The Wannabe Pirates

[Rodney]

I decided to do the strip as comic book pages, rather than comic strips.

 

I'm really liking this approach Mark. Very nice.

I'm very tempted to support you through Oxicomics if for no other reason than I want to see more of the same... more of your comic books but also more comic books from independent artists at reasonable prices; 99 cents may not generate the artist a lot of money per purchase but it's perfectly priced to sell to the masses. Hopefully people will see 'The Wanna Be Pirates' in that venue and give it a chance.

 

In other news: I'm still waiting for your second (hardcopy) issue to arrive in the mail. I'm starting to suspect someone stole it and is hoarding it away. I thought perhaps my family picked it up in the mail and it's just buried somewhere.

 

Other thoughts:

I don't know if there is a market for the production work you put into your comic books but from my perspective that is exactly what I've always wanted to see made available in animation, comic books, films, etc. Behind the Scenes stuff has always been of interest to me. It also gives fans something more to enjoy beyond the characters and stories themselves. I understand the focus is the actual comic book... I get that... but consider Walt Disney and early animation cels... many were just tossed in the trash or given away. These aspects are an important part of your art's heritage and I hope you save them and can present them later. There isn't enough of that behind the scenes stuff out there because frankly and unfortunately, no one seems to care about heritage until its too late.

 

Odd A:M related thought:

We lost a great resource when development on HAMR halted because that gave us a 'read only' format that we could use to share A:M resources and yet not actually give the actual A:M resources away.

[largento]

JimD, just do a search for "greyhawk" on the iTunes store and you should find them. ("The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island") They are optimized for both the iPhone and the iPad. For the iPhone, the app will go through the stories panel-by-panel (programmed by the guy who wrote the app.) It works really well.

 

Rodney, you might want to check with Ka-Blam and see if they lost your order. I remember them saying they had some computer problems awhile back. There is a 2-page "making of" article at the back of the graphic novel which has some of the original character design sketches and info about how the book was created.

 

Oxicomics is about to go into a closed beta, but I really like the idea of digital comics and hope they catch on. I think low prices are key to that, though, and there's pressure from the brick and mortar comic shops against the publishers not to lower prices for digital comics.

[Rodney]

Oxicomics is about to go into a closed beta, but I really like the idea of digital comics and hope they catch on. I think low prices are key to that, though, and there's pressure from the brick and mortar comic shops against the publishers not to lower prices for digital comics.

 

I'm sympathetic to the brick and mortar comic shops but they need to embrace digital comics also.

Comics need to... and will get into the hands of those who want to read them.

With or without the brick and mortar.

 

As for digital comic books... if I had my way they'd start again at 25 cents a pop.

Comic creators need to get back to their roots and one way to do that is to bring the cost of reading comics way down (but not all the way to 'free' comics). Use 'Free comics day' for that.

 

I'll look into the possibility that Ka-blam lost my order.

Usually the error is on my end though.

[largento]

Do I do it?

 

Do I bring The Wannabe Pirates back from hiatus?

 

Is the world safe with more Flemm?

 

Giving readers a say here.

[Rodney]

Added my 2 cents...

 

Of course you should!

I suppose the underlying question is, "Do you have a story you are itching to tell?"

[largento]

I suppose the underlying question is, "Do you have a story you are itching to tell?"

 

The plan would be to finish the one I was 2/3rds of the way through when I stopped ("The Amulet of the Apes.") That will give me the material for a second graphic novel.

 

Unless something were to change, this would be followed by a complete re-haul. All of the characters would get updated designs and be remodeled. Flemm was modeled by me waaay back in 2007 and was one of the first characters I ever modeled. I like to think that I've gotten better since those early days. :-)

 

These updated versions would be used for the grand finale, "The Sword of the Rightwise King," which starts with Flemm as a youngster and goes all the way to the epic event of 1692.

 

This will give me a nice trilogy of graphic novels, which could even be combined into a single, massive 600+ page tome.

[largento]

 

And with this image, I officially announce the return of The Wannabe Pirates!

 

I should never have said never...

[Rodney]

And with this image, I officially announce the return of The Wannabe Pirates!

 

A W E S O M E !

 

(Coolest banner image image I've seen in quite awhile. Excellent use of space and perspective.)

 

This will give me a nice trilogy of graphic novels, which could even be combined into a single, massive 600+ page tome

 

That tome would certainly be a testament to your creativity.

[largento]

Thanks, Rodney.

 

I think a complete re-design of the website for The Wannabe Pirates is going to be a project in the near future. As cool as the Wordpress/Comicpress setup is, I want to rethink it all and do something that I think is easier for people to read in the manner than they would normally read it (which experience tells me is in long sections.)

