Usually, I try to finish a comic within 1-2 hours. However, doing “No Reservations” actually took a lot longer than usual to complete. I thought it might be nice to share with you some of the process that it sometimes requires to create a Baneslinger comic.
Don’t worry, it’s a sketch comic so it won’t take too long.
Lately in the comic, Shawn has a bought a big gun and has been looking for something to hunt. I thought a African safari might make for a good strip. So I wrote it out and outlined like I usually do.
Now, with this particular comic, I thought it was about as funny as my usual comics, but it didn’t really satisfy the “Funny for both newcomer and fan” requirement. Any newcomer might enjoy the joke, but anyone who had read the previous strips would have seen it coming. This might have worked as a random Never You Mind comic, but not so much within this Baneslinger thread. I was unsatisfied with it (for other reasons as well), so I ditched it.
Next, I thought it might be better to put Shawn in the middle of the safari.
This one didn’t get very far as it would be confusing to anyone who was just viewing the strip as a whole. It’s a western practice to give the reader all the information they need for a comic in one strip. This requires that I keep the comic relatively simple. But it can also be very limiting on character development (which is why you see so many social stereotypes in newspaper comics).
So, I changed the setting again, and placed Shawn right before he leaves for the safari.
Here is the initial script for the comic:
Panel 1:
Nate: Going somewhere?
Shawn: Oh yeah, I can’t find any good hunts here in the city. So I’m going to Africa.
Panel 2:
Shawn: I’m going on this elephant excursion safari in Africa to finally take down some real game and put it on my mantle.
Panel 3:
Shawn: I’m just trying to make sure I have everything I need for the trip.
Nate: And you don’t see any problems with this?
Panel 4:
Shawn:Yeah, I’m worried that my big gun won’t meet the carry-on size requirements.
Nate:When your train of thought derails, it just keeps on going, doesn’t it?
It’s usually best to have less text, so I edited out things for redundant information and dialogue (did I really need to say Africa in twice?)
Here’s the script before it hit the photoshop editor.
Panel 1:
Shawn: Well, that’s it Nate, I just can’t find any good hunts here in the city. So I’m traveling to Africa where the big game is.
Panel 2:
Shawn: I’ve joined this “Nature’s elephant excursion” safari. I’m just making sure I’ve got all the firepower I need for the trip.
Panel 3:
Nate: And you don’t see any problems with this?
Shawn: Yeah, I am worried that my big gun won’t meet the carry-on size requirements.
Panel 4:
Nate: When your train of thought derails, it just keeps on going, doesn’t it?
Shawn: It’s a hover train.
I feel that one of my bad habits is that I make the comic about the other character scolding Shawn for his actions. I didn’t want Shawn to seem like an complete fool in this comic, so I gave him the last line to make him come off a little more clever.
I place the text into the right spots (some more changes occur) and then I draw some crude skeletons to figure out the position of the characters.
From there, I drew the black outlines that you see in the final comic. If I wanted to try harder, I the art would go through a third inking stage, but I don’t really want to spend the time (as you can see I can get pretty obsessive if I let myself). I then fill out white and gray silhouettes to make the characters stand out.
