Reflections on First Printed Comic!

I received the printed copies of A Crying Shame last week, and I am so pleased with how they came out. 

If I was going to redo anything, I would make the cover a little thicker, I have the impression its going to curl quite easily. I also left a page blank at the back (intentionally) and I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen again with future comics; either with artwork of details of myself, something so it looks more intentional. 

I wish I had also added details of where and when they printed, eg "First print run, June 2023" or similar. I will definitely be doing that on A Walk to a Waterfall.

Other than that I am really happy, the cover is bold and bright, the inside pages are really pleasing, and the overall layout flows really well. Working closely with the printer and taking their advice really worked out!

A Crying Shame - Finished Pages

I have just completed the first proof of A Crying Shame. After I finished lettering I created inside cover pages, and a title page.

Reading it through fully once the lettering was completed felt like a real achievement, I have been worried a little throughout this that it was going to feel too short and that the intended feeling would be missed, however, I feel like I have really achieved by initial goal in being vulnerable in this comic, enough to give encouragement to people that might be struggling with depression.

I am having it proof read by a few people now, to ensure the flow works and there is no grammatical errors. I will then create the final back page, where I intend to list my website so people can contact me if they need to, or find my work in future.

 Once I've had proofs back, I'll make any chances that are needed, and will ready the files for print to send straight away.

A Crying Shame - Layout Critique

I've finished the lining and colouring of A Crying Shame, and have taken the chance to lay out the pages in the correct layout to see how the pages look side by side as they will when being read. I am really really happy with the way they look. The flow feels natural and slow. I still feel quite aware that the comic itself is quite short, and know that I struggle to stretch out dialog and let the pictures tell more of the story, but I am much happier with this layout than earlier versions which were more condensed and word heavy.

I'm looking forward to seeing it fully lettered, which I will work on next, and re-evaluate again at that stage that the flow still works, and the pacing matches the story.

Self-Publishing - Launching Pre-Orders!!

 On Thursday May 18th I set comics live for pre-orders! I made a few graphics to promote this specifically for Instagram Stories, Instagram Grid and Twitter! Below are screen caps of the posts:

I have previous experience in selling things online, and that really helped me feel confident in setting this all going. I set myself a target I hoped to reach, similar to what I would have done on a crowd funding campaign, something that would allow me to cover the costs of my initial print run of 50 of each comic, and I achieved this within the first few days of the pre-orders being live! I can now go ahead and finish the comics knowing that I can easily pay for the initial print run, which cover all pre-orders, as well as leaving spares for my upcoming comic markets and some stock for comic stores!

Comic Promo Pages

 

Creating my Own Font - Final Version

Based on the research I've created the below font. Below are two pages as example of the font being used. It still feels really like my own hand-writing, but a lot clearer and legible, and of course, much quicker to type out than hand letter. 

 

A Crying Shame - Adding to the page

I want to keep the artwork simple for A Crying Shame minimal colour and line, but I also do want to ensure the pages feel full, with depth and emotion. 

I decided to experiment with adding heavy black to the pages, with details in white/negative space. Below is a side by side comparison of Page 2 with and without the black, and below Page 3 with the black. When the lettering is added I feel the heavy black will add to the tone and overall feel of the page. The comparison between the light and dark will also aid with the stories sense of hope.

I will now go through and sketch, then fully ink every page based on the dummy book I have just finalised, once the pages are inked I'll go back and add in the black as above. 

 

A Crying Shame - New Dummybook

 I have been drawing my pages for A Crying Shame and it felt like there is scope for me to add more narrative detail, my whole driving force currently is to be more vulnerable in my work. I'm also consciously writing in my own house, to convey my experiences in a more authentic way.

With this i mind, I have gone back into my script and reworked a few areas, and added in more pages briefly touching on my therapy journey, as well as some personal revelations.

The whole thing now comes in at 18 pages of narratives and illustration, which feels more substation.

Below is example dummy page scans. I used the new script to roughly map out panels.

A Crying Shame - Progress

I've been getting through pages of A Crying Shame at a reasonable rate, I'm doing the link work and colouring at the same time, keeping the backgrounds fairly simple with an intention to go back and add more detail if I want to/have time. I plan to letter it at the end, however I wanted to experiment with this a little and so have added it to the below two images.

I wanted to see if hand-lettering would work, because this is such a personal story, hand-lettering it really fits and I love the way it looks. I'm blessed with being able to take the extra time to hand-letter as this book is fairly short, it may not be something I can do longterm, but whilst I have the chance I am taking advantage of it. The comic will be a mixture of speech bubbles and narration boxes, which you can see below.

These two pages feel like a really good introduction to the concept of the comic too, so I've added them to my website, and will add them to a faux-pitch pack for this project too.

 

A Crying Shame - Blurb

A comic about learning to have a cry, and it being okay.

 

A short autobiographical comic that explores the shame that can come with outwardly showing emotions, and how pushing them down for so long is probably not a great solution... but with some work and time, you can open yourself up to all the good feelings too.

 

A Crying Shame - Dummy Book

I've put together a physical dummy book to map out A Crying Shame; I love this stage of creating a comic as it's a really great way to see how the narrative and images interact. It allows me to make small changes to improve the flow of the book.

The book comes in at 12 pages; the interior will be drawn digitally using minimal colours, and finished reasonably quickly. My intention here is to print the books at home so I can re-produce it quickly and cheaply. 

 

A Crying Shame - A short Autobiographical Comic

 Alongside my bigger project, A Walk to A Waterfall, I wanted to create smaller pieces. One of which is names A Crying Shame, a short autobiographical piece about overcoming shame and embarressment at displaying outwards emotion.

You can read the script here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zaVFozA6vXl8OtjEd3tIjGPS7aIbRw52_QBcoBlJlEU/edit

I have begun mapping out the panels which you can see below, along with a completed illustration of one of the final pages, which will be a double page spread full of my crying face and reasons that I have cried