The Adventurers Comic page 29

The Adventurers comic page 29.

Well that brings us to the last annotated page of The Adventurers issue 1. These little back cover designs were fun (but added to the work load!) to think of a little scene that related to the story each issue. Once again, beautifully coloured by Cara.  We edited in the sleeping slug when my friend Joel suggested doing so in a conversation. I do hope to retain some of the interaction with the animal world in future stories. It makes sense that Ellie could talk to humans and animals, as she sort of walks between the two worlds. It would be nice to see some slugs again. I hope you enjoyed The Adventurers issue 1!

If you'd like to read more, you might like to take advantage of the first ever Bolt Comics Christmas sale here.

The Adventurers Comic page 21

The Adventurers Comic page 21 Chapter 1: The Dragon.

I wish I could say I planned the recurring theme of life and stories being at odds but as I mentioned before the original script was different from the final copy. New dialogue just seemed to drop into Cara (my sister who lettered the comic) and my consciousness as we discussed lettering the pages. I'm really happy with the exchange between Ellie and Rob and Hood. Although Ellie starts her journey a bit timid she still has the courage to voice her opinion.

The Adventurers Comic page 18

The Adventurers Comic page 18, Chapter 1:The Dragon.

This page, along with the two previous pages, were the first I shared on line. Primarily because they were wordless pages and didn't need to be lettered.

Development of the Adventurers Comic characters. Part 1: Ellie.

She used to be an alien you know. Oh and she used to be a 'he'. In one form or another Ellie has been around, bouncing off the insides of my head and making her way onto scraps of paper and finally into The Adventurers comic.

I love heroes and heroes have side kicks. I had the idea of a hero whose sidekick was actually a mentor. It was originally an alien, named Barnabus, teaching a young man how to be a hero. However, I got over aliens and changed the alien to a dragon.

'Barnabus' with wing study.

But I also like robots. Perhaps the sidekick character should be a robot? Then there is this little furry guy in a blue and red suit (another alien at that time) wouldn't he be a good sidekick? Ok I'll go with the dragon 'cos dragons are cool but... what if the other two were better? I mean they're all as good as each other.

So the hero was put to the side, and the side kicks all took centre stage together. They would be the heroes. The hero story became the back story for The Adventurers.

It, of course, took a very long time to come to this arrangement. Years. So I'd made the decision to make  The Adventurers comic about 4 half-ling high heroes. Getting the dragon design was very tricky. It had to have a "dragony" feel but still (sort of) pass for a human. I went through the whole gamete of head types before basically sticking with the original and changing the fin.

More head designs. Can you find the various influences? You can also see some robot designs for  the  robots they would be fighting in The Adventurers story.

The Adventurers at one stage almost became a sword epic as I was reading Lord of the Rings. That idea 

didn't last too long.

                      

Sword and sorcery inspired clothing.

So I had three characters, The Dragon, the Rocbadger and the robot. I thought I needed a fourth. A female character. However no matter how much I tried I could not come up with a suitable "creature" for the fourth to be. I decided if I made the Dragon a female that would solve the problem. All I had to do was add eyelashes! The dragon character was ************* (whoops almost put a small spoiler for issue 3!) A friend suggested the name Ellie **********( It will make sense after you read issue 3! :) ). So she finally had a name.

Closer to the final design.

I wanted to give her some more angular dynamic features. Below you can see some fin design ideas. And the final fin design. You can also see the design of her feet. Her eyes were still black at this stage. However this was the final design until one last change. The Adventurers were getting designed and redesigned at the same time. Ellie wasn't quite finalised until... but more on that later.

Almost there. Still with cheek scales and black eyes.

Next: Rocbadger.

Guest Art - Dave Clarke

I was very happy to receive this picture of Ellie in the e-mail a few weeks ago from all round nice guy Dave Clarke. I'm honoured that he would take the time to do this. I love the picture and I think it captures Ellie's personality well. Thanks for the picture and the encouragement Dave!