Keep Going! Last Day of Comic Con and Beyond!

Ahoy Friendly Friends,

Below you'll find the last of our Comic Con footage posted. I realize it's a bit silly how long I've stretched it out, but in many way it still feels like the event was only two weeks ago. Honestly, it feels like we haven't slowed down since we started preparing for the convention. Putting out a weekly comic is a taxing process. Currently, we're a moment where a number of our prepared panels are several pages ahead. This means Katy is more or less going at a rate of making a page a week. Once she's finished, the page gets tossed my way so that dialogue can be written up in time for the Wednesday update. The quality is still good, and the motivation is still running high, but we are pooped by the end of every day.

Little by little, we're getting faster and better at this. I know a year from now, we'll probably look back in disgust at ourselves for how we're doing things now. In the nearer future, we are going to have some great action followed by a revealing look at some of our comic's backstory. During all of this, somehow we're also preparing for the holidays, working our day jobs, applying to schools, petting our pets, and finding some spare time to feel like human beings.

Anyway, with this final Comic Con footage, I'll be going into what Kid's Day was like for us at the event. Honestly, we didn't think we would gather much attention as our comic is geared to an older audience. However, there are evidently quite a few people who go to Kid's Day for business reasons as well as taking their children out for a larf. We had also given away just about everything we could, but our friend Jessica O'brien was kind enough to loan us her button maker. This worked out quite nicely, because BUTTONS ARE FOR ALL AGES!

Lastly, Brennan Lee Mulligan of the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist was kind enough to sit down for a brief interview. The comic is quite new, but has made a very impressive start. Brennan talked to us about the decision to create a webcomic with the artist, Molly Ostertag, offered insight into the advantages of a web-based comic, and what the experience has been like for them so far. Both were super nice and helpful during the event, and Strong Female Protagonist is an original comic with consistently high quality art, dynamic writing, and an engaging plot. You can and should check it out at www.strongfemaleprotagonist.com.

Thanks for following us! We'll continue to throw updates and comics at your faces!

THANKS FOR GIVING!

ENJOY THE HOLIDAY! We're certainly thankful for a break. Getting this last page up proved a little more time consuming than anticipated. Ideally, we wanted to post something Thanksgiving themed in addition to our Weds post. What you'll get instead is footage of a cat cleaning itself looped over and over again. YOU'RE WELCOME (sorry)!

I'VE BEEN PUTTING THIS OFF LIKE A DONKUS!

Hi team,

Been a bit of time since I've posted, hasn't it? That won't be the case any longer, but I'm also not a fan of the fact that it's been almost two weeks since the last post. We've had some extenuating circumstances that have kept me busy with other aspects of the comic: a hefty chunk of volume two has now been written, and I've been working on some new characters that I'm excited to one day soon see visualized. I'll be honest though, I've had to pour a lot of time into trying to see some grad school applications through. My hope had been to start school part-time this spring, but with the mail system and power having been punched in the face, it's been more difficult than I would have liked. There's still some aspects that remain unresolved, but I've done everything I can from my end. Now at least I can put more time into writing and updating.

That is enough about me and my pile of excuses. We are planning a special comic update for this turkey-based holiday coming up, and I've finally posted our footage for day three of NYCC. This video is much shorter, because I wanted to cut to the chase to an interview with Elaine Lee. Elaine was our wonderful table neighbor and comic con, and has been in the comic business long enough to have a lot of great advice and perspective. Relatively recently, her comic Starstruck has moved to a webcomic format, and in the interview speaks to what lead to that decision. Check the comic out at: www.starstruckcomics.com/. They've also done quite a cool thing by turning their comic into an audio book. Actors each read for an assigned character as though it were a play, and it's an interesting way of distributing the media. Enjoy the interview, and be prepared for some intense scenes in our comic in the near future!

NYCC Day 2...and a lot of other junk

Hello loyal readers!

Yes, I know, it has been a looooong time since I've updated this blog. Assuredly, I will carry that guilt with me forever. Our lack of correspondence has not been without reason. Two weeks ago, we moved into a new apartment. Unfortunately, we were without internet for a little more than a week. All internet priority shifted from blog updates to posting the actual comic.

This new apartment is great for the comic because I used to have to drive into Hoboken every weekend to work on something webcomicky with Katy. Now that we're roommates, our new home is also the headquarters for After-Comic.com. YEEEEAAAAAAAAHHHHH! (You can all start break-dancing now).

