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Arthur, King of Time and Space Arthur, King of Time and Space

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Arthur, King of Time and Space

3/20/05

Recording the creative process and the Temple of Doom

Usually when I have a gag with a lot of repeated figures like this one, I do what any webcartoonist would do: I cut-and-paste.

If I have a gag in which one, some or all of the figures are identical in two or more panels, I'll draw the figure/s once, scan it/them, and paste it/them into each panel where the character/s so appear/s. (Those are easy to color too - I just color the first figure, select the colors without the outline, and copy the color selection into the figure/s in the other panel/s.) If I have a gag in which some figure/s are near identical in two or more panels, I'll draw the figure/s once with all the attributes required for every panel, scan it/them, paste the composite figure/s into each concerned panel, and for each panel erase the bits that don't belong there. (Coloring these is more difficult, which is why I say cutting-and-pasting near-identical figures into multiple panels is probably more work than drawing each panel separately.)

Usually.

Today I had six near-identical figures. I've never had six near-identical figures. I didn't believe I could draw the figure in all six configurations (well, five; the only difference between the first and second is Arthur's mouth) at once, scan it, and not have it come out too muddled to sort out. So I drew the figure in one configuraton, scanned it, erased his arms and drew them in the next configuration, scanned it, etc. Consequently there were minor differences between the figures in their outlines, even the outlines not erased and redrawn, that required individual coloring of all figures (except the first and second).


Webcomics I read mornings: The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge,
Peanuts, General Protection Fault, Todd and Penguin, College Roommates from Hell!!!, Kevin & Kell, Real Life
Webcomics I read middays: Calvin & Hobbes, Least I Could Do, User Friendly, Questionable Content, Dandy and Company, Queen of Wands
Webcomics I read evenings: B.C., Pearls Before Swine, Count Your Sheep, Sinfest, Irregular Comic, Little Dee
Webcomics I read bedtimes: Something Positive, Bruno, Wapsi Square, Alice!, Sluggy Freelance, PvP
Webcomics I read M-W-F mornings: El Goonish Shive, Checkerboard Nightmare, Penny Arcade
Webcomics I read M-W-F evenings: Reasoned Cognition, Fish Institution, Theater Hopper, Megatokyo
Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa: Digger, AppleGeeks, Striptease, Her: Girl vs Pig, Order of the Stick
Webcomics I read Mondays: The Whovian Observer, Skirting Danger, Framed!!!, Vigilante, Ho!, Butternut Squash, Boxjam's Doodle
Webcomics whose archives I'm in the middle of: Schlock Mercenary
See also Talk About Comics, The Belfry Comics Index, The Webcomic List, Nth Degree, 100% Originality Theatre, Comixpedia and Websnark.

Arthuriana sources I use or recommend:
Arthurian Legend
Arthuriana - the Journal of Arthurian Studies; the website of the quarterly journal of the North American Branch of the International Arthurian Society.
The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester.
Camelot In Four Colors: A Survey of the Arthurian Legend in Comics
Mystical-WWW - The Arthurian A2Z knowledge Bank which has encyclopedically-arranged entries on the characters of the Arthurian legends.
Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table, Volume 1 and Volume 2.

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