectly. (Thanks Jake Parker.) Now, I am finally ready to color, letter, and finalize my comic book. Since this will be my first full-length feature book, it was a lot more work than these 4 paragraphs make it sound like. This process took a lot of hard work, and a lot of patience.
Website Changes: A real website would make things feel more real to me. Maybe it is the fact that I will be paying a monthly fee for the sole purpose of promoting my art and stories, but a real .com would really help legitimize what I am trying to do. Over the course of the summer, I will hopefully be making the transition into a full fledged website. Honestly, I will not begin work on this until I have finished up the work on my comic and have it sent off to the printer. Crafting a website is extremely important for any type of artist, and there are tons of great examples out there of different kinds that work. I have done a few sketches of how I would like my website to look, and I think that is going to help speed up the process a little bit as well. Obviously, with all of the time I have invested into this blog, I would like to continue the clean type of feeling that I have created here. We are slowly coming up on the one year anniversary of this site, and I think that roughly that time frame would make for a good transition.
At this juncture, I think that two of the most pivotal things that can be discussed in regards to a decision like this are time and product. I did not want to find myself in a situation where all I had invested substantial money into what I was doing without the time commitment to back it up. There are too many skeleton sites out there that have not or are no longer updated in a timely manner. Not every website needs to feature regular blog posts, but your website should speak to your current ability. There was no danger of me losing interest in art or comics, but I wanted to make sure that when the time came for my site to go live that there was a considerable amount of content to offer. Which brings me to the second point, product. I am truly pleased with the amount of work that I have been able to accomplish in the 9-10 months that this site has been running. There has been a growth in content, style, and quality. Having a log of this progression is really amazing to go back and look at, and I think that it will only improve in the future. This combination of time and product that I have accumulated is leading me into my next step of launching the a full website.
At this juncture, I think that two of the most pivotal things that can be discussed in regards to a decision like this are time and product. I did not want to find myself in a situation where all I had invested substantial money into what I was doing without the time commitment to back it up. There are too many skeleton sites out there that have not or are no longer updated in a timely manner. Not every website needs to feature regular blog posts, but your website should speak to your current ability. There was no danger of me losing interest in art or comics, but I wanted to make sure that when the time came for my site to go live that there was a considerable amount of content to offer. Which brings me to the second point, product. I am truly pleased with the amount of work that I have been able to accomplish in the 9-10 months that this site has been running. There has been a growth in content, style, and quality. Having a log of this progression is really amazing to go back and look at, and I think that it will only improve in the future. This combination of time and product that I have accumulated is leading me into my next step of launching the a full website.
The Mountain and The Well: These promo images are just a small taste of what the comic will have to offer. I am keeping most of the details close to the chest until it is officially set up to view, but here is the elevator pitch summary that showcases what this comic will encompass.
The Mountain and The Well - "Stranded on a planet of Ice, a space captain seeks the answers for what has happened to his crew. This science fiction adventure is not what it appears to be, and as the story progresses the looming presence of a mysterious well takes its tole on our humble crew. How can a planet be completely encapsulated in a wall of ice, and what in the significance of the well?"
I may not be the best at writing pitches for my own work, but this is just my first try. I really did enjoy the entire process of working on this story, and I hope that that joy resonates throughout each page. The Mountain and The Well is just the first in a series of short stories that I will be working on, and I hope to build of my storytelling ability from here on out.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts: As I put the finishing touches on my very first comic book, I think that I have learned a lot. There are a lot of people who have ideas for comics, and for most that is all that they remain. To have worked on a 100% original story has been one of the most humbling and difficult experiences of my life. I want to get better at both drawing and storytelling, and I am even more dedicated to this process now that my first work is near completion. I think that this is a field that I am truly meant to be a part of, and I cannot believe all that I have learned in the last six weeks of working on it. I hope that you enjoy my first story, and I hope that there are many more to follow.