We've also had some delays because, well, a crazy effing storm has rocked the east coast. Our house lucked-out big time, though I wish I could say the same for our neighboring cities. The intro was filmed early Monday afternoon, right before Sandy took a dump all over the new Yorks and Jerseys. The footage and audio are less than ideal, but there are some really great questions addressed and answered. I can release the  entire panel if people wish it.

Also, hurricanes may come and go, but we still update! Today is Wednesday, so page 8 is up for viewing. Thank you everyone for being so patient!

@_@ AFTER comic con

Comic con was a fantastic learning expereince. But it has been a very long two weeks. An amazing, draining, roller coaster of a time. I will better articulate our experience in the near future. Until then please enjoy a couple things I whipped up on the little bits of downtime we had over the weekend. One is a new sketch, THAT I AM IN LOVE WITH. The other is a pumped up version of my sketchbook cover. I promise, I will have an informative post out very soon. Thank you!

Comic Con Day 1

Hey team!

Jebus crust, it has been an insane week. Firstly, Comic Con was amazing. To put it colorfully, it is a bizarre, informative beast that swallows you entirely, chews you up, and spits you out; leaving you tired but very well-informed. As far as networking goes, Katy and I made a great number of contacts and managed to sell a decent number of prints. Here are some important pieces of info we gleaned from our time:

 1. There is a very friendly and knowledgeable community of artists and writers within the convention. Talk to anyone you can, and just be nice and open-minded. We learned so much about webcomics and working creatively in general from our neighbors in Artist Alley.

 2. Print LOTS of business cards. Seriously, print more than what you think you need; and after that, print even more! These will go quickly, and you never know when and where you'll meet an important contact. By the last day of the convention, we were right our email on the back of fliers because we had simply run out of sources of our contact info.

 3. Try to have as little of expectations as possible going into each day of Comic Con. Honestly, we thought Thursday would be a breeze and Saturday would be the most daunting. In reality, the exact opposite proved to be true.

 4. If you are selling or giving away prints/posters/etc, bring lots of bags! There is a lot of shit being sold at a convention, and your patrons have their hands full. A lot of nice people want to buy your product, but sometimes they just don't have the means to carry it around with them. Also, you want to make certain your art stays in good condition as they trounce about the show floor with it.

 5. Here are a list of items that we found to be a necessity when operating a table in Artist Alley:
- Bottles of water (I've been dehydrated almost the entire weekend)
- Tape (So many applications) - A lockbox (If you are selling anything, you want to keep your funds safe. I purchased a perfectly functional money case at Walmart for $10)
- Change (Also for selling merchandise. If you have a hundred dollars in varying bills than you will be more than prepared for giving customers change. This varies based on the scope of your sales of course.)
- Pens - Pads of paper (For artists, it looks good if you're constantly sketching while sitting at a table)

There is a lot more to be said of Comic Con, and I'll be posting further this week. I've also edited all the footage I took of each day and will be posting them frequently. Below is the footage from Thursday, and I need to preface it with a few things. Firstly, I thought I could film everything and then edit and post it later that night. This didn't pan out so well, which I'm sure you'll be able to tell by how tired and insane I appear. Secondly, most of the footage was obtained while my hands were almost completely full. I apologize for all the shaky camera work, and I assure you the other days' footage will be an improvement. That being said, enjoy:

(Yeah, aware of the fact that this looks like a survival video)

Hey team! Here's the good word: this week you get not one, but TWO PANELS! CAN YOU HANDLE IT!? In the spirit of all things comic and convention, we're doubling our post before we head for NY Comic just a small number of hours from now. Katy and I are functioning on abnormal levels of excitement and sleep deprivation, and are looking forward to unleashing that energy upon others at our table. Thanks for all the support!

Trials and Tribulations

Hey there, Folks. Tonight is Wednesday night (aka weekly update night). Bryant and I have been hard at work preparing for comic-con. Here is another poster that we will be handing out.

I am going to be completely candid with you all. This process is difficult. The hardest thing is not doing the work, The hardest thing is posting older pages (like the one I am posting tonight). I know I have already have already mentioned it, but I have quite a few pages that I have / am currently re-drawing.

But I cannot do that forever. SO I am releasing my pages that I created many moons ago.

I have also been devoting my time to promotional material (no you have NOT seen it all!) for the past month and a half or so (or  maybe an eternity...that is what it feels like). I am itching to get back to work on the actual comic.

I wish I could dedicate all of my time to this. If I could put as much love into each panel as I put into this poster, I would be a happy gal. The silver lining is that I am getting better and faster at this the more I do it.  It is an uphill battle, but at least I am going uphill. Thank you for following us. We hope to do you all proud!

