It’s funny, I put a bunch of time into creating these model sheets, but my style and ambition changed pretty significantly. It was still good to get these looks out, even though I’m now illustrating in grayscale, and I keep having to ask myself “which shade is Robert’s beard?” and “does Samantha have shorts or stockings?”. You’ll note that originally, Robert and Patrick were brothers. They are no longer in the series I’m producing now.
In my earlier writing, celestial higher beings were benevolent and kind and all-knowing. The older I get, the more they’ve become alien and unknowable and horrific. Horrific in the sense of never knowing or understanding these higher beings.
Celestial horror for me is a mix of the impossibility of establishing communication (Orson Scott Card’s Descoladores) the cosmic unknowable (H. P. Lovecraft’s Cosmicism), topped with a bureaucracy that is crushing and insurmountable (Douglass Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide).
I’m sure not all of that communicates in these, but I’m working on it. These are the beings that Zenith calls to Earth in This Bitter Earth.
This guide is to be used in interviews for potential testers of Total Virtual Reality (TVR.
Interviewer: Welcome to TVR Debugr Training! We’re glad you’re here. What’s that you ask? How do you know this isn’t a TVR simulation? I’m glad you asked! QUESTION: Do you believe in god(s)? Y/N? – If yes: Do you believe in a kind god(s) or malevolent god(s)? – If no: congratulations! You have been offered conditional employment as a TVR Debugr! – If kind god(s): why do they allow bad things to happen (Multiple Choice)? 1) Because we need bad things for a believable simulation = REJECT CANDIDATE 2) Because god(s) are testing us = REJECT CANDIDATE 3) Good point, if I were god(s), I would make a better simulation = ACCEPT CANDIATE – If malevolent gods(s): congratulations! You’ve been offered a position in our live simulation validation division; where you continuously validate that all bad things happen for verifiable reasons, thus validating that no bad things happen because of the choice of malevolent god(s), thus proving this reality is not a simulation. Interviewer: At Absolution Corp, we continuously validate that our reality is the prime, so you can rest easy, knowing that your work is fulfilling, rewarding and most important of all; REAL!
“The purpose of life is to consume the energy of the Grand Producer. Creatures who learn to cultivate the Grand Producer inherent the Mantle of Domination. We are not here to witness the universe, but to imbibe it.
The Eruenik Race is one such creature. In our vast and expansive travels of space, we are the only creature we have found with such a holy appetite.
But these hairless apes, they do as we do. They cultivate and they dominant. They elevate their imbibement of the Grand Producer to an intelligent level.”
Excerpt from Daily Logs of Absolution Values Agent Pakasha Aggregated First Contact Logs, Earth
I started this new comic out with creating a personal “cheat sheet”, a style guide detailing what I want from this comic. It lays out both the analog and digital steps, along with the weekly schedule, how value relates to color, how I want hands illustrated, and how ink wash should work.
I have a part-time gardening job. My employer is very proud of her garden, but she still has a hard time appreciating it. For example, it’s being considered as part of a garden tour show, and it’s in the top percentile in terms of quality. She was quite surprised by this assessment by the garden show committee, but admits, she’s a bit too close to provide an impartial opinion of her work.
Frequently, with my own work, I have to immediately walk away from it once it’s been expressed. If I don’t, I’ll think it’s shit. But I’ve found that if I leave it alone for a while, I can provide a more impartial opinion.
So there’s 2 legal pads sitting below my desk with a script called This Bitter Earth written on them.
I wrote this script because I really liked the idea of an orphan boy living on a ferry in the Puget Sound, using the car deck for skate boarding, and spending is free time reading books, drinking tea, and feeding mutated orca whales.
Earth’s sea levels have risen substantially and the dominant life form is mold and fungus. This monoculture of fungus is choking the planet and Zenith spends his days sending signals into deep space, a practice handed down to him from his father. The lore goes that a scientific expedition left the Earth long ago, and that if they can call that scientist back, they can help fix the planet. But, fungus doesn’t want that…
Percolation is also a great method to make coffee.
Color adds so much to a piece. I was reviewing pages from Deep Circuitry and noted that a lot of the lower illustration skill can be forgiven because of the color.
And then I saw the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and started thinking “how can I add color to my next project”?
Cons: Color theory is challenging and hard to get right. Fixing analouge color is challenging to fix in digital post. Color (done well) will be time consuming. Painting analouge color will be challenging to keep consistent for 100 pages. B&W is fast. B&W is classic.
Pros: Color (done well) looks fuckin’ great.
Well. Okay. Lots of cons, but the one pro outweighs them all. Great…
I think what I’ll consider is borrowing from Hayao Miyazaki’s method of minimally watercoloring his storyboards. From the Studio Ghibli movie, Ponyo:
Or, perhaps even keeping the process analouge up until color is required, and maybe doing color digitally. This would be faster and quicker to recover from mistakes. I’d probably even consider doing focus areas with cell, and everything else in watercolor style. This is the same method I used for Deep Circuitry. For example:
At this point, it’s a matter of exploring how it will fit within my current work schedule.
If script and thumbnail exist, then- – Thursday: sketch – Friday: ink – Monday: ink wash – Tuesday: digital touch up and lettering – Wednesday: post and publish
There’s quite a bit of room within these 2 hour sessions, especially since I’ve been slacking (not waking up on time, not spending the full time actually working).
I started digitally illustrating Deep Circuity (DC) around March 2020 I finished digitally illustrating in March 2021 1 year 0 months 400 pages in 52 weeks Actual average is 7.7 pages a week Intentional output was 3 pages a week
I started analogue illustrating Enter Cedar (EC) in Nov 2021 I’m gonna finish analogue illustrating in August 2023 (Note, I estimated 7.5 months back in Nov 2022) 1 years 8 months 100 pages in 60 weeks Actual average is 1.7 pages Intentional output was 1 page a week
That’s a pretty terrible decrease in my average. But I’m still pushing out illustrations for a full, finished 120 page script in a year’ish. So I got that going for me.
I think the better way to look at the data is that it’s taken my roughly the same time to finish the same amount of pages.
But, I could look at the extra 8 months for EC and round up, and then the takeaway that it’s taking me twice as long to illustrate by hand. Shit, am I saying I could have finished EC earlier this year and now be finishing up Where the Highway Meets the Corridor, had I just digitally illustrated it?
BUT, also decreased by weekly page output from 3 to 1. So I can’t be too hard on myself. Had I kept that up, I probably would have finished EC in a similar time to DC.
So we meet the Erueniks in Deep Circuitry, Rachell and the other inhabitants of TVR are Erueniks. After Deep Circuitry leaves Eruen, the Erueniks develop a singular culture with a singular language and a obsession with finding entertainment and stimulation that isn’t TVR. They become super afraid of all technology after being abandoned in TVR (think Dune). This entertainment involves scouring the universe for DNA for genetic manipulation. This is how they find Earth.
And while they’re scouring Earth, they cause a great disaster and destroy their planet and they all turn into energy beings with no memories. Groph in Groph’s Green Wizardry is possessed by one of these beings. Eruen is also the planet that Titus finds in Titus Waiting.
I’ve been toying with redeveloping their visual look.
