Black Voyage #0 is finished what Now.

With issue zero of Black Voyage done, the plan of action is to write the script for the rest of the series. This should take me to January where I will start production of the final comic. During this time I hope to set up an Online store to sell Black Voyage #0, future issues and Transplant.

During this time I will also be emailing Review sites to try and get Black Voyage Reviewed as I think this is the next step in my comic creating career.

The final thing I plan to do is to get Black Voyage up on comic book store shelves. I already have Transplant stocked in Traveling Man and hope this will be the same for Black Voyage.


Keep a lookout for any further posts about Black Voyage or any other news to come from Covenant of Arcana comics.

Black Voyage - Evaluation

Black Voyage - how'd it go. 

Black Voyage was a fun project to do as I love the concept and the characters i'm working with.

I believe that this comic reads well and plays out like a TV pilot in that it gives the reader just enough information to draw them in. There is no color in the comic and with that I am Happy as I think if I added color the effect of the line work.

The line work for me is my best to date as the art suits the theme and the story. The detail is good as there is consistency throughout the comic. This is something that doesn't always work in my comics.

The feedback I was given was very helpful and I took it all onboard to produce the best comic I think Black Voyage can be.

I think that the ciphers work in this comic as they are subtle and don't take anything away from the overall narrative.

I think Black Voyage is a great read and everything it could be.

I hope to get this and future issues reviewed.

Where can I sell Black Voyage?

To witness my comic being sold I will need to attend comic conventions so I did some research as to want conventions are happening next year and which one are close to where I live to eliminate expenses as I have no support long train journeys and hotels. I found three conventions that fit in these categories.

Bolton comic Con

The first is the Bolton Comic con which I the closet con to me. The event takes place on the 18^th February 2017. I don’t know how much tables cost as they are not available yet so I sent the organisers an email enquiring these matters.

Stoke con Trent

The second is Stoke con Trent on the 9^th April 2017. This is a good con as it is supported by the university and because I am part of the university I will be able to get the table with a discount. When table bookings open I will be applying for one.

MCM Manchester

The third is the biggest convention of them all. MCM Manchester on 29^th – 30^th July 2017. I am considering this one after how much fun I had at London MCM and I was asked by a friend if I was a doing it again. I chose Manchester as it I sonly two days compared to the three in London, also I only have to get a bus to the venue so I will not have to pay for accommodation. I wanted to get more info about this con like table prices and when they become available so I asked the Facebook group and was informed that they go live two months before the convention and cost from £55.

As Covenant of Arcana is a horror publishing house and most of my comics fall into the horror Category I thought what about conventions designed for horror only and this is what I found.

Birmingham Horror con

This convention runs twice in a year the first being in February for one day the other in October for two days. It also runs in July but that takes place in Swansea.

This convention allows creators to sell comics as long as it is original and owned work. The Pricing for the tables is unclear as it is not stated due to them selling out. I have however messaged them inquiring the cost of a table.

Bristol Horror con

This convention is a one-day convention that runs in October. Like Birmingham they have a wide range of traders including comic books. The table pricing info for traders is not visible so I have email the organiser asking for this information.

Horrorcon UK

HorrorCon UK is a Horror Convention and is back in 2016 to bring you more gore than ever before on the 9th & 10th July 2016 at Magna Science Adventure Centre, Rotherham S60 1DX.   The convention is an opportunity in an atmospheric space where like-minded fans and fiends can meet to celebrate the weird and wonderful world of horror!  It's a time where you can meet and speak with some of the most iconic names in horror, purchase an autograph or photo (professional photos are limited), maybe even take a selfie or two!

These like the other two do not have trader pricing yet. These do have a traders mailing list though, which will allow me to see when table go on sale for 2017.

The one big problem with all these conventions is that they are so far from where I live I will have to spend money on a hotel room. This is a problem because as a new small publisher this seems like too much of a risk at this point in my career as a comic creator. This also limits the type of products I can sell as if I wanted to change genres the audience will not be right for this new genre of comic.

