Category: The Legend of Jamie Roberts

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Prepare! For The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Volume 1 on KickStarter…

jamie roberts, a genderqueer human with messy blonde hair and green eyes, is gesturing with dreamy excitement against a brown background.

It’s that time – time for a new KickStarter campaign. And this time, I’m hoping to get The Legend of Jamie Roberts, volume 1 in paperback.

The WHAT

The Legend of Jamie Roberts is a weekly webcomic I write and illustrate. It’s all about Jamie – neither man or woman, but a PIRATE. Jamie and their two best friends, Thomas and Daniel, find an unfinished map for a land they never explored. And so together, they go on a new adventure!

Volume 1 will collect the first 4 chapters of the webcomic. Yeah, I know I had chapters 1 and 2 in single-issue comics before. And those had their own KickStarter campaigns. But volume 1 will be the first time the first 4 chapters of the story will be in print together.

The WHEN

Mark your calendars – the KickStarter will launch before the end of February.

The HOW

If you want to be first in line to pre-order the book, you need to get on the email newsletter. My email peeps are the first to know when ANY KickStarter launches. That means they get to see the Early Access rewards, which are only available for a limited time.

Any questions? Hit me up in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Writing for Comics 101 – Making Pages You Can Actually Read

In today’s lesson of Writing for Comics 101, let’s talk about making pages you can ACTUALLY read.

How do we do that? By not packing the pages with an obscene amount of dialogue.

Or at least, if you HAVE to keep so much dialogue, how to pace it out so it’s not a word brick.

This technique is something discussed in more detail in Making Comics by Scott McCloud, so what I’ll do for today’s post is share my mistakes so you can learn from them.

Let’s take a look at this page from Seeing Him, written by Kia Crawford and drawn by me:

seeing him transgender webcomic page 25

To be honest, there’s a way to get the information across that we need, without using a fuck-ton of dialogue.

We could:

  • split this between two pages,
  • condense the banter,
  • condense the backstory drop,
  • change the page layout,
  • change the balloon layout,
  • or any combination of these.

At least past me had the sense to split the dialogue into separate balloons. That way the page felt, at the time, a little less like a word brick.

This is me spit-balling some ideas right now on how to fix this page of Seeing Him: we could change the camera focus in the second and third panels, to cut away to framed photos on the walls. Those photos could showcase the history of the venue. With that edit, we can split the dialogue up some more, re-frame where the speech balloons sit, and make the page feel like less of a collection of talking heads.

Compare this page to The Legend of Jamie Roberts, page 65, written and drawn by me.

the legend of jamie roberts genderqueer lgbtq pirate adventure webcomic page 65

Here, I let the space breathe and tell the story for me, without so many words.

Whether you can draw or not, comics are a visual medium. Let the environment and scenery describe for you what words could not.

If you have questions, or need feedback, let me know in the comments. I’m happy to help.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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NOW ON KICKSTARTER: The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Chapter 1

HOLY BANANA PANTS, it’s finally here – The Legend of Jamie Roberts, Chapter 1 is now on KickStarter, looking for funding to get to print!

Patreon support has helped make the production of each individual page possible. But KickStarter will help cover the gap to get this first issue to print.

The book will include a never-before-published short comic about Captain O’Malley (just how DID she lose her arm?). Plus there will be behind-the-scenes sketches showing how pages for the comic are made.

Among the rewards available for backers, there’s commissions, WANTED poster-style mini-prints, and even a new 11 x 17 inch print!

So if you can back this KickStarter campaign, please do so BEFORE JUNE 20.

Broke? Share this campaign with your friends. Every share helps.

Want to back the campaign, but don’t see a reward you like? Hit me up via email at kelci(at)kelcidcrawford.com and I’ll work with you.

That’s all for now. Thank you for your support!

You. Are. Awesome.

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The Legend of Jamie Roberts’ Newest Print

Awwww yeah! This print got finished not too long ago to showcase my new upcoming webcomic, The Legend of Jamie Roberts. (Coming online mid- to late-November.)

Illustrated here, from foreground to background, is Jamie Roberts, Ragun Ranki (pronounced Rah-Goon Ra-N-key), and the dragon shape of Ragun Basho (pronounced Rah-Goon Bah-show).

This took a little while to illustrate, especially with the waves of The Way in the background. The Way is the spirit world, where souls rest after death and before birth, and where Ranki was banished after The War of the Leaders 500 years before the start of the Legend.

Here’s some clips of the progress of the piece:

The colors of the background and Ranki were done in Clip Studio Paint to save me some marker ink.

This image will do double-duty as both a print and as the cover art for Chapter 1’s online serialization.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

You. Are. Awesome.

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Comic Page Design for The Legend of Jamie Roberts

the legend of jamie roberts composition sketchI had heard recently that more peeps wanted me to talk more about works-in-progress here on the site, so I wanted to share this post.

The Legend of Jamie Roberts is just one comic I’m working on, but I’m at the point in development that I can come up with more solid ideas about character designs, monster designs, environments, and the like.

However, I needed to also distinguish something important in the narrative – the spiritual elements. Continue reading “Comic Page Design for The Legend of Jamie Roberts”