Into the Void - Page 5

So, here's the final preview page from issue #1 of "Into the Void". What do you think so far, people?

Into the Void - Page 4

Into the Void - Page 3

Into the Void - Page 2

I hope you liked page 1. If you did, here's page 2.

If you didn't, you're probably not reading this post...

Page 1 - Complete

Now that you've had a chance to simmer in the goodness of the sketches and rough inks of page one, here's the final page. Enjoy!

- Joe

"Into the Void" Page 1 - Rough

And the adventure is officially underway. Full script for the first issue is done and now the pages are starting to come fast and furious. 

Here are the rough pencil/inks for the first page. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be showcasing the first five pages of the comic as a "sneak preview" of the full book. Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Next up: I'll post the finished page so that you can get a good look at the look of "Into the Void".

Ship Design - The Infinite Salamander

I thought this might be interesting. Here's a look behind the curtain at the nuts-and-bolts of Jim's process designing the ship for "Into the Void". 

Q: So, Jim. In your original webcomic, the design of the ship was a bit different. Take us back to the original design. What was your inspiration for the ship?

A: I always thought of the ship as a bulk/hull ship or a freighter...I think it is still a huge lunky ship, but I modified it to be a cross between a Drag Racer a Tank and a Mac Truck..though I still hear the song 'Convoy' when I was creating it.

Q: The name has changed, too. Originally, the ship was the "Angry Beaver", but you wanted a name more like the "Millennium Falcon". How do you like the vessel's name now?

A: I think I originally saw the crew as hard working, blue collar garbage men in space, now they're a bit more refined and more explorers and the ship reflects that

Q: After we finished the first script, you made some pretty major modifications to the ship's design. Can you describe the big changes you made and why?

A: I still wanted the freighter aspect, but from a design perspective, since it is the Infinite Salmander I wanted a look that would be more recognizable, you look at it and go, "Oh cool...that's The Infinite Salamander."

Q: Down to brass tacks here... You explained to me the tools you used to build out the ship for the comic. Being a writer with no talent for the visual arts, it was like you were talking a foreign language. For illustrators, can you describe the tools you used?

A: I used 3 graphic programs Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and Google Sketchup. I built the ship in the 3D program Sketchup, then from there took it into illustrator and "auto traced" the different views, from there, I brought it into Photoshop for some image prep and shading work

Q: What advantages did you find using that method provided?

A: All the ships for this series will be built in Google Sketchup which is a lightweight 3D program, which is great for getting the different angles with essentially a virtual camera.

Q: What's the downright coolest thing about the Infinite Salamander? 

A: It's either the fact that it's a giant drag racer or the fact that it's haunted!

So there you have it. The Infinite Salamander is locked, loaded, and ready to voyage... into the VOID!

- Joe

Work in Progress - Sneak Peek

We're finally ready to show off the first few pages of the sure-to-be-a-hit comic book, "Into the Void".

First, though, I thought it might be interesting to give you all a peek behind the scenes at the creation of "Into the Void". There's been a lot more coffee (Venti Decaf Americano, thank you) involved than I would've thought possible. 

In the beginning were Jim's webcomics and character sketches. 

Then, we fleshed out the characters and universe. You can get a taste of that if you page back thorough the bios on this blog. We wanted to be sure that there was enough history and world-building to sustain a regular series. The fun has really come in the execution. 

I scripted out the entire first issue and passed the whole thing to Jim. It was an extremely complicated scripting software program that I found. Any aspiring writers might want to check it out. The learning curve is steep, but it's worth it. It's called Microsoft Word.

Jim can fill you in on the details of the software he uses (post any questions to the comments section). But, he lays out the script side-by-side with the page and sketches out the action.

So that's how the magic happens.

Later this week, I'll post the completed page, along with several other completed pages from the first issue of "Into the Void".

- Joe