A few years ago I drew a comic called “Simon”, about a giant who lives a quiet life as a dock worker in a port town. It had a classic comic book layout, and coloring style that was rather “retro”, with bright and flat colors. It was 17 regular comic pages long, lenghtier than my usual Secret Knots stories, and just a bit shorter than a regular US market comic book.
I worked on this story for months, and in the end it was somewhat underwhelming for me. Some people liked it though, and a few pointed out that the conclusion of the plot was too opaque, that the very thing that serves as resolution is hinted at just too subtly, a blink and you miss it moment. They were right.
Some minor changes (in progress) in the color palette and text
Sometimes I realize that something is lacking, or missing, when I’m still editing the text of a comic, and then I make a lot of changes. But many times I need some distance to find out the wrong pieces, issues with clunky pacing, for instance, are a common finding this way, given some time. I think with ‘Simon’, I knew there were rather substantial things that weren’t working, but I think I didn’t have the energy to fix them right away. Recently I was reviewing the comic, and thought that the missing parts were clear to me now, and decided I could rework the comic and give a more definite shape.
Different text here too, and a bit of shading added.
Specifically, I’ve been working on three new pages to complete the tale, but differences in my current drawing led me to rework parts of the color, and change some inks here and there. I’m also editing the text, trying to make it more consistent in tone and rearranging it in relation to the new scenes. If I made this story again, I’m sure it would have a different art style, with different angles and framing in many scenes, but I didn’t want to re-work it completely. Instead the plan was to make a better use of all the work that’s already done, and to complete a narratively clearer one-shot comic.
Progress for one of the new panels
I intend to post the comic in the Secret Knots website, along with uploading a high-res, PDF comic book in digital product stores. I will make a special Patreon dossier for it with the usual sketches and notes, and the full dossier will also complement the PDF magazine version for those interested in adding it to their digital libraries. I’ve been working on this for a couple of weeks now, so it’s very close to completion, and of course you’ll be the first to know, and see the results. I also have to make a cover for this comic book, so I’ll be sharing the process for that too.
Thanks, and I hope you are having a nice week.
Juan S.