All these cons I will not be attending this is Just a list of places I am considering attending. 

Ciphers - Why and where

Like with Transplant, Black Voyage will also have them. However with transplant I went overboard so this time they will be hidden and involve a different type of Cipher. If you want to see want inspired my use of ciphers you can check out this link below.

http://tgcovenantofthearcana.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/inspiration-for-mystery-in-transplant.html

Here I will talk about the ciphers I will use in the comic but have also used in promotional items.

Caesar Cipher 

The Caesar cipher, also known as a shift cipher, is one of the simplest forms of encryption. It is a substitution cipher where each letter in the original message (called the plaintext) is replaced with a letter corresponding to a certain number of letters up or down in the alphabet.

I decided to use this cipher as it is the easiest to decode, So anybody can have a go at the cipher. I used this in a promotional piece that when decoded will reveal some context to the history of Elizabeth.

Here is the piece the cipher was on -

I posted this on social media. If you'd like to decode it there is a website that can help decode the cipher here is the link. https://learncryptography.com/classical-encryption/caesar-cipher

I did not post this in the comic as it is too large and works as a separate piece.


Templar Cipher

Templars Cipher. Tool to decrypt/encrypt as a Knight Templar. Knights Templars Ciphers is a substitution code replacing letters by symbols from the Maltese Cross, icon of Order of the Temple.

I decided to use the templar cipher as I found it interesting as it replaces letters with symbols which most cipher don't do. I also chose this cipher because of it's connection to the Knight Templar which will play a role in future comics I do.

Similar to the previous cipher I put the cipher on a poster that appears in the comic.

Here is the cipher.

These are the cipher that will appear in this issue of Black Voyage. In the coming issues I will include these ciphers but also Morse code and the vigenere cipher. The cipher will enhance the context of the story but also reveal future plans of Covenant of Arcana.

Hope this has been informative.

Changes to script

Black Voyage has undergone a few changes in it's script here I will go through all the changes and why I made them. I have already done a post like this but this one will be more in depth.

Script 1 - The original script ran to 27 pages and wasn't really structured as it was based on the White Death, but also involved davy Jones' locker and Monsters. This did not work in practicality as there were too many elements and no clear story. So I abandoned the project.

Script 2 - Black Voyage came back to life a few years later when I was tasked with writing a short story. When I was writing I took and concentrated the story to Jack the ripper, Blackbeard and the White death. This version wasn't perfect but it's what created the final story I came up with.

Script 3- After the previous script I decided to do some further research into Black beard and Jack the ripper.  After this I rewrote Black Voyage expanding on the connection Jack had on Blackbeard and why and how Elizabeth was killing these people. Then after doing a spell check I wrote a new version that was the most detailed and final version of the overview.

Script 4- This was the first official script as the others had been overviews. I decided to just write the dialogue that will appear on each page. This allowed me to hopefully create dialogue that flowed and to make sure I got the wording right I looked at victorian drama scripts.

Script 5 - This was the first full script. I really liked this version However when it was reviewed they thought too much was revealed in the last few pages. I took this and in the next version changed the words I used and added and subtracted panels from pages.

Script 6 - This was the last version I did before the final script. This script was like the last just with the minor changes. However, now this is where I received the most feedback. The people reviewing had an issue with Jack killing Lesbian prostitutes, Jack's involvement in the overall story, the lack of foreshadowing for Jack and the overall story.

Script 7- This is the final script. I tackled the Lesbian issue by explaining it in the comic as she (My Jack is a woman) has ego dystonic but I expanded it to involve woman who miscarrage and the green sickness. This eased peoples thoughts as it wasn't directly targeting lesbians. Jack's overall involvement is addressed in the text of the comic and will be further explained in the next issues. The foreshadowing is included in the reimagining of the speech. I also included hints of the overall story throughout the comic in text and ciphers. However as this is a Zero issue to the main event I wanted to introduce the characters and the basics of the story without revealing anything crucial.    

