Slam McCracken... to be continued

The above shows my thumbnailing process for Slam. I tend to scratch out tiny drawings and jot down notes rather than proceed from scripts. I hammer out a general plot, but individual pages or sequences may shift as they're produced, which usually produces interesting results. I personally feel that comics work well when treated as writer/artist collaborations, and am not a fan of artists hand-cuffed by overly-detailed scripts. The Marvel-Method is still the best, in my book!

Here are the next two pages from the story begun last blog; these were printed in a couple issues of Comicopia, but I can't recall if the concept was well embraced there.

After my experience with Platinum Studios, I mulled over what to do next with Slam. At the time, Zuda (a branch of DC comics) was a popular competiton for aspiring webcomic artists to receive exposure. I decided to submit a polished 8 page webcomic introducing Slam, and was absolutely thrilled to be chosen as a competitor.

I came in 6th out of 10 webcomics (if memory serves, Zuda has since collapsed, unfortunately). The competition involved garnering votes for entries, which meant that certain folk could 'stuff the ballot box' to ensure a winning concept. I wouldn't be arrogant enough to proclaim that Slam was the best webcomic competing that month, but I find the overall quality of the strip was certainly top 3 material compared to the rest.

Regardless, the experience inspired me to pursue webcomics. I'd submitted to Zuda a second webcomic called Perry's Trip (which may debut on Drunkdunk in the near future), but was informed that the site was ending. My webcomics dream abruptly went on hold.

I find Slam to be a very strong concept, visually appealling and quite different from run of the mill webcomics. I've shifted my goals somewhat, and have decided to treat the story as a finite graphic novel (with sequels to follow). Once I figure out how many pages it will run, I'll have a better idea of how much time and resources will be required to get it done.

In the meantime, I have other concepts I'm working on, and I'll speak of one of those next week.