Leitmotif -26-

20141221, 11:18 – Since it looks like the Space Edit is going to be more work than anticipated (see relevant pages) I figure unlike the Charger edit and the Naomi edit I’m going to do it in order for once. Or rather, in the order as I see it now. 11:53 – Replaced panel two, moved the panel two dialogue …

Leitmotif -28-

VT100 is a cheeky little bastard of a font – it looks good at certain really specific point sizes and like crap at all the rest. “Looks good at print scale” happens to translate into “illegible smear” in this case, so: ICG 44E-NE37 HEMERA SENT: 598.08.21 – Repeat contact, HRV 4.18 in vicinity of GSV-368. Location exact. Initiating transfer to …

Leitmotif -31-

My sleep schedule is a tad borked. I slept from roughly 6am to 9:45am on Sunday, then woke up to go see the first Sunday showing of Cowboys & Aliens with a friend. Then lunch, then back home, then three hours of sleep caught up with me and I Finished Up, roughly between 4:30 and 9. I need to find …

Provision -6-

Renders on the 7th, pencils on the 15th, basic cleanup and page prep up to being ready for shading very early on the 16th. 16th and 17th in Baltimore on business, shaded slowly over the course of this afternoon and evening – with plans to at least pencil the next page tomorrow. It’s a tiny little two page scene and …

Provision -7-

That took a lot longer than expected – next time around I’ll have to find a faster way to shade glass. That little bit was by far the biggest timesink. Previously when beer has appeared in the color portions of the comic it’s been in opaque plastic bottles – that was space beer, so the containers needed to compact instead …

Provision -16-

20120220, 2000 – Line art creation, cleanup and integration between roughly 2100 yesterday and 0600 this morning. About to commence shading, still need Lang’s pad, still intend to draw it this week. Looks like I’ll be posting a few pages at once instead of a page every couple of days. Rendering of this page was completed January 30, after which …

Provision -20-

2012 03 16, 16:53 – Ready for shading and mirror background assembly. Rendered in late February, line art drawn late Wednesday and early Thursday; cleaned up Thursday and Friday afternoons. 2012 03 17, 15:48 – Created mirror backgrounds and word balloon tails. Bent the top left border a bit, may add some energy effects to finalize the “exit.” 2012 03 …

Provision -21-

2012 03 16, 16:53 – Prepped in parallel with 4.20, ready for shading and mirror backgrounds. 2012 03 17, 15:48 – Prepped in parallel with 4.20; ready for shadow-matching and shading. 2012 03 18, 14:59 – Shadow-matched in parallel with 4.20. So totally ready for shading. 2012 03 29, 02:11 – Shaded after 4:20; will be finalized after 4.20. Probably …

Target -7-

2012 05 28, 03:51 – Rendering finished a few minutes ago. A righteous slog – roughly six hours to generate and tweak panels three through seven, and only done so I could wrap the page and start Monday with ATC off my plate for a bit. Plenty of work to do – most of it is stuff I’ve been putting …

Target -8-

2012 05 29, 02:33 – Rendered, though I may take another shot at panel six if it doesn’t sit well with me in the morning. 2012 06 16, 00:24 – Pencilled. 2012 06 17, 04:34 – Inking and cleanup complete; flat colors and primary assembly after I sleep. 2012 06 18, 01:15 – Flat colors earlier and initial assembly roughly …

Target -10-

Addicaine body armor works. Too bad they didn’t pack the helmets. I said I’d have at least another page up on the 4th, and here it is – complete with cordite. I ranted for a couple of paragraphs, thought about it, re-read the rant, and deleted it. To the extent that anything bothering me at the moment applies to ATC, …

Target -16-

Mmmm… foreshadowing. Foreshadowing, backstory, and bullets. And part of a boob near Jason’s left shin if you zoom way in on the full-size file. THIS PAGE HAS EVERYTHING! Four pages left of the chapter and one page left of this scene – 5.17 is rendered and ready to draw and I plan to start work on it this afternoon. I’d …

Target -20-

Some of what happened between 5.17 and King’s cameo is related by Raven during the events of The Dualist. As a chain of events it doubtless has a lot in common with Animal House, if Animal House was full of cyborgs and spacecraft and automatic weapons. Inferred, but not explicitly stated: when Beef loses his head, he loses a good-sized …

Incursion -2-

20141221, 13:48 – The Hemera edit. Reassembled and desaturated. Fiddled with the type a bit; matched the greyscale boxes to their appearance in Dead City Radio and changed “RECEIVED” to “SCHEDULED CONTACT,” which flows better with “NO CONTACT” in my opinion. Second Edition Metadata Shortest. Cameo. Ever. A lesser eternity of modeling, texturing, animation (yeah, the centrifuge spins), and… two …

Incursion -5-

Finally indeed. Even if I am in the process of blowing continuity all to hell for the foreseeable future, this is the first page of new ATC linework since July. Fortunately, the QAR was already built – the hangup here was scheduling. Commissions, getting other bits of the Second Edition rolling, and a horrific spate of mental health problems have …

Signal -4-

A fine line measured in hours, unfortunately – after adjusting the layout to the new dimensions, re-lettering (from a pre-existing rewrite) and cleanup… SO MUCH CLEANUP… my day is shot, it’s Beer O’Clock and I still need to shower. But hey, the page looks better and reads better. Hopefully future edits will take less time to edit than they did …

Signal -7-

A massive overhaul. Practically a fullblown redux – the only original material for this page and the next is the linework, and even that’s been tweaked a bit. Mainly for continuity – Throughout the first edition, Malky’s glasses vacillate between not having bows and having them, so along with matching Major Wakeman’s belt to the rest of his uniform, this …

Signal -6-

Monday. ALL of one. So much time that a redraw might well have been faster. The results… well, they speak for themselves. Admittedly, I spent a hell of a lot more time on the previous page than I did on this one… but it seriously needed it, whereas this one… well, it’s cluttered enough to get away with minor cleanup. …

Signal -9-

Less cleanup than I’d like, really- that damned hand in panel one is a nightmare. The only thing that’ll save it is a total redraw, which is more time than it’s worth at this point. Not out of the question but ultimately one of those “finishing touches” I’ll deal with if I ever have a free afternoon and can’t think …

Signal -10-

If you remember this page from the first edition (in which it was signal -11-), you’ll notice right off the bat that the last two panels have been dropped and replaced with an exterior shot of the Sabrosa. There’s a damned good reason for that – the original panel three stinks to high heavens. When this scene was originally-originally created …