So before things go further I take one step back and decide to plan the album. Trying to get the right number of pages, I create a serie of gags, the problem is to get an album from the a logical progression. The ideas don't necesserily make a story, but I want the events to follow each other not to be just a gag then an other...
So I put the storyboard for each page on the ground, making a giant puzzle with holes where the should be a connection, then I create some pages, decide to move some parts... Trying to get an album without "fillers". In the end I have too much pages for the usual 46 pages... The second volume was already on its way! Well and as the second volume goes, I think some of those ideas might find their way to the third volume...
By the time, the idea of a web comic was gone, I wanted it to be a book (even thought some web-comics turned into books, either self published or released by real publishing houses), althought I had created a spine-off for the web-comic purpose... Where only Red Puma would appear, where she would be giving up her passion for warfare to learn... Magic... But everything would be sor complicated to juggle especially the fact that I was doubting I would be able to meet deadlines such as posting a page a week... Even if for the spin-off the style changed to something a bit simplier and easier to make... But no... It just stayed at the stage of idea.
I liked this project, I thought it has potential, that it could be published... But Summer ended and I was back to work, full time waking up at 5AM, coming back at 7PM or later, journey to work taking five hours of my life each day, taking evening classes, so I was more in a zombie state, brain dead and unable to work on anything else...
Althought, in November 2008 during a week of vacation, I started to pencil some of the pages... Included the first page again, the father character had changed, I did some research on Native Americans, to try to be more accurate even if the project is humoristic and I take some liberties on the subject. In less than one week I will pencil about ten pages, things are finally moving!
The thing is, I don't know if I am a funny person or if I can make good gags, but the ideas make me smile and while pencilling the pages I laugh alone on some of them... I try to ad also some details, references... Even very cryptic ones sometipmes... For exemple the name "Big Jim" comes from an action figure from the 70's if I recall well, a sort of pre-Action Man. Some details or characters are reference and tribute to Morris and his character "Lucky Luke".
But I have to get back to work, trying to draw every now and then until I have about twenty pages pencilled, enough to send my project to a publishing house... If only some of them were inked and colored... I start with the first page, ink and color the first half. Just the first half.
By the way we are already in March 2011...
If it took so much time, it's due to the demise of my personnal life, the end of a relationship which lead me to sitting for long hours watching TV series but certainly not working on anything seriously... Althought I managed to start few things on children books... That were supposed to be faster to draw... But are not finished yet... Anyway, that's another story.
July 2011 comes, vacation time! I finish that first page and manage to complete the next two, inking two more pages during the month, then work stops, back to school, meaning to work...
Auntumn 2011, during a week-end I finalize the cover -which changed since- and send my projetct to various publishing houses... But only negative answers...
During spring 2012, I worked a bit more on some inking and pencilling and then nothing for a year...
With time I can say how much the doom of my relationships prevented me from continuing my work. Ok, I have to admit I am also a bit lazy at times... But still...When you're not in a mood to draw, drowning in apathy or on your nerves, you don't want to take a chance to get mad and punch your Wacom!
Summer came and I worked on an other project -Daemon Project- written by a friend, for which I did some pencilling then. During July and August 2013, I finished pencilling and inking the 10 pages we set up for the presentation of this project, and while finalizing the coulours during the autumn, two more pages were done, so I could send a new version of my presentation to the publishing houses in the same mail as Daemon Killers... But both projects got negative answers...
I buried again my project in the sand for a year... Thinking about options to publish it... Still not willing to "just" put it on the net...
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