The Challenge Has Been Issued!

I would like to offer a little challenge to everyone who follows this blog and might also be attending the NYC Comic-con (or if you happen to be in the area Oct. 11 - 14th). 

We will be posting posters that look like this around the area.

If you can find one that has NOT been defaced already, take a picture of yourself defacing it on face book or at after.comic@gmail.com and you will get a prize!!! (PRIZES ARE TBD. Feel free to make recommendations) Here are some examples:

PS
Don't get caught!

Stuff, and other things. (namely two additional thank you posts)

Hey, everyone. This is the finished I promised to post ages ago. I have been a bit busy lately, so this (posting a blog) was dropped on the back burner. I have a batch of posters for comic con that I will post soon as well. Yes, one of the privileges of following our blog is that you get to view some of our material before the others!

I have a few important "thank you" messages that were unfortunately omitted in Bry's last post. It was accidental, I assure you. I would like to thank Brett/Bert/Bort Wilshe, Alissa Dittamo, and Mr. Anthony Hansen for all of their help. Alissa has made a totally kick-ass logo for us! Anthony and Brett have generally been very supportive, and have also agreed to help us out with promoting ourselves at comic-con.

For your patience I feel you deserve more than what is included in this post thus far.

Here is a quick sketch for one of the posters and the image I might use as my bio-picture thing on the website.  Let us know if you have any thoughts on our work! Thanks again!

This last image is my possible bio pic. I think it is pretty accurate.

We Have a Webcomic!

Hey team, the website is up! I'm beyond souped! More souped than a soup-making chef even! Last night Katy and I met with a few helpful friends last night, and after a great deal of cropping, coding, swearing, and drinking we created http://www.after-comic.com.

Firstly, I want to point out that, if you wish to visit OUR comic, do not type in aftercomic.com. Our post-apocalyptic webcomic has a very important dash between "after" and "comic", namely "after-comic.com". In contrast, "aftercomiccom" is a site for cartoon porn. So, if you fancy our comic, then you should type www.after-comic.com into your URL.However, if animated pornography is more your angle, visit out site instead.

More importantly, Katy and I have put have put a lot of blood and tears into this project (Mostly Katy's blood. I'm in the tear department). However, the result of our efforts would have been a mess without the help, love, and support from our friends and family. And so, thank you: Dmitry Gimzelberg and Michael Shapiro for guiding us in how to make a proper website; Katie Terezakis for providing us with a great reference material and resources; Jessica Kizmann, who was responsible for creating the title design for our first chapter; Robert Bajor; Dan Scharch; Jessica O'Brien; Jim Cottage; Christine Cuiule; Matthew Vimislik; both our families, who have been nothing short of supportive throughout all of this business; and to all the random strangers who have taken an interest in our weird, little comic.

Go to http://www.after-comic.com! We're updating weekly!

In-for-mation

Another old notebook comic drawn during biochem

The actual webpage is...sort of, mostly, close to, in the proximity of being finished It is functional, but looks like a big old butt. While the layout is what I'd like it to be, I'm focusing this week on making it aesthetically pleasing and logically organized So, for now, let's call it 85%. Once it is 100%, I'm going to organize the experience into a brief summary that might be helpful to another prospective webcomic.  Until then, here is a very helpful blog I found that will probably be of more substance for the actual website-building experience: http://www.makingcomics.com.

Jason Smith, an illustrator and graphic artist, has a very useful series of posts pertaining specifically to webcomics found here: http://www.makingcomics.com/2011/11/07/so-you-wanna-publish-a-web-comic/. I do not know him at all personally, but his posts have been a useful reference when I'm get stressed to the point that mah brain stop havin useful thinks.

Katy made that useful post about her artistic process. I truly wish I could do the same, but I don't know if my writing process could even be called a "process". It usually involves a great deal of monitor-staring, then writing something down as soon as I can capture a proper scene into words. When writer's block starts to creep up on me, I try and circumvent it with whiskey. That's not something I feel comfortable with recommending...

Concerning my own illustrative process, one could likely learn what not to do. Honestly, look at the above image if you are in need of a visual reference; those yellow, yellow lines are there because I had a horrible scanner that with a great deal of electrical interference. I now have a relatively scanner. There should be an emphasis on "relatively", because Katy was incredulous at its lack of utility when she was forced to use it a few posts ago. Apparently my version of photoshop is also several paces short of useful to an artist...

