7-31-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Kevin's uh...

To be completely honest, Kevin in panel 2 is the exact way I should be drawing Kevin all the time. That is the 100% perfect character design for him. I have no clue why it turned out so good or why sometimes it turns out so horrible, but whatever right?

7-30-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

I find that I'm going slower than normal with the comic. Usually I'd be in the middle/ close to the end of part 2 right now. I guess that's a good thing though. That means I'm trying to be effective with my storytelling and comedy. Like yesterday's page with the gag of Eric ditching Mary again. If I really needed to fast with this thing, then I could've easily excluded that from the story. On my estimate, I'd say we're done with part 1 in a week or so. That's when the story really gets good.

7-29-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party 

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Will we ever see Eric and Mary have a romantic moment without Eric doing something stupid? Probably not. Eric is too much of a loose canon. I can't say if I love or hate when that happens. I do find it funny when Eric does something awkward and weird around Mary, but I also like it when they have a serious romantic moment. So who know what will happen next between them. I don't even know.

7-28-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Magic Stipulation

OoOoOoOoOoOo Do I spy some foreshadowing? Magic is a tricky subject to write about. I mean, you can pretty much do whatever you want when writing about magic, there's no rules. It's not like time travel where you have to write all about the mechanics and stipulations of it. Like the butterfly effect, you know how hard that is to write? One thing you do in your past heavily influences your future. Good rule, pain to write about... I may have to do a filler about that.

7-27-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Before you ask, yes, in this school you can get in trouble for staying on school premises after school. To be honest, it was a plot hole that I had to cover up. I didn't realize when I wrote my script for HSP that I placed this scene after school and had Robin interrupted by the bell...Oh well.

7-26-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party 

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Hey! This is our first actual introduction to Robin. It's a shame it's not a positive one. Anyways, I've been getting tired of the same old camera angles so I'm actually trying to expand my use of angles. Panel 2 is a good example of that. It's not over the shoulder of Robin but it's enough to only show one side of her face and her back. It's odd typed out, but it's better explained in person, or if you actually notice it yourself within the pages.

7-25-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

And the plot thickens. I wanted to originally include more of Steve Steele talking or interacting with Kevin and Claire, but I didn't want him to directly walk up to them as they're talking about him. It's confusing but for story purposes, it wouldn't make too much of sense. I think we can just come to the conclusion that Steele is a jerk regardless of how long he's in the comic.

7-24-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Late uploads are always bad. In my defense I was out all day and swarmed with paperwork. Anyway, we finally get closer and deeper into story. The party has finally been talked about and we're getting more of a clue as to the details. As for Steve Steele, he did this....

Mind the horrible art, this drawing is from before Clone Arc. But yeah, that jerk stole Robin from Kevin, so Kevin has bad blood against him.

7-23-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Mary's Advice

Finally! Not only have the story pages returned from a 3 day break, but the party is finally mentioned! 

It only goes up from here. The excitement and dramatic elements do not stop here!

If you are very observant and noticed that I changed Claire's book bag to more of an over the shoulder bag (satchel, if you will). I don't know why, but I kind think that Claire would be the one to wear that rather than a book bag. Weird right?

7-22-12 Sketch

I know. I suck. I promise today will be the last sketch page for a while. It's not the fact that I got busy or I forgot, it's the fact that I'm just straight up lazy. I figured "hey, why not finish off the weekend with  sketch" Tomorrow story pages will return to normal and we will finally progress a bit more in Part 1. 

By the way, when I talk about sketching the page the night before I actually draw the page, this is what I mean. This is an example of what I do. I don't try pretty much.

7-21-12 Sketch

Hey! Another alternate attire sketch for High School Party! So, yeah, today is another sketch only because yesterday I was busy with Batman. So busy that I forgot to do my sketch for today's story page. So yeah. My bad.

7-20-12 Sketch

SPOILERS! Yep this is my early concept sketches of 3 of my 7 character's attires for HSP. I like that.

7-19-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Something about this page feels off... I think it's the structure of the page. I've never done 5 panels in that structure before. I usually do the two small panels on the bottom, never on top. I don't think I'll be doing that again. I mean the comedy is good and I like the gag in the page, but the structure is weird. This shall be fixed within time.

