Viva...

Viva...

Las Vegas!

Where else do you think Kamiko would take all of them to "lay low?"

This entire comic is based in 1969. I had fun researching some visuals of the era such as the red convertible in this comic -- a Pontiac GTO. BTW, I'm proud to say that I didn't trace it either! I drew that car in perspective and aside from Kamiko and her cowboy hat, it's one of my favorite things I drew. :)

In the last panel, I looked up images of Las Vegas from the 60s. Originally I was going to do a more aerial view of the strip, but when it comes down to the amount of the it would take versus making a collage of casinos, I chose the latter. I'm well aware that those casinos probably did not sit close to one another like that, but I compressed together the ones I found and liked. The Sands had a cool logo and lattice work. I liked the Silver Slipper, because who doesn't like a giant high heel for a casino logo. Of course, I had to do the Las Vegas sign.

Next Week...

I have an epilogue planned to wrap things up next week, and then after that, I intend to take a few weeks off and do some script writing and continue my preparation for the Alternate Press Expo. I'd like some time to do some other art for This Mortal Coil as well. Maybe even work on the website.

There may not be a new comic during September, but I do hope to put up some of my sketches and original art for This Mortal Coil and maybe even some more fan art too -- I have some sitting in a folder on my computer. If you like TMC, and would like to be featured on the website, send me your fan art and a link to your work!

Oh, and be sure to check out the fan art that is here!

Mini-Postmortem

I had a lot of fun doing Lady of the Moon. I worked on Rabbit of the Moon for 6 years from script to completed graphic novel.

This story was done in an ad hoc nature. I pretty much made it up as I went along. I worried that I might not make it across the finish line -- whatever that line maybe, but if I learned anything from doing Rabbit and the Moon, that line is movable. If the workload seems too heavy there are ways to lighten it such as cutting material, condensing scenes, simplifying drawings or plot points, or focusing more on scripting before hitting storyboards or even actual production. With Rabbit and the Moon it helped cut a year's worth of work out and it's somewhat streamlined the creation of this comic.

With Lady of the Moon, I've also taken what I learned from Rabbit and experimented with it. A full comic page with 6-8 frames takes about 20 hours from planning to completion, but a 4 panel comic takes maybe 5-6 hours, but in cases like this page, closer to 10 hours. The panel is small so I can skimp on detailed backgrounds. I didn't feel that it was necessary to be completely realistic in drawing the characters either. I could have a lot more fun.

The 4-koma approach also allowed me to make the comic more shareable, but ultimately, I feel that putting it on social media did very little to help.

I did enjoy doing the Caption This! even though it was time consuming. A few of my friends threw in their best captions and I enjoyed turning them into comics. You can see them if you read through the archive of pages for Lady of the Moon. For future stories, I'll try and incorporate the Caption This! when and where I can.

You know what works to attract attention... advertising. I'm back in the game with Project Wonderful and I'm seeing folks come and read Lady of the Moon.

If you're one of those folks, welcome! I hope you enjoy the stories and the art here. I do try to answer comments as well.

Another upside to the 4-koma was that the drawings appeared bigger. I don't know how folks feel about that though, but I like seeing my artwork as bigger images rather than smaller. I spend a lot of time putting in details and I want it visible. Even so, I'm not sure if it's the best viewing experience. A 4-koma does mean that it works nicely for mobile/tablet, but not so great for desktop.

The downside this time was that I had no buffer. I did this comic week-to-week. My Sundays since February have been taken up with doing this. It's not really an issue. I still moved across California, started a new job, and I still do a lot of fun things on the weekends such a Drawing Meats LA, visiting Little Tokyo, going on a hike, and so much more. The reduced amount of time it takes to do a comic helps. Also, we work 4 10-hour days giving me a 3 day weekend, and that does help too.

I'd like to do some shorter stories. This time I'd like to set them in a more contemporary time -- both Rabbit and Lady of the Moon take place in the past. I also want to explore Kamiko in a different way.

If you have any questions you'd like to ask me about my webcomic production process or about This Mortal Coil, please leave it in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you!

That's all I got for right now. I'll see you next week!