Nick Bryan's Blog, page 2
August 3, 2018
HOW TO WRITE A COMIC – “Lily’s Voyage”
So, whenever I tell people I’m writing comics, they always ask, with an air of interest, how it actually works and what that involves. They never mistakenly believe I’m the artist, though – apparently I just don’t present the air of someone who can draw.
Still, in a bid to demonstrate the process and rob me of any artistic mystique I might’ve had, I’m going to take one of my one-page comics, first presented on The Comic Jam, and show you how it was made in punishing step-by step detail.
The one I’ve chosen is Lily’s Voyage, with art by Brian Flint, because it’s one of my favourite comics I’ve done, yet runs only one page long so this blog won’t run to novella-length.
It was originally posted as part of ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ week on the Jam. You can see the layout to the right or, again, click through if you want to see it at a bigger size.
I’d recommend reading the thing at least once before I yank it to literal pieces. Seriously, do it, it’s cute. If you want to read it in print, it’s also part of the Comedy & Errors anthology I’m currently selling on my new shop. (CAPITALISM.)
Right, let’s really start at the top.
As you can see, I’ve gone full pretentious-screenwriter script-in-a-typewriter-font here. I’d love to say I made the decision myself, but this is the default style used in the ‘comic script’ template on Scrivener, my writing app of choice, and I’ve just kept it.
This template, by the way, is handy if you want to hammer out comic scripts without hours of dull format changing. It comes pre-loaded with styles for all your obvious elements (page number, panel number, description, dialogue) and toggles between them quickly, so you can focus on getting the golden words down rather than endlessly changing the font size.
Or that might be a downer if you had ambitious procrastination plans, I dunno.
Template co-creator Antony Johnston has written a lengthy post on using Scrivener for comics if you want some help with the template – I don’t do everything he says here, but the part about halfway down (in section 3) is useful for getting to grips with the basic styling.
Anyway, the real meat…
Here, as you can see, we are establishing a ‘look’. In these one-page comics, I generally take the view that I don’t have time to create a magical new world and explore it in detail, I’m just gonna invoke some tropes and then do some business.
And here we see Brian bringing that feeling to life…
Woo it’s so shiny.
True process fact – I have known Brian’s first name for about three months at this point, seen it written down many times, stared at his gorgeous art in this comic a lot and only now noticed that it’s almost the same as my surname. A true student of the human animal.
And yes, the “six planets” is a reference to the six degrees of separation theme, along with the fact she’s apart from someone – oh, and the fact this comic has six panels. I wouldn’t normally write six-panel pages when the story is only one page long, as it leads to quite small images and it’s nice to leave myself and/or the artist some leeway to imagine a bigger establishing shot or pay-off.
But the number was right there so I decided to break the rule.
I’m not actually breaking the story down to show one panel per planet though – I considered it during my mumbling note-taking phase, but it took away from the ending to cram it into a single image. Wanted to have some time for a full sequential series of beats.
For that reason, here we see she’s already reached item four on the list.
I think what I like most about this panel (yes, much of this blog post will be mutual appreciation) is the expression on her face. The clear disgust, even through the helmet thing. It’s beautiful.
Anyway, yes, the situation starts getting mankier and then, because the writer knows the comedy rule of three, we turn to….
THE WORST.
Why ducks? Why not. I wanted something not-too-obvious and maybe faintly silly/quaint. There’s maybe a hint of the 2000AD in there, which definitely jibs with the way Brian’s drawn it.
As you can see, he’s reduced the number of Fs in “GET OFFFFFFF!” Probably for the best.
Hardcore fans of reading will note the joke about “the quackmire” here, rather than the originally scripted line. This is the one last minute change I made to this story, and I did it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it is a pun, I like them, and if you don’t you’re wrong. Secondly, well, we kinda need to hit panel 4 for that…
The reason for the change may still not be obvious. I’ll get there.
But yeah, we’re now moving to the final three-panel run of continuousmoving narrative, and the part where I include a rare moment of small cute romance.
