Sunday 8 August 2021

Rainy Day Pick-Me-Up

Hello Readers!

Well, here's Flight of Fancy, recently returned from a short respite! To thank you for your patience (and because these were the last two pages in a book) I'm giving you two pages!
















 

Page 62











 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Page 63

Ok! Sooo... maybe you remember our dear beloved IG suggested I do some sort of long form comic instead of one pagers I was doing.  Good idea, I thought.  I hadn't written out this story, I just went for it and started drawing. The ups are that it keeps me more interested, one of the downs is that I don't exactly know what I'm going to draw or how long each part of the story will take, and consequently, how many pages a particular "scene" will be.

So what, you might ask? Well, I'm getting a bit tired.  This story has gone one WAAAAY longer than I intended.  At the outset I figured I could get it done in 50 pages or so.  Looking at these pages, I feel we're only at about the the half way mark, maybe two thirds. Again... so what?  What's that got to do with you, the reader?

Well, as the writer/artist, when I get tired, it's like a rainy day.  I feel stuck with it and if it is moving, it is moving toooooo slowly.  But then sometimes, there is a bright spot in the rain. Like that first panel on page 63. Love it!  It's not the flat perspective I often draw, but a more dynamic 2 point perspective. Doing that one made me think I've limited my perspective drawings too much. Also, not sure why I wanted to set the scene on a rainy day, but I did and it's more interesting. It's different. Being distinctly different allowed me to kick the story forward and away from where it was. Speaking of different, you'll also notice that the tall American contractor name Jake has a different hairstyle.  Again, the beauty of the project and doing it in this rough way means I am free to keep playing and see what works and ways to further differentiate the characters.

Speaking broadly about both of these pages, the interaction between Jake and Marcel is fun and consistent. I feel we're getting a better feel of who they are and how they interact or don't.  Fancy is also in a more leadership role here acting as referee between them.  

It's been some time since I drew these pages, but if I recall, the French and American contractors were going to square off against each other back to back. But I felt that was going to pull us away from Lawrence and his jets for too long, so by staging this difficulty (above) we can get to Lawrence's Red's Pilot Training Systems faster, and with luck, force the story along a little faster.

Hope you're enjoying it still, and as always, your comments are most welcome.