Been writing

Yes it's true... I've finally been putting the story together now that we have a solid background for the story and that we know where the story is going. I'm not sure how much this story will follow with the original book, but I'm trying hard to make everything flow together without being obscure and esoteric. The only thing that might happen is a few re-writes here and there of the original book. Nothing is set in stone though, if it was then J and i would probably just quit on the project and do something more interesting. Thanks to all who check in to see the progress... hopefully we can convince J to post some pages in the works :)
Mark

Updates

As I sit here I wonder, "Do I really need to make another post about how 'things are in the works' or 'we've almost got the story ironed out'?" Probably not. So let me talk about other things.

Website: you'll notice the "story" and "characters" section are still empty, but it's in the works...DOH! Okay, let me try to talk about something else...

Reviews: we should have an online review up at thecomicfanatic.com this weekend and apparently it's going to be a positive one. Also thanks to the efforts of one Donald McFee we'll be having a review on pulpfictiononline.com in a column called "Off the Beaten Path", which will probably be a mixed review. I also plan on sending a book to the guys at 4thRail.com. We've also been getting some feedback from the guys at the Rebel Studios forum. The plan is to post those on the website. What is the point of trying to get all these reviews? To get in the public eye, of course! And the feedback is for our own personal growth and enrichment.

New York Comic Con '07: we just heard back from the organizers of this convention in regards to getting a table for next year. $350 for a small table with two chairs. We don't have much time to decide, since the space will sell out quickly. But there are just so many unknown variables that we don't know what to do. What say ye?

~J

Page 2: The one that started it all

Page two, the original 1st page, is the one that started it all. When J asked me to write some words for his pages he said that he wanted, “The first thing off the top of my head”. This page came easy for me. I looked at the visuals and could see many things of symbolic importance. The shell is the most obvious visual pull and the birds flying free from the cage is cliché. Another thing I noticed was, at my first glance, it appeared that there was a mass of water in the distance behind the city. So with the water reference and the shell, my mind gave way to many ocean/ water themes:

“Rippled waves…
The voice from mother,
Slowly pulling us under…”

“Our ocean shell bed waits for me,
Held captive by a facade tide”

“the blood thick foam”

Another theme that I used was that this figure was coming “home” from a long journey:

“A first and last place I want to be,
Silent whispers of an autumn’s lost grace”

“The voice from mother”

“Home…”

And then I began to construct a theme that loosely carries through the whole book… and that is a love theme. Not just love, but that this figure has lost someone they love:

“A first and last place I want to be”

“Mocking, birds fly…
To a new love…”


The tricky thing to look at is that a lot of the words and phrases I used have two meaning that lend a hand to a couple of these themes. The phrase “the voice from mother” I used to give that feeling of coming home and recognizing those things that make home what it is. It also refers to the sound of crashing waves as in “Mother Nature”. The phrase “an autumn’s lost grace” is to signify that some time has passed since this figure has been to this place.
In all, this page is about a person coming home after a long journey and having to deal with memories from the past. And these memories are the things that had maybe caused this figure to leave on a journey. And as much as this home is a comfort it is also a painful burden. This is my favorite page… because when writing it my subconscious was un-infected at this point. So you’re getting the full surrealist experience on this page.
-Mark-

More website tweaking

I added some more goodies to the website, specifically in the "hidden meaning of Eternal Day" section. There are also a couple of pics of Mark and I that Mark recently dug up. There's one of us from high school where I'm posing with a finger in my nose. We look like twins in that photo. It's slightly disturbing how similar we looked. The other photo is when I was living in the Detroit Krishna temple and Mark came to visit me. I think he just wanted a picture with the "side show freak". :) I look so bald and skinny in that pic. Frightening. I also added a counter to the front page so we can get an idea of how many peeps are visiting.

Talked to Mark on the phone today. We're still trying to iron out some things with Veyda and a new character called "Nebrios" (he's actually the demon from Chapter One). I was just thinking: it seems like we do a lot of talking, but no action! Arrrgh! Fie on my procrastination!

