Chapter 7 Started

I’ve begun work on chapter 7. Although I may change my mind, I believe the entire chapter will take place on a single set, namely a courtyard at Isabella’s palace on Revenna. It’s a stone courtyard with an almost medieval look, but to add contrast I’ve placed a skycar (as seen in chapter 2) in the middle of it. I’ve always liked the idea of old versus new, or low tech with high tech.

The chapter will be split into three basic parts: an introductory conversation between the Empress and one of our consorts, then the Empress and Alexander, and finally the Empress, Alexander, and Richard. Like chapter 5, this chapter is essentially a bridge setting up the action in the next few chapters.

Over the weekend, I managed to make some progress on the role-playing game, although I was feeling a bit overwhelmed for part of the time. Nevertheless, I finally got my act together and added some important content. I’m still months away from being done, but at least I’m relatively happy with the direction I’m currently going with it.

Chapter 6 Now Online

It’s a day late, but chapter 6 is now online! I published it last night after finishing up the dialogue on pages 12 and 13, and doing the web stuff in Dreamweaver. This weekend I’m going to take a break from the comic and work on the Imperium Chronicles role-playing game. Since the graphic novel takes precedence, the RPG has been coming along slowly. I’ve also been a little gun shy on some of the content, since I want it to stand out among others of the genre. I’m basically taking some of the lessons I’ve learned from MMOPRGs and incorporating them into a pen-and-paper game. Ironically, many of the MMORPGs out there (such as the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons) are online games based on their PnP roots.

Continuity

I’ve completed most of the post work on page 12 and started the renders on 13, which I believe will be the last page of the chapter. This means I should hit my target date of Wednesday (8/24) for publishing chapter 6.

While I was doing the post work on 12, I noticed I had made a continuity mistake. In the Prologue, Durant Blixx’s ship the Provocateur fires a reddish beam from its plasma cannons, whereas I had used a blue beam and explosions in the current chapter. After cursing myself for being careless, I decided to simply go with the mistake since fixing the problem would be too time consuming. Still, this points out an important aspect of doing such a long story: it’s not always easy to keep straight all the little things that you do during the process. It helps to go back and review the other chapters to see how I did things perhaps several months previously.

By the way, per a suggestion from my wife, I’ve included an obscure Calvin & Hobbes reference in chapter 6, which I’m curious to see if anyone recognizes. The fact that the captain in the chapter is feline (Akiak) is appropriate I suppose.

No Pirate Bridge After All

Last week I had a bad head cold so I seemed to be stuck on page 7 for a few days. Since then, however, I’ve finished up through page 9 and most of page 10. In an earlier posting, I had mentioned making a second set (the bridge of the pirate ship), but I don’t think I’m going to use it after all (at least not during this chapter). As it stands now, I think the chapter will end up at 13-14 pages, which may or may not require me to postpone publishing until Aug 27-28 (a delay of 3-4 days). If I had used the pirate bridge, however, the chapter would have gone at least 16-18 pages. It would’ve shown some interaction between Durant Blixx and Lady Sophia. Although I regret not having that, it’s not enough of a big deal to make me delay publication.

My Own Thing

I’ve completed pages 5 and 6, and will start 7 tonight. I added the preview pages to the website showing some samples of chapter 6. I also gave the estimated publish date as Wednesday, August 24^th, which is a few days later than I was originally thinking, but will give me a little more time.

Last Saturday I went to Wizard World here in Chicago. Unfortunately, we arrived too late to see Frank Miller. I had hoped he could sign my graphic novel (the printed version of course), but that didn’t happen. Instead, my wife and I walked around for a couple of hours. The conference hall was packed with thousands of people (a few in costumes). There were also several artists with their own comics, some with samples. It was interesting to see so much talent, and I wondered how many would actually get to sell their work successfully. None were of the Poser/CGI variety like mine, but that’s okay. I’ve never really considered my stuff as traditional comics, and in fact, I’m really more drawn to so-called graphic novels. I’ve read of some controversy about what is a comic and what’s a graphic novel. Either way, however, I just keep doing my own thing.

Purgatory

I’ve completed pages 1-4, and started the renders on page 5. If I can keep on this pace (and assuming the chapter isn’t more than 12 pages long), I should be able to publish chapter 6 on the weekend of August 20-21. I also think I have enough material that I can put a preview up on the website as early as tonight.

I want to thank Thip who left a long and thoughtful comment on my previous blog posting. He made a lot of good insights into my graphic novel, especially on ways he believes it could be improved. Feedback is helpful, and I appreciate him doing that! He also has an online comic of his own (using Poser as I do). Please take a look at Purgatory. It’s very good.