7-18-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

The year Joel is referring to

The one thing I've come to notice about the character of Sophie is that she gets enraged really quickly. I wanted to clear something up too. When Joel, in panel 3, says that they hung out that entire year, he's referring to the year that Mary and Eric had that awkward moment (I linked that). See, since Joel usually hangs out with Eric and since Eric spent a lot of time with Sophie, Sophie and Joel hung out a lot. Her not remembering him is her way of trying to make their lives crappy. 

7-17-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Eric and his Tacos

Last time we saw Sophie

I always try to give Sophie a dramatic entrance. She's kind of an antagonist so I try to make any antagonist's entrance dramatic. I've sort of updated her look since the last time we saw her. I changed her hair kind of and made her nose smaller. It's not very noticeable but I think it looks good. 

Another thing I wanted to mention was the whole "Taco" situation. Eric is a dreamer. For some reason he thinks that he will regain his taste for tacos. Spoiler Alert...He won't. I wish I would've expanded a little bit on the loophole precent. I don't want to explain it here because I will maybe include it at some point with the story, but I will sooner or later, expand on the loophole.

Also, Liz is the 3rd character to be showing off her High School party attire. Even though I may change it because I don't really think black looks good for her. Perhaps I'll make it a lighter shade...hmmmm decisions decisions.

7-16-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Kevin's Knowledge of Comics

There's so much to say about this page and such little time. First of all, I'd like to acknowledge that Kevin and Claire are the first to be wearing their official High School Party attire. Yes yes, much different than Clone Arc attire. You can't see Claire's very much but tomorrow it'll be clear. Through out the arc, you'll notice how the characters change attire.

Another thing needed to be addressed is Chibi Kevin and Chibi Joe. Although they are very adorable, I did screw up a bit with the Chibi-ness. Chibi-ness needs to be more excessive. Especially in the last panel. Kevin's head is not big enough darn-it! From now on ALL dream sequences shall be acted out by Chibi characters! The Chibi-ness shall be excessive next time around.

Lastly, I wanted to point out Kevin and Joe's relationship. A lot has changed over the 3 week period between this arc and last arc. For one, someone let it spill to Joel that Eric has a spell (And what the spell contains). Erica is getting used to living (I guess is the best word for it), and Joe and Kevin's relationship has grown to more of a student/mentor relationship. Kevin knows nothing about comics, so Joe will teach him! We'll see more of this as the story progresses.

7-15-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Part

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

The Spell

Have I mentioned yet that the one thing I absolutely hate doing is drawing sequences in a car. I try my best to avoid car sequences, but sometimes, for story purposes, they are unavoidable. Sure, I could've had Eric and Joel walk to school, but where's the excitement in that? Plus I wanted to show the Joel can drive, while Eric doesn't. The car interior is always such a pain to draw and shade. I hate doing it. This is the last we see of car sequences for a while, I think. At least until I perfect it.

7-14-12 Sketch

Sketch

So, there will be no new story page today due to my very (not so) busy schedule. So, instead I decided to do some head shots of the main characters, and some secondary characters. The girl in between of Claire and Gwen is Robin. She is a character mentioned earlier in the comic as Kevin's ex girlfriend (of whom he grew up with). She was spotted cheating on Kevin and Kevin completely shunned her out of his life without getting to tell her side of the story.. Minor Spoiler Alert: She will be more included in later portions of High School Party.

7-13-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Gwen at South

I've noticed that in this page, Eric's head is oddly proportioned in every panel he's in. I don't know why, it just looks a bit odd. I'm going to have to be careful next time. I think this is because of last night. I sketched the page at 2:00 am because of a certain enraging predicament. I was threatened by a person posing as an Administrator and "VP of Marketing" for Microsoft, that my account was to be terminated as of July 16, just because hew as mad that I had quit early. After a very stressful arguing with moderators on the Xbox Live website, things were finally cleared up. I was even contemplating skipping today's page. But NO! I toughed it out and even though there are a few mistakes in this page, it's still as good as any other!

7-12-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

School Discussion

A little disclaimer: the beeps in panel 4 are much different than the beeps from the alarm clock in page 1. These are beeps from a car. Joel can be very impatient.

