I do hope the new page is an improvement from the art in chapter one. Back in August I received a tough, but fair review on Choice Comics that reamed my artwork quite a bit. I was kind of surprised, but at the same time not by the feedback. I always expected my comics to gain attention from the art rather than the writing, and this review was quite the opposite of that.

Initially Starcrossed is as much a learning exercise as it is a serious project. Not to say I put any less work or effort into this comic than I would my other projects I have lined up. I’ve just never really done much narrative comic art before. My previous comic projects include Value=Dead, which is more self-contained gag comics rather than a story and Wake Odyssey which I wasn’t entirely happy with and put on the back burner.

At the time when I had finished chapter one of Starcrossed, I was proud of it and happy with it. I’m still proud of it, because I stuck with it. After a while of looking at it, though, I can see what the reviewer meant by the art. I can do better. I had never done screentones much before, and I learned a lot from using them in chapter one. They’re not that great, and I don’t think they do my artwork justice. I’m weaning myself off of screentones in the first few pages of this chapter, and then they’ll be gone almost entirely. My strength lies more in a painted effect. You’ll be seeing more of that by around page four. I think it’ll work a lot better. It’s less time consuming, and is less distracting. I want to make this good, so don’t be afraid to tell me what you think. I like being proud of my art, but there’s a difference between proud of it and complacent. If you receive nothing but praise, you tend to get a little fat on creating mediocre work. I was actually kind of glad to get the critique because it gave me an objective and honest look at what I had made.

As for the writing, it’s funny that that appears to be this comic’s biggest draw. At least according to this review. Part of me knows how the story goes, but mostly it’s free form. I don’t really fancy myself as much of a writer, so I chose Starcrossed as a starting point for my comics because I thought it’d be best to start with what I know. Quinn is sort of loosely based off of me and my experiences. Similar hairstyle, freckles, we even dress sort of similar, same introspective artistic bent. Granted she’s not me, but it is easy to step into her shoes and write things from her point of view.

The family’s believable because, well, it’s my family . . . err . . . sort of. In a comicky sort of way. The personalities are pretty much established. I actually have two younger brothers, but for this story I wanted to just have one and play up on the sibling rivalry aspect of their relationship. It’s all too familiar. -_-

Quinn’s brother, Roger, goes through a small design change in chapter two. I thought he looked a bit too much like Vash the Stampede with the broom hair, so I shortened it after the first couple of pages to make it more believable.

Starcrossed is actually going to be a fairly short story. It’s intended to be roughly about 15 chapters long, give or take. Depending on how it evolves. I wanted something that was a fairly involved series without being too epic. I have two fairly epic projects I want to get to in the future after Starcrossed. One, being Wake Odyssey, an idea Rumor, another friend at the time, and I started brainstorming on back in 2004. We tried to do some pages for it back in 2006, but it hadn’t been quite well enough planned out and the pages just didn’t do it justice. We’ve been doing a pretty heavy reworking on it since. The other one is a brain-child I started when I was sixteen called Medusa Complex which is supposed to be a mystery/phychological fantasy. It’s been redone more times than I can count because, well, I was sixteen when I came up with the original concept. Things change.

Anyway, I do hope you all enjoy what I have coming up for the comic. I have a lot of projects I want to get to. I think they’re awesome, but I hope you guys will think so as well.

Now I’m in class right now posting this and studying for my art history midterm exam for later today. I figure it’s about time to get off my ass and do something productive. Just sitting around being a lump on the couch isn’t making me feel any better. Luckily I have a month’s worth of pages ready to go.

Like I said before, I’m cutting updates down to once a week to make sure I can keep up with school and all. Expect a new page Friday from now on.

Edit: Fixed. Let me know if you guys have any more problems.

I still don’t have internet quite yet. We will be getting service at our house next week. In the meantime I finally got a new laptop and get online whenever the wireless fairy blesses me with a wifi hot spot. The comic will be up and regular again within the week. Internet at home is like this site’s fiber intake. It needs it to be able poop fourth a page for your enjoyment on a regular basis. Yay for poop references!

I might not be answering my emails very quickly for a bit. I have an 8-10 page art history paper due next Wednesday. Bleh.