As such, I'm going to stick to commenting on the story-making process in later posts; that's the area I feel comfortable executing and commenting on. I feel no shame in admitting that I have the illustrative ability of a sloth with both paws stuck in pickle jars.

In Progress

Hey, all. Thank you for continuing to follow us. I am producing some promotional material for comic-con this week. This is an in-progress sample of a crest for the military police (of our comic). I will post the finished product a little later this week.

Hi  prospective comic enthusiasts! 

Today's post is simply here to throw a few updates your way! Firstly, we're looking into printing posters and comic panels for sale at our comic con table (probably going to look into a local printing office, because online companies have proven to be effing expensive!) 

Next, and more importantly, our website is underway! I can't give you an exact date, but I'm confident it should be finalized within the next two weeks. In truth, it is not terribly hard to build a functional site for a webcomic. However, I'm a horse's ASS and have only recently discovered the ComicPress theme for Wordpress. This handy little theme has solved a number of issues, though created a few other small ones. Keep checking the blog, and in turn I'll do my best to keep you kindly folks informed.

process

Today I want to talk a little about my process (if you can really call it that).  I'm not  saying this is the way one should work. This is merely how I work.

It all starts off in one of my many sketchbooks (See image for example).

I have somewhere around 8 sketchbooks. They all have different bindings, different paper types, and different page sizes. This is important for me because I find that some days I draw much better in one kind of sketchbook than another. I don't know why that is. For example, yesterday I just could not work out a panel in my 10" x 12' book. So I grabbed my 7" x 10" recycled paper sketchbook (see image) and bam! The panel came together.

I begin with a general idea of the page layout. Then I sketch each panel out. My drawings tend to be very rough at this stage. Sometimes I will dedicated one page to a panel. Sometimes I will bang out a whole page on a tiny note-pad, and sometimes I will go through half of a sketchbook trying to get one action pose just right. There is not really a cohesive system for this. I will often have each panel for a page in a different book. I am in no way organized. But I can somehow remember where I drew each thing. My biggest problem is that sometimes I lose track of the sketchbook itself. It will typically appear right in front of my face 3 hours later and I am left to ponder how I could have missed it. (I do not recommend working this way. I hear organizational skills are a good thing to have).  The image below is a prime example of just how rough my pages can be. This a small note-pad.

I then scan everything into my computer at 72 dpi. I bring those images into a 300dpi Photoshop file and re-arrange each panel until I am satisfied with the layout. Sometimes this will match what I originally had in mind. Sometimes it becomes its own thing. 

I then create a finished drawing of the entire page. This is the point at which I will grab any photo reference that I might need. I have found that my work gets very stiff I start out with reference. I try to figure things out for myself first. If I really cannot figure it out, or I do not have knowledge about it, I look it up. For example, I do not have enough knowledge about cars to just pull a corvette out of my ass and throw it on paper. I would never try. I would draw a car-like thing as a place holder, and then pull reference and re-draw the car like thing as a corvette. I am fairly comfortable drawing things I am familiar with without reference. (Illustrators tend to have very strong feelings about use of photo reference. I feel stifled by it, so I try to avoid using it. I would rather try to logic it out or look around and draw from life. I do this frequently with hands. I will sketch a sketch of my own hand before I will look up hand images on google. That being said if you like photo reference, use it! Use whatever tools will maximize the quality of your work.)


To finish a page, I paint it digitally, throw in some texture, and drop in the dialogue and sound effects.  Here are two examples of a finished piece. PLEASE NOTE: These images are not from the comic. These are just two examples of my work.

Breakin' it DOWWWWN!

I found a comic I made a while ago while I should have been paying attention in Biochem

It's been quite of a few weeks since I've shifted from strictly writing the comic, to blogging and creating the website. In this interval, I've discovered some aspects are coming along far more easily. I'm certain a more computer-literate person would probably run into less difficulty. However, I've only ever taken one course that involved some degree of computer competency, and have been pleased to learn nothing further. Subjectivity established, I've gauged the difficulty of each task from 1 to 5 (1 being crotch-punchingly difficult, and 5 easy, perhaps breezy even):

Creating and updating a blog: 5

-A blogger account can be created and updated in just a few adjacent clicks from your gmail account. Images are pasted with fairly good resolution, and the posting application is almost a clone of MS Word.

Using a Twitter account effectively: 1

-I'm certain Twitter can be utilized to our advantage, but so far I've only used it to tag blog updates. I've begun following people of interest, but I get to nervous to actually comment or retweet anything. More or less, I need to use or more aggressively than a casual dalliance. 

