Let's all pray for Tom. A bonus update from Keith

Hey everybody, Keith here. I'll be playing the roll of the beloved Mr. Nguyen this morning for our weekly update. Our plucky little pal Tom has a debilitating neck injury; not sure how he suffered it but I'm told it's very painful and he can barely move.

So, long story short, while I play substitute blog hero, Tom is somewhere in Minnesota getting x-rays and MRI's and trying to figure out why his nubile young Vietnamese body is failing him.

I guess there's a segue here into how this comic-book lifestyle can take a toll on the spine. I know a lot of guys in this field who suffer from back and neck issues after a couple of decades hunched over their drawing boards. I have some minor recurring problems with lower back/sciatic nerve pain myself, nothing major but I now have the angle of my drafting table adjusted almost vertically so I don't have to lean over as much. Everything falls on the floor all the time but it's better than that sharp ache at the base of my spine.

Anyway, who would think that sitting still all day could take a toll?  Just goes to show you, no one is safe!

I didn't have anything planned to show this week so I scrambled a bit and scraped together some stuff. I mentioned in last week's post that I usually draw a rough layout of every page as part of my writing process so I wondered if you guys might enjoy comparing my original rough to the page of script to Tom's layout for the same page. I'm not sure you'll be able to tell heads or tails from my layout, they're pretty quick and crudely drawn but I always find it fascinating to see how what I have pictured in my mind is interpreted by someone else's imagination. So first...my layout. This is for page 3 of The Switch.

 And now...the page of script.

PAGE THREE

PANEL ONE

Cut to the interior of a demolished BANK. Lots of overturned desks, office furniture, scattered paperwork, chairs. It should look like there was a super-powered BATTLE in here.

Because there was.

Electricia is sliding through the debris like a shark in shallow water. It's dark in here; she's the light source. All shadows cast from her.

ELECTRICIA: Siiiiidekick...

PANEL TWO

Electricia flips over a nearby desk. Nothing underneath it.

ELECTRICIA: Don't make it harder for me to FIND you, kid.

ELECTRICIA: GAME OF THRONES is on tonight.

PANEL THREE

Electricia unleashes a massively powerful, double-barreled blast of energy, disintegrating pretty much everything in front of her.

SFX: ZZZZAAAXXXXX!!

PANEL FOUR

In the aftermath of Electricia's blast, there's now a LARGE, JAGGED SMOKING HOLE in the middle of the floor. The hint of a dark sub-basement below.

She's noticing it.

ELECTRICIA: I turn into a TOTAL bitch when I miss my shows.

PANEL FIVE

Close on Electricia's lips, smirking.

NO DIALOGUE

And finally, Tom's layout:

So there you have it. I think if you scroll up and down, you'll see some interesting differences.

That about wraps it up for this week. Hopefully, Tom will be back up to speed and will take over the production blog next week. There's just no replacing him!

We'll keep you updated, thanks!

Keith

Some odds and ends from Keith

For this week's update, I thought I'd hit you guys with a few different tidbits, various production stuff, as well as some train of thought behind this whole mess. So...first up? A bit of my writing process:

So basically, every time I write a new project, I buy a new notebook for it. Over the course of producing that project, said notebook gets filled with various scribblings, doodles, and assorted chicken scratches that eventually congeal into the script. So what you're looking at here are some thumbnails as I work out the pacing for a scene (I'm not worried about spoilers here because I can barely even ready my own handwriting. Plus, it's a comic book. If you figure it out ahead of time, it's not like the world is going to stop spinning.)

Anyway, as I work out a scene, I'll break it down in terms of panel count per page and just enough of a description to remind myself what I was thinking at the time. The step after this is to draw a rough layout to block the scene and make sure it all works. And after that, when all the problems are solved, I'll sit down and type it out.

Do I do this 100% of the time? Nope. Sometimes I just sit down at the keyboard and wing it. But I find that when I have the luxury of time, a little thought goes a long way in avoiding problems down the stretch.

Moving on...

This is a rough character design for GREASETRAP (the blob of grease that walks like a man). It's a member of Murderer's Row. In terms of design, it's just enough for Tom to work from without hamstringing him and, hopefully, the five minutes I took to rough it out saves him a couple of hours of figuring out what I'm looking for. Teamwork for the win!

So yeah, corpulent, greasy, disgusting and full of air bubbles. That's our guy.

I gave it perfect, clean tighty whiteys just to amuse myself.

And look! It's a crappy cell phone pic/sneak peek of Tom's pencils/inks from page one!

