Arsenic Lullaby Short comic and how I set up the page to help tell the joke

I’m going to give you a bit of a breakdown on how a page like this ( below) goes from a notion in my head…to a fully functional comic book page. Note that this is page one of a two page story…

This one was a case of me really making something harder than it needed to be. that last panel is the whole joke, and pretty hard to screw up when it comes right down to it. Somewhere between that idea and the final illustration I decided this needed to be the best thing I ever did…that’s bad. That’s when you stop trusting your instincts and reworking everything…usually just to go back to the first draft you had.

The crux of this joke is the glorious feast the vampire thinks he has set himself up for and the pathetic reality. So him seeming creepy and dangerous and whatnot, the reaction to what is really there, and then him lowering himself to sucking the distended belly of some poor starving Ethiopian is the kicker. Above all else the writing and pictures all need to advance those concepts. That’s the mood elements that are important. The nuts and bolts needed are a pic showing how he got there, A pic showing the room/hut. A pic of how malnourished the victim is and of course the final scene. . The second panel, believe it or not, was the easiest. It just fell out of my head. Panels 5-7 …well, there’s a lot of different ways to do that, I probably could have just done it in one shot, but I reasoned that three panels would slow the pace and drive home what a disappointment this is. I can’t really explain why I put int panel 9…I just liked the close up leaving the reader to wonder what exactly he’s thinking…I might change up the expression if I can decide if he should look like he’s got a brilliant idea or embarrassed/ashamed. I dunno…it’s probably as good as good is getting.

ops…almost forgot this one, in case you like to see specific progression

That's pretty much it...some pages come together easier than others...and longer stories have different challenges/advantages...I'll walk you through those next week maybe.

Oh...almost forgot to post the whole thing...it's technically a two page spread/fold out

You can see me and my work in person at Cincinnati Comic Expo next weekend!

http://www.cincinnaticomicexpo.com/

!!!!the tags list on Steemit is generated by code...which puts tags up there based on ONLY popularity of use. You will notice that as of yet #comics does not exist there. So what we have been doing is using the hashtag #comics every single time we comment on my posts ( or any other posts if you like). It doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense to use it...the code doesn't know the difference!!!!

you can always see more of my work at the Arsenic Lullaby website or just check out the site to see other stuff.

http://www.arseniclullabies.com there's more #comics and an online store to order a physical copy coupon code -voodoo- is good for 20% offor if you see something you like and want to use steem, just contact me here or on discord

ArsenicLullaby#2207 on Discord

back with more in a few days!