Iris Comic Book

My brother Ruth has spent a lot of time studying media and art in school with a strong focus on comic books. After seeing some of his artwork, I was inspired to design a comic book that we could work on together. I also recruited my good friend Rob, who has a lot of experience reading and analyzing comics.

Gallery

Design

The main character in our comic book is a girl named Iris. She grew up in a rural commune, so she lacks an understanding of modern society, but also has some unique experience and perspectives. The story follows her after she leaves the commune and goes off on an adventure of her own.

Build Log

Summer 2019

The ideas for this project have been stewing in the back of my brain for a while. Over the summer, we started to put those ideas down and really refine them, paving the way for the first issue.

We decided to split the work up so that one of us would write the script, one would do the pencils and ink, and one would do the color. We’re considering rotating for each issue so that we could all try our hand at the different parts. For issue 1, I will do the script, Ruth will do the sketches, and Rob will do the colors.

Here are concept images that we’ve created:

Jan 25, 2020

We’ve made some good progess, although a lot of our time has been spent defining our working process and learning what tools we want to use. Ruth has generally being doing the sketches and ink on paper, then scanning it into the computer. I’ve convinced everyone that we should use GIMP for the digital parts of the process.

We have 2 pages complete, but they aren’t the first two pages. I’m waiting until we have page 1 done to start posting them online.

Also, the work necessary to realize the comic has proven to be more than we originally thought. Ruth has been too busy to focus on the sketching, so we decided to switch up the roles a little. We’re going to use what he’s produced for the first 4 pages, then I’m going to take over for the rest of issue 1. We’ll see how things work out for issue 1, then decide our approach for issue 2.

Oct 2, 2023

The last three years have been long. We survived a pandemic. I had a child. Despite all that, I’ve managed to stick with the comic book and I’m happy to say that all the pages of issue 1 are sketched, inked, and colored.

Now that that work is done, I can look back over the entire issue with a broader and more experienced perspective. In particular, I can take the time to spot mistakes and inconsistencies in what we’ve produced. I can also try to smooth out issues where my style evolved as I worked. I’m going to make a final pass to clean up those problems, then I will start looking into getting it printed so I can have a few physical copies. I like the idea of trying to sell a few just for fun, so I’ll see if the local comic shops will take them.

Because issue 1 has taken a lot longer than I originally hoped, I have a different idea of what I think we should do with issue 2. The time commitment of creating high quality, full color pages got in the way of having fun and collaborating, especially when this was just a hobby project that we worked on in our spare time. I really want to continue telling Iris’ story, but I want to make it possible for everyone on the team to be more involved. So I think the best route forward is to change the format of the next issue. It can be something much simpler and faster that allows us to capture the story but doesn’t demand so much time and attention. That way it can be more fun. And then we can reevaluate and decide how we enjoy telling this story.

Jul 9, 2024

The time has finally come to print the comic book. I have been talking to a local print shop and gotten some quotes. I also went ahead and printed a couple proofs.

I was unsure if I really wanted to make a proof since I was happy with what we had, but I’m glad I did because there were a handful of things that needed fixed up. I’ve always complained about how various media use brightened night scenes to make them easier to see, so I intentionally made a lot of pages very dark. But in the print version, they were too dark even for my esoteric taste, so I lightened them up. Also, because our technique evolved over the course of the comic, the first few pages had spacing issues where some of the panels were cut off. On the flip side, I’m proud of where we ended up because the spacing on the later pages looked professional.

It’s very cool to have a physical copy of this project in my hands. I’m looking forward to finally sharing it with the world and I’m curious to see people’s reactions.

Since it’s been so long in the making, I’m relieved to have this chapter done. But I’m also excited to tell the rest of the story and see where it goes.