First Pages Done

Story’s done!

I’ve drawn the last few pages of the comic! In some ways I’m thinking ‘big whoop, there’s still so much left to do, dude’. But in some ways I’m thinking ‘wow, that was all that was left?’

Cause yes, there is absolutely a lot left to do. For instance:

• The front and back covers of the darn thing.
• The insides of the covers. What do people even put in those spots?
• Draw 4 pages of Spanky comics based on the outline I made in 2016-ish
• Revise and tune-up the faces prior to inking. Jay and Laine gave their blessing for me to use their names/likenesses for this, so I’ll need to replace Steve’s face through the whole comic with Laine’s.
• Run through the story and make sure any jokes that don’t land are tweaked, and anything I think is cringe is changed (since like, I’ve changed in the last 12 years). Also change the name of their band’s manager.
• Improve all pencils in places where things get sloppy
• Aaaaaaaand, of course … inking. Which is going to be a real pain (literally) since my hand is nowhere near prepared for the strain of inking several dozen pages.

I sometimes find it helpful to not think about ‘all the things that remain to be done’, but instead a short list of ‘what are my next steps?’. This way, it’s not about seeing the forest through the trees (which can be stressful), but instead just taking it one tree at a time.

Tonight, I’m either gonna take a crack at the Spanky comics or replace Steve’s face/name with Laine’s. Next, I’ll look at some comics to get some inspiration for the covers / inside covers. I don’t think they need to be super involved or even typeset or anything since this is a super low-budget and I’d like to get it done this month, but I also want it to feel ‘like a comic’ when it’s printed.

I’ve got 20 days left and time is feeling tight, but the project still feels achievable. Enough blogging, time to get to work!