 

You can't read a linear story comic backwards and make sense of it.

 

I want to have it so that you have the option of seeing the current strip, say the last 5 or 10 strips, or be able to go to storylines where you can read them 5 or 10 at a time in order.

 

I also want a way to have a better introduction to new visitors and not have to work around the complex architecture that the ComicPress theme forces me to work around ('cause I don't understand it enough to customize it the way I'd like.)

 

There are aspects of it that I like, obviously, but there are also complicated things that were easy for me to break and give me fits. WordPress is also of prime interest to hackers and so, I constantly have to upgrade the inner workings of the site, hoping each time that this isn't the one that breaks everything.

[Rodney]

I like the sound of that.

 

I hope you'll keep your presence in those other locations.

Those will be necessary to keep folks navigating to your new site.

 

Keep good notes on the process.

I expect there will be others who will want a similar treatment for their stories and characters.

 

To hear the sound of new ideas rattling around, I take it you are almost done with the "Wobbling Dead"?

[largento]

One thing I always wanted to have was a way to be able to incorporate animation into the stie. Having animated clips embedded into the "About" page would be one way. I'll be limited by my webcoding abilities, but I'm going to to try to make it a better experience all around.

[largento]

This is something I've wanted to do for many years now.

 

When McCrary and I first started working on The Wannabe Pirates, it was meant to be an animated short sequel to the live action home movie he'd made. A friend of McCrary's (who also played Waldo Morgan in the movie) wrote a small piece of music to use for the opening titles. I had wanted to animate it even back then in 2002-2003, but just didn't have the resources and time. (This was pre me being aware of A:M).

 

When we started the animation project, I pulled that music out and wrote lyrics to it and recorded a sort of temp track. I always thought that McCrary's friend might be able to take what I'd done and do a more polished version, but they had fallen out of touch, so that never worked out.

 

Still, I had always wanted to do something with it and now that I'm redesigning the website, I'm allowing for a landing page and a video of this is perfect as a sort of mini-primer of what The Wannabe Pirates is about.

 

I think it's mostly going to be moving still shots (Ken Burns-like), but I'll probably put in a tiny bit of animation, too.

 

The start was to subtitle it so that folks can sing along. I'd wanted to do a bouncing ball, but the song is so fast, that may not be possible. We'll see.

 

Anyway, I don't think I've ever shared it with you guys, so here's:

 

"The Ballad of Errol Flemm" as sung by the Three Golden Tonsils (aka Largent, Largent & Largent.) :-)

 

karaoke_file_s.mov

[steve392]

Haha thats very good ,it would be graet if you could animate the charectors to it .Graet song

[TheSpleen]

I liked that

[Rodney]

Nice! What may be coolest about it is that it has a Saturday Morning Cartoon vibe to it.

Or those after school shows that kids just had to watch... of a 'Gilligan's Island'... 'Beverly Hillbillies' quality.

 

I think it's mostly going to be moving still shots (Ken Burns-like), but I'll probably put in a tiny bit of animation, too.

 

I really like that idea. It'd be a great way to reuse some of your still imagery too!

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

It would be fun to completely animate it, Steve, but I think that might give them the wrong impression (ie make them think it's an animated cartoon instead of a comic strip.) Also, as Rodney said, it will make it easier. I think the animated parts will just be kind of bonus bits.

 

Rodney, It's strange, but the music's initial inspiration was "Yankee Doodle Dandy." I wanted to do animated opening titles a bit like the ones for The Pink Panther and as an example for music, sent a version of Yankee Doodle Dandy that played it at various different tempos and styles, which I felt gave it a very cartoon feel. The composer then went and created something with a "pirate" feel.

 

As to the lyrics and singing, my inspiration was definitely theme songs like "Swamp Fox" and "Davy Crockett." One of those boastful, sea chanty-type songs.

[Rodney]

One of my favorite animated movies from my youth was the Rankin and Bass adaption of "The Hobbit".

When I saw that movie many years later I was astounded to see that it didn't have hardly any animation.

It did use a lot of camera moves and limited animation techniques to make up for it.

My memory was so vivid of the animated action in those scenes.

The designers/director had done their job to convince me.

[largento]

Well, convincing a little kid is a lower bar. :-)

 

I'm not going to attempt such skullduggery. In fact, like I said, the lack of animation is an attempt at honesty. Don't want to trick them into thinking they are going to see animated cartoons rather than comic strips.

 

I gave in and animated the bouncing ball. I ended up doing it in A:M, since AE is a little sketchier with letting you scrub through audio.

 

Here's a shaded render. The type will obviously be sharper in the final render.

