END TIMES: COMICS: PRE-PRODUCTION MAKE UP TIME

After a rumor of a hiatus that turn out to be true, I'm hitting the blank pages again.

And END TIMES COMICS pre-production work is actually catching back up to speed, now that there are fewer noisy distraction in my life. Things are less chaotic and unpredictable in my life now,

As a  result the work is going more smoothly.

For instance, instead of finishing only 1 or 2 layout pages, I finished 14 story-respecting layout pages in one day, to be redrawn and revised probably pretty soon.

My emphasis is on narrative and storytelling more than art currently, now more than ever.

Facts, for the FANS that you might not know...

2 years ago in 2012, I worked on and finished the 1st-3rd drafts of a pilot script adaptation for END TIMES, that I wrote entirely  by myself. I contacted L.A. Agencies and never heard  back, so as far as I know the distribution, publishing, and adaptation license and rights to END TIMES are still owned by and belong to me.

I used that pilot script as the basis for the current comic book storyline I am illustrating and adapting to the page (comics page layouts) FROM the page (script/screenplay).

I'm also planning out entire pages at a time with lots of simple roughs as a guide, instead of trying to be all "fancy" and flesh out each individual panel, on the SPOT, which is what I've done with my comic books I've produced up till this time and method. It's ALL about the storytelling and narrative. If you only do 1 panel at a time and not a layout for the whole page, it's more difficult to know where your story is going. Layouts and outlines function as a safety net to keep the manga author on track, and not get lost in the pre-production process too much. SIMILAR to storyboards, but with more overall panels and varying panel sizes...

i am about as far from retiring, quitting, or "giving up" on END TIMES as one author can get...

'Tis pretty ironic to think how lacking my page layout construction strategy was when I first started drawing comics. I constructed my old comics one random panel at a time, which might explain why my early comics look flung together. They kind of were! haha ha.

But now I'm applying strategy and construction to my pages. No panel, or line of narration, dialogue, or page layout proportion is going un-analyzed and unplanned before I commit to it. And once all that is decided....I'm  tending to spend more time on the actual panel illustration process, and more time referring back to my dialogue, action, and scene outline/description in my script. Trying to 1 comic book page without planning and scripting of at least 1 sort or more is a lot like trying to drive on a surface where there's no cement to drive on, because it hasn't been BUILT yet. Not the easiest of methods. But now that I'm aware of it, it's gotten quite a bit less tedious. Everything kind of falls into place with organization and planning.

A comic book first draft needs layouts, thumbs, and thumb layouts for panels and entire pages for the same reason a good script and novel need good scene structure and preliminary outlines. It's just easier and more likely to be finished in a professional manner that way.  

-fin.