7-11-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

I love the Wright Parents. My main inspiration for them are the parents from Fairly Odd Parents. Like, the Wright Parents aren't THAT bonkers, but they can still be looked at as exaggerated a bit. 

You can probably tell that this arc is moving rather slow. at least slower than Clone Arc was moving. This is because I've noticed in parts 1-4 of Clone Arc, we moved sort of fast and I thought a lot of it felt rushed when I could've expanded on some things. For example, there were a lot of things I left out from my original mapping of Clone Arc that I considered to be "deleted scenes." A example of that would be  in part 2 how I wanted to show a little bit of Gwen actually building the cloning device, or in part 4, before the big fight, I was going to have Evil Eric and Erica exchange a few words. I left those scenes out for reasons I can't remember. The bottom line is that there will be no more deleted scenes and everything that can be included will be included, even if that means having the arc slow down for a bit, even though that's unlikely. 

7-10-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Oh Mr and Mrs. Wright, you guys are crazy. My sketch for today's page turned out so much better than the page itself. Specifically panel 4. Mr. Wright is odd looking, but in my sketch he was fine. It's all really weird.

7-9-12 High School Party Part 1: Stack The Blocks

High School Party

Part 1: Stack The Blocks

Previous Page               Next Page

Start of Clone Arc

If you haven't read Clone Arc, I'd suggest doing that before going any further with the story. 

Hey! We're on High School Party! Sure, page 1 seems kind of dull, but things doing really get awesome until part 2 anyway. Part 1 is just build up to what happens in part 2. I've noticed that my milk carton looks like a bottle of water. Hopefully people can use context clues to figure out that it's not water.

7-8-12 High School Party Cover

High School Party:

Cover

Previous Page               Next Page

My balloon looks a little fat, but whatever, I can't draw a perfect circle. Whenever I try to draw a perfect circle I always try and go the Spongebob Route, but it never turns out the way it does for him. Anyway, High School Party starts tomorrow.

7-6-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc - - The End

Previous Page               Next Page

Alas, we end the Clone Arc on a potential cliffhanger that may or may not be explored later on. Today is actually the two month anniversary of Clone Arc. It started May 6th so this turned out to be great timing. 

I wanted to address the importance of this cliffhanger. You may have noticed already that Gwen doesn't really have strong friendships with Claire or Kevin. They're friends, but not great friends. What this means is, now that Gwen is at Marville South, we won't be seeing much of her for a while. As sad as it is, I'm kind of saying goodbye to her character for now. 

The character who is talking to Gwen, if you didn't know, is Marville North's principal. His look is based off of one of my former teacher. That's just a little fun fact. He was in a story from earlier days of the comic that I never put on the site, so technically this is his 2nd appearance in the comic.

7-5-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

I don't know why I put Eric's transformation back to himself off camera. I think it was because of room constraints. Hey! We're almost done with the arc!

7-4-12 Sketch

Pirate Kevin...Arg!

7-3-12 Sketch

First sketch of Sophie. She has a turtle neck.

7-2-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

I like to call this page "Erica Explains it All." She literally does explain it all.

7-1-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

6-30-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Hey! Brother sister relationship developing in which they laugh at each others mistakes.

6-29-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc 

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Hey! Eric has magic now. That's pretty cool...or is it?

6-28-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Sister

I like Eric's parents. They are not bias at all. All they care about is who is more responsible in their respective situations. They're gonna be fun to write for. I also wanted to address a running issue. In part 4 when Evil Eric has a magic book, nobody even questions how he has a book and why he has a book. I can answer a few questions. Evil Eric simply had a book before Eric in his reality and it jsut crossed over when the zapping began.

6-27-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Eric's love for Tacos

And this is the part where everything bad starts happening to Eric. You'll see later. 

I really love this gag. He doesn't care that he could be dead or that he no longer has an X chromosome, he just loves his tacos. That's justice.

6-26-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc 

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

I call this part the "exposition part"

6-25-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Last time we saw Joel's Dad

Joel's dad knows all. He and Gwen are the masters of exposition.