This week, I officially started lettering the book. More like I've started TRYING to letter the book. It's a pretty slow process right now because I have no idea how to letter in Illustrator. So I go back and forth from my computer to my reference books and slowly muddle it out. I think about five pages from now, I'll have a much better idea how to use the software and the speed will pick up.I have a bit of anxiety about lettering right now but it'll all work out. Once the balloons and dialogue are slapped down, I'll flat color this page in Photoshop and send it back to Tom for finished color.

And that's your look at the glamorous, behind-the-scenes production of The Switch for this week. I wonder what Tom will surprise us with next Friday? Not even I know, let's all find out together!

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!
Keith

Update from Nashville, TN (Tom)

Hello again.  I'm posting from fairly hot and humid Nashville (my first time here) since I have Fanboy Expo to do this weekend.   So first of all, you all should come and see me here at the fairgrounds.  I will actually have some Switch prints with me to sign/sell! ;)

For this Switch update, I'll post a few sneak pencils that I've been working on here on my Surface Pro 2.  The first batch of pages are at home since they are original page giveaways to some backers.  As usual with my other work, if I'm away from the drawing table, then I will draw on my Surface Pro, which greatly aids in being productive.

That said, here are some more non spoiler art sneak peeks of our girl Electricia and Lover Boy:

Next week I'll throw up some sneak peek inks and maybe even colors.  Back to work..!

Lunch break update! (Keith)

I know, I know...Tom and I have gotten in the habit of updating this blog on Fridays but, y'know, that doesn't mean we can't also add content on other days. So while I've got a few extra minutes on my lunch break...surprise!

(Also, I've got a little writer's block at the moment that I need to work through so this is me being productive in another way.)

I posted a little script excerpt on my social media the other day so I thought I'd share that again here. Here you go, out of context and slightly revised, with some of my thoughts afterwards...

This is the first time we're meeting a bunch of these characters to let's have a little roll call, shall we?

(continued next page)

PAGES FOURTEEN/FIFTEEN (continued)

THE MOSS, INTERSTELLAR, DR, HATE, and ELECTRICIA are here although our girl should be keeping pretty much to herself in a corner somewhere. She's looking pretty cranky; maybe needs her coffee.

We've also got some new characters milling about, most of whom still need to be designed. Why don't you group them as you see fit and I'll dialogue when I see how you've laid them out and have them interacting. Surprise me. Make me laugh.

NAGENGAST: The ghost of a German spy, female, armed with two ethereal knives.

OMERTA: A young Mexican woman, dressed in a black tank top and combat pants. Both of her arms from the elbows down have been replaced by matching shotguns. (I'll give you photo reference for this character, she's my cousin Maddy minus the shotguns).

GREASE TRAP: a human-size blob of grease that walks like a man. (Just be glad I chickened out of creating a character called Smegma.)

NASTY CAT: Think Catwoman after being stuck in a sewer for a year. Bonus points if you somehow have her harassing Dr. Hate.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: the current President of Russia.

WALKING FRED: Zombie crime boss in a tailored suit.

KOMODO: About a foot taller than Moss, a Godzilla-like creature based off of a Komodo dragon.

CROM: A mythological barbarian God. Barrel-chested, hairy, a broadsword as tall as he is.

SNOW: An Asian man dressed in simple white clothing. I'm not going to tell you his power right now, I'll spring it on you shortly.

So here's a little trivia. I draw little rough versions of every page in order to block the scene and keep track of where everything is while I'm writing. I don't really show these layouts to anyone, they're just part of my process. I'm making a conscious effort with The Switch to lighten up a bit and not micromanage every interaction between the different characters. Tom and I have worked together quite a bit, I trust his judgment and want to give him the freedom to 'act' the characters as he sees fit. 

As for the characters themselves, I'm mainly having fun, trying to create a diverse group of miscreants, and make myself laugh a bit along the way. Common sense 101: it's important to enjoy what you're writing; it's taken me years to learn that if I'm not having fun, readers probably aren't going to, either.

Here's another little excerpt, again presented out of context, just for this blog because we love you guys the best:

The second figure finishes materializing next to Lover Boy, who has a shit-eating grin plastered on his oily mug.

The second figure is @SOCIALWARRIOR: square jaw, ridiculously handsome, incredibly muscular. He's wearing light body armor, almost like a tight version of a NASCAR suit, and has a TWITTER LOGO on his chest where, say, Superman would have his 'S' insignia.

1- @SOCIALWARRIOR: Hey, everyone. Glad to be here.

2- BOY: This is THOMAS TRUMAN. Many of you know him as @SOCIAL WARRIOR. Some of you have even gone to JAIL because of him.

3- LOVER BOY: Today, he's OFFICIALLY switching SIDES.

