In deciding what would be my first foray into creating a comicbook/graphic novel series, I orginally planned to just do a story I had been developing for a few years. Its a story I believe in and plan on making but, the reason I chose NOT to do it, was that I felt I would need more time to craft it than my current schedule/obligations would allow. I needed instead to come up with something fresh and less gratuitously involved, something that would allow me to pick up and put down at a pace which would not harm the intention or look of the book.
The trouble with that was, I reeeeally didn't have much developed enough to attempt as a series. I did have some SHORT, short stories I tinker with unfortunately, most were simple, small, stories, nothing that would afford for more than an issue. (Also, they were generally, what some refer to as "talking head" stories; tales that would end up being just various panels of people talking. Not really a great idea for a sequential art project.)
While I was attempting to figure it all out, I remembered one thing that wasn't so simple, short, or visually less-inspired. I'd been tinkering with a short set of "moments" about a teenager who worked with adults and happens to meet the girl of his dreams...a year to date from the end of all existence, ha, ha. A few minutes of looking at the concept somewhat (and eventually combining it with some more fantastical elements) and the idea started to flow together as something a few issues could fill up in interesting ways.
But timing was STILL a problem. I do illustrations and designs, usually more detailed and heavily referenced pieces, for book and album covers. There really wasn't too much space inbetween for me to hammer out full penciled, inked, and colored work.
As fate would have it, the very answer I was looking for, was literally right infront of me. On my coffee table.
Sitting there was an old copy of a now-defunct comic industry magazine. The opened page had some pencils from an artists with a very "loose" and more comic strip-esque style. I had not thought much about what I could do to ease the drawing process until that moment but, the style of those illustrations wasn't too far off from how my rough layouts and thumbnails appeared...and those were things I was able to do in no-time flat!
I COULD do something in that sort of style! Maybe just slightly tighten my sketches in some places... keeping it loose in others. Also, taking the time to realistically think about it, with this being my first attempt at comics, I could allow myself a lot more leeway in terms of having the look "nailed down" before doing the pages. In a sense, it would be more of a working-out-the-kinks, sort of thing (effectively working on this project in a way uncommon to the demanding precision that design work required.) This gave me a good feeling. I was able to set out developing the project, taking moments from the prose version of the story and converting it into 10-16 page "issues."
Thus, all I needed was to make the story a bit more fantastic and energetic (something I could work on "writing" while doing errands or travelling between destinations.)
But how THAT happened, would come down to another inspired moment from out of nowhere...
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