Big fan of the way Brian took my not-that-informative description of the “nice bar” backdrop and threw in a Star Wars cantina vibe. That robot on the right looks like a cool dude.
Anyway – here we see Lily’s love interest Anne apologising over a “number”. As you may remember (or can see if you scroll up), my original script for the previous panel referrer to “number five”, as in the fifth planet she reached.
The first finished version of this comic had the dialogue as originally written, but when I showed it to someone, they didn’t fully get that Anne was referring to phone numbers here, because I’d used the same word to describe different things right next to each other.
So, just in case, and because I thought of a good duck pun, I went back and inserted “quackmire”. Small thing, but I think it improved it.
And now we move towards the punchline, wherein our lead character discovers that she probably didn’t need to go on that epic quest after all, as she and Anne had a mutual friend all along. Lily’s previous line of dialogue “I couldn’t get in touch any other way” was maybe a shade on-the-nose, but I wanted to give the point another kick.
Strong moustache from Chris here. Again, there’s some kind of retro-pilot vibe there, and a nice matey expression from Anne. Meanwhile the robot continues drinking.
And so.
Party on, robot dude.
Here’s the punch, and again the “Wait, what?” expressions are just perfect. I wrote this one with a slight worry that I could/should have really laid out exactly what’s happening in punishing explained-on-the-page detail, but thankfully the art is beautifully clear and smooth and really sells it.
There we go. Thanks one last time to Brian Flint, who you can follow on Instagram here, or buy his Kuru comic on Comixology. Or both. Why not do both?
And speaking of buying stuff (oh yeah, work it), as I briefly mentioned above, this comic appears in my new black-and-white print comic anthology Comedy & Errors.
In fact, it is the very last page.
As of this typing, there are around 13 copies left, so check it out quick before I run out and may or may not go back to press. Buy one now on my newly assembled shop!
And feel free to let me know if this was enjoyable/interesting and I may even do it again.
July 29, 2018
“Comedy & Errors” – New anthology zine out now!
So, if you follow me on social media (which you should, obviously), you’ll already know about Comedy & Errors, the 17-page black and white anthology comic-zine I created from scratch to sell at the South London Comic and Zine Fair communal table.
Well, that event happened, and now I have around twenty copies left from the small print run I did. If you want to own one of these, I have lashed together a small online store (so small, it contains one item) for the purpose of selling it at £2.50 a pop.
Again, I stress – there are twenty of these. Unless demand is off the charts, I may not go back to press for a while. (At the earliest, not until I next need something to sell at an event.)
So if you passionately want this thing, I would grab one. And yes, if you’re unlucky enough to see me in person, you can probably pre-arrange to buy one IRL and save the postage.
So, what’s actually in this comic? As you can see on the cover, there are seven stories:
Never-online story Half-Baked Sacrifice with Lukasz Kowalczuk art and letters by Deadbolt-01, a story that has never appeared outside Futurequake’s Something Wicked anthology before and is still among my favourite things I’ve done.
Plus selected black-and-white friendly favourites from my free online comics:
Farewell, Adventure Johnsons! with Samuel M. Benjamin
Out In The Open with Aleksandar Bozic Ske
Buzzed with Sim Dagger
Tearraform with Felix Hinojosa
Transcendental Rental with Caesar
Lily’s Voyage with Brian Flint
So there we go. Get it here. As you can see above, yes, many of the stories are available online, but especially with comics, I think there is something about the printed object. I’m definitely excited, but I wrote it and it’s my first one, so…
May 29, 2018
Hobson & Choi Case Five – Angelina’s Choice – OUT NOW!
Okay, as threatened as far back as this blog post a month ago, the fifth Hobson & Choi book Angelina's Choice is now on sale at your ebook outlets of choice.
Buy links available at the dedicated page here, or I'll try and add them to the bottom of this blog post, but basically - it exists!
