Here is the light and shadow study I did for today’s strip. I often pencil the strip at full size and then scan it and work out light and shadows in Photoshop.
BUT DID YOU KNOW…! The crux of the storyline for The Hero’s Journey was conceived of many years ago during Obama’s first term (jeeezus!!) It began as a 24-hour comic I wrote during an official 24-hour Comics Day event. Here are a few pages from that magical first draft.
I really like the way I drew Beepo’s apartment in this sketch, which I did not quite capture in the first panel of today’s strip. I guess I needed another ten years of practice.I also really like the dialogue I wrote for this page, and the little gag where a puff of dust appears when the bum snaps their fingers. (The homeless are fun to make fun of, because God is to blame for their suffering and he knows best!) Unfortunately, this sequence didn’t work for the final version of the story. I did manage to squeeze the bum into the second issue of The Hero’s Journey, however. Have you squeezed your bum lately?Roadkill is wearing a Tea Party tricorn, which would be a wonderful way to really date this story, and which is why Roadkill was not included in the final version. As for why Beepo is feeling glum? At the time it was just Beepo being Beepo. Asparagus wasn’t even a twinkle in my eye then!
I may post more of these pages as the story progresses. This 24-hour comic will finally come to life in all its glory in the next issue of The Hero’s Journey. It’s one of my favorite stories that I’ve written, and the entire Hero’s Journey storyline has been leading up to this.
Discussion ¬