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.

Welcome

Hi all who's reading this. I have decided to create this blog so I can separate the important stuff about this comic Black Voyage from the rest of my posts over at  http://tgcovenantofthearcana.blogspot.co.uk/ . The post on this blog will still appear on both sites I hope you enjoy the content I share about my current comic.