C is for Captain Marvel

Here's another of these, and this time it's the wonderful Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel is © Marvel Comics and is used here in a fan-arty non-profit way!

F is for Falcon

Here's another one of these, and this time it's The Falcon.

I know he's Captain America now, but I was reading Mad Bomb recently, and liked him there, so here he is!

It's out of order too, but when I started pottering away on these I was doing each character in a different style. That really wasn't looking good however, so I'll be re-doing earlier ones as well as doing new ones.

The Falcon is ©Marvel Comics, and is used here in a strickly not-for-profit, fan-arty way!

J and K

J is for Jocasta and K is for Klaw...

I liked both of these at their creation, but not so much after they were developed over the years.

All the characters I'm doing here are ©Marvel Comics, and it's just a bit of fun.

H and I

H is for Hawkeye, and I is for Invisible Woman.

The Invisible Woman one is supposed to be like the 1960s Kirby version, as that's the best one!

Both characters are obviously ©Marvel Comics!

G is for Ghost Rider

I always have some things on the go for when I have a day free, and one of those is an A to Z of Marvel characters. Mostly I just potter away on this and it sits in a folder on my hard drive, but I thought I'd post the latest one up here: G is for Ghost Rider.

I may shove the others up too.

The Ghost Rider is ©Marvel Comics, and this is simply part of a fan-arty tribute!

A conversation, in colour!

This is page one of my painted version of this conversation. I felt that I had to try it painted to see if it'd work, but to be honest, I'm not sure if I don't prefer it in blue pencil.

Drawing bits are done in MangaStudio, painted bits are all Photoshop with my own crappy brush.

There is no dialogue. We've all had (or will have) conversations like the one I'm trying to show here, and I wanted the reader to be projecting their own story onto the page. Acting as a voyeur into both this story and their own.


Comments and Critiques gratefully received!

©2014 Jonathan Wyke

A conversation comes to an end

Third page of this mini-story, now onto finishing it somehow, and I still haven't decided on inks, painting or textured pencils...

©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Deeper into a conversation

Here are the pencils for the second page of this thing I'm playing with.

It's not quite looking how it does in my head, but that's because in my head I can draw like bloody Rembrant.

I'm still thinking about whether to ink it or paint it (or just leave it as pencils). Obviously I should think this stuff through more!

©2014 Jonathan Wyke

A page with a working title only!

These are the pencils for page one of 'apologue' (working title only). I think when it comes right down to it, I'm interested in humans rather than superhumans, so I thought I'd just try to tell a story.

I've been thinking about this for a while, and have played around with it in stuff like Idiot Wind and IRON, but I wanted to try to distil out what I think's interesting - narrative structure and people. I'm well aware that this isn't commercial, and I can't imagine it'd ever be something that would see print, even if I were able to produce something good enough art and writing wise. Still, I think that unless I try to draw what I want to, I'll end up giving up altogether.

At least I can have said I tried to do what I wanted to.

All pencil work was done in MangaStudio.

All work is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Smoke & Glass

Phoenix Outlaw's Smoke & Glass Kickstarter was successfully funded, so many congratulations to the whole team involved!

My own contribution was pretty minor, consisting of a dozen or so illustrations. I had fun with them, mixing up a pretty straight illustrative style with a pastiche of Victorian / Edwardian theatre posters. I hoped it'd sort of fit in with the feel of Smoke & Glass.

Smoke & Glass Kickstarter is here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2033224706/smoke-and-glass-a-steampunk-setting-for-fate-core

Jaguar, page twentythree

New page.

I've been trying to get a looser style going with these, but I think I've gone too far in the loose direction. Time to bring it back.

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page twentytwo

New page!

I seem to be constantly trying to show conversations. I want to show how, in a real conversation, people talk over and behind others, and interrupt, and pause, and jump in.

What I also seem to be constantly doing is failing to get that feel right graphically. New Wave cinema did it by chop editing the conversation, and altering the backgrounds but not the narrative, and I'm just not getting how I can do that in comic form. Yet.

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page twentyone

Another new page, with some slightly experimental layout stuff, and more excitingly, the smallest amount of colour ever used on a page!

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page twenty

Here's page twenty of Jaguar, in which a journey ends, a meeting is missed and a hunter is sent.

