Posts Tagged ‘issue one’
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Hey Gang!
Welcome back for Page 5!! Well, this year’s San Diego Comic Con has come and gone– and today seems to be a relatively quiet “nerd day” on the internet, as everyone travels home to rest and recuperate from four days at the biggest Con in the Multiverse.
I’ll have a full writeup/wrap up on my Con experience coming up tomorrow, in lieu of our normal Studio16 blog entry– but, I did want to shout out a big round of applause for Spy6teen’s editor, Mr. DJ Kirkbride– who won an Eisner Saturday night for his work on Image’s Popgun Vol.3!!
I know DJ caught the dreaded “Nerd-Flu” while down in SD, so let’s also wish him a speedy recovery. Although, from what I understand, the Eisner Award has certain mystical healing properties as well…so he should be on his feet in no time!
(our dashing Editor and the Oscar of Comic Book Awards)
Ok, on to page 5!
Here we’re continuing on with our “World building” beat from last week, exploring the dynamics of Montauk High. I love the “big panel,” where after traveling around in our smaller shots, we get to see everyone hanging out in their various groups in one big panel– And here we physically see Cally’s place in the hierarchy of the cliques .
I think we’ve all been in this situation at one point or another in our lives– walking into a room and unsure of where to go, or who to talk to. DJ really nailed the sense of isolation that Cally feels in her High School life here– if you notice, no one is even looking at her.
It’s funny, in regards to Lisa’s coloring on this page, Cary over at DynaGirl (which Lisa also colors) had mentioned in a blog entry how he didn’t notice a few of the background details that Harold had put in, until after Lisa had colored the page. The same thing happened to me here– It wasn’t until after I’d gotten the color version of this page that I noticed little background details, like the guys walking up the stairs, the trashcan, and the bulletin board. I mean, these aren’t “Make or Break” details– but it all adds to the authenticity of the school– It’s the small stuff your eye can miss until the colors make them pop!
Ok, gang– that’s it for today. I’m still trying to catch up and recuperate from my time at SDCC, so I’ll wrap it up here…
One final note: Thanks to all who have voted on Top Web Comics! We’ve broken the Top 700!! It’s great to know that as we add pages and content, more and more people start discovering us! And honestly, it’s your votes that keep that happening! Again, thank you so much– It’s awesome to have such a great crew of supporters!!
As always, (and perhaps if you’ve just arrived) you can drop us a vote here:
Totally free– no signup needed and it just takes a second!
In a few weeks, I’ll start rolling out the Topwebcomics vote incentive program and let ya know what that’s all about!
Ok, seeya tomorrow for our SDCC Wrap Up blog!!
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Welcome to PAGE 4!
And with that, we’re officially one month old!
Even though we’re still in the opening of our story, time does fly, and I have no doubt that we’ll be closing our first issue in the blink of an eye.
…ok, maybe a really long blink…but a blink none the less.
Speaking of which, I’d like to take a second to congratulate our friends at Dynagirl, who just wrapped their first issue! I jokingly call Dyna our “Big Sister” comic– Since we have some creative family overlap with the lovely and talented, Lisa Moore!
Dynagirl updates on Tuesday and Thursday, so you’re just in time to catch up and start the ride for issue 2!
OK, onto page 4!
This page was a real toothache to write. It’s certainly one of our “wordier” pages, as it sets up the overall setting and players at Montauk High. I’d originally written it so that Cally enters the Lunchroom and sees the various groups sitting at their respective “clique” tables– Something that I think we all remember from High School– but, when it came time for DJ’s layouts, we were both a tad stumped on how to visually pull that shot off.
We passed back and forth a few ideas, but nothing was really working. A big problem lay in the shot-composition of one panel– there would always be a group whose back was facing us…Which is obviously, a no-no if you’re aiming to establish characters.
It started to turn into a real brainbuster for me, until late one night, I got an email from DJ that said: “Don’t worry, I got an idea that’ll work”– I was able to breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that whatever DJ had in mind, it was gonna work– And indeed it does!
DJ wisely took the one panel shot and broke it down into a MONTAGE– The exact same information is conveyed in each section, but by splitting up the action into individual panels, DJ has bought the page two things: A) We’re now establishing even more locations at the school, and B) We get a chance spotlight each of the cliques in their natural environments– which, to each of them, adds a small layer of character.