I started writing this fifth book at the start of 2017 and after a few delays, partly caused by the editing pedantry of myself and others and partly just a few life readjustments I've had to factor in over the last few months, it's finally here.
As I'm sure I've said in a few places before, the series ends with Case Seven, so at this stage, we're definitely closer to the end than the beginning, meaning I get my chance to do some of the long-term arc-wrangling stuff I've wanted to do since the beginning.
We also finally do a decent length of time jump, after the first four books took place within a slightly compacted timescale of about three or four weeks.
But anyway, much more than that might be a spoiler. Suffice to say - it exists, I think it's a lot of fun. It's going to be fairly disjointed series by the time it finally finishes, as I suspect my writing approach changed quite a lot between books - possibly even more so than between any other.
Which either means it's way better or the existing audience will just be baffled. Excited to find out.
Either way, I think we can all agree the cover by reliable Design For Writers is another good one - we've replaced the blood drop with a blood spatter element and... yes, there's a road sign. This has a number of meanings within the plot which I'm probably not going to spoil either.
Also, you've got to be impressed at the number of puns within the title.
Anyway - the damn book has only been out for a few hours as I write this, so I should probably refrain from posting a full beginning to end commentary. I'll let you form your own opinions.
Hobson & Choi Case Five! Buy it now!
Amazon
Kobo
iBooks
Nook
May 10, 2018
NEW FREE COMIC: Oh Shit, I’m On Mars!
So, as well as the new Hobson & Choi book going up for pre-order, the sixth and last short story in my 2017-18 short-comics-making project is finally up!
This is Oh Shit, I’m On Mars! with art by Erica Batton, a four-pager about someone who wakes up hungover on… well, Mars. You can see it by clicking on this link here!
This was actually one of the first scripts I wrote for the whole thing, and although I can see things I’d do better if I wrote it now, I’m still pretty pleased with the humour of it all, especially the use of Brooklyn-Nine-Nine-style ironic flashbacks. Y’know, I should write more straight comedy, I’m alright at it.
Also pretty damn good, of course, is artist Erica, who absolutely nailed this, especially the design of Bobrick the alien and the lovely facial expressions on lead character Lucy. Great stuff. If you want to see more of her work, check out her site here or her webcomic Panty Vigilante.
And if you want to read more free comics by me, there’s a whole grid of them up here. Fill your boots.
(No, the title isn’t a conscious reference to Watchmen, though it was a strange moment when I realised I’d done it.)
April 24, 2018
Angelina’s Choice – Hobson & Choi Case Five – PRE-ORDER NOW!
Hobson & Choi book five is ready to head out into the world! Which, of course, means pre-orders are live and you all get to look at a lovely new cover by Design for Writers.
As you can see, we've moved the blood on, added a sexy new street-sign element and generally brought things on a bit. So I guess this makes this a cover reveal. Wow.
And yes, you can buy the book as of May 29th 2018. It should now be up for pre-order on all major e-vendors, links on the buttons below.
And yes, a print edition is also coming, but as ever, I don't have the power to put those up for pre-orders.
But what is the plot actually about?
Here's a synopsis!
“Finding my real parents isn’t as simple as I hoped, but after all the trouble Hobson’s past gives us, surely I’m owed my chance?”
After solving other people’s cases all summer, Angelina Choi is itching to look into her most personal mystery - who were her birth-parents? Why did they abandon their infant daughter in a cardboard box next to a pub?
But with her detective boss John Hobson trapped in the dark underbelly of London’s trendy online taxi services, Angelina ploughs on with her investigation alone.
Will her single-minded obsession cause irreparable harm? Can discovering the truth about her family make her happy?
Angelina’s Choice, the fifth volume in the Hobson & Choi series, brings the dark comedy-drama detective saga to a crossroads, with every character forced to question their decisions past and present. But as the end looms nearer, their options are vanishing.
Amazon
Kobo
iBooks
Nook
April 18, 2018
So fresh! So clean! All new Nick Bryan website debuts!
Hello. Been a while.