Choosing and purchasing web space from a provider: 4

- If you do your research, this is actually pretty easy and painless. After comparing and contrasting a few different providers, I chose iPage and was able to register our domain and webspace within minutes. The only complication occurred when Wordpress would not recognize our URL. Luckily, iPage has an awesome support page and it was resolved overnight.

Editing and customizing a new web site: 2

-Wordpress is a great bit of software, but sheer inexperience is making for slow progress. Plugins are pretty necessary for experimenting with themes without screwing up the current web page. It's come to a point where I'm chipping away piece-by-piece every night work, and I'm hoping this will be a "3" by the end of the week.

Sadly, I have a day job.

This is the hair I would have if I would not get fired for it (Please note that this image is NOT representative of myself. Please see the header for an accurate representation of the artist). Unfortunately,  I would. Get fired, that is.

Anyway, I came to the interwebs to discuss comic-related matters today.

I would be delighted if I could somehow dedicate all of my time to "After" and not find myself homeless. I have a day job. I need a day job. I have learned to work around having a day job. I pour all of my free time into this web-comic. 

Time management, like everything else associated with this project, has been a learning process. If anyone reading this happens to be interested in making his or her own comic on the side I would like to give you the following advice: Do what you can, when you can, as often as you can without becoming burnt out.

A key to keeping myself passionate about this project is making sure I know when to STOP. Quality is very important to me. I don't like doing a half ass job. I especially do not want to do a half ass job with this comic. Every time I sit down to work I keep this mantra in mind, "No wonky panels." I repeat this to myself over and over again.

I do not want to present something to the audience that looks fucking off or odd. Knowing when to put the "pencil" down is  crucial to achieving this goal. If you are feeling frustrated or tired when you are working on something, how much are you actually considering what you are creating? If you are like me, the focus becomes pushing the work out. When I work this way I am not working intelligently. I make mistakes and the quality of my efforts suffer. I prefer to work when I am into it. I stop when I begin to question my own decision making abilities.


QUALITY has been the most FRUSTRATING part of creating a web comic. I have pages of work that I created many moons ago that the world will never see (and that I will soon have to redraw), because the quality of the work is not acceptable to me anymore.

I am getting better at this as I go along. It is very difficult to look back at work that I did a month ago and say, "Yes, I still want to use THAT!" I know better now than I did last month...let alone months ago. At some point I have to say, "If I keep re-doing it I will not get anywhere!"  Still, my laundry list of what needs to get a fresh coat of paint seems to be growing all of the time.

I should probably leave something to be said in future posts...Thank you for visiting our blog. Please  continue to follow us. Our comic will be out next month. If you would like to contact Bryant or myself, please e-mail us at After.comic@gmail.com. Thank you!

WE'RE NEW AT THIS!

I need a haircut. Badly. My head more or less looks like a small family of ducks nesting (as they are wont to do). I've put it off for quite some time because, having had my mom cut my hair exclusively up until this point,  I've never gone to a hair salon. Yesterday was open enough that I could have easily had that taken care of, but my efforts fell tragically short.

My Sundays are usually scheduled for getting things accomplished, but lately that has kept left me too nervous to leave the apartment. Agoraphobia is far too strong a term, because somehow I did find the stones to get out a look for a hair cuttery. What I feel is more of a lingering dread for figuring out something I'm unaccustomed to. The feeling is weak enough in that it allows me to leave the house, but strong enough to imagine walking into a hair-cuttery and witness everyone inside screaming "You have no idea what you're doing!" at me. Suffice to say, I bought a bottle of wine instead and went home to work on the comic.

The reason I'm bringing up this weird anecdote is to present the idea that Katy and I don't know what we're doing with our comic. To clarify, Katy obviously knows how to illustrate, and I have a reasonable enough grasp of the English language to write coherent sentences. In terms of combining those elements in order to make a webcomic, however, we are mostly inexperienced. Very mostly inexperienced. For example, this past week I've been shooting emails out constantly asking how to correct issues I've had with Wordpress and smoothing over details of our Comic Con tables (Side not: iPage has a very useful and expedient system for troubleshooting your website; and if you want both persons involved to sit at the same table in Artist's Alley, you need a FULL TABLE.)

So far, we've been throwing a lot ideas at the wall, and through luck and tenacity a lot of things have stuck and progressed. Simultaneously, running and website and networking for a product are two big things in which we're still feeling around in the dark. NYCC itself is thrusting us into totally uncharted territory, in that we are going to have to push our comic onto relative and/or complete strangers. On account of being new at this, it's also imperative that we try and glean whatever wisdom we can from adjacent artists who have likely been at this karaaazy game much longer than us. Regardless of our diligence, we still have loads to learn.

