Tada: last year I finished the first installment of my epic fantasy story Telaya & Dioman (work on it kept me from 3D & Blender most of the time … all my 3D projects are on hold since then).
As of February, 6th, it will be published on the web, chapter-wise, in 11 episodes, every 14 days.
It’s a big, challenging experiment for me: my original idea had been to find a publisher and have it printed. But web comics have become a thrilling alternative … we’ll see.
It’s all done in GIMP & Inkscape.
The comic itself is b/w only - it’s just a magnitude of work speed increase. Which matters, if 124 pages are to be drawn, and the next book waits.
I look forward to reading it. comics have always been of interest to me. I tried my hand at it once, but no motivation kept me from it.
From your initial teaser pages, I like what I see. The visuals are really good, and it has a haunting/romantic quality to it that makes it addictive. You have placed plenty of detail and work into it, and it shows here.
End of this month, there’ll be release party & exhibition in a small Black Forest village, in Southern Germany.
The exhibition poster will look like that:
Your question … it’s not that simple to answer for me.
I’ve done a few illustration jobs, and a few 3D jobs too. But to be honest: I don’t want to draw “as a job”. I need to be emotionally involved, to draw well. And my emotional involvement is not for sale.
My real, native interest is story writing and story telling, visually. Getting those comics finished, one per year, if possible, within the next 5-6 years.
As I put tremendous effort into the whole package of drawing, comic making, story writing, over the last couple of years, I won’t call it “hobby”. Time-wise it’s profession … but I have to take it there economy-wise yet. Which is what I’m trying to achieve at the moment.
Btw, the first chapter of “This Side of Darkness” is finally online: A Sparkle in the Void
The release party has been great, btw. … among the VIP guests, three great fellow artists have been there: my friends Jenny, Katharina and Sebastian, my brother.
Had a lot of fun together. ^^
Currently, I’m trying to get back into creative flow. Book 2 will have to tell a slightly more complex story than book 1, there are more separate threads of action, and more constraints to obey, as “This Side of Darkness” has to be connected to book 3 consistently, and in the same turn, a nice story arc in it’s own right should be told, of course.
Doing lots of scripting at the moment, both prose, and visually.
Some scribbles:
Chapter 4 will go online Thursday night, 0:00, btw.
Have a look …
… and a question:
I’ve split the book into chapters, for online presentation. Originally, it was written monolithically, however, using a rather slow pace, concerning story telling. I’m not sure, whether splitting it was a good idea at all, because this might disrupt or even destroy the story’s mood and suspense, from a reader’s point of view.
Maybe it’s too early to ask, because there are only three chapters online already, but anyways: what do you think?
I am still following this. I checked your website and it looks stunning.
I really am afraid to give any suggestions. I can tell you what I decided to do for my project, and what, I want to believe, proved a good choice.
I was also wondering if I should split the story into smaller books. I did. I think that way I disposed of a tiny burden. I was able to expand the separate books, enrich the depth of the individual characters, locations, events and so on. It was a liberating experience for me.
However, I am not introduced to your case fully and I cant give you that advice. Perhaps you could just consider my case and look things from another perspective.
It is important to mention, that I am in the process of finishing the first drafts for my 1-st three books, also in the process of planning storyline, plots, just so at the end everything will make sense.
thanks for sharing your experiences with me! Any exchange is helpful and appreciated!
I feel I might have been a bit inaccurate in describing the problem/asking the question.
As of now, the plan is to tell the complete story in 4 separate books (the first one is finished and printed already). I’m fine with that.
“This Side of Darkness” has 124 pages - perfect to allow me to develop the story and build up pace and tension in a slow, epic manner.
However, for the web page, I split the book into 11 separate chapters … and that decision is what troubles me now.
It’s … just not made for that.
Well, I’ll keep it that way for at least one or two more chapters, and evaluate my experiences concerning reader behaviour until then.
Ah…I see. Well…if major events and plot links remain unharmed, there is nothing wrong with that.
You could ask your friends to give it a read, ask them what they think. You read it and try to be neutral about it(it is hard, I know).
Well, I’ll keep it that way for at least one or two more chapters, and evaluate my experiences concerning reader behaviour until then.
Btw: extensive proof reading has been done, of course.
Unfortunately, concerning the “split-into-chapters”-issue, my proof readers are as undecided as I am.
That’s why I asked here … in case you actually read the comic, are you already bored to death?
It would be damn cool of you gals & guys, if you would support the comic a bit, either by just spreading the word, sharing it like hell, or click the “vote” button at http://www.telayaanddioman.net
Some news, and a bit of advertising.
Finally, I managed to finish the “movie” version of “This Side of Darkness”: a comic slideshow in widescreen format, featuring an epic score from audiomachine.
Problem is: it’s on paper, but German only.
English print files and even ISBNs for self-publishing are all ready, but at the moment I just can’t afford to have it printed right into the blue (it seems having money and working on your own graphic novel are mutually exclusive options).
I need an estimation of whether there’s enough interest in the English printed version first …
This one is special, a quick digi scribble of Hrug and his new mount … a - TADA - horse (have always been afraid of drawing them, but now just did it)!
Reasoning about a scene in T&D vol 2, which almost enforces to become a direct F. Frazetta citation.
Sketchbook, color pencils (I did not know I still had a box of these, didn’t use color pencils for at least a decade, I guess, and forgot how much fun it is):