Die Now, Die Later! Page 8
Nov10
Manawaju Island… Wait that’s where BW is!…Hmm. Interesting. And for those of you who may not remember when we had last seen Mallory… check this out!
This has to have been the most difficult page to color so far. I think our mod friend Ascott may take to wearing solid colors…
A caution about next week’s strip – it may be mildly NSFW, so you may want to read next week’s episode at home. I would hate for anyone to get into trouble!
Stripes on clothes is a pain. But you did it well and I expect him to stay in those..haha
Thanks for stopping by Bearman! I could keep doing stripes on Ascott at the cost of my remaining sanity… but there's not much left of that. I suppose I could do a strip where all of the characters wear stripes, and there would be super-elaborate backgounds, and a twisty-turny plot,… and I could update it once a year! 😀
You have an epic story going on here, Jerry. I can see that you're having fun putting all the pieces together. It's entertaining and I can't wait to see what happens next week. 🙂
Thanks, George! It's been fun writing it. At times, it's like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. Hopefully, I can write something that people don't mind following!
Great story so far. Love the way you drew "air quotes".
Great storytelling, Jerry, with great dialogue. You really live and breathe these characters! Too bad you gotta tone down Ascott's fashion sense, I for one appreciate those funky threads. Manawaju Island awaits!
Thanks, Mark! Hopefully you'll like the new threads he'll be wearing next time we see him (which will be in three months or so, I think!). It's fun to think like the characters. It really helps with the writing… write the situations, and then figure out how they react to it.
Stripes arent flattering on me, but I gotta say, they do well on your characters! Looking forward to your NSFW comic, those are usually my forte! [grin]
Thanks! I’m not big on wearing stripes, either… solid colors are more my sort of thing. Ascott does alright with them though, but as I mentioned… I think he’s going to be doing solid colors from now on!
The NSFW is fairly tame, actually! I’m just throwing up that warning so there are no surprises. I can generally tell if something may be NSFW if it gets the “I can’t believe you’re drawing this” chuckle from my wife!
I wonder what Mallory has been doing all this time? And with Katsu involved, I assume there's going to be some fast cars coming!
You always seem to be a step ahead of me, Binky! Next week we'll find out what's happened to Mallory after fleeing the Volcano headquarters. There will be fast cars ahead, but first we'll flash-back a bit.
I quit smoking a long time ago but… man I want a smoke! Hahaha… very effective. Sometimes someone in a movie will set off a craving in me, but never a comic before. Great chapter so far!
Whoops! Sorry!
It seemed to me that since the overall style of the strip has characters dressing in 60's garb, that it would only make sense to have a smoker or two.
When I was a kid in the 70's, most of the parents I knew smoked… I still have no sense of smell from all of the second hand smoke!
Haha… No problem at all. I didn't smoke or anything. It takes me back is all. Great comic!
Thanks again!
I already don't like Ascott, he's such a putz. Love the way you get all the dark effect in so many of your comics. I am in the process of colouring Barry & Cedric's next series which is set underground & I just can't seem to get the darkness effect looking right.
Go easy on him… he's just going through a phase!… I'm sure he'll grow out of it 🙂
Others have asked the way I color, too – I should post some sort of tutorial, if anyone has an interest. The way I do the shading is like this –
First of all I do it in Photoshop. You may be able to do it in whatever program you use if it has layers like Photoshop. I color everything in flat colors first, then I copy the color layer, go into adjustments-hue/saturation, make that layer about as dark as it will go, and keep it above the original colored layer (although, if you want an interesting tinted effect, you can make another layer, take the color of your choice and make a solid block of it, and follow the next steps). I set the eraser for an opacity low (30 or 40%), then I erase out the lighter areas. Because I've reduced the opacity of the eraser, I go over the area once, and then the lighter the areas. The more I erase, the lighter the area becomes. It's sort of the same principle as working on a scratchboard.
Thanks Jerry for the info. I fiddled around & got a similar effect on the last episode last night but not the same way you described. Now I will have to go back through them & redo to try & get the right effect. Apart from trial & error tips from experienced cartoonists like yourself is the best way to learn.Thanks heaps!!!
I'm glad I could help!
Lots of tension going on…but what father wouldn't tense if his son turned out looking like Ringo?
Looking forward to next week's dose of creative editorial freedom!
The real Ringo's father didn't even stick around to watch him grow up. After the Beatles became famous, his father stayed away, because
he felt that if he wasn't there for him as a kid, it would be wrong to horn in on his fame! Sorry…I'm kind of a Beatles geek.