I have been doodling and sketching some character designs, though. Maybe I could add those to the website.

Today feels like it's flying by. I've just been dealing with day-to-day stuff, like picking up a bed frame, putting it together, setting up the mattress, driving the box springs to the dumpster, tweaking the website, making lunch, cleaning out my e-mails, doing some laundry, etc. I feel like I don't have enough of a stretch of free time to sit down and focus on drawing. Damn...and I just remembered I have to do something for work tomorrow. Oh yeah, and I need to figure out what classes I need to take for the summer. When, oh when, will this tale of Eternal Day come to full fruition? Fie on you, "real" world!

Page 1: The beginning

Page one was actually one of the last pages that I wrote for. The original first page (Which is now the second page) J didn’t like for a beginning, so he came up with the space/ planet shot. On pages like these, that nothing much was happening, I felt that I had to step up and write something grand to make the page interesting and not just a pretty picture. On this page I wanted to use a method of poetry where each first letter of a sentence vertically spells out a phrase. Unfortunately, J used his “artistic license” and moved all the sentences around within the stanza’s so that the page wound have a better flow and would be easier on the eye. But then, J didn't know about the little trick I had done. Everything should have lined up like this:

Once things were so clear… once hope was a simple truth,
Now, the world has become frail and withered to flesh and bone.
Cold words break the silence which feeds all happiness,
Echoing a sad remembrance of days with regrets…

Upon these fleeting, pained thoughts,
People continue with their own little lives,
Oblivious to one another but bound in unknown intricacies,
Not wanting and unwilling to look beyond life's primal simplicity…

A final end answer is lost in the calm of visions cloud.

Time continues its undying control without resistance.
In an instant we begin asking the same questions,
Meeting again for clarity and beauty within true knowledge,
Every atom isolated in existence… to have its story heard…

The other thing I did was make every first word or letter in the stanza spell out the same phrase, “Once Upon A Time”. It might be cheesy (I know!) but you never knew about it until now! It really was a challenging process, but I’m glad I pulled it off ;)

As for what is being said, there are only a few key things that lead into what is going to happen. Like I said earlier, at this point I had written almost all of the pages already. The most important part is the last stanza:

Time continues its undying control without resistance.
In an instant we begin asking the same questions,
Meeting again for clarity and beauty within true knowledge,
Every atom isolated in existence… to have its story heard…

The key was using the idea that every atom has a story. For the original concept within the whole comic was that everything that happens (The world, people, everyday lives, dreams and thoughts… etc.) is within one atom being a part of a shell lying on a beach (Which you see at the end of the book). The rest of what is being said, while flashy and poetic, is just there manly so that I could pull of my little bit of tricky poetry and start the book off with, “Once upon a time”.
-Mark-

Stuff

Wow...even I'm excited by Mark's last post! I'm eager to read his page breakdowns and explanations to his words for Chapter 1. No, seriously. It makes reading the book an even deeper experience. But I wonder to myself, "Will anyone other than ourselves (Mark and I) be interested in these deeper things? Will anyone even take the time to read this stuff?" I mean, in the grander scheme of "reality" how important is this little comic book called Eternal Day? Who will connect with it? Who will give a crap? More importantly, who the hell has time to get that into it?

Competition in the modern comic book industry is rough and even though there's a big contingency of "indie's" and "underground" publishers, books and creators, it's still hard having your voice heard in this industry and medium. Are we delusional to think people will actually be interested in this story we're creating? Are we really just naive and actually just doing this because it's fun and perhaps a hobby? Yeah...I would say the latter. I don't think we're going to become rich and famous, but then...is that really our goal? It'd be nice, but no, I think we're doing this because it's fun; doing it for creative expression; doing it to collaborate and jive.

As Mark said in the previous post, we're very close to having the entire story of Eternal Day fleshed out and ready to roll.

Oh yeah, I was able to send out the remaining packages/books. I even sent one to Heath from thecomicfanatic.com for him to review on their website. The only remaining thing lingering over my head before I can focus on Eternal Day is that Underworld commission (yes, still!). Why do I have no time to draw? (insert violin music)

Stay tuned, ya bastards. Eternal Day shall be completed. So mote it be!

