That’s right, you’re looking at a 12 panel page! That’s a record for our book! When we do a Page 16, Team 16 goes ALL OUT!

My original intention for this week’s page (and last weeks) was to run the pages “silent” (Brant was in total agreement!) as an ode to this comic:

…if you’re of a certain age, you surely remember this as being one of the coolest comic books of all time. Written with art breakdowns by the great Larry Hama, this issue was an amazing solo Snake Eyes tale, and featured the first appearance of everyone’s favorite ninja in white, Storm Shadow.

…and it was a totally silent issue.

No dialogue– just 2 silent, awesome, ninjas.

I don’t quite have the stones to try to pull off a Spy6teen issue totally silent, but I did think a little beat of it might be cool for Cally’s payback sequence…That said, last week’s page felt a little empty without dialogue– and with this week, I kinda felt we needed that “period” on the scene with Cally’s line…
So, although it didn’t end up being the Silent Ode I’d originally intended, at least you know that was its original intention.

 PROCESS

*Man, did DJ go nuts on this page– I originally scripted it as 5 panels, but with a note that DJ could (and should) re-choreograph the scene to his liking. Actually, looking back at the script, I wrote in a fairly basic fight:

PANEL 1
Sears brings the hammer down, but Cally deftly dodges– landing a few tonfa blows along the way.

PANEL 2
Cally launches from the inertia of her attack on Sears and carries it over to grab Don and…

PANEL 3
FLIPS HIM OVER! Throwing him directly at Sears (who is totally caught off guard.

PANEL 4
THUD! Don smashes into Sears, knocking them both down in a KO!

DJ way expanded on this, over the last two pages, giving us a Cally-Hulk out sequence, that really showcased her inner Wolverine. It was something that I’m pretty sure we discussed at one point or another– and man, did he pull it off.

Like the “silent” origin of this page, it’s just funny to see the original script page and how far it developed from those simple lines.

* DJ’s been doing a lot of experimenting with action lines through this issue– and man, does it play well on this page. If ever there was a page MADE for action lines, this is it!

* With all that blood, did we move into PG-13 territory?

* Lisa’s colors REALLY pop on this page. The background gradiants in the first two tiers of panels really help the action rev up to another level.
It’s interesting to note how she varied the two tiers, giving a real sense of movement to the fight. Because the colors are different, it truly feels like Don is getting beaten DOWN.

* Brant made the most of his one lettering moment of the page. Giving Cally’s line a hard stoke to emphasize the finality of her words.
It’s an awesome little flourish– and one that might not have a direct “meaning” in terms of comic book lettering (she isn’t whispering it, or  shouting it…etc) but she is saying something there– it’s just up to you, the reader, to decide what that is.

 WRAP UP!

Another quick write up this week– sorry, gang, we’ve all been pretty much super swamped.
Speaking of which, due to a scheduling snafu (and the once-again-mentioned craziness), we’ll be taking next week off. On the plus side: It’s to give Lisa a much needed and well deserved Vacation!
She actually toyed with the idea of trying to color next week’s page on her laptop (while out of town), but we all nixed that idea really quickly. If there’s one thing I highly believe in, it’s that when you’re on vacation, you should BE ON VACATION!

If you find yourself really missing Lisa’s hues, don’t fret, you can just pick up the Adventure Time spin off series she’s working on, “Adventure Time: Marceline and the Scream Queens”.

Now, I haven’t quite gotten caught up in the mania of Adventure Time quite yet, but a great number of people have been telling me that it is the most awesome thing ever– In fact, a buddy of mine, who is a huge fan of AT, mentioned just last week that he thought Lisa’s colors would be great on the comic…lo and behold!

Ok, so radio silent next week– but we’ll be back in two for…

THE FIGHT ISN’T OVER YET!

Krrrrrrrack!! Man, Sears’ new nickname might be “Glass Jaw” after this!
Today’s writeup is going to be Super Quick– sorry, gang, but I’m on deadline with about 3 other projects– and naturally, everything is happening at once.
So, yeah– this is gonna be a quicky!!

Off we go!!

PROCESS

* Here’s another good example of “Page Movement” in DJ’s layouts. This is another situation where you probably won’t be able to tell until you see a printed version, but check out how it will look at as page spread in a physical copy:

The thing to notice here is how DJ orientates page 14 so that Cally is facing left– whereas we have an Angle change on Page 15, where she’s facing Right. This is something that creates the illusion of movement in a two page spread like this– Particularly effective in fight scenes!

* We’ve also got some cool stuff in Panel Borders this week: Panel 1 is inserted into Panel 2– and here we’ve got the awesome moment of Sears BREAKING THE BORDER in panel 2– which really shows off how hard he’s taking that hit!

* I love what Lisa did with the background on this page: If you notice, she muted the background details just a touch– which really helps Cally and Sears (in their colorful “costumes”) POP off the page!