I hope this has been informative and have a clearer understanding of how I got to the final product.  

character designs

Here is the process I went through when creating my characters. Hope this is informative and not that if these don't make the final cut they may show up elsewhere in my projects.

These are the original characters I intend to use in Black Voyage. Jack the Ripper and Elizabeth are the final designs however The Captain & John are not. The Captain does appear in the 1st issue and that design is the one being used throughout the comic. John is an initial design and I didn't want to spend this time working on him so I am going to produce a final design for him over december so next semester when he will be used there will be a final design.    

This is the original design of Elizabeth. I decided to change the facial features on her alot as here she looked too average and innocent. I gave her shorter hair as it made the character more unique and stand out among the rest of the characters.

Jack the Ripper did not always look the way it did. Below are a selection of designs I produced for Jack. Some of these designs are drawn with greater detail than the final design however the overall feel of the designs didn't feel right that is why I chose the final design.

With these designs I decided to look at not including a coat. This look worked as it still looks like male clothing but they still had their female body shapes. I went for the slender body type as Jack needs to be nimble and athletic. The aspects I don't like about these designs is that they don't look right with a hat & the fact they look like female versions of sweeney Todd.  

   

The design on the right is the final design I did of Jack this design was a more profile shot of the previous design. I added a coat and I think this improves the design and it has it's own originality to it instead of looking like a reimagining of a character like the previous designs did. 

During this issue Jack interacts with two ladies of the night. The design above is one I quite like this design however I think I did her legs too short and it is out of proportion. Below are more designs I did along with the final designs.

With these designs I decided to have a curvier body type as that was more of the norm in the 1800s. I think this looked worked perfectly. I used the same face I used in my unused Jack designs to see if  it worked here, I think this design work better than that of Jack. I like the other design on the left however the face lacks any detail.

These are the final designs I did before I drew the final characters. I decided that with there being two characters I would change the body size on one character. I liked this approached as it differentiates the characters. I think the design on the left is good however she looks too posh and wouldn't be considered a prostitute, that is the kind of feel I want from the character but there is no hint here she is a lady of the night. I decided to do a behind view of the previous design as I liked that design and wanted to have a fuller view of the character..

                                                                     Final designs

This is the final design for Rosie. I went with the slender body type. I like this design as there is that air of mystery to this design which is what I intended. The dress design is scruffy and looks that that of a woman who is poor however it is not sultry to suggest she is anything other than a poor woman.

        

This is the design for the unnamed prostitute Jack meets. I keep the design similar to previous designs however I decided not to include any designs on the dress as that may show class and wealth which I don't want. I also went for a more sultry costume design. This was the tell the read that she is definitely a lady of the night.  

I like these designs as they are different from each other and they have meaning behind there designs. Thanks for reading all this information. If you have any enquires please comment below.

                    

Cover designs

Spoiler Warning

Here are the designs I created for the cover of Black Voyage.

This was my main cover Idea as I wanted the main focus of the cover to be on Elizabeth and have the ship in the background. The smoke effect was only used after I found out how to create it. It was originally just going to be the gradient effect, this effect work much better and adds atmosphere to the cover.

I decided to create a color version of this cover as I felt showing elizabeth's dress in full color makes her standing there more dramatic. I chose the color red as it associated with femme fatales which is what Elizabeth is. It gives the reader the knowledge that she is a baddie.  

Since the main focus of the overall comic is the ship I though what if I had only the ship on the cover. I like this cover as it has a unnerving feel to it. I kept it in B&W as I think adding color would ruin the atmosphere created. As the focus of this issue is on Jack and the introduction of Elizabeth, I think this cover will be more appropriate as a variant or on issue 2. 

