Quality Control

Eternal Day Chapter 2 Updates: I'm up to page 21 on the pencils and page 9 with the inking. Things are moving slow, but steady...okay, not even steady, just slowly and sporadically. But it's comforting to see some pages actually filled up with artwork and not just blank, white pages staring at me. I was thinking the book is only going to be 32 pages, so the fact that I was up to page 21 was exciting. Kind of like seeing the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Of course this was until Mark dropped a bomb and said he wrote 4 more pages of story and added a couple more flashback scenes! Arrgh! I'll get you Martikus, if it's the last thing I do! So yeah, at this point I don't know how many pages this book is going to be. Either 32 or 36 pages of story and then 4 extra pages of filler.

Last night I realized we had a quality control issue with the book. I was using a Micron Pigma pen to line out the boxes on the pages. Problem is, when you scan them in, the lines are really light, because the ink in the pen isn't very dark. Now in Photoshop you can jack up the levels and contrast, but in doing that the ink washes and greyscales get botched up. What a dilemma. Then I had an epiphany the other day: why not just use the Rapidograph pens that I have to lay down the lines? The Ultradraw ink is much darker than the Pigma pens ink. So last night I had to trace over all of the boxes using the Rapidograph. It was a tedious task to say the least, but now I've learned my lesson: never use Pigma pens to line out the boxes! This means I have to re-scan the first 5 pages again and do all of the Photoshop greayscale over again. Pain in the butt. Live and learn, right?

Anyway, yeah, just wanted to blabber that out there for whoever is interested. Back to work!

Yeah, we're still alive

So umm, yeah...almost two months since we updated this thing! I guess with only 157 total hits on the Eternal Day website we really don't have to worry about people wondering where we are! As I sit here typing I wonder if anyone has even read this blog. Anyway, pessimism aside, we're working our way through Eternal Day Chapter Two. I've got 5 pages finished and am currently working on 4 more. The book'll be 32 pages of story, plus 4 pages of extras. We just got an awesome pin-up or possible back cover by this uber talented German graphic designer named Oliver (no joke). I don't want to reveal it just yet, though. The story is still developing, but at least the second chapter is pretty much ironed out.

Mark just got married this past weekend and I just finished a summer semester of school. August is the month for me to try and get some serious work done on the book. After all, the New York Comic Con is only 7 months away. I know 7 months seems like a long ass time, but not when you consider I get to work on the book a couple days a month! And there's a LOT left to do: penciling and inking pages, scanning, cleaning and sizing pages, lettering, exporting as tiff's, sending them to the printer, etc. I don't even remember how to letter anymore! But first things first: pencil and ink! Gotta keep crack'in. Laterz!