Marooned Classics: #55
Rounding up Classics week is one of my early favorite strips. At least in my mind, this is one of the special few where everything just seemed to come together and work. The writing is good and interesting and it ends with a funny joke (a joke that is not too obvious up front). The staging is atypical and interesting. I like the perspective of Asimov’s screen, something of which I’d like to do more. And the “special effects” came out good, too.
The truth is, I’ve always had plans to do interesting things with Asimov’s screen. I’ve struggled with doing that so far. I mean, he’s got basically what amounts to a advanced HD monitor on his face, and nearly all I ever show there is his “mouth” line. It’s something I think about, but have not yet solved. The one thing I don’t want to do is get too close to what Evan Dahm did in Rice Boy with his character The One Electronic, where he often showed video stills in his “eye.” Something I am still thinking about.
I was actually pretty happy with the original coloring on this one for the most part, although how I got there was a bit of a mess in the Photoshop file. I decided to scrap most of it and give it another shot though for fun, and I like the way this came out.
You might notice I added tails to the Geborga speech bubbles. Originally I had felt they would communicate telepathically, but I later grew to dislike that idea. However, I do like the colored speech bubbles still, as I think it gives a sense that they are still something different.
We haven’t actually seen the Geborga in quite some time, even though they have been talked about. The next time we see them, they will most likely be modified from their current design. It won’t be anything drastic, but I think there are some issues with how they are now. In particular, I find it odd that the greatest Martian scientists have no arms. Do they do everything with their feet? I don’t know. It’s something I need to figure out. Like many things early on, their design was a bit rushed.
Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s look back at some Marooned history. We’ll be back to the nitty gritty with John, Asimov and the whole gang on Monday. See you then!
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No contest; The new strip is far superior!
what contest?
He was saying he preferred the new over the old – it was “no contest.” Thanks Og
Yeah, the lighting and shadows in the new strip fits the mood MUCH better.
What’s nice about it is that it didn’t take me all that long to rework these. I’m probably going to scrap my initial work on the next comic and start over doing it this way. I’ll probably go all the way back to the beginning and the next book will be bigger and full color, with lots more strips. I think that will be more appealing.
You know, I am drawing up the first strips now for my own webcomic. Nothing is published yet, I am just working to get the look and feel of it down.
I keep going back to the same strips over and over trying to tweak them and make them perfect. I am not making alot of progress at this point.
If my plan is to post three strips a week, eventually I am going to have to stop fiddling and start putting them on the web right? I can’t keep re-working them forever. I may never be happy with those first strips and I know that at some point they are going to get posted and the whole world is going to weigh in with their opinion of my work. It is something I am going to have to deal with.
It’s been interesting to see your commentary of your early work and to see how your style has developed over the life of the strip. I would also be interested in hearing about the weeks leading up to putting that first strip on the web. Were you as much of a nervous wreck as I seem to be right now?
Thanks for a great week of classic strips!
-Matt
Matt, let me be clear – you’ll just never be happy with your first strips entirely, especially if comics are new for you. It sounds to me like it’s probably time for you to get things in gear.
If you know what your story is, and you can draw your characters, and you’re reasonably sure of your style, I say you go for it. There’s nothing that will do more for your development than just putting yourself out there, hitting your deadlines and just making the thing.
Keep in mind that what you see in the archives – they are NOT my originals, up to a point. Last year I went back and redid something like the first 25 strips. Part of it was that I wasn’t happy with them, but it was also that my character designs had changed (especially Ugo) and I wanted some continuity in my archive.
As far as the weeks leading up to publishing, it’s more like *years* leading up. I had this idea for some time, and it went through a few iterations. Truth is, I waited too long to get started.
But at the point I decided I was going to do it, I did up like 12 test strips. I liked them, but decided the method (dip pen) was too time consuming. So when I began, I moved to inking pens instead. But that’s all I did, some sketches, the 12 test strips, and then I jumped in.
I say go for it! And let us know when you’ve got something to show.
I don’t know about this “reworking old strips” stuff. Sure, I understand wanting to go back and fix or improve your old strips, and I certainly have no problems with doing them as a bonus, as you did this week, but I think it’s very interesting to see how an artist develops over time. If the original strips aren’t available, that progression is lost. I don’t think there’s any shame in recognizing that you weren’t as good then as you are now.
The only reason I reworked my earliest strips was to fix continuity issues. Otherwise, I would have let them be. (And I do still have them).
For these, I thought it would be better to do this than to post nothing at all. Also, as I said, when the next Marooned book comes out, they will all be updated like this which in the end will provide a better product. But I certainly won’t replace them all online.