So, after what feels like an eternity but has actually only been around five months (oh, no, that is actually ages), I’ve managed to fully move over to my glorious new website. We are now live here at Nick Bryan Dot Com, the shiny new modern version with much less clutter and lots more plain white space.
The main point, though, was to bring it all up to date with what I’m actually doing nowadays, which meant a prominent place for all the comics I’ve written lately, including a few that never made it onto the old comics Tumblr from my time working with the great people over at The Comic Jam.
And yes, it also means winding up the Patreon I’ve been running for a few months – I took six payments, I commissioned six comics (the sixth will be with you soon, you might be able to see a preview in the image to the left), but I’d like to try and get into some longer not-all-free-online stuff, and so Patreon seemed a bit counter-intuitive.
Oh, and yes, there’s still a Hobson & Choi page, albeit a sleeker, shinier, lovelier one. And once I’ve made the final few tweaks to the print layout, you may even be able to pre-order book five. At the moment, you can see a frankly dazzling mystery-preview image in its place on the page.
But (for that reason), we’ll probably talk H&C more in a week or so. In the meantime, drink in the gorgeous new layout, enjoy the free comics, consider subscribing to my monthly newsletter thing that should be going out for April pretty soon – probably around the time I sort out those H&C5 pre-orders – and yes. Good to be back.
November 25, 2017
NEW COMIC - Full Scale War
This is a fun military scifi story, in maybe a bit of a 2000AD vein. It's also the closest I've yet come to the kind of serious (if also silly) action storytelling I'd kinda like to be doing, which is nice. I'm also pretty happy with the three panel intro (above), which is why I keep posting it everywhere.
Anyway - enjoy. If you like the comic and would like to held fund the creation of more, you can sign up to my Patreon and get access to early comics, plus short podcasts where I talk about my intentions, the nitty-gritty of the comics creation process and such. Good times.
October 26, 2017
New Stock Photo Comic! About geese!
So, another comic is coming for you, only a couple of weeks after the last one. However, because I'm not made of money, this one does not have specially commissioned art. Instead, it is made of stock photos.
Specifically, as you may have seen from the image on the right, stock photos of geese.
If you particularly enjoy the story, or desperately want me to be able to afford to pay more artists so I do less weird stock photo comics, you can back me on Patreon and help make that happen. If you back at the necessary level, you even get a nine-minute podcast of me discussing my inspirations for this story.
Now, here's another sample from the goose comic.
October 15, 2017
Traitor’s Hope by Virginia McClain – Review
This is part of the blog tour for Traitor’s Hope, the new book from Virginia McClain. Much like myself, Virginia is a Jukepop Serials alumni who spun her webserial from that site off into a series of self-published novels.
She’s good people, always very supportive of the Hobson & Choi series and her books are reliably fun (here’s my Goodreads review of the first one if you like context) so I jumped at the chance to get involved with the sequel’s release. Let’s do this.
Traitor’s Hope – a short essay
Here, then, we return to the pseudo-Japanese world of Gensokai, where lifelong friends Taka and Mishi – the heroes from the first book – are discovering that keeping the peace might be almost as hard as winning the war. Like many second-books-in-series, there’s a greater focus on character-building here, a little willingness to let the people breathe and talk to each other rather than rushing headlong into the story.
It also provides a chance for more world-building and a greater sense of the wider universe, which helps contextualise some of the more out-there fantasy elements. The magic system remains one of the best parts, well integrated into the world, story and combat. But perhaps most importantly of all, it gives the author the chance to describe really cool stuff. One element that’s definitely remained consistent between books is McClain’s gift for a visceral action scene.
The characters other than Taka and Mishi also benefit a lot from the extra space, and supporting cast member Kusuko in particular gets a lot of interesting development – she’s probably the break-out character of the series, at this stage. Certainly, I know seeing what happens next to her is probably my biggest incentive to come back for the next one.