We don't know what we're doing, and that is more than ok. In spite of our relative inexperience, we've created a work of which we are very proud. After is still in its infancy, but already is encompasses so much of the style and storytelling that I feel are unique to both of our whimsically macabre brains. Had Katy and I simply stuck with repeating what we know how to do, none of these ideas would ever have been brought to light. There is an appreciable comfort in repetition, but moving forward involves breaking the equilibrium and embracing the horror of pioneering the unknown. God, I need to get my ridiculous hair cut...

Cat-a-Clysm!

Its interesting that, as time goes on with a project, there is an increasing amount of complexity as your idea takes form. Currently, I've spent more hours than I'd ever care to trying to figure out why my Wordpress page can't find itself. The day-to-day work for the comic is now a series of updates and emails. It's a sign of progress, because creating a webcomic was at first very, very general and intangible.

Weirdly enough, the bulk of the comic's groundwork was laid during a car ride from Mt. Laurel to Hoboken in late December. If you recall New Jersey during the winter of 2009, it had snowed to a point beyond reason several times. The result of which were road conditions that we had no business driving in. However, we were close, but more so broke friends who needed to take advantage of a carpool back home after the holidays.

Sometimes you get locked into a situation wherein, no matter how well you know the person, you're stuck together for so long you can run out of things to talk about. It's important to take advantage of these moments. Rather than rot on our butts and play the lethargic fiddle, Katy and I talked about the comic for nearly a solid two hours. It had only been a few weeks since I had written the original comic script, but we were both so ridiculously zazzed an entire volume of plotline shot out of our minds and brains.

A year ago, a chattered idea between two friends has become enough illustration and dialogue to exhibit a full length table (we upgraded to a full table!) about which we're running. Less than ten years ago, Lous C.K. and Marc Maron were unduly uncelebrated comedians that were no longer on speaking terms; and yet tonight I died laughing watching both of them portray themselves on Louie. Longer ago still, people had to crowd around a black and white TV at a specified time to observed miraculously grainy images of man's first skip on the moon. Now, as of yesterday morning, we can few hi-res images of the Martian landscape at our own convenience. I've never been fond of the idea of irreducible complexity. As I see it, your mind just has to be open enough to acknowledge moments when there was so much potential for change.

Unrelated doodle, and related news

Good news, everyone!
We have officially upgraded to a FULL table at NYC comic-con!
Bryant and I have been very busy lately. We are getting ready to launch our site and we have been preparing for comic-con. It has been a little bit of work, but this experience has been very rewarding. I have learned quite a bit while working on this comic. Stay tuned for next week's post to discover what I have learned!

Some comic-related doodles

There we go. Now I can feel as though I have contributed to the blog. Thank you for checking out our blog!

Sample panel

Shhhhh.......
Don't tell anyone. Here is a sneak peek...just part of a page so you can get a taste of our flavor!

Preparation Whale Says, "Think Ahead (followed by whale sounds)"

He's quite right, you know. You really ought to store your leftover pizza properly...

Hitting Twitter hard while checking out web space and other blogs. Also, adjusting my budget and 401k contributions cause I'm responsiiiiiiiiiBAWWWLLLLL!__!

...But Wait!

Here's the thing, sometimes you get some fun surprises after you post a rage-y, cagey rant about not a table application being denied. Turns out, enough people cancelled, and we were fortunate to have our application selected. As quickly as possible, Katy and I sent out the paperwork and money, and have been planning our set-up all weekend. Our efforts have been of the hasty variety over the past couple of months, but we have to start running like our asses are haunted.

Previously, I stated very generally that our typical system is as follows: Bry write script; Katy make pictures; and Bry put all the word talkin' in the panels. In doing so, there was a very important detail glossed over; namely that Katy's step of the process takes a tremendous amount of time and effort. Writing and drawing are both creative endeavors, and are difficult and taxing in similar and dissimilar ways. However, there is the the simple fact that it is easier to punch words on a keyboard than to draw a beautiful Chicago rebel knifing around.

With a good portion of the first volume written, the plan is for me to focus more on getting a website started and taking advantage of as many social media outlets as possible. Wordpress seems like a practical and user-friendly tool to get better-acquainted with, and it seems as though I'll be jumping late onto the twitter train. All the while, Katy is going to keep cranking out awesome shit like this:

Just like this creepy smile, we're quite giddy over how events have turned. It goes to show that effort and a quality product can overcome a lack of experience and credentials...also luck...mostly loads of luck. We are going to cram our happy, happy half-table full of content and quality.Thank you to everyone who has followed this blog so far, and I assure you we'll have some great updates shooting out and about, all over the walls very soon!