Aside from just trying this story out, there are several things I'm trying, and my main goal from these past few pages is to see if this style (and my drawing) can handle different settings. We started in London, travelled to Cornwall and are now in the wilds of Bodmin moor, and I've tried to show urban exteriors and interiors, trains, travelling and now landscapes. Some of it I think has worked, some has been less successful.

Still, it's continued to be an interesting experiment on my part, and I hope that at least some people are enjoying it!

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page nineteen

After a little break, I'm picking this up again.

I think there's still plenty for me to learn about storytelling from doing this, so on we go!

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

London two

London

Fiddling about!

The attached two pictures come out of a conversation I had about missing doing etching. During the course of that discussion, I wondered if a convincing image could be made that mimicked the look of an etching, so these are the first two playing attempts.

Ignore the drawings! They're simply very quick throw-ons to give me something to play around with.

I think it's getting there, but some fine-tuning may well be required.

ENnies Nominations

The ENnies nominations are out, and awkwardly several of the books I've done some work in have made the list... Hillfolk is up for Best Game, and Blood on the Snow for best supplement. 

Annoyingly, and rather tellingly, nothing I worked on was nominated for Best Interior Art...

You can vote here: ENnies Voting Booth

Jaguar, page eighteen

With the end of chapter two, I may stop doing this for a while.

Working on it has proved incredibly useful for a number of reasons, but with fewer and fewer people actually reading it, it's becoming harder to justify the time I spend working on it.

I want to be taking positives from it - my speed of working has increased. I think my layout and narrative control has improved - rather than thinking my writing & drawing are so unappealing that 3/4 of the strips' readers vanished over the course of 18 pages!

All done in MangaStudio except for the text which was Illustrator.


Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page seventeen

Here's a new page.

I gone for something of a more conventional layout for this one as I was just trying to show a static telephone conversation in a legible way. Hopefully it worked, and I'm actually pretty pleased with some of the drawing here.

This page pretty much marks the end of chapter two, and I may take a break from it. On the ComicFury site I've been hosting it on, the viewing numbers started well, but then dropped off a cliff really, which I think is pretty indicative of the fact that it's just not a good enough story (and or art) to hold people's attention.

Jaguar is web-published here: Jaguar

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page sixteen

...and another new page!

I'm still pretty determined to move at my own pace with these, but I'm not sure if that pacing is working. Still, plodding on!

Jaguar is also here: Jaguar webcomic

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page fifteen

New page for Jaguar.

That's the Torpoint ferry in panel one. I have to sit on that every time I want to go into the 21st century (England).

Jaguar is also web-published here JAGUAR!

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page fourteen

Page 14, and a journey continues. For those of a south western bent, that's Plymouth railway station we're pulling into!

Jaguar is also here: http://jaguar.thecomicseries.com/

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page thirteen

New page of Jaguar.

Pacing is important to me in this. If a journey or conversation is started, it should take time. I don't want teleporting between scenes if I can help it.

I'm becoming aware that I'm the only one who thinks this however...

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page twelve

Jaguar continues, and we start a journey.

The major writing, framing and pacing influences on me whilst working on Jaguar were European New Wave Cinema of the 1950s and 1960s, and this journey is one example of that I guess. There's a scene in Godard's Breathless when Michel and Patricia are having a conversation whilst driving around Paris. The background's constantly shifting and doesn't have the same continuity as the conversation itself. It shifts around, goes backwards and forwards, and I think it's because Godard is trying to get over a feeling of the fluid ebb and flow of a real chat. Bits we remember are out of order. We go back to things we said earlier. We jump ahead.

This attempt to get some sort of feel of a real conversation is really what I'm experimenting with here, just to see if I can do it, and to see if it'll work.

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page eleven

New page!

It's a little late as I'm very, very busy with some glittery show stuff at the moment...

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page ten

Here's The start of Chapter Two. This is something of a small first for me, as it includes a sound effect. I've never used one before, and it still looks a little odd to me. May take it off later...

Jaguar is 'published' here JAGUAR

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, Chapter Two

This is the title plate for chapter two of Jaguar.

The whole story is split into short 'chapters', with each one showing a shift in either time of space (or both) I guess. Really it's just a way for me to break the story down into manageable chunks.