This second-book task of expanding on the world means the plot isn’t quite as propulsive as the first one, but I think that’s expected. It means that when the faeces hits the fan again – and it definitely will – we care all the more about what happens to the cast. Mishi’s worries over her violent nature become a little laboured over the course of the whole book, but if I had genuine reason to believe I might flip out and kill my friends at any moment, I’d probably worry about it a lot too.
In short – a strong continuation to a good series. Builds upon the strength of Blade’s Edge, makes the world of Gensokai deeper and more interesting and keeps the characters moving forward. I’ll definitely be back for book three.
Hot Chunky Information
Want to know more about the book and/or blog tour? Here’s all the words you could possibly need, or click here to go to the website of the company running it.
About the Book:
Title: TRAITOR’S HOPE (Blade’s Edge #2)
Author: Virginia McClain
Pub. Date: October 14, 2017
Publisher: Artemis Dingo Productions
Pages: 284
Formats: Paperback eBook
Find it: Amazon, Buy The Paperback, Goodreads
Traitors lurk around every bend. Mishi’s mind is betraying her, and she fears her kisō and katana will betray her next. Taka’s heart abandons her for a person she cannot possibly trust. Now that the two friends are obliged to help re-establish peace in the land of Gensokai, the only question is where the next betrayal will come from and if Mishi and Taka will have the strength to survive it.
About Virginia:Virginia thinks dangling from the tops of hundred foot cliffs is a good time. She also enjoys hauling a fifty pound backpack all over the Grand Canyon and sleeping under the stars. Sometimes she likes running for miles through the desert, mountains, or wooded flatlands, and she always loves getting lost in new places where she may or may not speak the language.
From surviving earthquakes in Japan, to putting out a small forest fire in Montana, Virginia has been collecting stories from a very young age. She works hard to make her fiction as adventurous as her life and her life as adventurous as her fiction. Both take a lot of imagination.
She recently moved to Winnipeg with her husband (a Manitoba native) and their dog.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Tour Schedule
Week One:
10/9/2017- Two Chicks on Books– Interview
10/9/2017- Blushing Bibliophile– Review
10/10/2017- Arvenig.it– Guest Post
10/10/2017- Bibliobakes– Review
10/11/2017- Kati’s Bookaholic Rambling Reviews– Excerpt
10/11/2017- Ashley M. Delgado– Review
10/12/2017- A Dream Within A Dream– Excerpt
10/12/2017- Don’t Judge, Read– Spotlight
10/13/2017- BookHounds YA– Guest Post
10/13/2017- Adventures Thru Wonderland– Review
Week Two:
10/16/2017- Novel Novice– Excerpt
10/16/2017- Nick Bryan Dot Com– Review
10/17/2017- Books at Dawn– Guest Post
10/17/2017- YA and Wine– Excerpt
10/18/2017- Fire and Ice– Spotlight
10/18/2017- A Gingerly Review– Review
10/19/2017- My Nook, Books & More– Excerpt
10/19/2017- Jena Brown Writes– Review
10/20/2017- Seeing Double In Neverland– Interview
10/20/2017- Ramblings From An Alternate Reality– Review
Traitor's Hope by Virginia McClain - Review
This is part of the blog tour for Traitor's Hope, the new book from Virginia McClain. Much like myself, Virginia is a Jukepop Serials alumni who spun her webserial from that site off into a series of self-published novels.
She's good people, always very supportive of the Hobson & Choi series and her books are reliably fun (here's my Goodreads review of the first one if you like context) so I jumped at the chance to get involved with the sequel's release. Let's do this.
Traitor's Hope - a short essayHere, then, we return to the pseudo-Japanese world of Gensokai, where lifelong friends Taka and Mishi - the heroes from the first book - are discovering that keeping the peace might be almost as hard as winning the war. Like many second-books-in-series, there's a greater focus on character-building here, a little willingness to let the people breathe and talk to each other rather than rushing headlong into the story.