Blah, blah, blah....

Had to go to school tonight... it was rather boring. So I started to flesh out Veyda. I'd tell you about him but it's a big secret between Jai and I... sorry, you'll have to wait until the book is done. I'm going to start posting page by page explanations tomorrow. So hopefully next time you check-in you'll get to know a little of my M.A.D.ness. Once all the history for the story is in place (Something Jai and I have been crunching out) I will begin writing the bits that will be seen in book 2 and book 3. Creating a background and history for the characters will add a great deal of depth to the story... not to metion that if all goes well with book 2 and 3 we'll be able to spin-off and write more books about origins and even continue the story from were it ends in book 1.

Be back soon,
M.A.D.

PR and Promotion

I've been gathering some comic book website addresses and contacting people on them to try and get Eternal Day reviewed online. Looks like we've got a good contact with thecomicfanatic.com and some other resources are opening up. It made me realize that I need to print more books to send to these possible reviewers.

All of this has also made me realize that the PR and promoting aspects of creating a comic book are also very time consumming! I guess that's the advantage of having your book printed and marketed by an established publisher. Then you don't have to worry about all of the leg work of getting the book into the public eye.

We really need to make a bigger push in terms of creating a buzz for the book; posting on message boards, contacting comic shops, getting reviews online and in publications, etc. Of course maybe it's good that things are still rather low-key. After all, we don't even have another issue ready to print!

Speaking of which, the story of Eternal Day is seeming to take a final, definite shape. We'll post up a synopsis on the website once it's done.

I haven't been able to work on the Underworld commission! Argh! And I still have books to send out to some peeps from the Rebel Studios forum. I haven't forgotten about you guys! Please be patient with me.

So yeah, hopefully soon you'll be seeing Eternal Day reviewed on some websites. (You'll be able to read what horrendously pretentious garbage it is!)

Website

Couldn't sleep last night, so I was playing around with the website. Just a little tweaking, nothing too noticable. It's definitely still a work in progress. New things to check out: in the links section you can find a "fan art" page, with some work by Wulf and a sketch by Aria Giovanni. The online ordering page now takes you directly to our book at Comixpress! And uh, yeah...I think that's about all that's new. Like I said, I just changed some little stuff that was bothering me because of the text quality, like the front page and the navigation page. I have a lot of ideas for the site, but ya know...that whole time issue.

Working and Thinking and Thinking and Working

Started the "Underworld" commission piece yesterday. It's frustrating me. I've got a particular perspective in mind, but I need references. I think I'll have my wife pose for me.

I've got ideas for the yet-to-be-seen Eternal Day character known as "Veyda". But I guess it doesn't make much sense to talk about it here, because then we'll be giving secrets away! I need to talk to Mark so we can iron out the various ideas we've got floating around our minds. You see, the problem is that we have to make the whole story work before I can lay it down on paper. We've got four main characters: Maddock, Amara, Corbin and Veyda and we have to create some kind of plot in which they all inter-connect and relate to give birth to what you see in the preview book. If you've read the preview book, then you know it's not going to be an easy task!

So a lot of the work right now is brainstorming and mental gymnastics. It's like we've got all these vague concepts or threads of ideas, but we need to make things more concrete, more realized/actualized. And that my friend's is the hardest part of creating a compelling, coherent and engrossing comic book story. We're very close to tying things up, though. Very close.

Checking In!

Just wanted to slide in for a minute and thank everyone. To all the Rebel guys, your continued support and faith in us is enough to make this project worth the effort. And I would also like to thank all those people, who are now holding a copy of the preview book, for taking a look... tearing us apart and giving us fuel to make this into something great. I've been writing when I can... but time seems to be everyone's burden ;)

Trying to make something relevant from the original work is quite "daunting" as Jai said.
I also received a request to explain the writing in the preview book on a page to page basis. From what I understand it would improve the enjoyment of the book. This was actually an idea we talked about early on, to release a copy of the book with a picture of the page and the opposing page with a write up about it. Maybe we'll still do that, but for now I'm going to do the write up on the web site and I'll post each page here and on the Rebel forum.

