The Undertaking

I'm not going to lie--this probably won't happen. But, two nights ago I wrote a one page treatment for a story that I intend to write (no big deal there), pencil (yikes), ink (this will be messy), color (I can do this, I can do this), and letter (Thank you, Dave!).

My intention is this: a full story that's mine 100%. I got a great taste of working on something personal to myself and something that I own with "FIVE DAYS TO DIE" and I absolutely loved feeling like it was mine (because it is--with Chee, of course).

Also, if I'm teaching all these things (or offering classes on them), the least I can do is give it all a try personally, right? I don't want to seem disingenuous, after all. I'll give periodic updates on the blog of how progress goes. As I'll be doing this completely in my spare time (what spare time?), I imagine that this will take me the better part of two years for a single issue. But hey, I can play

the long game!

Right now, I'll be work shopping my premise and outline into shape and then crafting the script. The story revolves around baseball, so I've got a bit of research to do before I dive in

to it fully, but that's research I should enjoy since I like baseball.

But I've also got to start looking into things like:

• What pencils and brushes or pens am I comfortable using?
• What's the best kind of paper for me to use? 3 ply, 4, 2? I've got a lot of experimenting to do.
• What ink should I use? Should I experiment with a wash effect?
• I'll probably need to get an artist table to do this.
• I'll definitely need a scanner, and I will be making copies of all my pencils for when Iinevitably ruin them with my horrendous inking.
• I need to start building a color palette in Photoshop for coloring work.
• And I need to pick a font or fonts and start building caption boxes and such.

So many questions, so much to do. But I've found a story that I think will

be a lot of fun to work on. And I grew up talking baseball with my dad, so even though this isn't based on my childhood, it's still got a personal nature to me, so I want to take care.

Should I finish the project myself and think it's really worthy of publication, I may have to hire someone else to pencil and ink it for publication, but that's okay, and frankly, that's not the point. I've wanted to do this for a long time, and there's not time like the present (or so I'm told).

Anyone interested in making comics should consider a Comics Experience course or the Creators Workshop.

So, wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

Andy