That was close!
Thanks for voting The Meek up to #1 for the last few days! I’m sure we’ll go back down today or tomorrow but it was awesome while it lasted :) I’ll be posting some detail panels and notes on how I figure out perspective this week as the vote incentives.
First pimp of the year goes to one of my all-time favorite comics ever, Bob the Angry Flower. I normally can’t stand jokey comics but christ, BtAF is hilarious. I’ll pick out a few examples:
-Jolly Starfish
-Mind Shirt Follies
-Functionality
-The Best Ever Chopsticks Ever
-Genocide
Uh oh, just wasted 20 minutes reading the archive again.
The lighting is amazing in this page!
whuh whuh what went “SLAM”?
Next page will make that clear! Sorry for the confusion, thats what happens sometimes with the slow updates :
I think it might be the door’s way of saying “Phe has officially had enough of your crazy. Please retain the rest for the time being.”
I’ve been following you for a while, but never actually posted a comment – but, as always, this page is beautiful! I love the lightning especially.
It kinda freaks me out how both Rana and Phe seem to be so terrified of their father/husband, though.
Hahaha obsessive checking up on the website paid off!
Poor Rana :C It creeps me out (in a good way of course) how Luca goes so quick from raging pyscho to complete and utter calm and control. I take it the slam is Phe getting the heck out of there as she probably should?
I’m glad you where being optimistic and thought of that.
My first thoughts about the slam where “well, looks like Phe is dead “
You know, that actually crossed my mind. Then I was all: “Nahh… Maybe she just passed out from the stress or something?”
But the thought of a door slamming and Phe leaving seems like the more common solution.
Still, if they have grown kids and all, it means they’ve been together for a long time — so she should be used to these sort of outbursts from Luca… Maybe? XD
Seconding Lis with the lighting on this page; it’s exceptional. <3 Just comparing the first and third panels, how the light falls sliiiiiiiiightly differently when he stands up… that takes a lot of skill!
I want to say I absolutely love Luca's expressions, but I think what I mean to say is I love his DESIGN. He's so masculine, but so…? I don't know. So expressive, and it's fascinating. DO LIKE. 8D;
I love how wonderfully believable your characters expressions are. I really like Rana already!
What’s the furry thing in front of Rana?
A stuffed bear.
I’m a little confused is the slam him hitting something or someone in the other room, is it him slaming the globe on the table, or is it Phe slamming something?
Yeah, you’ll see next page. Thats the problem with these 1x a week updates!
I think someone just slammed the door!
What would happen if he caught her? Is Luca an abusive dad?
I’m not sure on the details! But yes, he can be a bit violent sometimes.
FFFFFF awesome!
I really like the way you painted Rana’s tears…
Are those Rana’s tears? She doesn’t seem to have them in the last panel and I think she would be frightened, not crying.
I don’t know where she is. The hall didn’t have anywhere to hide, I don’t think. But I don’t think Luca would have carried the round object far.
She’s crying. If you look close, you can see thin light lines on her cheeks. And when I think about it – I would weep out of fear. XD
And she hides in a niche with a stuffed bear
Seconded. Plus, her parents are having a very intense, increasingly violent argument, which would be traumatic for anyone. Emotions build up over time, so we can’t expect the tears are only from the last two seconds of fear.
I know I cried every time my parents raised their voices, and they love each other to death and have been married forever. So it’s a child thing. No matter how old you are, hearing your parents go at each other is the scariest thing in the world.
And Rana’s in the hallways, right? I don’t think that’s a stuffed bear…
That is a stuffed bear, there are two facing each other from hallway alcoves. She’s hiding in one of them. And yes, very agreed about parent fights!
you can see the niche with the bear at page 16
Lovely page as always!
I was wondering, do you have any special process for coming up with your panel layouts (and to a degree, your compositions as well) for each page?
I always seem to struggle with organizing my pages, so if you have any tips that would be awesoome :D
Well I have a couple hundred pages of thumbnailed comics XD That makes it a lot easier for me to refine my layouts, since I already know what works and what looks crap. Since I like the European/ rectangles kind of panels (compared to the open-ended and crazy shaped Manga panels) there are only a few options I work with, but different panel shapes can affect the pacing so I like to mix up my panels to be larger, longer, etc to create different moods.
Individual panel-wise, If you look at the incentive for today you can sort of see part of my sketch… If its just a centered face or something I don’t need to worry, but for a more complex panel I do a b/w silhouette of the main elements to see if it reads on the eye correctly and looks balanced. For the TWC example I did a b/w rough to see how much space the pier would take and had to transform it around to see what worked best. For the hallway in the 4th panel too I had to draw the whole hallway then move the larger picture around the panel until I found the framing that worked best… The poopy part is that I lose a lot of work that gets trimmed off the final panel, but on the plus side, its easier for the reader to interpret.
Ugh, sorry for short essay response.
Haha, thank you, actually that is a big help :D
Luca’s got the whole world in his hands.
Woah. Symbolism!
Poor Rana. Her fear is palpable. If Luca had found her, things might have gone differently I think…
Haha, yeah… in the long run, it probably would have been better…
ouch! :/
>Bob the Angry Flower
Eh, it’s a bit too “ROFL SO RANDUM XD” for my taste, but whatever floats your boat.
