Commentary on page 5:

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- Before I get down and dirty with this one, I thought I'd share the rather lengthy process that goes into making each page of the Sonic CD comic.

1) I write a brief synopsis. This usually includes several other pages before or after the one I'm working on, so I usually don't have to write one very often. I've found that writing them in my lunch break at work is very useful.
2) I write a script for the page. Again, this doesn't take very long, and gives me a good idea of how I'm going to draw the layout on the page. I change dialogue depending on space, or simply if I don't think it reads well after re-reading it.
3) I draw up a rough pencil draft of the page. Basic scribble marks, to denote which character is standing where and all that. I rarely deviate from this draft, so I spend a good half an hour or so, getting it exactly right without fear of screwing up.
4) I draw up the panels for the page. While this is relatively easy, it does get tiresome, trying to line up the ruler exactly right, so the page doesn't look wonky.
5) Pencilling. I pencil the action from the draft and script up onto the final page. This often takes me a good 3 hours or so (sans breaks).
6) Basic inking. Tracing over the pencilling in ink. Takes about an hour. The calm before the storm, one might say.
7) Inking. This is the thing that most artists loathe, and simply would not do it, if it didn't look so fucking good. 5 or 6 hours are usually spent inking, but that's been increasing lately (and with positive results I've found).
8) Touching up on the PC. This is when I'm usually all smiley and happy about getting another page done. Takes 10 minutes tops.

- And so, the narrative begins. As the comic has moved into panels, I shall be providing commentary on each. They will be given their own sub-headings, and hopefully, I will have some interesting things to say about them. If not, I shall simply disregard the panel and move on.

- But first, have some extras from this page. First off, the original scribbled draft of the page can be found here ([link]), and the pencil/pen progress on this page can be found here ([link]).

Panel 1

- If various films, television shows and other media have taught me anything, it's that starting with an aerial shot is a good way to start a story. It's all a good techinique for cramming in as much exposition as possible. You're told exactly what Sonic and his friends are up to in the first few minutes of reading, which I think is very important.

Panel 2

- This is one of the first instances of panels being edited on the computer by me. The original panel had Sonic's lip extending a bit too far, and coming off as rather strange. As the detail is so small, I was unable to white it out, and therefore used my graphics program to edit it. So, if you ever see the original page (which is unlikely), be prepared to see long lipped Sonic mouth action, baby.

- Some basic information about the Animal Friends is required, I think. In laymans terms, they are the animals that pop out of Eggman's robots in the early 90's games. They were spotlighted in Sonic the Hedgehog, and were extended into various other animals (such as bears and eagles) in the sequel. In this panel, you can see Rocky (the walrus), Picky (the pig) and Ricky (the squirrel). The other animals include Pocky (a rabbit), Cucky (a chicken), Pecky (a penguin), and Flicky (a bird).

Panel 3

- I am useless at drawing maps, and was dreading having to do this panel. As you can see on the draft, I desperately scribble "MAKE IT INTERESTING" as a side note to myself. Either way, while I'm not totally satisfied with it, it certainly came out better than I thought.

- While Rocky's comment about "3 miles" was off-hand on my part, I think my one page depiction of Sonic running to the Never Lake is about right, in that respect. Then, of course, I can't really measure the whole time/speed/distance thing via a comic page. Hmm.

Panel 4

- I think Sonic's expression (and Rocky's dialogue) here speaks volumes about his cocky, impatient attitude towards everything. Rocky's response is a nice foil for character, pre-Tails. I've always had devised made up personalities for all of the Animal Friends, and Rocky's would be the long-time friend, who knows how to make Sonic tick. Obviously, this is my own intepretation, as the characters have zero personality in the actual games, but I don't think it's too intrusive, canon-wise.

Panel 5

- It was David Bulmer's ([link]) suggestion that Sonic starts running off, attempting to cure his boredom, and I thank him for it. You'll learn that I crib a lot of ideas (recent and not so recent) from him, but I try to make them "my own" as much as humanly possible. His actual suggestion for this page was that Sonic would be doing "tricks", whilst walking with his friends, but eventually I abandoned this in favour of making him run off and effectively act out the animated intro for the game (more on this later).

- Just a quickie; I love Ricky's expression here. It's great.

Panel 6 and 7

- A nice thing to note about in these panels are Sonic's legs. In panel 6, they are the classic "oval" running shape that you get in the games when you've built up some speed. This is, obviously, an optical illusion, and I've used this to my advantage by making the background on the sixth panel a complete blur of lines, whilst on the panel when we can see Sonic's legs out of the illusion, the background is more solid and defined.

Of course, I completely contradict myself on the next page by making him run in a figure of eight, with the solid background. Oh well.

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And thus ends page 5. Join me soon for page 6!

>> Future! (Page 6: [link])
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