Of Comic Con and Comfort Sloths

Katy and I set NY Comic Con as goal for our comic this past winter, and it occurred to us that the event is now only a few months away. Quickly we decided upon ordering our weekend passes (professional passes used to be available to artists, BUT NO LONGER!), and magically we'll soon be off to panic mode! Regardless of preparation, to me there is always the inevitability of feeling unprepared.

Don't misunderstand, the future panic I'm foreseeing is largely self-imposed. Realistically, we're actually progressing more quickly with the comic than I had foreseen. Words are done written, pages are drawn, and words get putted onto the drawed pages. In honesty, its been a constant gratification to have written something; and then see it swiftly turn into a work visually stimulating enough to pacify a shadowy continent of drunk uncles. When you scrape away at a goal with a friend, you can tangibly observe how all the inebriated, incoherent nights spent ranting together incoherently about character development took form.

The downward side of this self-expression is that recognition does not come easily, and personal expectations have to adjust themselves accordingly. In our own case, we were hoping to secure a table in Artists' Alley within Comic Con this year. Unsurprisingly, tables are rarely given out to non-existent webcomics with little to no established credibility as of yet. Yet, at the moment, I find myself working extra hard with renewed irrational self-criticism. Words get written on a page, and then I glare and glare and glare upon them with scrutiny; I do this until I anxiously delete the sentence.

So here we are, two weeks into trying to write without actually having anything tangible. Instead, I've been writing huge plot points in my mind-brain. Fantastically enough, this incredibly irresponsible method has actually led me to "writing" the last scene of the comic (tentatively). It sounds insane, but writing this way has usually worked best for me. When you have a beginning and an end in mind, all that needs to be done is create the journey between the two points. With a comfort sloth strapped to my back, I'm picking up where I left off and continue the trip to Comic Con!

CHI-CA-GO!

The setting of a story of any kind can either enrich it or drain it of all life and color. Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn contains some great character development and interaction, but the setting is so vague I pictured everything occurring in a large dark room. In stark contrast, Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian puts so, so many paragraphs into describing the scenery and historical context of said scenery that it reads like non-fiction. When you write a story, you and the characters you've created have to commit to the context of the scenery in which you've anchored. And so, after choosing Chicago as the setting for After, Katy and I have had to get better acquainted with a city we've never visited.

Katy originally chose Chicago because it's an iconic city that is close to Canada; relevant because in our setting Canada has essentially become a no-man's land. I was in love with idea because Chicago is home to The Second City and WBEZ, which have provided me with some of my favorite writers/comics as well as This American Life. Since then, its been exciting to look up cultural landmarks and imagine them gutted, re-purposed, or simply burnt to the ground! There was a Cataclysm after all...

Attempting to make the setting more than just a background is the key concept; or at the very least the job of the writer. I already know Katy can handle to scene and make it look how it needs to, but I'd be slothy sloth if I kept the city bereft of any character or context. Some of the best-written shows/movies/comics have achieved this by making the setting a dynamic character in and of itself: The Wire used a statically dysfunctional Baltimore; Firefly the under-doggedly rustic Serenity; and Scott Pilgrim utilizes the unabashedly Canadian Toronto. Ideally, I hope to do the same with our newly apocalyptic Chicago. I'm researching the hell out of the city any time the setting takes a dramatic shift and hoping the context is informed but not hammered in orc-ishly. Oh, and we have been plotting a trip to Chicago in what we hope is the near future; there is just that whole lack of money/vacation time business that needs to be worked out

Below is a video of Tom Waits' song "Chicago" from his newest Album, Bad as Me. The footage is taken from old Maxwell Street in Chicago, and it has such a hauntingly hopeful yet ominous quality. I listen to this song constantly while working on After. In my moments of severe delusion I imagine it being played in the movie trailer for the film adaptation of our yet-to-be-released webcomic. God damn it, that is very embarrassing to see written down. I've got to stop drinking that sweet, sweet delusion juice given to me by that wizard behind the Olive Garden...

Character Art! (Claire)

Today I'm writing from a beach house in lazy, crazy Sea Isle City, home of down-and-out seagulls. As such, I'm without me old scanner, so I can't create any of my own horrible comics to abuse anyone (I'll get you next time :D!). Instead you'll find above one of Katy's first completed illustrations of the central protagonist: Claire. A taciturn twenty-something with a penchant for knives and bullets instead of dialogue, Claire would be what I call the queen on the chessboard in terms of her functionality and character. More on her to come in the future...