 

karaoke_balltest_small.mov

[largento]

 

Here's the mock-up I'm working on for the front page. It's too large at this point, but it's the basic idea. The image in the box is just something I tossed in. It's where the Ballad of movie will go.

 

And yes, I did make the tavern sign in A:M. :-)

[largento]

Finally held a gun to my head yesterday and made myself finish up the Ballad of Errol Flemm video. It'll probably change some before it goes up on the website, but this is pretty much it.

 

I was able to use a fair amount of existing animation in addition to some stills. A couple of stills I had to create and there's a tiny bit of animation with a Gorilla trio that's new. The bouncing ball/lyrics was such a time suck, but I didn't want to do it without them, so it was worth all the messing around in multiple apps.

 

balladflemm_s.mov

[Rodney]

Nicely done Mark!

[largento]

Thanks, Rodney!

 

I need to fix the ending (I'll confess to having given in to exhaustion), but for the most part I'm satisfied with it.

 

In the end, I rendered the ball by itself out of A:M and added the lyrics in Premiere Pro.

 

If I'd known I'd be able to get so much of it done with animation I did for the book trailer, I would have done this back in 2011! :-)

[Rodney]

If I'd known I'd be able to get so much of it done with animation I did for the book trailer, I would have done this back in 2011! :-)

 

Quality with Quantity pays off once again.

[Dpendleton77]

Very cool man I rather enjoyed it.

[largento]

Thanks, Douglas!

 

The hope is that this will be an entertaining intro to people when they discover the webcomic.

[thefreshestever]

very very cool!!! the only thing that bothered me a bit was that in the beginning the text was fading in a few seconds before the lyrics of the song started...

[largento]

Thanks, Sebastian. That's a good call. I originally had it coming up from the bottom of the screen, but when I redid it, I just had it sort of fade in. Probably better just to pop into place at the point the singing starts.

[largento]

Nothing of relevance to say, other than I've started scripting The Wannabe Pirates again today and boy, am I having fun. Turns out taking a break was probably the best thing I could have done. I'm enjoying getting back to the story and bringing new ideas to add to the old ones.

[largento]

Wanna' see a sneak peek of the new website for The Wannabe Pirates?

 

It's a pretty big change. I've abandoned the Wordpress/Comicpress combo simply because that seems to be designed to work for gag-a-day comics rather than story comics.

 

Some changes:

 

1) The latest comic is no longer on the front page. Why risk having a story spoiled? There's a page now for the latest comic that regular readers can bookmark.

 

2) Added a "Catch-Up" page. If you're just a spotty visitor, you can read the last five strips in the correct order on their own page.

 

3) New Archives. Now all of the stories are archived so that you can read through them ten strips at a time. This makes it much easier and I hope, more enjoyable for the reader.

 

 

I'm going to do a re-think on advertising and probably just have a couple or three small ads a the bottom of the page. A big part of this redesign is removing clutter.

 

I realize that most of these ideas are "wrong" from the point of trying to make the most money, but let's face it, it never really was making any money, so why not make the experience for the reader better? Yes, with the old site, I got a page view for every strip, but isn't it a pain to have to click a next button after every single strip?

 

Anyway, you can check it out here. My plan is to launch it in the next few days.

[thefreshestever]

i like it! but: i´m missing some shadows behind the wooden elements, and the blue comes a little bit agressive to my eyes. if i´m on a comic-page where i want to concentrate on the content, the bright blue background is a little bit distracting... a little bit more desaturated blue would work better...

 

just my opinion though...

[Rodney]

I'm liking the new website Mark.

 

The suggestion I have would be to try to decrease the unused space around the edges (the blue area mostly).

Perhaps that extra space is necessary for mobile viewing?

Diminishing the extra space around the edges also allow the comic strip panels to be slightly larger.

[largento]

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

 

You're right, Sebastian. I had been working with a background image (blurred tropical photo) and had matched the background to the blue in the sky in attempt to have the background image disappear into the background. I just kind of kept it when I abandoned it. Changed it to a more muted blue. I also added in some more shadows.

 

You are correct, Rodney, that I was considering how the site looked on mobile devices. They tend to be more portrait mode and the wider you go, the smaller your content gets. I've been very pleased with how well the site works on my iPhone and iPad. It even loads pretty fast over 4G.

 

This Adobe Muse app is a godsend. I would never have been able to achieve this with my own coding abilities. It was also fast, too. I did the majority of the work on Wednesday and Thursday. Not bad for a 50+ page site.

[largento]

I've started giving the models a facelift for the relaunch. I can't really commit the time to remodeling, but I can at least take a new look at the coloring.

 

You can see the originals on the left an the updated ones on the right.

