This was my final project for Digital Coloring and Lettering. I’ve been kicking around these characters and their world since high school. Angryman was inspired by my older brother, who had a bit of a temper back then. His 30th birthday was coming up, so I decided it was finally time to take Angryman out of the planning stages. Much like my brother, Angryman has a goofy younger brother who doesn’t quite have his act together.
This was my final for Visual Storytelling 1. We had to do an autobiographical comic with emotional impact, which reminded me of a script I had done for Comic Book Scripting. After cutting the script down from 8 pages to 3, I had what would become “The Snake.”
This was based on a real event from when I was about 10. There really was a snake in the woodpile, but it almost definitely wasn’t a rattlesnake. My dad did shoot it, but the emotional trauma was added to heighten the story. The longer script had something about how both the snake and my dad were both just protecting their homes and kids (the snake was to have eggs in the woodpile).
I got really into the white ink splatter on these last two pages. Also, drawing scales is a nightmare. I learned a better technique after the fact, but that was too late to help me on this one. Live and learn I guess.
This project was for Visual Storytelling 1. We were given a script that was as generic as possible:
“Panel one: THE ADVENTURER heads gingerly down a dark corridor, a light source held high in one hand, the other held out for balance.
Panel two: The adventurer’s empty hand touches lightly on a weapon dangling within easy reach, making sure it’s still there and ready as the adventurer continues on down the corridor.
Panel three: Close on the adventurer’s face, eyes wide in delight.
Panel four: The adventurer steps into a softly lit chamber, the bright interior contrasting with the dark corridor. The light source is dropped or extinguished..”
“PAGE TWO (four panels)
Panel one: Long shot: the adventurer is standing in a treasure chamber filled with exotic valuables, statuary, animals, aliens… booty gathered from hundreds of locations.
Panel two: The adventurer reaches out to grab an appealing item.
Panel three: Smiling, the adventurer inspects the item.
Panel four: The adventurer tenses, alert, hearing a disturbing sound.“
“Splash: The GUARDIAN of the treasure erupts from the treasure chamber, threatening the adventurer. Valuables scatter in the guardian’s wake. The startled adventurer is grabbing for its weapon...”
These are the thumbnails for this project. An interesting phenomenon I observed when we reviewed thumbnails as a class: 4 people had chosen a giant snake as the guardian. In an effort to separate my work from the other students, I stacked my treasure neatly and based my monster on the Venus of Willendorf.