Thumbnail Layout

The first step in the art process is thumbnail pencils. Little did I know when Wayne told me he was working on the thumbnails,that they would actually be the size of thumbnails.

Okay, they're not quite that small, but this is actual size, not reduced and clickable to the large version.

Pencils

Next up, the actual pencils.

Inks

What inks? Wayne is scanning his pencils and digitally inking them as part of the coloring process.

Colors

Here's the almost-final colored version of page one.

After Wayne sent me the first several colored pages, he got a notion to try colored backgrounds on the pages. He sent me a few samples, we discussed and both thought the colored backgrounds really added to the overall look and feel, and thus was born the actual final colored page.

Letters

I've never had any desire to be a comic book letterer, truth be told. But I decided to letter these submission pages so that (A) I wouldn't have to pay someone to do it and (B) I could gain the experience, which from all I've been told is actually quite invaluable.

Doing the lettering myself helps me learn just how much dialogue can comfortably fit into a single panel, for one thing. I know there are a couple of pages coming down the pike that are almost certainly going to require some rewriting at the lettering page.

Besides all that, it's actually kind of fun to be making some small contribution to the actual look and flow of the story!

Here's the lettered version of page one (which is actually the second page I've ever lettered). Big thanks to Clem Robins, Jason Arthur and the rest of the gang over at the Digital Webbing Lettering Forum, who have been gracious beyond the call of duty in helping me learn the ropes.

Wayne's first three pencilled pages, version one. Being the perfectionist he is, he's already planning to go back to pages one and three and "fix" some things he's not happy with.

Next up: colors!

Click the thumbnails below for the full-size images.

page 1

page 2

page 3

• WHO:
  We already covered that one, so one down! But seriously, folks, click the links under the Creators heading to the right to learn all you could ever want to know about Elton and Wayne.
  
• WHAT:
  Descartes the Zombie is a four-issue limited series (aka mini-series) that Wayne and I are developing to pitch to a major comics publisher.
  
• WHEN:
  We'll hopefully have the pitch ready to drop in the mail by late summer. In the meantime, you can follow our progress right here.
• WHERE:
  Now that's a nebulous question! I'm in Little Rock, Wayne's in Australia, but the most important where is, where will you be able to buy Descartes the Zombie's first issue a few months from now? The answer, of course, is your local comic book store. It's never too early to start bugging them! (apologies to all you store owners out there)
• WHY:
  Ah, the $25,000 question. The answer's simple, really. I love zombie stories, and I wanted to tell a zombie story that turned the traditions of the genre upside down and inside out. So, instead of an apocalyptic setting in which hordes of zombies roam the earth, we have a present-day setting in which there's a single zombie. And instead of a small group of survivors fighting for their lives against the zombie hordes, we have one man, fighting for his life against... himself. Or rather, against the zombie he has become.