MASSIVE Sqwertz

Thus ends the WEEK OF MASSIVE SQWERTZ. How’d you like it?

I liked it just fine. Doing MASSIVE SQWERZ daily really helped me ratchet in on what works and what I’m not so crazy about. This is closer to the former than the latter but there’s still a few tweaks to be tweaked.

The text is finalized unless anyone objects (please object in the comment field down below).

I think the reading order glitch is pretty much sorted and I’m currently able to do both the stems and the pipes with A SINGLE BRUSH TOOL. That, combined with glow around text as opposed to bubbles, means ALL my lettering time is spent in artful layout. A bit of discrete showboating is in evidence in panel 3 and I can there being more of the same in the future. It isn’t “standard” bubble and it certainly isn’t “Peyo” but you just can’t beat the economy of space from a design point of view. If other cartoonists can crack an eye and look objectively at reader experience I’d can see this style getting much more popular.

TOP TIP FOR LETTERING COMICS: I letter by copying from my script one blurt at a time and then pasting those blurts into pre-glowed “Lorem Ipsum” text blocks using the brilliant free clipboard software for Macs, Jumpcut. That means not going back and forth between my script software (Scrivener) and my drawing software (Flash) and that’s a substantial time savings as well.

PHEW!

What fun! I’d love to do another week of Sqwertz as soon as it’s feasible. And I’d like nothing more than to eventually go daily. Until one of those things happens – see you Tuesday, 6 AM!

UPDATE: I added panel borders. I fought it for this long because no-borders seemed more in keeping with my mobile-device-comics philosophy of “edge of the glass = edge of the comic” but, ultimately, the eye just wants a bit more anchoring in a full sized window while the difference isn’t very noticeable on devices.

Long live my new found acceptance of virtually universal comic norms!