And now we see a bit of Tenyo’s personality. She makes a cactus feel smooth.
Oh and a note on the “Blaine Package”. I personally don’t prescribe to that way of thinking, which is that David did tricks anyone could pick up at a shop and perform. Just borrowed that sentiment for Tenyo.
Won’t bore you with a magic lecture. Suffice it to say that the methods don’t matter. The reaction and effect it has on the spectator is what counts. Posting this now before I jog off into a rant.
Late again. But I had to appease the Dog eat Doug deadline before finishing this page. The interior of the magic shop is fairly close to the actual shop it’s based on. I know, cool huh?
There’s two other intriguing aspects to the real life magic store and both will play a roll in the comic. So, as you can guess, I’m not going to tell you now.
A day late but not a comic short. This one took a bit for a couple reasons. I have the entire story plotted but when I hit this page I realized it could be combined with the next page. So I scrapped them both and wrote this hybrid page.
And yes, this shop is based on a real magic store. I used to live right down the street. And it’s a magician’s magic store. By that I mean, unless you’re a magician, you would never know it existed. Yet a parade of who’s who in the magic world parade through the closet sized store whenever they’re in town.
A little side story for my magician pals: One Saturday at the shop I got to spend the afternoon browsing through and trying out a box of spirit slates and such with Eugene Burger. Now that’s a real magic shop!
It’s 12:51 in the morning, so technically I missed the Monday deadline. Hopefully this page is interesting enough to be a smidge late. And obviously it opens another plot line. This plot line also ties directly into the novel. And by that I mean the scarred, card manipulating dude is THEE bad guy.
Already on page eight. Just about at the end of act one, which simply means that in the coming pages the plot thickens. A lot. And, from an art perspective, I think the pages will lighten up a tad. Not sooo much heavy texture in the background.
Speaking of the art, I’ll take some pics of the process for the next page. Experimenting as I go, but I have a relatively simple process so far. It’s a messy process which is as I intended. And I need to fill out more of the site. Some pieces on magic and my research for the novel.
Any magicians reading? Bet you recognized one at least one of the names I’ve slipped in so far huh?
A day ate on this one. The holiday and my other strip slowed me down a bit. Yet here it is! Hope this page doesn’t feel too crowded. In the original scripts, this bit of exposition took up two pages. I dislike heavy exposition. Especially flashbacks. However, in this case, I felt I had to dip a bit into the past to set the emotional drive for the old couple. Tugs on the heart strings a bit? I hope.
And ever so slowly another layer is peeled back. Hope you’re still intrigued. Might run a little contest soon, before I start promoting the strip. Just a thank you for everyone who has come through the doors early and slumped down in a chair for a spell to see what this is all about. Think I’ll pull out an original drawing to put up for grabs.
Oh, and see those to gents escorting Mac in the last panel? Look familiar? Have a browse back through the archives. I’ve posted some images of them before. They come up a lot in the novel. It’s a lot of fun building something that is interwoven from one end to the other. A bit like building a puzzle from the inside out. Won’t really get to piece together the edges until the first novel comes out.
The plot thickens, which also slows down the art production. The next few pages will be interesting. A few glimpses of the shadowy side of magicians. Just a glimpse mind you.
In the meantime, if you want a complete story to read (or to read to someone), my new picture book came out last week. It’s dark too, so if you like this art I think you’ll love “The Prince’s New Pet“:
So there it is. Savachia’s reason for doing whatever it takes to make a buck. And who’s at the door? You’ll see next Monday.
This is a character that will be in the first webcomic story and in the novel. She is based on a real magician, Princess Tenyo. I’m a long way off on her look so I’ll share some sketches from the process.
Here’s the page where I finalized the layout for the first page. And I’ll post the final art tomorrow (I hope).
And here are the finished inks for the first cover to the webcomic. The next step is the coloring and some digital renderings of antique playing cards. Hopefully the finished product will pop.
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