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Van's 240Z comic progress - EVEN NEWER ART! - 15/06/07


mikedoeslife

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Okay!  I've decided I'm definitely going to go ahead with the comic, though it will be a very long process due to other commitments.  That said, it's a go!

 

This is the first character I've designed for the story.  He's not the main character, but I can already tell he'll be my favourite.  ;)  He's probably going to be the best friend of the main guy (the main guy being the one who buys the 240Z).  He's a smartarse, opinionated, biased, and likes to stir the main character up. 

 

He doesn't have a name yet.

 

aaron.jpg

 

Stay tuned for more character art, and maybe another drawing of the S30Z!

 

UPDATE:

 

Here's the main character.  His name is Alex, and he's now got quite a lengthy backstory.  So he's going to be good fun to write and draw. 

 

Anyway, this needs some cleaning up, quite a lot of shaky lines on the car.  And colouring needs to be done, of course!

 

alex-sitting.jpg

 

Photo reference:

 

photo-ref.jpg

 

Yes, that's Ben Affleck.  Hey, you use what you can get, alright?  ;)

 

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UPDATE:  9th Nov 06

 

The number plate isn't permanent, I want you guys to come up with something clever (and inoffensive non-bogan of course, so nothing like "RACEME or CUL8R or NVMYZ) ;) 

 

I just wanted something to fill the plate for now :)

 

alex-sitting-colour-1.jpg

 

UPDATE: 17th Nov 06

 

Okay!  Here are some more sketches, and these ones are likely to make up the cover for either the first or second issue (second issue?  Sheesh, I hope I make it that far! Heh). 

 

The first sketch is our hero, Alex, sitting in his Demon Z (absolutely a nod to the Devil Z of Wangan Midnight ;)). 

 

alex-in-car.jpg

 

The next sketch is the bad guy, with one of his slags clinging to him.  I haven't got a name for him yet, and he's not technically a "bad" guy.  You see, Alex and he were racing one night about 5 years back - before Alex got the Demon Z - and the bad guy had his younger sister in the passenger seat of his car.  Something happened to Alex's car, causing him to collide with the bad guy's car.  The bad guy's car went careening into a power pole after a couple of spins, and his sister wound up dead.  The bad guy has sworn vengeance, and in the 5 years since that night, he's become quite the rough nut. 

 

Anyway, that's the idea at this point.

 

bad-guy.jpg

 

So these two sketches will be combined into one piece, with the comic's logo mixed in somewhere too. 

 

I hope y'all dig it!

 

 

UPDATE: 18th Nov 06

 

Okay, some test colours for the bad guy.

 

bad-guy-coloured.jpg

 

I used Pantone markers for this, which are an alcohol-based professional quality set of markers, and they're quite expensive.  Think AU$60 for a box of 6!  We've got 5 boxes so far, heh. 

 

Alas, I don't yet have as many colours as I'd like, and the guy's hair turned out a bit orange.  He'll have darker brown hair in the comic, but maybe blonde.  Not sure yet. 

 

Anyway, I hope you dig it!  The final colours in the actual cover will be much nicer, I hope.  This is all practice.  :)

 

EDIT: 8th June 2007

 

Here's a progress shot from a different scene, using a photo of Sulio's Z as the model (thanks to Sulio for mailing me a bucketload of photos on disc!). 

 

I've decided to use Photoshop rather than Manga Studio.  I'll probably still use Manga Studio for doing textures and speed-lines and such (those familiar with manga comics will know what I mean), but the actual sketching and inking will be done 100% in Photoshop. 

 

I'm hoping to use no paper at all!  Gotta love having a drawing tablet, haha.

 

progress-sketch.jpg

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Van, obviously your drawing talent is just great but how do you get the colors in your comics? Man you could be doing this as a proffesion!???

 

PM me if you want to organise a car for photos, I'll try and get a few together.

 

Sulio

 

I'll talk to Gav so we can incorporate the comic series into the first page. Have you thought of a name fo rthe series yet?

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Haha, thanks Sulio. The colouring is done in Photoshop, and while the process is technically identical to the process used in the comic book industry, trust me when I say my skill isn't anywhere near theirs yet! I'll get there eventually though, I think. :)

 

Yours would actually be pretty close to the ideal car for more photo posing, because you've got the bolt-on flared guards that Austin Hoke's got. Only major difference is that he has RS Watanabe Type Rs, but I'm sure I can work out a solution for that.

 

Haven't thought of a name yet! I was thinking about posting a thread here and over at JDM Style Tuning (my "home" forum, haha) asking for suggestions on a name.

 

Thanks for the offer to include it on the front page too, that'd be rad!

 

Edit: Thanks Vlad!

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Oh shit!