 

 

Funny that I never noticed how yellowish the skin color I was using was. I worked up a rosier version and worked with ambience and specularity to get a better look.

 

Man, I'd love to just start over from scratch, though. These were among the very first models I made and I've just learned so much more since then.

[TheSpleen]

no tall people huh?

All short and squat?

[largento]

Not really short, just small legs.

 

Many cartoon characters are that way: Mighty Mouse, Fred Flintstone, Popeye ...even Mr. Incredible in The Incredibles, has proportionately smaller legs to the rest of the body.

 

In the case of a character like Flemm, it helps to give them a heroic look. Like his upper body is stronger and more powerful, tapering down to small legs and feet. With a character like Sneeze, it gives him the appearance of being bulky and strong.

 

It doesn't work so well for female characters, though, so that's why you notice that Wilma Flintstone, Olive Oyl, Elastigirl and such have longer legs.

[largento]

Updated coloring on Henrietta and Poco Boco...

 

[largento]

Updated Cutthroat Jacques and Doc Bokor.

 

[jakerupert]

Hi Mark,

 

Im afraid, i dont like that new style too much.

Especially Lady Henriettas face is going somehow from classy to bimbo,

A bit like Meg Ryan after surgery crudley said blown lips and too much suntan.

Theres some danger you might loose your great simplicity, reduction and clearness

I always loved on your style , also on the dr. For instance.

 

Sorry , but thats just my personal taste.

 

Instead of adding textures I would love your style with Maxwell like material rendering improvements...

Though thats hardly possible for the time being.

 

All the best

 

Jake

[largento]

That's disappointing to hear, Jake, but like you said, that's personal taste.

 

I look at the original skin color on Henrietta compared to the new one, and the original looks kind of like a corpse. I wasn't aware of just how yellowish the skin color was until I compared one of the characters to a character from the new cg animated Batman series. It was startling. And these are supposed to be pirates who wouldn't be pale-skinned at all.

 

Both times the strip has been critiqued on a webcomics forum I'm part of, the issue of color has come up. Generally with the coloring of the characters and the backgrounds and how they interfere with "reading" the images. I've tried in the past to compensate with colored lighting, but it makes sense (to me, anyway) to go back to the colors on the characters.

 

Taking Henrietta for example, look at how much better her costume "reads." There's much better contrast between the black and green parts.

 

In the end, though, this is just about freshening stuff up. It's hard to work with models that are so old and from a time when I was just learning to model. I keep seeing all the things I'd do differently now. With a handdrawn strip, the characters get to evolve over time as the artist develops them. With cg, the characters don't.

 

It's still a big IF as to whether or not I'll do another Wannabe Pirates story after I finish up this one, but if I do, I'll be redesigning and remodeling the characters.

[jakerupert]

I agree with the costume, that is looking better also the pirates blackhat.

 

The pale skin of Henrietta was great, a bit evil, a bit sophisticated, aristocratic like lady of that period, which avoided the sun,

though it might not be realistic taking her profession in acount.

 

Change is a normal development. I do agree and I don´T want to discourage you in that, just sharing my opinion, what I

personally would prefer.

 

Keep up your great work. Overall I am a big fan of your style1

 

cheers Jake

[largento]

It's crazy to be back in the midst of it again, but next Tuesday, The Wannabe Pirates webcomic returns!

 

Here's a preview of the first page (minus all the spoilery dialogue.):

 

[Rodney]

next Tuesday, The Wannabe Pirates webcomic returns!

 

Looking forward to it Mark!

[Dpendleton77]

It's crazy to be back in the midst of it again, but next Tuesday, The Wannabe Pirates webcomic returns!

 

Here's a preview of the first page (minus all the spoilery dialogue.):

 

Shiver me timbers I cannot wait to see this.

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

[largento]

Jumped the gun early and put up the first page tonight.

[Rodney]

Way to set up a story!

It'll be interesting to see you get to that point in the story given the impossibility of that scenario from so many angles.

Henrietta's response perhaps being the most telling...

 

Color me intrigued.

[Dpendleton77]

I am always impressed with your work.

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

That was what I was thinking, Rodney. Rather than just jump back into the story where I left off, do a little tease to get folks interested again. It's not a dream, though.

[Rodney]

It's not a dream, though.

 

That was my first impression (i.e that it was a dream) but I know you as being too smart of a storyteller to go with the first (easy) idea.

I'd post my thoughts/guesses... but sometimes that tends to ruin the whole process of discovery (especially for other people!).

 

I'd say you've got some really good clues in this first sequence for anyone who has been an avid follower of your strip.

[largento]

Just a note to remind everyone it is Tuesday and a new page is up!