Dungeon Crawlers: Behind The Magic

Since I haven't posted on this blog in a while, I thought I'd do a crossover special with Dungeon Crawlers and show some of my process, specifically for this comic in particular.

**A quick disclaimer, this is simply how I created the comic this week.  Since I'm always experimenting with new styles and ideas, my process is constantly evolving.**

My process usually starts with me looking at a blank piece of paper and thinking that I have no ideas--like nothing at all.  Then I go through various levels of self doubt, hating myself, and trying to give up.  I'll tell myself this'll be the week that I won't get a comic up in time and everyone will hate me.

Eventually I'll start doodling, trying to circle around a loose idea or theme.  This week, I knew there were a few things I wanted: for the comic to stand alone, feature only the two blobs (no side characters), and keep it in the usual location.  This would allow me to focus more on the comedy and less on the continuous storytelling like I've been doing.  I eventually settled on the idea of them doing more training, something I've focused on in the past and then just started drawing out stuff.

I'm looking at this and have no idea why I wrote 2009 in the upper corner.  Kind of confused about that.

Eventually I settled on doing invisibility and continued from the beginning I had sketched.  I wrote things out and then did a rough panel placement.  I also tried to draw out the more unique panels so I knew what they would look like.

Notice how the final panel slant was once the opposite direction, before I realized it would work much better the other way.  Fascinating stuff, right?

Comic basically written, I drew up the first panel in Photoshop with the blobs and then copied and pasted them so I could figure out if the panel placement, along with text.

Yay Free Transform!

In the past I've added text and bubbles last, but I liked doing it this way because it allowed me to look at panel placement and flow before worrying about the rest, plus it allowed me to save the best part (the actual drawing part of it) for last.

Oh and for those of you wondering why the background is pink in this set up, it's simply because using plain white is a lot harsher on the eyes when staring at it for hours.  Plus pink is cool.

You can check out the finished product over here at the Dungeon Crawler's site.