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page eight

Page eight.

My original plan for this page was a much bloodier affair. Indeed, I'd written, thumbnailed and sketched it out that way, but I found it just looked way too much like some sort of violent horror-porn. Luckilly I know Dale Mettam, who is, like, a proper writer and everything, and something he and I had worked on together offered a way out.

So here's page eight, and we see the aftermath of the horror, rather than the horror itself, which to my mind works a lot better.

Thanks Dale!

All MangaStudio. I'm really trying to 'paint' these in MS rather than conventially pencil them.

Jaguar is 'published' here JAGUAR

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page 07

Here's the latest page for Jaguar.

I'm still trying to get out ahead of schedule as May is looking so busy...

Jaguar is also published here - JAGUAR

All MangaStudio

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page 06

Well now.

Despite me prattling on about having fallen out of love with the medium, here's a new page. I've done this for several reasons I guess. It's all written is a big one. I'm also hoping that my feelings are temporary, and I can work through them.

I also think I might almost like this page. I'm trying to be a bit experimental with the layout, so the clawed had is the panel frame and the claw and the claw marks. Hopefully it works.

This page is a couple of days ahead of schedule as I've got a very busy period coming up.

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Comics and me

I've only been working on my web comic for a little while, but I think it's taught me an important lesson, and that is I'm a bit rubbish at comics.

I mostly think I can draw - or at least I can make a thing look like a thing - and that's fine for static images, but I don't think I seem suited to sequential narrative. I hammer away at it, but I don't think it ever really works. My style has always been a realistic one, or at least I've tried to make it so, as the likes of Frank Bellamy were always my heroes, but that seems to be so out of sync with what's popular now that I seem to be wasting my time on doing these. I've never really understood the style or appeal of the manga-influenced wave of art, and I've always shied away from the Kirby-esque power style of the mainstream US comics, and that has really shown whenever I've tried to work in that style.

This mood could be caused be a few things I guess. It's a rainy Sunday, and that's always bad. I seem to have posted Jaguar on a site where the community is just dreadful and that's disheartening. It could be just one of my periodic 'I can't bloody draw moods'. Whatever it is, I think it's best for my own piece of mind that I scale back on trying to work sequentially.

Pants.

Jaguar, page 05

Here's another page of Jaguar. I'm still posting it first over on its dedicated site here but also here, as I'm able to post the artwork slightly larger here.

For all of these pages, I'm trying hardest to get the pacing and movement right, as I think that's by far my biggest weak point, and in a sequential-narrative medium, that's a pretty big blind spot to have.

Jaguar is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar has a new home

I've moved my webcomic to a new home. I'm using a pretty simple site design at the moment, but I may play with that later.

Jaguar

Jaguar, page 04

Page four of Jaguar.

I'm still trying to do full backgrounds, which is a time-consuming pain in the arse, but I think it's making a difference to how the pages are looking. No text on this page, but added sneaking.

Art and story are ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, Page 3

Here's the third page of my new webcomic thing.

I've developed the art style somewhat with this page. Most significantly I guess, I'm adding full backgrounds where appropriate. This will increase the time I need to do each page, but will also, I hope, look more solid. I've also looked to removing most of the traditional frames. It's something I've been playing about with for a while. I want to take inspiration from the narrative techniques of New Wave directors like Claude Chabrol and Eric Rohmer, rather than traditional (1960s) comic-book sequential narrative storytelling.

As with all of this so far, the voice we're hearing is the narrator's. Time will tell whether he's an honest one or not.

This is very much an experimental work, and should anyone have any comments or thoughts, I'd be very grateful.

Story and art are ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, page 2

Here's page two of Jaguar, when it starts to look like a comic! I'm still in the spit & polish stage really, so am welcoming comments and criticism.

Story and art are ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Jaguar, a webcomic

I've been thinking for a little while about doing a webcomic, and have finally decided to give it a go.

The story is fully scripted up, and is twelve chapters long, the first of which is called Jaguar.

Story and art is ©2014 Jonathan Wyke

Some Illustrations

Recently I've been doing some illustration for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, and here's one of them. Lots of madness and beasties, and lots of fun to do.

Artwork is © 2014 Chaosium / Jonathan Wyke