It also provides a chance for more world-building and a greater sense of the wider universe, which helps contextualise some of the more out-there fantasy elements. The magic system remains one of the best parts, well integrated into the world, story and combat. But perhaps most importantly of all, it gives the author the chance to describe really cool stuff. One element that's definitely remained consistent between books is McClain's gift for a visceral action scene.
The characters other than Taka and Mishi also benefit a lot from the extra space, and supporting cast member Kusuko in particular gets a lot of interesting development - she's probably the break-out character of the series, at this stage. Certainly, I know seeing what happens next to her is probably my biggest incentive to come back for the next one.
This second-book task of expanding on the world means the plot isn't quite as propulsive as the first one, but I think that's expected. It means that when the faeces hits the fan again - and it definitely will - we care all the more about what happens to the cast. Mishi's worries over her violent nature become a little laboured over the course of the whole book, but if I had genuine reason to believe I might flip out and kill my friends at any moment, I'd probably worry about it a lot too.
In short - a strong continuation to a good series. Builds upon the strength of Blade's Edge, makes the world of Gensokai deeper and more interesting and keeps the characters moving forward. I'll definitely be back for book three.
Giveaway!Want to win a copy of the book? There is a giveaway, and it is below. 1 winner will receive a signed paperback set of BLADE’S EDGE & TRAITOR’S HOPE, US Only. 3 winners will receive eBook sets of BLADE’S EDGE & TRAITOR’S HOPE, International.
(This is being run as part of the blog tour and not by me, just in case that wasn't crystal clear.)
a Rafflecopter giveawayHot Chunky Information
Want to know more about the book and/or blog tour? Here's all the words you could possibly need, or click here to go to the website of the company running it.
About the Book:Title: TRAITOR'S HOPE (Blade's Edge #2)
Author: Virginia McClain
Pub. Date: October 14, 2017
Publisher: Artemis Dingo Productions
Pages: 284
Formats: Paperback eBook
Find it: Amazon, Buy The Paperback, Goodreads
Traitors lurk around every bend. Mishi’s mind is betraying her, and she fears her kisō and katana will betray her next. Taka’s heart abandons her for a person she cannot possibly trust. Now that the two friends are obliged to help re-establish peace in the land of Gensokai, the only question is where the next betrayal will come from and if Mishi and Taka will have the strength to survive it.
About Virginia: Virginia thinks dangling from the tops of hundred foot cliffs is a good time. She also enjoys hauling a fifty pound backpack all over the Grand Canyon and sleeping under the stars. Sometimes she likes running for miles through the desert, mountains, or wooded flatlands, and she always loves getting lost in new places where she may or may not speak the language.
From surviving earthquakes in Japan, to putting out a small forest fire in Montana, Virginia has been collecting stories from a very young age. She works hard to make her fiction as adventurous as her life and her life as adventurous as her fiction. Both take a lot of imagination.
She recently moved to Winnipeg with her husband (a Manitoba native) and their dog.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Tour ScheduleWeek One:
10/9/2017- Two Chicks on Books- Interview
10/9/2017- Blushing Bibliophile- Review
10/10/2017- Arvenig.it- Guest Post
10/10/2017- Bibliobakes- Review
10/11/2017- Kati's Bookaholic Rambling Reviews- Excerpt
10/11/2017- Ashley M. Delgado- Review
10/12/2017- A Dream Within A Dream- Excerpt
10/12/2017- Don't Judge, Read- Spotlight
10/13/2017- BookHounds YA- Guest Post
10/13/2017- Adventures Thru Wonderland- Review
Week Two:
10/16/2017- Novel Novice- Excerpt
10/16/2017- Nick Bryan Dot Com- Review
10/17/2017- Books at Dawn- Guest Post
10/17/2017- YA and Wine- Excerpt
10/18/2017- Fire and Ice- Spotlight
10/18/2017- A Gingerly Review- Review
10/19/2017- My Nook, Books & More- Excerpt
10/19/2017- Jena Brown Writes- Review
10/20/2017- Seeing Double In Neverland- Interview
10/20/2017- Ramblings From An Alternate Reality- Review
