Marooned

One of the issues I knew I would have to tackle in preparing the book is Bob’s design. My original idea had him having lots of angular, sharp edges and features and a different kind of chassis (wheels and support) than Asimov. Later I came to regret some of those things. First, the chassis design was difficult to portray correctly, and it really looked bad at smaller sizes. I also didn’t like how it worked with the overall design.

Probably the key issue though (and one likely about which I am the only one who cares) was that his design didn’t fit with the other Nanoganics robots. You have to remember that basically, Asimov and Bob are the same base model – a Series 7. (Hogan is a series 3, I believe.) So while there are supposed to be some differences, the basic construction should be similar in my mind. Frankly, the fact that they are more the same helps make Bob’s personality issues more apparent.

So if you look at the above picture, you can see how he will look in the book. He isn’t drastically different, of course, but to me he fits much better. So what changed?

I’m basically redrawing Bob everywhere he appears. He just wasn’t drawn well initially, and he happens to inhabit a stretch of strips (40-75) that are some of the worst, artwise (in my opinion) and much of it is getting redrawn to fit the early style anyway.

That’s the latest on the book. Last night I added another new strip (50.1) and I’ll be working on #52 next – another one that needs to be fully reworked. Details like this, and much more, will be in the “making of” e-book, available as one of the Kickstarter rewards.