XTIN: The Dragon's Dreamworld (NSFW)

[JeremyRay]

Looking for readers for my scifi/horror webcomic -





Current page as of this posting -



Read more at XTIN.NET

I've been through growing pains with the art and story, but I think it's getting solid now.
I got a short but positive review on Bloody-disgusting.com a while back, got nominated for SmackJeeve's best horror webcomic, and one small publisher is looking at it (probably won't bite because horror isn't their thing, but hey it's another bit of validation).

Thanks for looking :D

[Lefhalas]

I thought I had a painful imagination... Well at least I know that I won't be able to sleep for the next couple days with those images in my brain meats.

I read up through the middle of issue two but I don't think I can finish it. Unless suddenly you introduce a pink dolphin that shoots people with helpful bullets...

[JeremyRay]

Hah well I guess it works as a horror comic then!

It may be having the effect I wanted - if you come back later, finish it, and understand it.

I was heavily influenced by Trent Reznor's approach to making "The Downward Spiral." He said he wanted to make an album where, the first time you listen to it, you don't know what it's about but you'll listen to it again. By the 8th time you listen to it, it's your favorite album and it's not worn out yet. The first time I listened to The Downward Spiral, I didn't get it, I didn't like it, and I put it away for a long time. Eventually I came back to it, understood it, and it became my favorite album. It's well worn out now but I respect it greatly and consider it one of the greatest albums ever made.

Making a horror comic may not have been the most commercially-wise decision, but I've tried to make a good entry in the genre and filled XTIN with the things that horrified me. When I read about the O'keepa (a real Native American ceremony), I put down the book it was in and didn't look at it again until I started writing XTIN. Alien monsters aren't scary. The things your neighbors are capable of, and may even need, are scary.

I'll be glad when it's finished and people can evaluate it as a whole.

[Lefhalas]

I was heavily influenced by Trent Reznor's approach to making "The Downward Spiral." He said he wanted to make an album where, the first time you listen to it, you don't know what it's about but you'll listen to it again.

I would agree about TDS but for me I listened to it and then went deeper and deeper into the album obsessively.

I check the rest of it out but I think I need a week for my brain to decompress. I'll just say for now that it absolutely made an impression. Not sure what it is yet.

[DBrewer75]

Wow

Thats awesome

[JeremyRay]

Please vote!



Lefhalas - Better make up your mind before you're past the event horizon. You're headed in.

Downward Spiral is a big influence on this book. The name may even be influenced by NIN. Also, Marilyn Manson - the Antichrist Superstar era art, his lyrics. Tool is a heavy influence. Lesser known artists like Robert Rich.

Joey - Thanks, always good to see someone who gets it. It's awful when no one does.

[JeremyRay]

Uh oh, two pages this week! I'm going to try to swing Monday and Thursday next week too, and see if I can keep it up. I was comfortably able to get this page done in 3 days, and I had to redraw the last panel after realizing I'd worked in an unnecessary camera angle change.

I believe I could get up to three pages a week, if XTIN was a paying job and I could hire professionals to fix all the stuff I've been having to do myself. I'd say I easily lost enough time for another page to drywall this week.

This page begins the last scene of issue 2. I think it's going to be long, maybe another 20 pages. You're going to learn a lot in this scene, and things will start to make sense. If you're having doubts about how well this hangs together, this scene should end them.

I'm eager to have it finished. When it's done I can start shopping the book around, do fun things on Kickstarter . . .

I think I may change the way this is collected, and instead of having Issues 1,2,3,4, as planned, have a volumes 1 and 2. If this goes 20 more pages, than I've probably got enough concept art to fill it out to 100 pages. That's a pretty decent size book. Nearly as big as I thought the whole GN would be.

I am so looking forward to having that first volume in my hands!

[JeremyRay]

And that's enough comic pages for three 22 page issues. It's not significant in terms of webcomics, but it still feels like a milestone.

New vote incentive - more of those dang ad designs. There's one I like this time.

I'm going to try for a M W F update schedule this week. The next page is about halfway done, I should be able to do it.

[Vince Lee]

Hey Jeremy!

Really striking imagery. Not my cup of tea at all in terms of subject matter, but you have some really nice formal composition and details going. The inking details really help create the mood.

The only suggestion I'd make is to work on the sense of space. As surreal as the imagery is, I think it would help to really show where characters are in relation to each other. I think all it would take would be pulling the camera a little wider and showing ground plane in some of the shots.

But again, really striking, and congrats on all the accolades! :)

[JeremyRay]

Vince Lee - Here's one with more establishing shots.

The way I have to rush these things to get three done in a week, it'll be a miracle if they don't turn into total crap.

XTIN isn't for everyone, but what genre is? It was conceived as a horror story, but it's all there for story reasons. You'll find out soon.

[JeremyRay]

Please vote!



I believe there's another page or two per week to be had, under certain conditions. First, I've got to stop doing the home maintenance jobs I've been slowly bumbling my way through. There's easily a page a week right there. Second, I need new equipment and I need to get out of GIMP. I'm thankful GIMP is there, and it's all the hobbyist needs and more, but it's not production grade software. I'd guess I lose half a page a week to GIMP's not-quite-layer system, to the buggy pan/zoom tool, to having to manually make bold/italic text, to having to wait soooooo long for a complex lasso selection to close, to having to autocrop layers . . . It goes on and on and on.

Naturally dealing with those two problems is going to cost a bunch of money, Across all the sites I post XTIN on, there may be 400 people who read the comic. If everyone would chip in $10, it'd go a long way to solving the problem. But if I put up a donation jar, 4 people would chip in $5 each. :(

I'll shoot for a MWF schedule next week too and we'll just see what happens.

[JeremyRay]

Please vote!



Pg 43 - ten panels folks. I drew seven yesterday, while taking time for other things. It helps that these panels are small. There's more perspective to set up, and more composition, but the inking is less work and that's where most of the time goes. But still, seven panels in one day, with lettering. I may manage to get on a daily schedule with my current equipment (if it survives).

The next two pages could be a bit on the painful side - try to make it through to next week. Don't bail until after next week.

Oh yeah, it's nice to see the 170s again! Can we make the 160s?

[JeremyRay]

44 is up at XTIN.NET. It's too adult to be posted here, so if you want to see it and you're over 18, come by the site.

[JeremyRay]

45 is up at XTIN.NET. Not for kids.

[JeremyRay]

46 is up. The first panel is gross, but there's important story development on this page.