Update #5: Research, Bitches!!!

Okay, so, I've let things slack. I'm busy, Beau is busy, and things aren't getting done. But...BUT...I have been doing a smidge of research...in the form of sending an email to Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York. I had a space question and sent him an email in July. I didn't get a direct response from him (he's probably too busy being a "friend of the show" to the Colbert Report), but last week I got a reply from Neil Comins, a professor with the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Maine and author of the book "What If the Moon Didn't Exist?" So that was pretty cool.

And now I want to read this book. What IF the moon didn't exist? I must know.

http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/

http://www.amazon.com/What-If-Moon-Didnt-Exist/dp/0060925566/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258394908&sr=8-1

Update #4: Character Descriptions

Well, I just sent off 11 pages of character descriptions to Beau. The next step is now on him. I'll be using that time to fill in some missing pieces to the overall story while starting to put it into 8-page segments of plot and script. If we could go live with this in the fall, I'd be ecstatic, but it probably won't happen until at least the first of the year.

Update #3: Neal deGrasse Tyson

Again, real life is getting in the way of fun, so I'm nowhere near where I wanted to be right now. I hope to be done with the character descriptions by the end of the week, then all major stalling will be Beau's fault.

I found another piece of the puzzle this morning that is this whole story, and I ended up emailing astrophysicist Neal deGrasse Tyson of the Hayden Planetarium. Regular watchers of the Colbert Report should recognize him. You can check out his official website here and thereby get a tease as to a possible theme of the comic.

Update #2: Slower Going

Right now I'm still stuck on Step #3. Since I've retooled my original idea for the comic, I've got to figure out where all the pawns will end up on this chess board. Some characters only need a minor tweak, and some need a total reimagining. I'm hoping to be done with the character descriptions by the end of the month.

Update #1: Slow Going

Right now we're in the beginningest of the beginning stages.

Step 1 was to find an artist. I found one about 10 or 11 years ago while in college. I don't remember her name, but we met a couple of times, talked over the premise, and she showed me a few samples of her work. Then she disappeared. After a while I put up a notice for her in the basement of the University Center, but I never heard from her. Some random person emailed me and told me that she moved to Nashville and became a stripper. I can neither confirm nor deny this, but I feel comfortable about putting it out there since I didn't give her name.

After that the project pretty much died. I'd come up with an idea every now and then, write it down, and file it away. It wasn't long before life got in the way. College graduation, a real job, marriage, a house, a kid, another kid, and another kid. Along the way I began working with Beau Johnson. I introduced him to the wonderful world of comic books and learned that he was a bit of an artist. It didn't take much convincing to help me out with this little project.

But life is still getting in the way, and now it's getting in the way of two people instead of just one. So we're rolling at our own pace. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Step 2: Overview. Got that knocked out. I've been tweaking this thing since I was in high school, and now I think I've finally got the story where I want it. I've got the beginning, I've got the end of the first volume, and I've got the beginning and end of the second volume. I've got a bunch of the middle. So the overview wasn't much of a problem.

Step 3: Character descriptions. That's what I'm working on now. I'm taking these character, almost all of whom I created in high school and college, and reworking them to fit my new story, which in no way resembles my original story idea. This is fun. I'm doing research and creating puzzle pieces, pieces that I'll put together to form this big picture, one that shows my dream. So it's fun, and it's exciting. After this comes design sketches, and I'll actually get to see my creations. It's one of the most exciting things I've been a part of (just after the aforementioned marriage and kids).

Welcome!

And here it is, Blog #3. In all honesty, this is the one I'm most excited about. I'm a comic book geek through and through, so finally being able to see a comic I created and wrote is a dream come true.

My goal for this blog is to post a new 8-page issue of the as-yet untitled comic book every two weeks. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this as far as image hosting and whatnot for the pages. It'll be a black-and-white "book" because, well, I don't know anyone who could "professionally" color a comic book, especially for free. I'm still a little unsure of how the inking is going to work since I have yet to talk about that with the artist and character designer Beau Johnson (we'll meet him a bit later).

Until we get far enough ahead in artwork and scripts (we've both got full-time jobs and families, so we're doing this when we have time), I'm going to give small updates as to where everything is. Once I've got some artwork to show, such as sketches and character designs, I hope to post them, too.

So bare with us while we get everything going. We'll get the blog to be a bit more eye-catching as we're going along, too.

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Listening to: Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower
via FoxyTunes