* Brant got the “easy button” page this week– but I love the standout Sound Effect! Particularly the rolling movement it has, which really sells the “traveling” of the sound.
Interestingly, the page was originally written without dialogue, but DJ Kirkbride suggested that the page looked a little sparse without anyone saying anything. I tended to agree, so we quickly cribbed up Sears’ line– which I thought was particularly funny: The big guy talkin’ smack with a bunch of gusto– only to get it handed to him in the next panel!

WRAP UP!

I know, I know…super short– but I’m staring down a boatload of other work that needs to be finished by this evening– I do apologize. When it rains, it pours, as they say.

Before we go, I did want to quickly shout out a Kickstarter from Scott King of Holiday Wars.

Scott has been super supportive of us at Spy6teen, and I’d love for us to return the favor. He’s currently trying to raise funds to print the trade of his book– and he’s currently only about $900 away!

They’ve got some great incentives going, so please head over and check out his pitch!

Ok, gang– that’s it for this week!

NEXT WEEK:

ALL OUT OF BUBBLEGUM CONTINUES! CALLY VS. DON!

THUMMMMM!

Look out, gang– Cally is headed into full-on “Wolverine” mode now!

So we’re back after a missed week. I’m not going to harp on it too much, I already explained what happened over on the blog. That said, if there is one aspect I’d like to reiterate, it’s the fact that last week is the first we missed in 79 weeks. I don’t say that in defense, either—I actually mention it as a point of pride!

Ok, let’s roll right into:

PROCESS!

* You may or may not notice, but this week’s page marks a production change for Spy6teen: It’s the debut of DJ using a brush to ink, as opposed to the pens he’s been using.

As a quick history lesson on inkers:

Inking (in ye ‘ole days also called “Finshing”) was a necessity of the printing process in the days of newspaper print. Since the replication of the press at the time wasn’t advanced enough to reproduce straight pencils, an artist was required to reproduce the lines of a piece of artwork using black ink…usually, India Ink.

Traditionally, this was accomplished using a brush, although over the years, inkers began using pens—today, it isn’t uncommon (like everything else) to ink digitally.

Inkers have long been the butt of jokes in the comic production process—famously, if you’ve seen Chasing Amy, Banky (Jason Lee) is told he’s just a “tracer”—not a real artist.

Which, of course, is hardly the truth. Inking is its own art form—a good inker sets the mood, pace, and legibility of a page. A good inker can save a shoddy page, while a bad inker can surely sink a good one.

After ECCC, DJ decided to switch his pen-based inking on Spy6teen, over to a brush. I thought it’d make an interesting guest spot for the writeup to ask him why, and what he thought of the difference between the two tools.
Here’s DJ!

I’ve been meaning to switch from markers to brushes for a long time but it just wasn’t feasible until now. I started using markers tech pens just because it’s a natural transition- pencils and pens are pretty much the same weight. But markers have a way of taking the life out of pencils. It’s not very forgiving. For instance when I pencil something especially characters theres a life to them that only the pencil can really create with its varying light grays almost black- or a dark gray. And then there is line weight that is very hard to replicate with markers and tech pens.

Switching to brushes has been well worth the wait for me. I was kind of saving that experience. All that life that the tech pens take away in my character work- the brushes don’t. I just came back from ECCC and I took the extra time to really just look at some different artists inks and how different they were to my own and I had to see it for myself and I did. The brush is just superior to markers and techpens anyday. But I will keep using the markers and techpens for background and ruler work. They can compliment the brush work real nicely. The markers also are better for man-made things like guns and buildings and precise things. I’ll have to see whether the brush is better for cars or not there’s something about cars that is man-made but the body designs are actually created by artists like myself so they take on their own life, but inking cars with markers really suck.

And just to (literally) illustrate what DJ was saying, here’s this week’s page as inks:

And a few other pieces that DJ’s been playing around with the brush on– If you’re an old school X-men fan, you’re gonna love these:

Click to enbiggen!!

Keep an eye out on DJ’s inks as future Spy6teen pages roll out!

* Minor piece of fun: I love the “skid lines” on Cally’s feet in Panel 3—a little piece of comic book iconography that could easily be overlooked with Lisa calling it out in the coloring.

* Stellar work from Lisa in Panels 4 & 5 as well, where she calls out the color of Cally’s eyes much bolder than usual, which really calls home the fact that Cally. Means. Business.

* Brant’s “Rock Star” moment of the page comes via panel 2’s “THUMMMM!” I’m a big fan of BOLD sound effects like that. I know some creators shy away from SFX, but personally, I love ‘em—and the bolder the better!

WRAP UP!

Nothing to plug from Team 16 this week—I think we’re all busy working on the next set of things to plug! In leiu of that, I thought I’d take a moment to introduce you guys to a new webcomic called “The Ghost Engine”

The artist is an insanely talented guy named Eric Z, who I worked on a few projects with a few years ago. In addition to the comic (which is great!) they’re also running a dual process blog, so it’s chock full of cool information.

The Ghost Engine is 8 pages in, so it’s a great time to jump in on the ground floor!

So, that’s a wrap on this week!

Remember, if you’d like to help support us, please drop us a vote at the link below!

And NEXT WEEK:

CALLY IS ALL OUT OF BUBBLEGUM!

(+2 if you get that reference!)