#171
Here’s a title page for the new Dinosaur Kid story.
It might look like some kind of grimdark post-apocalyptic nightmare, with all of the animal kids perhaps abandoning their canonical vegetarianism — but that’s not it. The source material is the First World War. If you’re a parent, guardian, or really squeamish kid, don’t worry. This’ll be a war story, yes, but it’s all water-based weaponry. Squirtguns and such. There’ll be no dismemberment, open wounds, gas attacks, or other gruesomenesses. Those are important details of the war itself, and they shouldn’t be forgotten, but they don’t need to be part of this story.
I’m mainly interested in the ways that WWI transformed the world. I don’t want to say too much about it because, I’d rather let the story show you, but this picture — adapted for the title page above — is very illustrative.
This German soldier, upon his horse and beneath his gasmask, sits on a fence between two different eras. WWI ushered in some really harrowing changes, and I can only begin to scratch the surface with a Saturday-morning-style comic.
Speaking of the comic, though, I’m having a ton of fun writing it — the most fun I’ve had since DK vs. Tooth Fairy. This title page is watercolors, photographed with a smartphone camera, but I’m going to do the story digitally — in black-and-white — for convenience and quickness.Another benefit: each watercolor comic is confined to a single page, but not a digital one. Working on the computer, a single update can scroll as far down as I want — and that means more frames, better pacing, and a bit more banter.
The whole story’s 100% outlined, 33% written, and 15% drawn right now, so I’m going to upload what’s ready and schedule them to post once per week. Hopefully, this is a pace I can keep up with until it’s finished later this year.
Oh, and the story’s title comes from this Wilfred Owen poem.
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