PANEL TWO

Close on @socialwarrior. Smiling. Teeth white as pearls.

4- @SOCIALWARRIOR: I look forward to speaking with you all individually, making AMENDS where needed. But this is for REAL, people. I'm one of YOU now.

5- @SOCIALWARRIOR: To start, I'll be re-branding myself @ANTI-SOCIALWARRIOR and tagging #crimepays on my social media.

6- @SOCIALWARRIOR: I project forty-two MILLION of my followers will come along. My new persona should go VIRAL in an hour.

@socialwarrior is pretty much my favorite character in the book right now. I kinda wish the whole thing was about him. 

And finally, we had our very first Electricia cosplay! Super flattering that someone took the time to test out this look. Here is Tom's friend and cosplaying legend Kristina Rose in her first attempt to Switch it up! She looks great, right?!

It's still my week so I might post something else on Friday. See you soon!

Update #6 (Tom)

Moss gonna beat yo azzz--!!

Above is another sneak peek art from a panel of The Switch, of course with not enough context to give away any type of spoilers.   Above is Moss (who you have seen before), one of the bad guys in the gang Murderers Row.  The way Keith writes his dialogue cracks me up.  Of course, humor writing is one of my favorite talents of Keith's.

Drawing big buff figures is always fun, to me it's just as fun as drawing sexy female figures.  But the women art sell a lot more, soooo........    

On a somewhat related note, I was interviewed by the podcast Panels & Pizza last week for their 75th episode, and we talk a bit about The Switch.  So check it out at http://www.fancypantsgangsters.com/shows/ep-75-tom-nguyen/

They also have just started a Patreon Page if you'd like to support them; they're one of the few podcasts out there who consistently put out shows week after week with interviews of comic creators of all types and levels:
https://www.patreon.com/panelsandpizza?ty=h

Keith and I will be on their show in November after the Switch is out!

That's it for this week, back to the grind....

My first official reward sketch

Hey everybody, happy Friday to you all!

Things are proceeding apace here in the land of The Switch. In between my other deadlines, I've locked down the script through page 30 (aside from some possible dialogue revisions when it comes time to letter the artwork).

I always feel happy with my dialogue until I set it aside for a bit and read it over with fresh eyes. Then I take a few minutes to punish myself for being the worst writer mankind has ever known, cry a bit about how writing is just too hard, slump to the floor in a deep funk and curl up in a fetal position. After about 13 seconds of self pity, I pick myself up by the bootstraps, wipe the dust off my derriere (making a mental note to vacuum more often. Damn dust!) and rewrite until the characters are actually saying what I wanted them to, in their own voices, like I should have had them doing in the first place if I didn't always try to out-clever myself.

That's pretty much my process on every single page.

In addition, I managed to complete my first reward Sketch of Electricia this week. Here it is for your use and enjoyment.

                                               

This is actually my third attempt at my first sketch. I wasn't very happy with the first two and Tom enjoyed making fun of them. With this one, I kinda wish I had modeled the gray areas instead of just slapping a flat tone down for the costume and electric hair. I'll probably go back in with whiteout and add some highlights to try to give the figure more of a sense of roundness. Also, her foot's not actually cropped in the real drawing, it's just a poor photo choice by me.

So anyway, this one will find its way to the Mattingly family. I'm sure they'll frame it under bright spotlights and treasure it forever. Because who wouldn't?

So that's the news from the world of The Switch today. See you next week, we'll be posting something special.

Thanks,
Keith

Week 4: More Sneak Peek Art (Tom)

Hello friends!  It looks like Keith and I are doing the "switch"-off every week to bring you guys updates as we settle into our rhythm here.

I have been working away, so what else can I say?  My work got a little interrupted with freelance work this past week that I was obligated to do--that happens every once in a while.  But should be full steam ahead after this weekend's SiouxPerCon show, where I'll be a guest.  I'll also be doing a panel Saturday evening (6-7pm) on Drawing With the Surface Pro 2 (speaking of Keith's ongoing digital adventures from last post).  We also have started filming for the 1-hour digital download movie that all you awesome backers will receive!  :)

From an art point of view, what much can I do other than show you some non-spoiler sneak peeks:

A closer look at one of the baddest guys on the planet (don't judge a book by its cover!), Lover Boy!

The mullet was too long to fit on this page, so it had to be cropped!

Might as well tease Electricia's hot bod

A couple weeks ago, we showed Switch cosplayer/superfan Saria from Florida, who plans to wow us with her costuming skills.  Well another cosplayer from California wants to step up to the plate wanting to give her shot at our main lady....her name is Rose, and we also can't wait to see what she'll come up with:

Until next week....PEACE OUT!!