THE CREATIVE PROCESS

We thought you'd like to see a little behind-the-scenes of making the first issue of Flaming Guitar. Here's Garry to explain a bit about how the creative process works.

"We start, obviously, with the script (see downloads). Page 2 of the script:

      1a Higher angle of the alley, the boyfriend stomps off to the left, leaving kkkkkkChelsea alone, vulnerable. She holds out her arms in disbelief.

      BOYFRIEND: GOODNIGHT, CHELSEA.

      1b Medium close-up of Chelsea, angry, worried.

      CHELSEA: WANKER.

      (to herself)

      GREAT, CHELS, GREAT. WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO NOW?

      1c Over Dirtball’s shoulder as he looks predatorily at Chelsea, smaller in kkkkkkthe frame.

I then draw an outline of the page and panel layout as a guide for Suze. You can see why I don't do the drawing!

Suze then takes these layout sketches and goes out to work her magic. She draws each panel on an individual page. Panel 1b of this page looks as follows, the inked sketch, a draft-coloured version, then a coloured, unfinished lettered copy with some shading:

I scan in Suze's inked copy (she inks directly over her pencils) and letter/colour it using Photoshop. I then refer the image back to Suze for tips on shading/colour etc. The fonts I use for the lettering are all from Blambot. Usually I layout the panels in Photoshop for a whole page before colouring. When pages are finished the whole thing is exported as a .pdf file and then sent off to the printers. Currently, Issue #1 is going to be printed by Lulu."

Hopefully that gives you some idea of how we do it, guys. Check out the downloads section for larger versions of some of the images on this page and be sure to visit the blog and post a comment!