September 22 Update

Hello everyone!

How's it going?

Another month has flashed by and it's time to check how things are proceeding here.

I'm currently about 80% through editing Verse 2 for its glorious print release, coming out soon-ish to Amazon.

I really wanted to say "I'm finished, here it is" in this post, but, alas, that's not the case. 

Lately, if you can pardon me for sounding overly dramatic, it feels like the whole world is conspiring to keep me from writing. Right when I think I'm making good progress, I get called to work, or have to go help a relative, or whatever. And I can't well say no to anyone, because I need the money. And then my messed-up arms are too tired to beat the keyboard and more days are wasted on recovery.

But, progress IS made, and I'm confident the physical novelization will end up a lot better than its 7-year-old original. I'm sparing no effort in transmuting this tale into a proper novel of professional quality that you could show your friends without being embarrassed.

I'm glad to note that even though it's not being updated at the moment, more and more people are finding A Hero Past the 25th on Royal Road, the follower and view counts are steadily growing, and good comments and reviews are posted. 

Though this is something of a passion project for me and I'd want to do it even if there weren't any readers, the unfortunate reality is that there can be no continuation if nobody wants it or is willing to pay for it. I will then have to try something else.

Damn, I'm talking about depressing things again!

Let's not!

I want to write fun things, not boring things.

So that this wouldn't be another lame text-only update with so many excuses, I wanted to share something a bit special with you this time.

Here's a rough storyboard for an original comic project I started in order to let my fingers rest from all the typing. Sketching comics is about the most fun, relaxing thing I can think of. Though I can't claim it takes no effort and I'm not sure if it was any restful at all. But no regrets.

I had this idea one day for a new fantasy adventure.

It's a premise similar to AHP25 in that it tells about a girl who has a particular talent for battle, but who is led into loads of trouble by her affinity for war. But unlike AHP25, which deals mostly with the morality of being a sword hero, I wanted to focus here more on the technical side of fighting.

I might've mentioned before, but I was into martial arts years ago and practiced and studied various styles, and I've always wanted to create a story where to convey some of what I learned. 

But books aren't really the right medium for that. I mean, we're talking about something based on physicality and motion, and you can't really express that effectively in text. Even if you try, it's only incredibly dry and boring. I think good fights need visuals to be followed and understood by everyone. And since I'm not making making movies, comics are probably the second-best medium for that.

So I thought I'd give it a try.

I don't know how familiar you guys are with the process of making comics, but I do things mostly the same way as everyone else in the world. It's not rocket science. Here's a catchy summary, if you want to see how it's generally done:

https://comicsforbeginners.com/step-by-step-guide-my-comics-process/

...Except, I tend to skip the steps of writing down plot ideas, story outlines, script, character designs, etc. I do that stuff in my head and then get straight to work with the thumbnail. Yeah.

Sketching with pencil in the past was unforgiving. You kinda had to nail it in one go. There were only so many mistakes you could fix until the paper was ruined. But thank Lords, we live in the digital age and I have a drawing display. It's by far the best purchase of my life and saved me a lot of money in art supplies.

Best of all, you can doodle freely and have all the time in the world to fix things as many times as you like. Hallelujah.

So, the first thing I do is sketch all the pages of the chapter. No need to make it pretty at this stage, I just want to see the flow of the story from beginning to end as soon as possible. 

This is also one reason why I feel writing a script is a waste of time. Because it's only after you've drawn the pictures that you can see if you have too much text or too little and if the story makes any sense.

I don't really like those American graphic novel-type books that are just words words words words words. In comics, I seek to use as few words as possible to support the pictures and tell the story.

As soon as the thumbnail is done, I add the panel lines, speech bubbles and text boxes, because when they're in place...You can spare yourself significant effort by not drawing lineart under them haha. (You really should, though, in case you have to move the boxes and bubbles later...)

I don't know why I wrote this like a tutorial.

The point is just to explain why it looks the way it does.

As this is only a rough layout, it's missing proper linework, which is going to change the look a lot. But I believe you can still follow the story.

The plan was a 50-page oneshot but goshdang that's way too much work, and murder, so I split it up into smaller pieces.

The work doesn't have an official title yet. I don't know if it'll ever be finished or have a sequel, but it was just for fun anyway.

Without further ado, have a look!

"But Author-san, even your finished linework looks terrible, why would I want to look at a rough sketch?"

Well, don't look then! 

Have a good day and tune back next month!