Like my construction foreman above mentioned, Far From Home is getting a bit of a face lift. I’ve recently received some really good advice as to a few things I might do to improve the site and the comic itself. I’m currently working on implementing some of these changes and should be back up and running by the second week of September! To paraphrase Ah-nold, “Far From Home” will be back!
Thanks for sticking it out!
Mike
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Some of the folks who read this comic have noticed something that confuses them a bit. Why is there such a striking resemblance between the “Cap’n” of the prologue and Jake, the true protagonist of the comic? I mean, were they separated at birth or something?
Well, to put it simply, when I started out with this the “Cap’n” WAS Jake. The original prologue was meant to be a tip of the hat to the great Bill Watterson and one of my favorite comic series of all times, “Calvin and Hobbes.” (Thus the name “Calvin” for their little scout ship.) The prologue would have continued just as in its present state, but when we came back to reality “Dad” would have discovered Jake asleep on the bridge, next to his teddy bear Mr. Oso.
As I started getting into the story, I realized that there were two reasons why it wouldn’t work as I’d originally written it.
First: I wanted Jake’s character to fall into the 8 to 10 year old range. Old enough to, at least in this future, know enough to do things he did (like hacking his Dad’s access code) and some of the things he will do in future installments. The problem was, when I went to school, any 8 to 10 year old that still played with teddy bears got beat up a lot. The more I thought about it, the less “right” it felt.
Second: I realized that to set up the story like I wanted to, Jake was going to have to get into a lot more trouble than he would have for simply breaking into the bridge and falling asleep. So the prologue went from dream sequence to television show. Why will watching a television show get Jake into more trouble than he already is? You’ll have to tune in this Saturday to find out. ALL WILL BE REVEALED!!!!
So why not just change the character model for Jake and avoid confusion? In a word, I like the character model for Jake. I wanted to keep it. In the future, probably after the current story arc is completed, I’ll revisit the prologue and replace the “Jake/Cap’n” with a more stereotypical, square jawed, testosterone pumping action hero type. Then the whole thing will make more sense than it does now.
I know it’s more trouble, but, I wanted to save Jake as he is now.
So there you have it, one of life’s minor mysteries (very minor) solved.
Until this Saturday, WHEN ALL WILL BE REVEALED!!!, (sorry, got that phrase stuck in my head . . .)
Mike
My wife and I found ourselves in the States a little while back trying to tie up some loose ends. In going through some of my old junk I found these xeroxes of pencils from a story I was working on in high school. I don’t want to say how long ago that was, but I think the yellowed paper speaks for itself. Somebody break out the radio carbon dating equipment . . .
As you can see, I was heavily influenced by anime at the time. I really like Captain Herlock and Mobile Suit Gundam.
As I might have already mentioned, before starting the “Far From Home” comic I hadn’t picked up a pencil in a long time . . . too long. I’m hoping, with time, to recapture some of the attention to detail that I see in these pencils. I don’t want to go the anime route again, but there are aspects of these pencils that I like and something there that I lost along the way.
Anyway, thought I’d share them with you all,
Things are looking good for the next installment of Far From Home coming on Thursday. Until then . . .
Mike
A few excerpts from this coming Saturday’s issue of the Far From Home Webcomic. Thought it might be interesting to see a few before and after shots.
Look forward to seeing you all this coming Saturday . . .
Until then,
Mike
My original intention was to do this comic in black and white. I even finished the first page that way. Later I changed my mind and committed to full color. My thinking was that as my technique improves (long way to go there . . .) it will open up a lot more possibilities. I don’t think the nebula would have looked as good in B/W either. I think (hope) I made the right choice. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to post a few of the panels from the original first page so you can see the difference.
