Robert Wilson IV

Here is the original version of page 2 of Black. I guess there isn’t really anything particularly wrong with it, but I wasn’t totally satisfied with it after the first take.

So, here’s the new version. Same basic idea, but with a little more life to it.

I added a half tone grey scale to it to add some dimension and mood. Still trying to decide if I like this better than draft 1.

The current plan for Black is to publish it in three double-sized issues and then as a graphic novel. I would really like it to be in color but 1) I am not that great with coloring and 2) That would take an incalculable amount of time. Really, what I am hoping for is to get picked up by a publisher or make enough money through selling issues to pay someone who knows what they are doing to color the book.

So, knowing that, do I add grey scale to the issues? Does it add anything or is it just a waste of time? Why don’t you let me know what you think. I would love you for it.

I do graphic design for my church as my day job. It is hard sometimes to be sitting there drawing something when I really want to be drawing my comic. But lets be serious here, I have pretty much total creative freedom, all of my co workers are cool / nice, I have my own office (as of last week), it is actually a pretty nice gig. I get paid to do something I love, not to many people can say that.

This image is my latest project. No art director, just me, my brushes, photoshop and Webcomics Weekly (I have become a little bit of a podcast addict). Also, the colors were inspired (stolen in the case of the pinks) by Kristian Donaldson, who is a favorite artist of mine. Read Supermarket, it’s tons of fun.

I am in North Carolina at my buddy Ian’s house after a whirlwind day of printing, packing, work and flying. This is the cover for the demo comic I printed up. I actually made the cover yesterday in about 2 hours. I am pretty satisfied with it. Although, I realize that this is probably the only time procrastination will ever pay off for me, ever.

So, tomorrow I go to HeroesCon to hand out my mini comic to any editor, writter, or artist who will take it. Wish me luck.

This is a combination of 4ish sketchbook pages from my most recent moleskine. I carry one with me literally everywhere I go. I came up with the idea for ‘Black’ while at work a few years ago and sketched out a REALLY rough draft while standing in the middle of the electronics department watching TechTV.

Most artists I know deal with anxiety about the quality of their work and how people will react to it. I am no exception. While flipping through Paul Pope’s 100% a sense of dread came over me as I realized “This guy is WAY better than me, why would anyone read my stuff when there are comics out there that are this amazing.” Regardless of what you feel about Pope’s work there are many, many artists out there better than me. It made me so afraid to release any of my work publicly that for a day I considered scrapping everything and starting over on Black.

I know that that is a ridiculous idea because if I never push forward I will never make any real progress. On the podcast ‘Webcomics Weekly,’ Dave Kellett said something to the effect of “at some point good enough becomes good enough, and with time good enough will become great.” Well Dave, I hope you are right.

Here is a page I inked while watching ‘Fist Full of Dollars’… Westerns are great to watch while inking

‘Black’ essentially about a small group of astronauts who wake up from induced hibernation to find that their ship has crashed. The majority of the ship’s crew was killed in the “crash” - which I will refer to as the incident, which is what the astronauts call it because they don’t really know what happened. To make matters worse, they are not even sure where they are or how they will survive in their badly damaged ship.

Here are pages 4 and 5. This is basically the reveal of the destroyed ship. I know it is a bit of a spoiler but come on, I can’t even tell you a little about the plot without this kind us set up.

Pacing is a huge deal in comics and maybe one of the most difficult elements to master. If you were reading a paper version of black, it would be laid out so that you would first see the protagonist come out of his chamber into the wreckage that is his ship and then turn the page to reveal he is in space. I got the idea for this type of reveal while reading Scott McCloud’s ‘Making Comics‘. It is easily the best book on making comics I have ever read.

I don’t script my book out in the traditional sense of the the word. Generally I do a rough page layout + script combo. This is generally illegible to anyone other than myself. This is really the only way I have found that I can write with any type of quality. I thought that I was completely useless as a writter because of this. However, I heard that both Paul Pope AND Jeff Smith write in this manner, so I feel better about myself now.

Page Rough - Done in a crappy sketchbook, usually 2 to a page.

Pencil - Done on regular Bristol Board 11×17 with a 2H pencil.

Ink - I use regular India Ink with a #2 Round Brush almost exclusively.

For me, Inking is the most tedious part but it is also the step that adds the real soul of the page. There is just something about lines from a brush that you can’t get with any type of pen. Brush strokes are dynamic, organic, and alive. From beginning to end this page took me somewhere around 9 hours to draw. I am still a little slow.

Whoever said showing up is 90% of success never tried to make comics.

I have been thinking about the story for ‘Black’ for about the last two years. I even tried to start drawing it a few times. However nothing materialized. Partially because I didn’t have the skills, but also because I didn’t have a definite goal of when I would finish, I didn’t have a fully fleshed out story, and I didn’t have the discipline that it takes to make comics.

On June 21, 2008 I am going to have my pitch for ‘Black’ finished. I am going to Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina and I will tell as many editors, publishers, writers, and artists in the comic industry about my comic, and why it matters.

This blog is the chronicle of my adventure. I hope you enjoy, and I look forward to your feedback, advice , and criticisms. Thanks