Fade

Issue Synopsis: Holt and Nachtmann have acquired a strange map that Holt is drawn to despite Nachtmann's protestations that it is likely garbage sent to him by his colleague Gaston Vruk. In truth, Vruk obtains the map in the pursuit of artifacts from the ancient (possibly fictional) city-state of Thauma. Vruk is a modern-day adventurer commissioned by Arthur Mathis in Boston. It seems there may be something to the map after all...

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Page 1

Page Commentary: Well this is the first black and white page. I hate giving up color, but I kind of have to. I want to meet a deadline. To compensate a little, I've added a good bit of detail, particularly when it comes to shadows. Anyway, this is where the story gets better.
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Page Commentary: Here are Gaston Vruk and Arthur Mathis, the last two characters for a while anyway.
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Page Commentary: Vruk's face turned out a little girly when I inked it. See the original here. Maybe one day I'll learn how to ink.
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Page Commentary: This is my first page on Bristol board. I understand the reason for using this stuff now. My inks are much cleaner, and erasures disappear completely. Also, I wanted a third tone here, so I used sumi-e ink to get a gray wash.
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Page 6

Page Commentary: This one's been sitting around for a while uninked. I've lettered the pencils for now. I'll try to ink it soon. Or, I might just start posting the pencils. Hate to do that though.
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Page Commentary: Another un-inked page. Vruk cannot make out the Thauma insignia visible on the first page. This will tie into the story soon.
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Page 13

Page Commentary: Took a while to draft out an official copy of the map, but here it is. I needed to work out some mechanics and logistics, hence the delay.
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Page Commentary: Now in color! I tried a new, much easier coloring technique here. Let me know what you think.
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3

"Too Full of Sleep to Understand"

November 19, 2006

15 Pages

News and blog

What's going on?

February 23, 2010 09:19:31 AM

What's happening with me lately? Well, I've had some really intense stuff at work that has required my full time. I have one of those jobs that sometimes fuzzes out into my personal time, so I have to skip out on Fade when that happens. Also, I'm in a bit of an artistic funk about the next page. It's something hard to draw well, and the way I've drawn it just feels like a cop-out. Finally, I took some time to redesign this very site. As it stands now, my home-grown blog/database/image viewer code is getting dated, and it's not very robust to things like page size. I need something more adaptable, so that I can start using bigger pages, like the ones seen in most webcomics these days. So, I unveil my beta at <a href=\"http://www.fadecomic.com/beta\">http://www.fadecomic.com/beta</a>, which I will make live after a few trusted users bang on it to make it break. Visually, it's about the same. Behind the scenes, though, it's totally different. Hope you like it. Oh, and enjoy Holt's (in-character) Tweets. He'll drop little story bits from time to time.

I'm back, baby!

November 28, 2009 02:11:56 PM

I'm back, with a new page. Sorry. Things were a little strained at work. I was having a little difficulty finishing something that needed doing. I've done it though, and I'm very happy with the results, so I've celebrated by actually working on the comic for a change. Hopefully I'll be pushing out more pages here. This is the good part, and I want to keep things moving. Honestly, I had a bit of artistic blockage, too, but I'm working past it. Enjoy.

Having some writer's block: preview of what's to come

October 18, 2009 09:09:05 PM

Hi. I'm currently getting over a little writer's block. It's probably clear that this is a major turning point in the story. Finally, we're coming to the end of the "origin" story, and I need to know how exactly to move on. I've got it mostly worked out. Will post soon.