This was a collage I created and the plan was to mess around in photoshop turning the surrounding faces into  spirits and have a portal behind the collage.  After I did that if it worked I was going to draw Elizabeth in the middle surrounded by faces and do the same edits. I did some edits however, it didn't look as engaging as I thought so I worked on the designs above instead. I think this was a wise choice as Cover 2 is a really engaging cover and the colors pop when printed.

This has been my cover designs and my thought process on them. I'm thinking of turning the top three covers into prints if you think this is a good Idea comment below.

previous page designs

Major spoilers ahead

Throughout the process of creating Black Voyage I have made creative changes to panels or pages. This has improved there readability and visual appeal. Here are some of the pages with the biggest differences to them. 

The original pencils, panel 3 didn't work as I had hoped so when it came to inking I chose a different design.

Here in the inked version I changed Panel 3 to a single shot of Jack as it distinguished Jack from the prostitute. It also allowed room for the text that will go in that panel. The previous design didn't leave that room. 

This is the original page which will have text going around the page, However in this state there is no context to the visual narrative and the text that will go on the page.

I used some unused designs for Rosie to act as prostitutes standing on street corners. I think this improves the page dramatically.    

This is the original page. I quite liked this page however there was no motion in the piece. Panel 4 lacked the conviction of a ship going through a portal. The overall flow of the page works but the quality is not there.

This is my favorite page of the whole comic. I created the effect on panel 1 &2 by experimenting with the blur tool on Photoshop. I think is a much improvment on the original as there is more motion and the scenes are more believable. I changed the color of the portal so it will show up when printing. Finally I changed the perspective and placement of both the ship and portal. This created a more engaging panel. I also redrew the ship giving it alot more detail making it on par with the rest of the art in  the comic.   

I hope these changes were insightful and if you'd like to see how I created the smoke effect comment below and I'll make a post.

© 2016 Tom_Mosby_Guilfoyle

Portal and dress effect

Warning Spoilers 

In Black Voyage there is a portal and I didn't want to draw out the portal as I felt I wasn't confident enough to draw a convincing portal. So I used the same technique I used in Transplant on Sophia's home.

This involved making prints from shaving foam and ink. Once these were done I scanned them in & did a quick edit on photoshop. After I was happy with the color quality I used the twirl tool in the filter bar.  

Print using only black & red ink

A Black ink only print

This print already has a spiral design before the editing has begun

These multicolored ones are more visually pleasing however, they don't fit with the Black & White theme of the comic

This creates a perfectly looking portal which I will then place in the panels where needed. This technique is more authentic at creating a portal and will be continued to be used to have some consistency.

As you can see from the examples there were a variety of colors in the prints along with the pure black ones. However I did not use them as my comic is Black and white and felt the colors would be more appropriate in the full color version I will do once part two is finished next semester.


That also goes for Elizabeth's dress as I used the prints as the designs on her dress to give the character a way of standing out among the other women about. In the colored version she will look like this.

However for this version she will look like this. I prefer the black & white version as it's the dress pattern that gives her the uniqueness and the color is another dimension of that.    

prototype Book what worked

With all the pages inked and scanned I first add the borders to each panel before I printed them out to be my first dummy book of the final project. Here is what worked and what needs work.

                                                        Warning Spoilers 

1.  All the pages have the same distance in it's border, meaning when they are cut down to size the border around each page will be the same.

Equal border on both pages, for easier editing.

  2.  All the blacks are pure and no brush work is visible, however that can't be said for the greys as            some did not appear as they printed black or the brush work showed up. To fix this in                          photoshop I will use the lasso tool to highlight the grey areas to exclusively work on bring                  them on par with the blacks.  

Page two shows how pure the blacks are when printed.

       3. Even though most of the pages work in B&W on the last few pages there seems to be to much            white space. This is a problem I think is easily fixed as where there should be the sky on show            I will use grey tones to illustrate the sky and time in the story.

This panel has too much white space but adding black will not work as tones are needed.

