WH!TLESS
from 2/15/2008
Click here to go back to main WH!TLESS page.


So it was great to get the first strip done, but let’s face it: a black and white comic on the web just doesn’t work. On the web, color’s free, so you really need to use it. Additionally, looking at the list of characters, it was going to be over 40 people, so I could see I was in for a nightmare. Most comic strips use maybe a half dozen regular characters. So I did some experiments and came up with a  way to produce the comic in CorelDraw, where I could color them digitally, and also manage each character as individual drawing “pieces”, and reuse them whenever possible. This way I could manage a huge number of characters, but keep the workload bearable. It’s also known as “being lazy.”
For each of the characters in this strip, I drew them in black and white pen and ink as before, then scanned them in (converted to scalable vector drawings) and colored each character individually. This way I can reuse each character at whatever size needed.
The joke here’s pretty obvious, I think the only reason people thought this one was ok was because it was the first color comic. There’s a bunch of characters I really like in this one, but my favorite designs are travelchick and candypimp. I’m also proud of Kryptaku, since pulling off a picture of the “Death of Superman” graphic novel was tricky. I also like Shellgirl, ShoppinHolly, Harnzilla and N8.


All text and images ©2008 Campbell Graphics, LLC
"USA Today" © Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

click here to see the same strip with characters identified