Thank you so much for your encouraging comments, colcool! I will be adding 'pre-production' sketches of my strip on here, which I think reveal more about how comics are done, and the thinking behind them.
Meanwhile, a bit later than I planned, here's the original 'model sheets' I done of three of the four central characters: these were done before any strips were actually turned out:
BABY BOOMER'S name was the only one that came easily; I had this name from almost the beginning. The others were a real struggle: other cartoonists may have an easy time with names, but this task was seemingly never-ending.......however, the final names are:
for a long time, the characters simply had no names, and seeing I've been keeping dialogue down to a minimum [I try to put out as many silent 'pantomime' strips as possible] many strips do not carry names: however, I couldn't continue like this, and so I left blank spaces in the word-balloons so I could put in names when they surfaced.
VIBES is a slang word me and my mates used in our teens, even at that time this term was severely dated, and possibly dates from the later 60s.........it's certainly not a reference to drug-culture, and indeed although this is essentially a 'go-anywhere' strip, with Martian Invasions and even Atomic Bomb-blasts appearing with routine frequency, certain subjects are taboo: drugs simply don't exist in this world! [or my world].
Model character-sheets like these are more akin to the world of animation, however they are handy for comics too: say you yearn to draw MINNIE the MINX for example: definitive character poses along these lines definately help to 'sell' your ability to publishers like D C Thomson. Editors can tell at a glance if your stuff has potential or not....
The fourth of my 4 central characters is the female cat with the long hair......she evolved later on, and no character sheets exist thus far of this lass.........I hope to get one together sometime soon, though.
More on this character in the next instalment on here.
It has to be said that characters definately evolve naturally over time, and indeed these early 'blueprints' look less-than-definitive when seen today.....an updated version of the above is planned for some future time, though not at the mo'...........
more behind-the-scenes stuff coming up!
Very impressive indeed Rab - especially as the style is instantly recognizable and entirely your own!