        4. The comic reads well as each page works with each other.

        5. Even Though the borders are the same that came at a cost on a select few pages some of the                 panel borders have been cut off by the printer. It is not clear the precise cause of this but I                     think it may be due to the panel borders being to small. To combat this problem I will increase             the panel thickness so that if they get cut off again hopefully some will survive and the panel                 will be intact.

Panel with cutoff elements due to printer. Increased panel borders may fix this.

Dummy book

After I finalised the script I produced a dummy book. This allowed me to visualise what my pages will look like. As you can see from the designs that they are very loose, this is intentional as when it come to creating the actual page I often deviant from the initial design. This also allows me to analyse what element of the page work and if there are too many elements on the page how to reduce that effectively.

Example of my page designs page 4-5

Example of my loose designs for page 2-3. There is no real detail but the placement of characters and backgrounds is there.

What's Black Voyage inspired by?

When creating a story inspiration is needed even original stories are inspired/based on other events. That is the same with Black Voyage. When I come up with Ideas I first look up and research current and old urban legends until I find one I like.

After this I then find all the info I can on the legend and dissect all the essential information and rework that into my own original script.

This happened for Black Voyage the first and main inspiration for Black Voyage is a urban legend called "The White Death".

Here is the basics of this urban legend

   "There was once a little girl that hated life and she wanted to get rid of every trace of herself off the planet. Soon, She killed herself and people found out. The people that found out died a few days later. Their limbs torn apart. They say if you know of The White Death, She will come and find you and constantly knock on your door. Each knock gets louder. You can’t tell anyone about her, But if you do, She strikes. Killing you and then goes for the person you told." (unexplained mysteries, 2013)

Here is the link to the site. http://unexplainedmysteries.org/post/65041835626/the-white-death-creepy-urban-legend

What I took from this legend is that the victim/killer needs to have a hatred for something and if  you found out about her she killed you.

When I was coming up with Black Voyage I had my main character Elizabeth hating people and existence for ,spoilers, reasons. To cover the part about her killing people who find out about her I decided to add extra meanings for her killings but with the same rules applying. However to make it more interesting Elizabeth will be able to travel through time.

After I decided that Elizabeth was going to time travel she needed victims. I had always been interested in Jack the Ripper and Blackbeard so I though I'd reinvent there deaths for the purpose of Black Voyage.


Jack The Ripper is the "first victim" we see Elizabeth Kill. However the story doesn't focus on Elizabeth but on Jack and for this to work the way I presented Jack and the reason they kill will foreshadow and hint at Elizabeth's overall story.

I hope this has been insightful.         

Update

I haven't done a post in awhile so here it is as of this post I have completed all the pencils for all 12 pages and have inked 6 pages. There will be preview images coming soon.

That is all for now.

Script creation process

My script for Black Voyage is now complete and I've started to pencil the pages. This post however will talk about how I format my script and how other scripts influenced my approach.

When writing my script I used the format guidelines provide by Dark horse comics this format is the industry standard and I would like my script to be industry standard. The Dark Horse method also allows for me to produce a script that is clear and easy to understand.

Screenshot of the guideline on Dark horses website.

After I knew how to format my script I then researched how a real script looks so at MCM London back in May I bought some scripts one was Scream. This being a horror was perfect for this comic as I could witness how the dialogue was written to create and build tension. The only problem was this was a script for a film and not a comic.

Scream script I got at MCM.

So I looked online and bought director cut versions of comics to see first hand how a comic script is constructed. I found a site that stores a large database of scripts from different writers this was really helpful as it allowed for me to compare each writers approach  helping me form my own.

Here is the link to the site if you wanted to check it out.

http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/the-scripts/

I finally new how to format my script and what approach to take and how to create tension through dialogue. All I needed was to use authentic dialogue so it had that 1888 feel. For this I found the BBC writers room that have archived script and one was for Ripper Street I read this an pick out the way the actor are to speak and the language used in this time period.

