Gawain comic, 25-27

It's the last of the Prologue!

I have been wondering about the best moment to start doing a finalised version. I think it's best to wait till the first story is done in storyboards, at least, because I may come across things that need clarifying and the Prologue may need editing to accomodate those missing elements.

Meanwhile, here are pages 25 to 27. Click for a readable view...

I hope you enjoyed this first part of the comic!

All constructive criticism is very welcome :-).

Gawain comic, 22-24

I'm really sorry I didn't get round to posting yesterday. The weekend was pretty filled up, and today too I'm rather pressed for time. This will have to be a quick update.

This is the one but last instalment of the Prologue. I hope you enjoy it!

Click the pictures for a readable view...

Gawain comic, 19-21

I have just ordered a few Arthuriana over the Internet. I was still missing two out of three parts of Gillian Bradshaw's trilogy Down the Long Wind - I only have the middle one, and that made me curious about the first book especially. It's about Gwalchmai ap Lot, a. k. a. Gawain. I had been on the lookout for these for a while now, but whenever I came across copies on the Net they seemed comparatively expensive for tanned, 1980s paperbacks, and any vendors I could find were in the States. This time I found an English vendor via Abebooks.

The other thing I got is a pretty crazy-sounding DC classic comic called Camelot 3000. In it, Morgan le Fay sends an army of aliens out to conquer the planet Earth (*dies*), and a young archeologist wakes up King Arthur who, as everybody knows, lies sleeping under Glastonbury Tor. Arthur goes to find Merlin, who, as everybody also knows, is emprisoned under Stonehenge, and then he goes on to pull Excalibur out of a stone, though it is a well-known fact that Excalibur is not the sword in the stone, but let's pretend for a moment that it is. - Anyway, as Arthur can't very well ward off Morgan's Army of Aliens on his own, his knights reincarnate. Apparently Sir Tristan reincarnates as a woman - that is one story arc I can't wait to read :D. Gawain, I am told, comes back in the shape of a black South African.

I couldn't very well not buy that comic, could I? You will hear more about it when I have actually read it :).

Now: on with the story. You know the drill: click the thumbnails if you want to be able to read anything...

Gawain comic, pages 16-18

Next week, I will be drawing the last of this prologue. I know how Chapter 1 is going to start, but not quite what else is going to be in it apart from that beginning :-). I have do do some thorough thinking to figure out all the bits I need to tell before Gawain can have his first famous adventure. As you can guess from that, I don't intend to detail his entire childhood. I just want an introductory part that mentions the important, formative events of the time before he arrived at King Arthur's court - the kind of information a reader needs to understand his actions and reactions. It also has to launch the main themes. So it's important to do it right. It's also the part most likely to receive content edits as I go along.

Anyway: three more pages of the prologue.

CLICK THE IMAGES FOR A READABLE VIEW.

Tools of the trade

Gawain comic, 13-15

People sometimes ask me whether my fellow commuters are ever curious about the fact that I draw comics during my train journeys. In general, they really aren't. Last week I got my first ever comment from two girls sitting opposite me. They liked what they saw, and wished me good luck with the story.

I think I grinned like an idiot.

Anyway, here are three more pages :-).

CLICK THE IMAGES FOR A READABLE VERSION.

Gawain comic, 10-12

Look, here's more :).

I'm still struggling with the continuation of the story, but I'll sort it out. I need to place a few of my themes without it being too obvious that I'm sowing seeds. As far as I'm concerned, that's the difficult part of storytelling. Also, I'm a little worried that the next part might put readers off a bit. Which would be meh.

Anyway - let's continue with the story.

CLICK THE IMAGES FOR A READABLE VIEW.

Gawain comic, 7-9

The story has been drawn up to page 18 now, but at this moment I have got a little bit stuck. The matter is that I have to make sure now to organise my information well - and without 'telling' too much, because 'telling' is boring to read.

So, well, I'm trying to work those issues out. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the continuation of the story :)

CLICK THE THUMBNAILS FOR A READABLE VIEW.

Gawain comic, 4-6

Ooo boy. It completely slipped my mind that I haven't been keeping up with new pages of the comic. I have plenty already - drew page 17 on the train home today. Long live the train, even if it often neglects its primary purpose, namely, getting me from point A to point B within a given amount of time.

I try to draw a page every workday between Antwerp and Ghent. Sometimes I am prevented by circumstances, but mostly it works. It's great fun and very satisfying, even if a lot of lines turn out to be shakier than I would wish ;).

I should fix a day for posting. I could try Friday evening... Or would Sunday be a better idea? Now that I have installed a Statcounter thingy, I know that the number of views of this blog' peaks on Sundays. Oh, and in case you were wondering, anything above three views is a peak ;).

*hugs select readership*

Anyway, I promised you some pages.

CLICK THE THUMBNAILS FOR READABLES.

Gawain & Ragnell

Remember my Gawain and Ragnell sketches? I finally completed the inks yesterday, just in time for the contest. I did intend to add colour, but there was no time - I would have had to copy the drawing onto watercolour paper, ink it and paint it. Now that there would be no colour to draw the attention away from the lines, I gave the inks my all.

Does this work on its own, though? It's very pale; I guess it would have been stronger with some blacks. Only, as I did originally intend it for colouring, I didn't reckon with any blacks, and adding them as an afterthought would have looked messy.

Hm.

(Click for a large view.)