Tag: behind the scenes

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What if Jamie Roberts Was NOT a Pirate??

a genderqueer human brandishes a sword with a dramatic sweep of the cape

You all know about Jamie Roberts, the genderqueer pirate who left the sea with their two best friends to go treasure-hunting in a land full of dragons.

But what if they weren’t pirates? Believe it or not, in very early drafts of this comic, Jamie and friends were not pirates at all!

In SUPER early drafts (we’re talking back in 2011 to 2013), they were students at a military school. In those versions of the story, they discover the top brass held an earth-shattering secret plan: to release a demon king and destroy their enemies. They would flee the military school and get refuge in the land where the demon king was sealed away.

In hashing out one draft, I had it that they were military school students, then turned pirate to escape. And the feedback I got was, “Why don’t you just…make them pirates?”

Honestly, storytelling 101: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Besides, I really wanted to get to the pirate bits more than the military school bits. People love pirates more than school, anyway.

So that’s how they became pirates!

Some of these concept sketches, though, will be making it into the bonus material of The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 3…Which is coming to KickStarter on October 14.

Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter to be the first to know! The newsletter is free and private, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

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That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more!

Thank you for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.

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The Sketchbooks Where the Magic Happens

three sketchbooks, their covers covered in notes and stickers, are laid on a yellow tablecloth

The top two books are the sketchbooks that contain The Legend of Jamie Roberts’ script. The bottom sketchbook contains the majority of the world-building notes. Not ~all~ of them (because many notes are scattered across other sketchbooks). But this one has the majority of the notes, from initial concept to current day. Many of the notes in that one are held in place by paperclips and tape, so it doesn’t leave the studio.

But what do the scripts look like? Well, in the top two books, the pages look a lot like this…

rough pencils of a comic page

They’re rough on purpose! I like doodling around to get the layouts right. As I work on pages, they go from script to a more refined sketch…

more polished pencil sketch of a comic page

…Up to the finished page.

in this page of The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Jamie leaves an offering for a spirit

But it all starts with those rough sketches in the sketchbooks. I’m not going for “perfect” (whatever that is), I’m going for “out of my head.”

Believe it or not, this has worked for me since 2018. Now, I’m going to need a THIRD sketchbook soon, because The Legend is still going, but I’m approaching the end of that second sketchbook. I’m excited to draw what comes next!

Speaking of which, The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 3 is coming to KickStarter on October 14. Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to be the first to know!

That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more!

Thanks for reading.

You. Are. Awesome.

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Post-Convention Comics-Making (A LiveStream)

In today’s livestream(s) I share some post-convention news and get some comics-making done.

The stream is so nice, I did it twice – in a part-1 and part-2-type stream.

The next livestream will be Wednesday, December 11 at 1 pm EST. Hope you can make it! If not, no worries – livestreams will return to Saturdays on December 21.

Thank you for watching!

You. Are. Awesome.