A version of this post was originally published on the 8th of March 2024, in a private newsletter to my Kickstarter backers. I’m now making all the updates available to the public, so you can see how I create my comic books.
Hi there, and happy Friday!
The third chapter is progressing: the rough pencil art is done, and I’m moving on to inking, which means I’ll draw the outlines and add extra details before popping in the colours. The cameos are also in place, but I’ll leave those for a future update when they are more detailed. 🥸
While the campaign was running, and based on feedback collected from multiple sources over the last year, I reviewed the plot and made changes to the ending. This included removing an important character from a central role. Even though it was emotionally complicated for me, the story as a whole feels solid now. It is more straightforward but stronger and aligned with Carol and Art’s lives and personalities. And I want to tell you, but I don’t want to spoil it!
There are things that you only see when you’re in the thick of it. And I realised how badly afflicted by grief Carol is, how grumpy and sad that makes her, and how it affects the way she moves about and interacts with other people. I want to hug her and tell her that it will be okay, but I don’t think she has enough self-awareness to see that she’s not fine, so she’d probably rebuff me.
This chapter needed a few extra pages to accommodate the new ending of the story. I didn’t want to compromise on quality, so it came out slightly longer than I expected: 48 pages in total, including the cover. I’m hoping to meet the deadline still, but I will keep you updated in case it overruns. Either way, if all goes well, it won’t be more than a couple of weeks!
In the meantime, here’s what my books look like in the early stages. Consider this perhaps a weird-looking teaser! There’s a watermark hiding some scenes because I don’t want to reveal them just yet. 🐶
Thank you for reading, and hope to see you next week. ❤️
- Claudia