Years of work on a sci-fi comic and we’re finally on a space station. James’ end of the QAR session in The Dualist technically counts, but the “host” end of that is the Sabrosa. Both rooms are identical and there’s no indication of his actual location in either event. All previous “space” scenes have been either Spaceship Porn or aboard various ships. This scene takes place aboard a bona-fide space station, though the “Helios L2 Orbital” on the You Are Here diagram in panel one and a couple of lines of dialogue are the only indications given.
Back, on track, and hurtling towards a wrap of Chapter Two. I’ve spent a lot of the last six or seven weeks not working on the comic. While the script has been prepped (typed, for the first time!), laid out, and – after a lot of blocking and choking – the environment is finally finished, I’ve also been working a bit of freelance, stirring the cauldron of the day job, playing host to my sister (who’s been crashing on my floor off and on for the past month or so), and abusing the hell out of my liver.
Getting a scene rolling seems to be a HELL of a lot more work than it used to be. This one, anyway. Assets and script are complete, Frankenstein (my PC) is steadily chugging on renders, and things are, as xeno says, thing again. Huzzah.
Strip 186 – I’ve decided to make good on cross-posting the rest of the chapter to both websites. Chapter Three onward will be straight to the main ATC site, and deadcityradio.org will be re-tasked after the chapter wraps. Best to do these things In Order.
That said, this is one of those rare panels that came out pretty much Exactly As Desired – hatch and corridor are CG, “you are here” diagram and the smeariness are the usual loads of photoshop.
Strip 187 – The least hassle. As one of the very few layouts that precedes the environment, I was able to make damned good and sure that the environment was as spartan as possible. As a whole the environment is a bit more “bare” than the Daedalus interior – that’s in keeping with the DCR aesthetic and my desire to keep the one-off CG as painless as possible.
Strip 188 – The fact that Brandon James is currently The Phantom Of The Opera in a baggy sweater isn’t lost on me. It isn’t intentional, I promise – it cuts down on scar-drawing, and despite having created a basic CG model of the bandage, it isn’t something that occurred to me until earlier today, while preparing for pencilling. Go figure.
At this point, four more pages are completely rendered, lettered, and awaiting linework. In the old days this would imply Page A Day until I run out of CG buffer. What’s more likely is a page every two to three days, circumstances permitting. With this much of a buffer it’s tempting to say I’ll have this thing done ahead of schedule, but there’s a historical precedent for schedule predictions backfiring in style.
Twelve pages left of the chapter, a third of ’em rendered – the odds of another one showing up soon? Pretty good.
Yeah. Twelve left. As threatened, they’re ALL plot. Not that everything I’ve produced previously hasn’t been All Plot, mind you. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that the most of the next dozen pages are clarifying exposition. Or will be, if you’ve read The Dualist and are waiting to see how DCR connects to it.
This ain’t a Marvel comic. It’s a Battlestar Baroque Cycle. It takes awhile to get going – and finally, the Going is Getting.