Sometimes! But the bitterness fueled undertone keeps me coming back :)
It’s not written in, but looking at this I can hear Rana’s choked sob in the sixth panel as she’s trying to cover it up. I love it when a sound is so vivid within the image that it doesn’t have to be written in. I also love the blue and red contrast in these pages, it’s not over the top, but it’s powerful. Especially how he has both blue and red light on his face in the third panel, it just really strikes me for some reason.
I love how your tagline on TWC says that you got a box full of puppies from them and the comic in the number two spot, Goblins, has Who the hell took my box of adorable puppies?! They’re GONE!” as the tagline. XD
A reeally nice and intense page. Congrats on the first place!
This time I like panel 5 best… It’s just the situation I love to see illustrated (and so well done). Classy X3
Oh, but what I have to say too… I don’t know whether or not this was your intention, but I don’t like Luca looking so much the same in the first and third panel. Same angle, same pose, same shot… This might be about intention and personal taste. A bit more of a close-up might’ve looked even more interesting, and it doesn’t hurt Luca when his head is not completely visible in a panel…
I like the transition in panels one through four. It slows the pace, drawing out the suspense right at the point where we don’t know if Luca will find Rana or not. It reminds me of that scene in Jurassic Park where the Velociraptors are stalking the kids in the kitchen.
Haha, yeah, I just can’t change that XD His blandness is my favorite part about him, he can cut his emotions off and go to complete stone-faced mode in about a second. Since he is going to be like that for most of the future, I thought I’d give readers a short glimpse so they can reference that for later :)
This is so heart breaking. Poor Rana! I have my suspicions on what that “slam” might have been! : |
Heya! This is my first time posting. I thought I’d just drop in and say how much I’ve really enjoyed your comic! This is my first time reading a web comic in a graphic novel style. I’ve been an longtime watcher of yours on dA and when you started posting this series I quickly became addicted. As much as I love your art style, I find that the most enthralling part is the story (which is unusual, for me)! And you really do update quite regularly, which I very much appreciate! I always have such a hard time motivating myself to draw outside of work, I can really appreciate the dedication you have. I didn’t expect to like this chapter with Luca as much as I liked the first chapter with Angora, but the character interaction has been really interesting so far! Keep up the great work!
Is it wierd that his hand is my favourite bit of this page?
Naaaah I really love this page, it’s so atmospheric and riddled with tension, which I think is a very hard feeling to provoke in a comic.
I feel so sorry for Rana!
OH MY GOSH!!! Luca can be pretty crazy at times apparently.Rana is obviously freaked out by her father I would be too! I love how your comics are so emotion provoking and beautifully drawn it reminds my Avatar the Last Airbender, with the facial expressions. I love that show. I hope to draw my comics like that, also your right with using American/European boxing instead of Japanese it’s easier to follow and more precise/
Oh my god, so exciting.
PS I love the way you do sound effects.
Such an amazing page, as always! I think my favorite part is how blank his eyes are when he glances at the floor then stares down the hallway. It conveys such an empty, closed-off shell…almost like he emotionally shutdown after that explosive outburst with Phe.
Wow, these color choices are phenomenal! Great job! :D
OMIGOSH RANA LOOKOUT FOR THAT GIANT BEAR!!!!
That was much my thought as well, Nicholas: OMG, She’s hiding with a giant clawed monster and feels safer than with her dad. But apparently it is a stuffed bear, if prior posts may be trusted….
This page is amazing! Perfect pacing, perfect colouring, perfect (non)expressiveness. I like it so much better than the previous, which was awesome colour and light-wise but somewhat awkward in the pacing.
Aw, Luca.
Was Phe the one ‘SLAM!’-ing?xD Love sfx
For a second, I thought he was gonna bludgeon his wife to death with a golf trophy. I mean globe. Yes, globe.
of course not, professionals have standards ;)
Why not both!
PS
Basking sharks partially decomposed make GREAT sea monster corpses. So yes….they do have purpose…ahem
Oh my…! I just love your story. I’m gonna go crazy waiting, but don’t care, I’ll wait.
(One more time, sorry for my horrible english, and by the way… HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!)
today’s vote incentive is sooo cute, with Luca talking so much and being so expressive in front of a little girl xD actually I like it so much I fear it’s almost fan-oriented xd
Haha, it gets a lot less cute about 2 more pages in! And I mostly drew it for myself, not sure if that counts as fan-oriented :B
I love this page, more because if I’d never read this comic and I just seen this page I’d think it was some crazy man about to walk in to the other room and kill his wife. Great lighting and shadows as well as dark poses.
I just love The Meek! =D
Dang, I loved your story before but now I’m really getting invested in it on a weirdly personal level (Luca is behaving frighteningly like my dad. In fact, he probably is what Dad would be like had he become Emperor instead of a failed artists. And Phe acts and even LOOKS like my mom). How did you get inside my head? Will Rana run off to a Liberal Arts college in Caris and totally disappoint Luca with her choice in majors? XD
wow… this hits a bit close to home. :(