6-24-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Yay! Character development! Man, I really have to put up Mary and Eric's dramatic story pretty soon.

6-23-12 Sketch

New character?

6-22-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

What I tried to do what show two characters that haven't interacted yet interacting. I thought of Claire and how her story could go well, but who could she talk to? Liz? No, she doesn't have anything to say about the subject. Joel? Nah. OH! How about Mary? Bingo! There it is!

I tend to like it when Claire shows emotion. We don't see that too often, and I'm sure not a  lot of people in the comic do either.

6-21-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Awww, Claire feels flustered. It's always nice to see Claire show some kind of emotion. It freaks her out, but it's good for the audience.

6-20-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Hey! More Spider-Man references

6-19-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Again, I tried to make it dramatic, but it fails like always.

6-18-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Note * if you ever cannot read the page, it's okay to zoom in. I know I sound like a broken record, but I can't stress that enough.

I guess the question stemming from today's page is "Who started the rumor?" Well, that's called a MacGuffin. A MacGuffin is a plot device in which there is an object, event or goal for the characters that remains unexplained. So, we may never know. It could be any student that secretly saw them in the science room at Marville North. Who knows. 

6-17-12 Clone Arc Part 5: Brand New Day

Clone Arc

Part 5: Brand New Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Joel can be a little clingy at times. I think it's because he loves his friends so much. I mean, he thought they were dead. What an exaggeration. But it was a life and death scenario. There are so many different ways that battle could've gone down where Evil Eric wins. Maybe I'll do a what if arc at some point.

6-16-12 Clone Arc Part 4: One More Day

Clone Arc

Part 4: One More Day - END

Previous Page               Next Page

I think it's appropriate to end Part 4 with Claire's Log. Now, I know it's in such small print that it can be hard to read, so I'll put it all down here...

"Claire's Log: They say you have to see it to believe it. Yes, that statement is true, but what sorts of faith are left? Today might've been the strangest day of my life and I don't regret it. What I have seen and what has transpired today are things nobody can believe unless they see it. Clones, magic, science, it's all a mystery, and I'm sure nobody fully understands it."

" Today I also met somebody nobody would've thought would show up in our lives, Erica. She is a perfect example of having faith in the world. Instead of being, evil, she decided to help Eric. This is in her nature because like Eric, she is generally a good person."

"One thing I've gathered is to not refer to Erica as a clone, she's not. She's shown she has her own distinct personality. Yes, she branches off from Eric, but she's more of a sister to him. I now know what she means when she explains how she is her own person."

"This whole day seems like something out of a SciFi book, but in a world where magic exists for unexplained reasons, anything is possible. This is why faith in the world is necessary. Today felt like the beginning of something big. Although it's nice to remember this day, we cannot live in it. Living in the past is wrong. There is always one more day, a brand new day."

Ta Da! I also wanted to cover what the hecks going on in panel 1. Simple, they gave Joe the device to keep safe in the comic shop. Also because he complained that he was not included in their shenanigans.

6-15-12 Clone Arc Part 4: One More Day

Clone Arc

Part 4: One More Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Yep Kevin is totally out of it. Let me give a little bit of an explanation. Okay so that technique Sensei Todd showed them was putting energy into one part of the body to virtually make that part not react to pain and be super powerful. Since Kevin had everything gathering in his legs, he head butted the Rock Monster without energy in his head, thus feeling all pain and suffering a concussion from head butting a rock. Get it? Good. 

So, Evil Eric is gone and all seems well, doesn't it?

6-14-12 Clone Arc Part 4: One More Day

Clone Arc

Part 4: One More Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Yep. Everything Erica says in panel 1 is 100% true. Eric's only weakness is being easily distracted and the clones inherit that from him. I wish it was Kevin kicking him in the face, but it felt appropriate to give it to Eric. Plus Kevin is kind of concussed from head butting a rock.

6-13-12 Clone Arc Part 4: One More Day

Clone Arc

Part 4: One More Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Kevin's kicks

6-12-12 Clone Arc Part 4: One More Day

Clone Arc

Part 4: One More Day

Previous Page               Next Page

Finally! Action is in the comic. Eric is gonna get beat to a pulp by a giant rock, but Erica comes and saves the day! What a hero!