Allie makes comics!

Talk about inconsistent posting, I know! But, today, I am giving my thesis presentation, which in my mind really kicks off the senior thesis portion of my grad school career. I don't much like public speaking, but I can't say how much I'm looking forward to that opportunity to focus. (Although, to prevent myself from focusing too hard and getting stuck, I'll be attempting to alternate between the two rather different flavors of storytelling referenced above - from eerie dream-inspired exploration into the unknown to goofy interpersonal antics with a Heavenly twist, and back.)

( Some more thesis talk and a few goofy illustrations from the slide show. )

I'm incredibly excited to sink my teeth into all this now that I have a proper plan, and I'm intending to leave here with two major stories well underway ... carrying me out into post-school life with a good store of momentum. I hope!

Here are a mishmash of conceptual sketches for Ash's (still untitled) story, to give a taste of what a lot of future posts are likely to consist of ...



( Another setting & preliminary character brainstorming ... )

Hey kids! So I wanted to post a quick little update over here, even though I haven't really been creating a whole lot of finished art of late. Everything I have is currently being thrown into my first semester final project. As I mentioned last post, it's going to be the introductory chapter of Goodness Knows, a graphic novel I've been messing around with conceptually for awhile now. Essentially, it's a coming-of-age story about a slightly wayward angel who is assigned to do community service on earth, and the young (human) woman she befriends there.

Getting the vague set of ideas and half-developed characters that I've been kicking around for years nailed down into workable concepts and a concrete script was a challenge, as I expected; I haven't really sunk my teeth into writing longer fiction since I graduated from college (and decided I needed to spend some time on learning to work with comics as a medium, without taking so much time on research, character development or worldbuilding). I freaked out a little and plagued people with a lot of questions and conceptual rambling. But! I'm well on track with a full script, thumbnails, and several penciled pages ... the finished chapter will be twenty-four (plus covers), and I'm hoping to debut it at MoCCA, the last weekend of April.

So for the timebeing I'm deep into a lot of stuff that isn't ready to show, but I have a couple of sneak peeks I can share! ( A model sheet, a page preview, and FANART OMG. )

I should get back to the grindstone (less than five weeks to go, yikes), but I'll leave you with one more little preview of a short piece starring the Goodness Knows characters ... drawn for an anthology I'm waiting to hear back about! I'd feel bad about leaving Mickey out of this post entirely, honestly, and besides - I finished this thing in February, and I'm kind of dying to show it to people. Thanks for reading, darlings, it's always appreciated!

Good morning! It's snowing here in Vermont (already. again.) ... and finally, I have a longer comic to share! A fantasy comic at that, which I've been wanting to do for ages.

The following was my answer to our "bibliomancy" assignment: we had to put our fingers down at random in three places in a reference book (loosely defined), and use what we found (words, phrases, even images) at predetermined points in a four(ish) page comic to move the story along. I'll list mine for you after the comic!

I don't have a proper cover for this at present (I'll make one later, for the print version), but this is called "The Swamp Bride."



( Comic continues under the cut! )

If any generous commentors have a minute and wouldn't mind leaving me their take on what's happening in the above pages, I'd be deeply appreciative! ♥

Apart from the above, I'm mostly wrapped up in finishing a twelve-page story and helping to design and edit the anthology it'll be a part of, but here are a couple of odds and ends.

( A defensive little diary comic )

And finally, I actually drew some of my ongoing characters for a change:


Luce and Mickey, patiently waiting their turn (it'll come, I swear). Drawn for a postcard exchange with my amazing friend Dea (you can see us walking & talking in the background).

That'll do for the moment, I hope ... back, quite literally, to the drawing board with me. If you're in the U.S., have a lovely Thanksgiving; if not, just have a great week!