P.S.: Your eyes have likely been drawn to the bad-ass cap Claire is sporting. This is a remnant of her old HAWK uniform, but I'm not saying anything further on that for now. FUCK YOU! (sorry)

P.P.S.: I'm a big ole bag of hanging dicks and failed to provide links to the ones who provide the actual art to this mess. Here are their personal sites:

Katelyn Amacker (Illustrator for After): http://www.kmamacker-art.com/
Jessica Kizmann (Designer for the lettering on the cover art): http://www.jessicakizmann.com/

They do a great many other great things than what I bother them to make!

Origin Story

Well hey there!

Shortly after my last post, I've been thinking that it is more than a little asinine to advertise a comic while saying nothing about the comic itself. SI-MUL-TANEOUSLY, I don't want to give anything significant away before we've released a single issue. So, here's the good word of compromise: I'll give some insight into the how we came up with After and its progression since.

I've wanted to write for a comic book for the longest time, due mostly to the fact that I have little to no talent for drawing (refer to the above illustrations). When I write, it is usually an attempt to translate a load of weird images in my brain into words that, hopefully, express such thoughts vividly. Ignoring whether or not I'm accomplishing this, its amazing to have someone who can put my warbled ideas into coherent illustrations. Additionally, I was fortunate enough that, about a year ago, Katy had an idea for a comic that she wanted to put to life, but had no tolerance for both drawing and writing it. In cases such as these, its helpful to bother a friend of yours relentlessly about sharing whatever project she or he has in mind.

Shortly after, Katy sent me character outlines for a comic concept titled Aftershock. The story focused on how society could react after a cataclysmic event, literally dubbed "The Cataclysm" in the context of the comic. Within the setting of the comic, a now post-apocalyptic Chicago, people have found security in a harshly conservative authoritarian figure. The focal characters of the comic belong to one of several rebel factions attempting to tear down the crooked establishment.

From that general storyline, I wrote and wrote and wrote until I cranked out the first comic script. I had done some research to find how best to organize a script for a comic; after which it seemed the best method was to send Katy a rough page description with details of the setting and character interactions. These scenes would then be drawn into panels in which I would later write dialogue for upon completion. Following this system, we cranked out a few pages in about three weeks.

There is one important addendum I'd like to add: my first draft at a comic script was garbage. Truly, nearly every bit of writing I take a first crack at comes to disgust me at a later point. Since writing the initial script about a year ago, I've hacked it up and re-written it at least three or four times by now; Katy herself has even thrown out the original panels she had drawn. As such, I think the only useful piece of advice I can endow for starting a comic: JUST DO IT, AHHHH! Nearly anything anyone attempts initially turns out to be a sack of diarrhea. The importance in overcoming the first step is more about ignoring your own harsh inner-critic that can stifle self-expression. Once its finally out of the brain and on paper, the product is far more tangible and easier to improve. THAT IS ALL!

Some Katy Drawrins

The above is a perfect example of why Katy is the one drawing this comic. The above character, Alma, is actually one of the primary antagonists of the story. You'd think it'd be more sensible for me to post a sketch of one of our jolly protags, but the image is far too badass not to show-off.  Also, Katy has provided a very accurate depiction of what it what her illustration process is like:

As time goes on, I'm hoping to provide more and more concept art and sketches , so keep your vision orbs open and ready!

New Cover Art

Welcome friends, prospective readers, absolute strangers, and potential nemeses! My name is Bryant Pulley, and this is a blog I've started with a particular goal in mind. Namely, After Comic, Before Success will follow the progression, regression, and periods with little to no activity of two friends creating a comic. The comic itself, titled After, sprung from the mutual desire and collaborative effort of my BFF Katelyn Amacker and myself to pool our efforts and create something of our own.

Katelyn, or "Katy" as the Norsemen call her, is an illustrator of high talent and work ethic who has lent her skills to a number of freelance projects while maintaining a day job working for a design company. I, myself, have been writing, writing, and writing in whatever free time I can find outside of working as a lab analyst for a small biotech company. Our aim is to have After up and ready as a webcomic by this Fall. We know what we're doing in some areas, and figuring out the rest as we keep working our way along.

The above image is our first unveiling of our work. It is the cover of our first chapter, and I feel it is an appropriate representation of what is to come from the story. The art is, of course, by Katy, but the lettering and title design was made thanks to our friend Jessica Kizmann.