Have to study for a killer exam this weekend... so I'll probably do a lot of writing to avoid having to study :) I think the rest of the story is coming together very nicely and will give everyone that bit of normalness' they are seeking when trying to read the Eternal Day as a "standard" comic book. Anyways, off to living...

Thanks to all,
mark

First commission done

How is it that I have no time to draw, but I somehow have time to write in a Blog? Oh that's right...writing here takes about 15 minutes. Drawing can become hours upon hours of full absorption.

Anyway, I finished that Sinbuck commission piece. Check it out:

Wow...that's pretty crappy resolution here on the Blog. Here's a slightly better version:

http://www.jayadeva.com/sinbuck_commission_small.jpg

So yeah, that's done. Now I have one more commission and a sketch to do before I can focus on the new Eternal Day pages.

Mark just sent me over some stuff to put on the website, like character bio's, story synopsis, etc. But the thing is the story keeps evolving, so in two days none of it may be relevent!

I want to write more, but I really need to eat something before class. Yeah...class. I'm taking some evening classes, working towards a Bachelor's in Art to perhaps one day become an Art Teacher. It'll take me 8 years to complete it, but what else am I going to do? So with three classes and work and everything else, getting time to fully absorb in illustrating a comic book is rough. (Excuses, excuses, I know!)

No time to draw

I've had no time to draw today. Actually I've been working on a couple of commissions for some friend's over at the Rebel Studios forum. I need to get those finished before I can start working on Chapter 2 of Eternal Day. I have pages 1-5 laid out and page 1 is already inked, but after that we're not sure what's happening with the story.

Sometimes I doubt my artistic abilities. I look at the work of the seasoned pros and I realize my work doesn't even compete. There are flaws in my anatomy, my perspective, my backgrounds, etc. At times it's frustrating, because I want to achieve a certain look or perspective or "feel" to a page and I just don't have the skills to do it. I really need to draw more, but the time just isn't there. Of course I can hear people say, "If you had the passion to draw, you'd make time to do it!" It's true. Why don't I draw all of the time? The only way to get better is to draw, draw, draw and especially to draw from reality and reference material.

In many ways Chapter 1 of Eternal Day was created the way it was because it allowed me more artistic freedom; I didn't have to conform to a script. I could just draw whatever I felt like drawing. This is a huge reason why you don't see any backgrounds in any of the panels. I purposely avoided them, because they're a weakness of mine.

Anyway, I need to get working on these commissions again. One of them is of Joe Vigil's character "Sinbuck" and another is of a couple characters from the movie "Underworld". I'll be sure to post images once they're done.

So what's going on?

So now that the Eternal Day preview book is completed and available from comixpress.com, we're confronted with the task of creating Chapter 2 and 3. It's a daunting task. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure how we even finished Chapter 1 (the preview book)! Between work, school and family life, any free time to draw or create artwork is very sparse.

Right now we're working on the script for the next two chapters. As we've said before, the preview book was meant to be an experimental approach to comic book storytelling. It was more about process than content. So now we're struggling with trying to tie Chapter 1 in with the other two chapters. There are a lot of elements in the preview book that simply don't make any sense and have no connection with the story we've developed! So it's a tricky, mentally draining process trying to tie all of these things together and having them make sense.

We've even thought of ditching the preview book and just creating a new story that has nothing to do with the events that transpired in it. It would still be the same characters, but it would be like none of the events from the preview book ever happened.

We also kind of jumped the gun a little bit by printing the preview edition. We should have had at least another Chapter finished and ready to print. Now the wait for the next chapters is going to be excruciatingly long. We hope it's not so long that people lose interest. But at least we have a printed book under our belts. If nothing else it was a warm-up for us. After all, I hadn't drawn a comic book in almost 10 years and even then I had never completed a book. I also hadn't drawn period for that same amount of time. So I'm rusty and crusty. There are a ton of flaws in the preview book, but like I said, we're just warming up.