Writers room link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts

After all this I now had all the info I needed to create a professional level script.   

setting research

As my comic is set in London 1888 I had to find images of what London looked like at this time. I found most of my images on sites dedicated to Jack the ripper and set pictures from the show Ripper street.

Here are the images in Gif form.

I also had to know and get the clothing right so I went to museums and searched for period appropriate clothing.

Here is that research

Black and white comic research

I stated in my earlier post that I will be producing my comic Black and White. I had an idea of what a full B&W comic looks like, However I decided to do some more in depth research to have a better grasp. Here are three comics that are black and white but use different techniques to create their pages.

The Crow by James O'Barr uses cross hatching and solid blacks for his pages.

Frank Miller's Sin city uses solid black and negative space this is a technique I don't think will work for my comic.

Batman Black and white, This time they have used a grey scale for their page. This is a interesting technique however i don't think the tone will work for a Jack the Ripper comic.
  

  The technique i'm most likely to use for Black Voyage is a combination of Cross hatching and solid black like James O'Barr.

wording

Wording can be difficult when writing a script set in another time period. I found this when I was writing the script for Black Voyage as my main character is a lesbian so I researched what words were used to describe a lesbian. I found one and thought I was perfect as it has the right tone for how I wanted the term used. However when I presented the script to peers they thought the word was too harsh so I reviewed the context and concluded to use the original term as I could create tone and context in the image and this is the least likely option that will not cause offence.

Research - Jack the ripper in comics

As my comic Black Voyage is set in 1888 and focuses on Jack the Ripper I thought it would be a good idea to explore how Jack has been portrayed in comics and the style used. Here is a list of comic's were Jack is the focal character.


The first and most notorious comic about Jack is From Hell. From Hell. Is a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Set in Whitechapel during the murder the novel speculates on the identity and motives of the killer. This story reinvented the reasoning behind Jack's motives which is something I want to explore in my comic. The one noticeable factor about the novel is the art.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Eddie uses the thick black ink on his panels to create a suitable atmosphere that colors couldn't create for this comic.


The next comic is Jack the Ripper HC by Francois Debois and Jean-Charles Poupard who take on the murders a year after they happen and set it in Paris. What struck me with this comic was that there were colors but they are dark and gloomy replacing the need for it to me monotone.

Page from Jack the Ripper by Dark horse

The final comic I am looking at is CSI: Serial. The comic follows a copy cat killer in vegas that have connections to the original Jack the Ripper. Here unlike the previous two this comic the pages are colorful however when they processed to flash backs. The art work has a distinctive 1800s feel and they do this by not using colors and using alot of black.

Page form CSI: SERIAL

Each version here has one thing in common and that is that they use the fact surrounding the murders loosely reinventing who Jack is and why he did it. I have also concluded that to create the best effect and because of time constraints that a black and white comic will be best for this issue as of now.

  

Script progress

When I was creating this story I created a few variations before I settled on the script I'm using for the final comic. Here I will show you the various versions of the story I did and how I change the story for the better.

I first hand wrote a basic plot however I had not real direction as to how  the story would full work.

Next I typed a new focused story, that I then edited and rewrote.

Once have with the plot I wrote a script that just focused on the text of the story, before I created a final version with directions and panel separation.

Character introduction

For a presentation I did to pitch this Idea I created a gif to show case my characters and the design process from inks to colors.

All the characters I designed for the Pitch.

However after Pitch this was the Idea pick but the story is quite large so when it came to writing the plot & script. I decided to focus on the Jack the Ripper section of the story. This then also presented a problem as Jack was supposes to only cover 4-6 pages but now covers 12. The other problem was that now I needed to design more characters.

The new characters I will be using for this part of the story  along side Jack the ripper and Elizabeth Celine.

 

This character has no name and is known in the script as Prostitute 1.

 

This is Rosie and acts as the secondary character to Jack.

Both these images are low quality due to them being photos, but once I have inked them I will upload high quality images.