Okay. We're focusing on something. I'm so proud.
The next project in our "Things" division is a graphic novel entitled Prologues. I created prologues as an attempt to curb our "Art ADD" as my cohort Wilson calls it. In essence, the project is a series of two-page stories. They are intended to accomplish a bit of world building and hook the reader. The problem (for the reader, not us) is that when you turn the page, you're onto another Prologue. Again, problem perhaps for the reader, but we are simply delighted to torment you.
It's a great fit for us, because we really love world building, and we really love short stories, but a full length graphic novel can be a daunting thing to just crack open. So, we're cracking open a bunch at once, but with no real commitment. It's a breakfast cereal variety pack with less sugar and no processed carbs. So I delegated the work as thus: At any given time, each of is to work on an individual prologue. We have to do the whole thing ourselves, start to finish. Meanwhile, we'll also be working on a collaborative prologue using our Exquisite Art Factory Jitsu.
So, after a week of furious pencil scratching, I was just finishing ink-and-panel for my personal prologue, Ruxpin the Terrible, when Dan sends the script for our first collaborative prologue. Um, it's really good. Like, good good. He hasn't named it, which means I get to name it, and I don't take that power lightly. I don't want to give away too much, but we did concept art all day Sunday, and, it fires on all cylinders. Burns clean, environmentally friendly, corn-based fuel, if you know what I mean.
This is going to be a long post, because now I want to talk about Ruxpin. I've shared the idea to friends and contemporaries, and their reactions were almost uniformly delight mixed with clear and present terror. It's a simple premise: that perhaps those Ruxpin dolls were... hiding something. My good friend Lindsay told me that she had a Ruxpin doll as a baby, and it was so terrifying that she would try to pinch its mouth shut to keep it from talking. I felt that that justified the already very disturbing work I had done on this one.
Here's ink-and-panel for Ruxpin the Terrible:
I'll splash a little color on these and do an official release next week.
xoxo (CW) Alex
Posted Monday, Sep 23rd 2013 @ 8:58