2009-06-09

comic for:

2009-06-09

Ah, good old Spring of 44 BCE. Just in time to witness the assassination of Julius Ceasar.

Transcript at the bottom, as usual, but first, a cautionary tale on cartooning while entirely too sleepy. In other words, I am going to talk about how I did very stupid things, and whine a bit, as well. (And was tired enough that I misnamed and misordered this when I first uploaded it, so my apologies for any double-notifications.)

I started this on the tablet--with which I am just beginning to become comfortable--then Shan took pity on me and agreed to do pencils. Hooray, Shan!

When she handed off the pencils to me I had a moment of dubious brilliance and came up with some seemingly good ideas for inking shortcuts. They really were good ideas, too. The problem is that I spent more time doing "proof of concept" and figuring out how the proccess would work (still don't have it down completely) than it would have taken me to just jump on the tablet and get it done.

By the time I had the first part of my genius shortcut proccess pretty much figured out, I was sleepy. So sleepy that it took me about a third of the way through inking to realize I was actually working on my pencils layer. Argh! So, scrap that, go to the correct layer, and start over, right? Sure.

By that time I was tired enough that it didn't hit me until about a third of the through again that all all my lines were jagged. After stuggling to fix that for a while, I finally asked Shan for advice. Of course she knew what was wrong. I was using the pencil tool instead of the brush tool. DOH!

I switched tools, adjusted the tablet properties, and although exhausted, was moving along fairly quickly and feeling pretty happy about my progress... Until I realized I was once again working on the wrong layer. Why hadn't I locked the damn pencils layer the first time I screwed up like that? So I started over once again... Lather, rinse, repeat with minor variations.

In retrospect I realize that had I acknowledged to myself that I had reached (and passed) the point of diminishing returns, gotten some rest, and hit it in the morning, it would have looked much prettier, taken me less time, and I'd have had it to you earlier in the day. I have learned my lesson.

Anyway, I apologize for the appearance of today's comic. The good stuff is from Shannon's pencils, and any ugly stuff is from me.

And now, the transcript.

Panel 1
(Crash and Blue in ancient Rome in proper period attire--Unless I screwed it up.)
Crash (looking pleased): The forum in ancient Rome. Just think of the greate people who walked these halls, the historic debates, all the--
Blue (looking past her and cutting her off): The knife fights? Like that one?
Crash: Oh, don't be silly. The Roman senate didn't...

Panel 2
Crash (worried): Wait, when are we again?
Blue: 44BCE.
Crash: What month?
Blue: 'Round mid-March, Seth said. Why?

Panel 3
(Sound effect: stab, stab, stab, stabbity stab-stab)
From off-screen: Et tu, Brute?
Blue (transfixed): Man, history's brutal.
Crash (hurrying away): Time to go, Blue.