Hello! This, unfortunately, is straight up filler. Not because we couldn't have dropped 16 in here instead, but because it was the only way that we could put the pamphlet in 5 days in a row without breaking up the next day's storyline. Sooo... This is R.Z. #1, rather than an official number.
That said... Wasn't that neat! (presuming it worked appropriately and so on... We're new to this...) I have to admit, I was terribly impressed by it... But then, I'm one of those people that is easily impressed by nifty visual stuff. I figure if we had to go for Filler, this was a pretty cool way to do it..
About the joke.. It's actually a joke that my 7 year old son came up with while June and I were batting the story back and forth. I was sleeping through the day, woke up in the evening and they gleefully told me about how R.Z. could get John. I promised him that if he did well in school that I would do this comic. He's been doing a lot better this year, so we're honouring that deal now.
I don't know what June's going to mention in her comment (I'll be driving home when it goes up), but I hope she mentions the issues with the punchline picture... We learned some things about communication between writer and artist on this one :)
Thanks to all who are checking us out, we would appreciate your vote on the TopWebComics, and if anyone wants to write a review, we posted the comic on http://belfrycomics.net . We're also very grateful to everyone who is helping to spread it around by telling friends and such about the comic. It's a great feeling to see our unique views rise to more than double our previous best.
Ok I'm tired so I don't know how much sense this is going to make, but I guess James wants me to tell you the story.
The Gist of it is, I don't know how to follow instructions. On two accounts.
The first incidence was the original joke itself. I misunderstood what he meant, and drew panel four portraying R.Z. sneaking up behind John and shouting "now!" at him. James was having none of that. Well, I wondered why it was unfunny. I told James to ensure that I "get" the joke next time to avoid future redraws. Yeah I ended up redrawing John completely in panel 4.
The second incidence was about the animation. James wanted it animated as it is now, but I assumed he wanted the full four panel layout only animated. We seemed to be talking about the same thing, but once in a while he seemed confused about what I was talking about. He never asked me for clarification, so this one was his fault.
Sometimes it's just really hard to communicate visual information verbally. I get this all the time in my business and that's why I never make so much as a parking sign without showing proofs first. Color is the worst though... one person's "aqua" is another's "turquoise". If I never hear, "oh just a forest green," again, that would be okay with me.
Great update! Little guy reminds me of my daughter.
Yes, Photoshop is underrated as an animation-tool. It actually works quite well.
personally i use gimp for photo manip and animations
Awesome work on the comic so far!
This is some of my best cloth painting here:
www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1475893&user_id=8367&np&np