v2.0

It was a while back when I initially decided to revisit my robot character and he underwent a transformation back then. You'll notice that I made him seem a bit more flexible and somewhat more dynamic in his gestures and poses. I also made his head rounder to enhance a 'cuteness' in his character. To give him access to facial expressions to convey emotion I decided that his bulkier parts are encased in a flexile alloy, in my head I had decided that this would be as strong as most other metals and pliable only to the inner workings of the then still named #5.

The inner workings are also of a strange material and technology that I'm not going to go into.

I should change the appearance of 5 in relation to #5 again but I doubt the change will be significant beyond maybe some stylisation. Mostly because I quite like how he looks at v2.0.

Know Thy Enemy...

To help me write my comic book I need to establish a chapter length that should probably remain consistent and mirror the usual average length of a single issue comic book. I have done a few page counts in the past using a variety of comic books I had found, I had tried to not limit myself to one publisher. I think I used Hulk and Spider-Man comics as well as a few other random titles such as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. I think that at the time I found the average to be typically 22 pages. I could have probably found this out with a google search but I guess counting for myself was more satisfying. Next I guess I should figure out how many chapters to aim for so that I can spread my main story arc accordingly.
It would probably be best to aim for a mini series but 3-6 issues/chapters does seem long enough. I think I'm going to check out some of the books I have that compile a decent sized story and work from there.
Being that I've never really concentrated on writing ever that I can remember, I should learn more about the rules of 'peaks and valleys' in order to keep the read an interesting one.

Meanwhile...

As well as this self appointed comic project I've also got a few other things I'm currently involved in. Ranking highly in my to do list are some sketch exchanges I've been neglecting. Some for such a long time that my partners must think I've given up completely.

Here are two images from a sketch exchange over on Polykarbonbbs with Professor Az and jeco. I should let them know I'm not dead since that's an active sketch exchange at the moment.

This particular exchange focuses on working from reference and we've mostly been sticking to portraiture for now.

The first image is Cindy Crawford as chosen by Professor Az.

reference

The second image is Sarah Chalke as chosen by myself.

reference

The next image is of a toddler and was chosen by jeco to mix things up so we don't just end up painting pretty ladies.

My other exchanges that I plan on working on over the next few days include a sketch of a girl on a bench for an exchange with erq which I will probably call a day after finally responding almost a year late, and some Pokémon fan art that I've been planning on doing for a while now that I'll use for my exchange with rayvon87 for him to respond to.

Wish me luck.

Origins and Beginnings...

The origins of my idea go back a few years to a Fight Club on Polykarbonbbs that I was involved in.

My pages alone somehow manage to remain almost coherent without the inclusion of the other participants pages. If you look hard enough you may find the original thread on PKbbs but I highly doubt that the images are intact.

Anyway for now I'll post my pages that birthed the original incarnation of the character that I'll be using as a central point in my story.

These pages were completely put together in Adobe Photoshop using a mouse with no real planning. I purposely used setting that would force some pixelation and colour loss during the saving process because I liked the effect it gave. Enjoy.

And that's that I guess, the origin of 5 as a character. The fight never concluded due to the other participants dropping out and even though I volunteered to wrap it up, lethargy got the better of me without any pressure on me. Once everyone else had dropped out I felt like I wouldn't be letting anyone down if I didn't finish.

This project MUST be different! I MUST SEE IT THROUGH!

If I don't then I really doubt I ever will see out a personal project from start to finish.

No Name!

Currently I'm going to have to label the project as untitled.

Without giving up too many of my ideas, it revolves around a robot that has malfunctioned and as such behaves a little like a child. He seems to be keen on making friends (social networking) and he has taken it upon himself to use the ship he occupies to operate a courier service. He will not be a lone main character as he will be forced to team up with a girl that has been put into his care and protection. At the moment in my head it's seeming more likely that she'll end up being the main character. I've still not decided.

Initially I had named the robot character #5 or Hash. The #5 was a decal on his chest so he took it as being a name badge of sorts and decided that it must be what he is called, he declared his name to be Hash with Five being his surname. While making some notes a few hours ago I've decided to change his name to just 5 and having just a number 5 be present on his chest as a decal.

Go Go Go!!

Well on to the task at hand.

I've had several ideas for comic book plots running around in my head for more than a decade. Some of them I think I originally conceived to be video games during my time dabbling with games design at University a few years back, but that's neither here nor there since none of them ideas blossomed into games.

As I write this I'm already aware of which idea I'm planning on developing.

Since the idea I think mostly about has gotten rather epic to say the least I shouldn't touch that until I'm prepared for a heck of a lot of hard work. That project in particular would be more of a chronicles than a solid project. It has literally gotten to the stage that the story as a whole is broken down into 3 whole individual stories set in different time periods of a fantasy world. I've even thought up a completely stand alone follow up and a spin off that takes the genre of the whole thing in a strange direction.

At one point I toyed with the idea in my head of a sci-fi spin off to the series, set in a distant future of the world with giant robots but I think I dismissed that idea since it was outlandish and I hadn't even put any work into any of the original points yet.

Basically it boils down to it being a trilogy of tales at a base level and I frankly would rather focus on one tale for now.

That's the only fantasy story I have thought up so far, or should I say stories?

The rest of my ideas are mostly sci-fi. I have one idea that is set in a time period and world close to our own that is mostly horror-action but I think I'd prefer something a little more light hearted.

I have one light hearted sci-fi idea in mind.

Now or Never!

I plan on creating a comic book.

I think I always have.

Since I was a small child I would often crudely draw out comic books. I can imagine that many of them didn't make much sense to anyone but me. I was inspired largely by The Beano and the TV shows I used to watch at the time, notably Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, The Real Ghostbusters and He-Man. As I grew older I found myself getting hold of a few Tintin books at the library we would often visit with my primary school and that progressed to Marvel comics such as Spider-Man and even a few manga. Whatever I could get my hands on. My first experience with manga was with Romiko Takahashi's Maison Ikkoku but I managed to get my hands onto quite a few unusual titles.

After quite sometime obsessing over manga, which moved me onto animé as well, I found myself heading back to Spider-Man and Marvel comics in general.

I suppose it's all of these things that have inspired me over the years. I guess one person in particular I should thank would be J. Michael Straczynski since he was involved in several titles that have inspired me.

So that's all my initial inspirations, credit given where credit's due ;D