By George He's Got it

By George He's Got it

     So after 14 pages of creating a digital comic "WOW SIGNAL!"  I finally got a hang of the program I am working on. I have been using a mix of an Adobe Illustrator CS 3 (Which is very old at this point) and Adobe Photoshop Elements. 

1st page of Wow Signal

<<< So here is where I started out with the first page I created. It was kinda tough when I had never drawn directly on a computer before (I have colored pieces on the computer before). In fact the first panel of this page was a test to see what I could do when I transferred my pen and ink stills to the pixel realm.

     I was pretty surprised as to what I could do and decided that I would like to keep up with it. I started to create a story to help push me to craft images to go with the tale. Each page I kept adding to my ability of working with these two programs, until I was more adept at creating a more professional piece on the computer.

Page 1 of Issue 2

     After I got to this level I decided to evolve my style so it would stand out and add to the level of professionalism. I was heavily influenced by the artwork of Brandon Graham as well as other artists who worked on his book Prophet  which is a sci-fi tale that was adapted from Rob Liefeld's original story. What I ended up with I truly liked and after a few sketches I made two covers and then the first page of the second issue with this technique. It took me a long time to find a style that I was really confident and proud of, but now that I have you can look forward to some awesome updates of GryphonKnights free webcomics!

I have some demo and instructional videos on the Gryphonknights Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC44OoVir28whelh38eNrnHA

Stylistic Differences and Their Effect on a Comic Book

Today I was thinking about stylistic differences. In fact I was talking with my brother about that very thing. I had mentioned to him my need to refine my art style, and he commented that for the last book I illustrated the art was perfectly fitting for the content.

   
Greasers in Greece is after all a comedy and my style tend toward the cartoonish and silly. Its not that I can't do other styles, but this is the one that really fit the content. If you check out the image to the right you can see that this is the style that encompasses the Greasers and their universe.


One of the final things my brother had said was "imagine if the Greasers were drawn by anybody else?" after a paused he added, "Or more specifically what if it was done by someone like Rob Liefeld?" Its that final comment that got me thinking. Its true that style can totally change the feel of a story. And as is often the case, when a muse seizes you you can do nothing but obey.


For those that are not familiar with Rob Liefeld's style it is very different from my own. His characters are often tall have rippling muscles and more often than not have grim serious expressions on their face. He is at times ridiculed but he became popular and well regarded in the industry so quickly that his style became iconic. Liefeld changing his own style would be Jennifer Grey getting a nosejob all over again. Her look was iconic and changing it made her unrecognizable.

Understanding that detail I took my cartoonish style and replaced it with a more Liefeldian image. It completely changes the effect and the mood of the book.

Style can be intrinsic in creating the right pairing between art and writing. I had to be wary of this for the horror book called The Only Choice by Indie Comics Tracker. I used heavy contrast to set a dark and haunting tone to the book.

Next project you work on keep these concepts in mind so you might have great success!


Sir Thomas J. Gryphon is an artist and plebeian playing at making the next great comic, books like WOW Signal and others at GRYPHON KNIGHTS COMICS.