The Morning After

 Hello Readers,

Wow, WOW! Would you believe it? Another installment of Flight of Fancy!  Only page 88!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 88

 Last week we left Fancy leaving the bathroom after chucking her cookies, and now she's finding some unsettling things - bottle of ... poison? and Mom sick too.

The first two panels were a bit tricky because I wanted to subtly suggest Fancy was in the kitchen, which is why I put the coffee maker in there. 

And about Fancy, nice drawings throughout - the design is on model, but she looks sick, tired.

The poison was a tough part.  I was trying to think of how to make someone profoundly sick but not kill them.  I thought about lamp oil (kerosene) and gasoline but they would smell too strong and you wouldn't be able to get past the smell.  People can be poisoned with lots of food products that have gone off, but how could you make a food (rice, for example) go bad at short notice? Also, when food is off, it can kill someone.  If you come up with a good way to kill someone in such a way that they eat the poison of their own volition, let me know and then I'll pass your contact info on to the police, OK?!  I put the coconut scented essential oil in there, because I needed something.  Maybe I'll come up with something better.

Fancy's movement around Mom's bed worked well too.  I was thinking of a wide panel that shows the whole bed and with Mom lying on one side.  The panel could be split down the middle, and Fancy shown on the left side, then the right. These panels are pretty small, so I thought doing it the way I did might work better with less wasted space and more close ups on Fancy.  

But what about Mom?  Is she going to be ok?  And where did the poison come from?  Lawrence made dinner... did he, could he have done something?!  Stay tuned!!

 

Sickening Realization

Hello Readers!

Hello? Anybody there? I hope you didn't get frustrated with my absence this week and have quit reading.  Well, if you're there, then... YAY!  I hope you enjoy this week's exciting installment.

 Page 86

 

 

Page 87

Maybe you thought I didn't post last week 'cause I got sick like Fancy did here!  WOAH!  Looks bad!  I bet you didn't see that coming!

These pages turned out quite well. Good character drawings pretty much across both pages.  Fancy on the bottom right of 87 looks bit too realistic, but that's easily fixed. Looking at these pages I can see the characters would all need a bit of adjustment - Dave's design doesn't quite match Amar nor the woman's design. I think I made those two others a bit too cartoony.

 

I really like the location drawings, especially the really low, distorted image of the house exterior and the tilted panels also help give a sense that something's not right.

 

Believe it or not, the shot into the washroom was fairly challenging in that I wanted to make it clear we were looking into a washroom and that Fancy was sick in there, but I didn't want to clutter it up or make it too obvious.

 

We're (finally) in the home stretch here! 

 

Being Subtle

Hello I.Ghost!  How's it going?  May as well address this directly to you since I bet you're the only one reading it.  Lucky you!  Feel special?

Here's this week's exciting installment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 84

Page 85

These pages turned out pretty well.  I like how we can see time has passed by the darkness around Mom's house, and then the transition to inside the kitchen with Lawrence cooking and lying through is teeth about his "happy childhood".  

Every time I start a new page I'm a bit stumped as to what to do, but the transition from hearing the phone at the end of page 84 and then seeing it on 85 made that easy.  What wasn't easy was manufacturing a way to get Lawrence outta there, and not obviously.  Another smooch in the 3rd panel (tough to draw).  Lawrence looks like he's turning away a bit, which helps sell the idea that something might be going on that Fancy may be oblivious to.  I like how Fancy is leaning on the panel edge watching him go.  

Sometimes I think the panels look too empty what with little indication of the background, however I know if I add more it will look too busy and might be confusing.  It's one of those things that (if I ever get round to doing clean lines and painting it) can be managed with a swipe of colour or tone to subtly suggest a background.

I just scrolled down the page a bit and saw last week's posts, and the ones before it.  It is kind of impressive how much I've done on this.  I've been at it for more than a year, and there's actually something to show for it.  Yay team!!

What Goes Around

 Hello, Hello, Readers... Reader!

Here we are with another exciting installment of Flight of Fancy.  Do you like getting more than one page at a time as you have for the past few postings?  Can't say how long that'll last because I'm running out of pages!

Ok... let's see 'em.

Page 82

Page 83

There is an idea in screenwriting that suggests you have to keep flipping events for the protagonist from positive followed by negative events, then back.  Or a step forward and two steps back, then forward, which keeps your audience interested. 

A similar idea in comics is that you have to leave each page on a cliff-hanger. 

These techniques helps add some form or structure to the writing, which makes it easier to create and keep creating.

So with those two ideas in mind, I think I achieved these concepts leading into these pages, between them and onto the next. 

About the artwork...

I don't like the last panel on 82 - the wheels on the LAV look too balloon like, too soft and squishy like a kid's toy, not tough or dangerous.  Also, I think the structure is off there - the LAV looks too wide, wheels too small and the "RRRROOOOAAAR" sound FX needs to be larger.

On page 83, I don't like the bottom left panel.  It is too crowded with text and the location is lost.  I think it should be an establishing shot to show where the action / meeting is taking place.  This would also  separate the action from the courtyard where the scary (Che Guevara look alike) is.  Right now, the change in location is lost, and I think it is a bit too easy to confuse Che with the one handed Papa that we saw earlier and see again here.

And what drawings do I like?!

The top two on page 82.  Really nice and a nice cutting between them.  I didn't want to keep drawing Lawrence on the phone, so this mixes it up and keeps the action moving forward.

I really like the location as shown on the top of page 83.  I lifted (ok, stole) the idea of a large vehicle being used to open and close a gate from Escape from New York.  In that movie, I think it was a bus, here I used a transport truck rig.

As usual, I like your comments and am interested to hear if they communicate the story to you.

Circling Around

 Alo, Alo!  

Here we are, on a scary Hallow'een and with two new pages! Scary action too!

Let's get right to it.

Page 80

Page 81

You will recall in the last installment, we saw the young boy and his father heading for home.  The father challenged the boy to race him home, while a few short blocks away there some vehicles were racing along.

I like these pages. I think they're really dynamic.  I think my favorite is the first panel on page 80 showing the truck with the machine gun in the back, and that same truck getting blown up on page 81.  (Mostly) good camera angles, the drawings are good, the action (mostly) understandable.

The action was hard to stage because I wanted to show the tank thing (it's supposed to be a LAV - light armored vehicle, James.  Oh, right.  Thanks.  It doesn't look much like one... do your reasearch!!! Sheesh, you're tough!!) shooting at the truck, but then firing across the courtyard and "tagging" the father.  I do think it is clear, but I wonder if bullets into the father should come more toward camera and less from left to right.  

 These images show the pages as I originally drew them. If you can't see it so well, click on it and it will enlarge in the window.

I decided on the first page, last panel, to move the camera and the father's pose so that he is running toward the camera.  I was hoping to make his death more surprising.  

And on the other page, you can see I was trying to figure out how to show the LAV gunning down the truck and then the dad.  I think the final is a little less clear, but far more impactful.

Ooh, and how do you like the circular panels? Cheesy?  Do they work?