Concerning the In-between Comics

So, in the same vein that “Groph’s Green Wizardry” brought us from “Deep Circuitry” to “Enter Cedar”, what if we do that between “Enter Cedar” and the next project? Maybe some sort of story about the Knowledge Retention Bot (KRB)?

We first saw the Knowledge Retention Bot in my short film “The Antique Dealer”, played by my good friend Hazel Blue.

Like, I’ve got this idea of a short scene where Ian meets KRB when he’s an adult, while out on a jog. The KRB has just found information about Ian’s interactions with Squash and Gray, which is what “The Antique Dealer” was about. So then it’s a matter of going from “Enter Cedar” to “The Antique Dealer”, and then to the “Algorithm Interviews”, where the KRB is still trying to solve where the aliens are.

And then all of this leads into the next big project “Where the Highway Meets the Corridor”, which is a tangential story that involves the KRB helping a group of humans help the aliens escape from the United States government. Yeah, I think that works.

Concerning Colossal Amphibious Mold

More mold stuff. I think “The Last of Us” is influencing me. Which isn’t a bad thing.

These are some thoughts on how a giant mold spore would use found objects to create locomotion.

I think they will eventually become colossal roving creatures in Trea. I don’t have a name for them, but they’re herd creatures that roam through deserts to find water sources. They grow long tendrils of plants as they drink the water, and once the water is used up, they move on, slowly losing their flora & fauna as they search.

Concerning Memory

So I got covid this week. It hasn’t been the worst illness, but it definitely put the kibosh on my weekly posting.

Aside from worrying about the potential day in which diminished mental and physical wherewithal prevent my artistic ambitions, the fever made me realize I wanted to start chapter 11 for “Enter Cedar” differently.

Like, I had already nearly finished this weeks posting, but then I got Covid, and then during the height of the fever, I got the idea for this new page. Which was actually an older thought, but I never wrote it down. If I don’t write things down, they enter one of those game show “money booths” that people get inside and grab dollar bills. I might grab the idea again, but I’ll likely remember months after I’ve published the larger concept, and I’ll just need to deal with the frustration.

Concerning Shoulders and Necks

Necks and shoulders. I think I’ve mostly been drawing the greys/cousins with no necks. I haven’t really taken the time to explore it, I’ve done my best to avoid drawing them. But, I think it’s all about elongating the neck.

Perhaps the younger a gray is, the shorter their neck is. I mean, it really doesn’t matter when the entire race just genetically engineers whatever they need from their body.

Concerning Worth and Big Pictures

I’m feeling very undeserving as of late. It began when I started creating a “timeline” of the projects I’ve finished and the projects I’ve yet to finish.

It’s a lot of work. I’ve done the math, it will likely take my lifetime (at my current pace). When I map it out like this, I start to feel like I’m not good enough to tell this story, or that it shouldn’t be as big as it is. That I’m not good enough for this, or that the idea itself isn’t worth illustrating; that “The Imbibe Universe” is only worth devoting a little space to it.

I don’t really have an argument against all that, other than I want this and that I’ve spent a good deal of my life thinking about it. It’s part of who I am as a person. It’s not a part I share very often. And I’d like to change that. Because it seems to be an awful shame for it to rot away in my skull after death. Regardless of whether or not it deserves telling.

Concerning Music Selections for a Medium That Is Silent

I miss doing songs with the comics. Maybe not with every page, but every episode should have a recommended song. Because Tapas Comics had a feature where you could add a song, there’s an entire Original Soundtrack for “Deep Circuitry”.

I really enjoyed that, because most of my comic projects were meant to be either live action or animated. Overall, I really miss audio. I miss the music and working with voice actors. I miss the collaboration and the spontaneity that would come with working with others.

Groph didn’t get music accompany. When I started illustrating “Groph’s Green Wizardry”, I didn’t have any music in mind. In retrospect, I think the soundtrack for “Groph’s Green Wizardry” would just be lofi.

For “Enter Cedar”, here are my initial thoughts on a recommended song accompany.

Episode 01: Smog “In the Pines”
Episode 10: Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld “Hey Hey, My My”
Episode 11: Philip Glass “Tagore-Scene II”
Episode 12: Tom Waits “Come on Up to the House”

Concerning the Log Children

This is an early piece depicting the Log Children. It was done digitally, because I thought I didn’t have an option to not do digital. You’ll note the lack of loincloth in the actual comic.

Original designs also incorporated a lot of lazy appropriation of Coast Salish elements. I had a lot of conversations with friends over this. The native elements are not super important to the story, as the gods behind the masks are not the actual gods, just beings who feed of the follower’s faith. Therefor, would that being use native elements to appear to people? They would to those they would be tricking, like someone who believed in the raven spirit. But would Ian see this? He’s just a white boy, with no affiliation with local tribes and customs, and since the appropriating beings use the thoughts and images they’re living in, they would appear with what’s available in Ian’s head. Thus, logs and blue tarps.

The added benefit is that this imagery is lot more personal to me. Making my stories personal to me is challenging.

Concerning the Details

“Paying attention to things – it’s how we show love.” – The Last of Us

That quote from last week’s episode hit me hard. I’m not one for details, both in my art and my personal life. My fear of not getting things done before my focus deviates causes me to seek the fastest method to get what is in my head outside. That means skimping on the details and embracing messy.

These are lichen hounds and mushroom tripods. I’m transcribing a script that happens about 6 books after “Enter Cedar”. It’s the same sort of creatures that form the “black mold boy” and the “moldies”.

Concerning Thumbnails

I like doing thumbnails first. Small scribbles that provide a blueprint for the bigger sketch.

But I always talk myself out of doing them because I want my sketch to be the blueprint. I want as few steps as possible. Ideally, it would be (script already written):

  • Sketch
  • Ink
  • Inkwash
  • Digital formatting

Like, these 4 steps I can get done in five 2 hour desk sessions (10 hours total). Which is the time I alot for each weekly page/post.

But I find that after I’ve finished posting, I’m often daunted by the big white page of the next part. If there’s thumbnail, it’s less daunting. But a thumbnail is just another stage to this work. But it’s a stage that gives me the confidence on what the sketch process needs. A script alone is not sufficient to start the sketch stage.

So I think I’ll start thumbnailing from now on. Scheduling wise, I find if the sketch is done before the weekend, so I start Monday with a full sketch, that the ink/inkwash/formatting stages can get done by the Wednesday posting deadline.

And thumbnails are stuff I can bust out in the cart or watching tv or before bed. It’s not something I need to be at my desk for. I’m always trying to identify parts of my process that can be done away from my desk to speed things along.

Concerning the Black Mold Boy

On my Tapas Comic page, I have the following listed under my profile:

“Toot toot! If you’re reading this comic, all aboard the Attention Deficit Train…”

Because I can’t focus on anything. Just doing weekly pages in a single installment of the Imbibe Universe is painful. So here’s some character design for the Black Mold Boy, a character in the series “This Bitter Earth”, which is scheduled to be illustrated 5-8 series down the line.