 

I Was Just searching Around the net and came across this nice bit of info:

 

11-7-06 (4:58AM EDT)---- Wangan Midnight Anime To Debut Spring 2007

Based on the long running street racing manga series created by Michiharu Kusunoki, a decision has finally been made to adapt Wangan Midnight to animation. Look for the project to manifest in consumable form sometime next spring in Japan. The announcement came in last week's edition of Kodansha's Young Magazine where the manga has serialized since 1993. No details on the project were mentioned besides the the sole expression of intent to commence with the animation. 36 collected manga volumes now exist on the market. A number of related video games have been created in the past which have featured in-game anime sequences. Developer Genki is now working on a new PS3 version game for release in 2007. Additionally in 1994, 1997 and 2000 a series of live action Wangan Midnight movies were produced based on the manga storyline. Similar to Initial D, the hero, Akio, races a Japanese classic sportscar, the Fairlady Z (S30). Unlike Initial D's Touge hillside drift racing focus, Wangan Midnight concentrates on Shutoko "Expressway" racing along the actual long Wangan (Bayside) stretch of highway between Tokyo and Yokohama. Real street racing occurs along this stretch virtually every weekend and down the long straight a high horsepower and properly geared car capable of over 200mph is required to even begin to compete with top dogs.

 

source- http://www.animenewsservice.com/

 

Man. It was okay when it was nothing more than a Japanese manga with no translated equivalent here in the west, but if they're going to make an anime, it's going to become a huge property. I'm gonna have to change the story of my comic! I'll keep using the Z, but I guess I'm gonna have to move any particularly obvious references to Wangan Midnight :(

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Sulio: Not sure yet! Probably only 4 or 5 regular characters, with various supporting members here and there. Tough to say until I get further along in the writing :)

 

Re. the gallery, I might do that! I've got quite a lot of webspace myself, but there's no harm in adding it here too.

 

Lurch: Hahaha! They'll be trendy and fashionable, but they won't be emo. :)

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UPDATE: 9th Nov 06

 

The number plate isn't permanent' date=' I want you guys to come up with something clever (and inoffensive non-bogan of course, so nothing like "RACEME or CUL8R or NVMYZ) ;)

 

I just wanted something to fill the plate for now :)

 

[/quote']

 

non-bogan ey? how about the plates that used to be on my car: "KW 11 CK". haha, no offence to matt who owns the plates and i bought the car off if he ever reads this but they're not my favourite. They're a bit cool, i'll give 'em that, but i think i just prefer standard plates.

as for plates for the comic, no idea. maybe "SICK-RE"

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yeah thats nice and simple. by the way van, if you ever want to chuck a little 280sex into your comics and you need photoness to trace or however you work your magic, then i can help you out.

on a side note: do you guys think the VIC number plate 280sex would be taken? id look like the biggest wanker, but dangit, if i had some funk blasting out of the stock cassette deck, who cares right?

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Saw a 350Z with the plates IIIV0Z today. Didn't think that the 0 in roman numerals looked good though.

 

Maybe "II XL Z" or if you want it in full roman numerals "CCXL Z". I like the "II XL Z", as it is how we (I) say it, if you get what I mean.

 

BTW, never been a big fan of comics, but the sketches look sweet.

 

Have you thought of making the story line a bit more interactive? Maybe come up with the opening story and then have a poll on where to take the story line next?

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i think my mate is getting (or mayb already has got) the plates SEVIIN, which is a pretty cool use of roman numbers, not really linked to any car though...

 

awesome drawings, and yeah y go freehand when you can trace it in half the time? eitherway its very impressive line work and a sweet way to render in photoshop, i wanna give it a shot, lol

 

where'd u get the a3 scanner from? it sure would come in handy, i'm not even sure if the uni has one, it should somewhere...i guess, it has an sla printer so it really should! how much was it? is it as bad as the price jump from an a4 to a3 printer for that 10cm more of printer head movement, but i guess thats a matter of mass production...

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Dave: Thanks man! I might indeed throw in a couple of encounters with a 280SX and the rest of the Z descendants, so I may call on you for some of that! :)

 

Matt: I love the idea of using Roman numerals, although I can invision people having no idea what it means, and assuming the XL part is just "Extra Large". :(

 

As for the story, absolutely. I have every intention of allowing the fanbase (if I'm lucky enough for the comic to build one!) to help decide the direction of the story. I want to do as many community things as possible, to give people a real sense of involvement and even ownership. I might have contests where the winning idea/suggestion gets their car featured in a couple of pages of the comic, etc. I think folks would dig that. :)

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...ah we eagerly await.

I'm back in two weeks so we can take care of those pics then. I beleive you'll need pics from above also which means we might have to find a spot with say a bridge for birds eye view pics that can be used for some of the side by side racing!?

I reckon it would be cool to have a matt black 240 with dark tint windows enter the story at some point, (Christine style), of course he will have to come off the Bolte or Westgate bridge racing at some point never to be seen again with driver identity to be a mystery! :? haha getting carried away already! :)

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