Page 4 begins our “world building” section of the book– keep an eye on the characters and concepts we’re introducing on this page because you’ll be seeing them again down the road!!
Geez, I almost forgot– here’s something cool:
That’s legendary comic artist, Whilce Portacio holding up today’s page! It’s a pretty big deal for both DJ and I, as Whilce has Hawaii roots, and was a big influence on both of us. When you grow up in Hawaii, it’s a pretty big deal to see a guy that used to live on the island, making it big. Both Whilce and inker Scott Williams are downright heroes to many of us that grew up on their X-men and early Image works. I really can’t understate their importance and influence to a whole generation of Hawaiian comic book hopefuls! Whilce da best!
Lastly, I wanted to shout out the gang in our comments section! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving us an encouraging word– I really can’t describe how happy it makes us to know you guys are reading and getting actively involved in the comic! I’ve got a little “shout out” section coming up to you guys in this week’s blog!!
Oh– actually, LASTLY– I’m very happy to announce that we’ve actually EXCEEDED our goal of breaking the top 1000 on TopWebComics!! Amazingly, we’re at 898! Considering we started somewhere around the 2400 mark, I’m incredibly proud that we’ve pushed this far in just a month! And it really is thanks to you guys!!
Through your support, I don’t doubt for a second that Spy6teen will crack the top 100 in the future! If you’ve got a second, please drop us a quick click here:
No signup or anything else required– just click and vote!!
Ok, gang– that wraps up page 4!! Seeya tomorrow on the Blog for a look at DJ’s Sketch Pad, and then on Thursday for an exciting pre-SDCC entry!
Finally, please let us know in the comments if you’re going to Comic-Con! I’d love to catch up and say hi!!
Here’s the page that I’ve been excited to post since we launched!
Page three’s big turnaround is the introduction of Don Killenger, star quarterback, as the baddie that Cally was fighting! Readers of our Zuda pitch will recall this reveal was our cliffhanger ending and one of the reasons I’ve been looking forward to page 3 is that from here on out, we’re in uncharted reader territory! All new story and nothing you’ve yet seen!
I also really dig what Lettering Ninja, Brant Fowler, did for page 3. If you flip back to Page 2, you’ll notice that Cally’s dialouge is in “Voice Over”– which, in comics is generally handled with Caption Boxes–
But with Page 3, we transition from Cally’s external voice to her internal monologue– which, we’d left everything as caption boxes, would probably be quite confusing…The fact that you aren’t confused is all Brant!
Lettering is a hidden art– and like any art, Letterers have a grab bag of tricks that you rarely consciously notice, but all push the narrative forward.
The obvious one on this page is our iconic “6″ that Brant popped onto Cally’s internal voice. That wasn’t called out in the script, that was all Brant. I think it’s pretty cool.
A subtler lettering note– again, all Brant– is the slight de-coloration of Cally’s balloon in the flashback. You’ll see it on Page 2 as well, when Uncle Conrad is talking…It’s a very small thing, but really helps establish that we’re in two different time-frames.
Lettering! It’s much more than filling in the little balloons! Big hand to Mr. Brant for the awesome work he brings to our pages!
In other site news, I’ve moved the blog off the front page. We’re still updating it every Thursday, but to access it, you’ll need to hit the tab at the top. The main page felt a little cluttered with the blog here– scrolling down five and a half miles– so, I decided to push it into its own section.
Speaking of the blog, starting tomorrow we’re going to be running a new feature called DJ’s Sketch Pad– featuring bonus art, concepts, sketches, and work-in-progress from the mega-talented DJ Keawekane! I’m sitting on some great stuff that I can’t wait to show ya!
Lastly, big thanks to those of you who passed us a vote on Top Web Comics! In just three weeks we’ve gone from the 2,000th position to 1,050! That’s right, we’re just 50 spots away from breaking the top 1000 webcomics in the world!!
If you can take a second to click on the link below and pass us a vote (it’s free and there is no signup) it’d be awesome! Baby steps from 1,000 to 100, I say!
That’s it for today! Hope you enjoyed Page 3 and we’ll seeya tomorrow for DJ’s Sketch Pad!
