Long John

Sketch Fridays #29 – Moulting

As I’m refining the dialogue for the second half of Chapter 2, I start thinking English-major thoughts that, ultimately, trip me up more than they possibly help by pondering things like thematics and archetypes and stuff like that.

Long John is ultimately about change––it’s in the tagline: “Losing Every Thing Changes Everything“––and Chapter 2 is where Long John first faces the major change that has occurred to him before Chapter 1 started. In between drawing, inking, and writing (not in order; it’s a recursive process), all the while aiming toward the end of Chapter 2, I distract myself by thinking of cover ideas.

I really enjoy covers that straddle the literal and metaphorical, which is really hard for me to do since I live so thoroughly in the former when it comes to drawing comics. I envy so artists who have a strong design sense that can construct not only beautiful, but meaningful, art for book covers. People like Becky Cloonan, Greg Capullo, Mike Mignola, and Sean Murphy are all not only able to select the perfect image to represent the content but are also able to speak to larger themes and ideas in striking and original ways.

For the drawing above I was inspired by the beautiful vignette-work of Melissa Pagluica. She crafts wonderful encapsulated scenes that show so much in relative simplicity, often in moments of peace and tranquility. I don’t think I captured that tone, but I feel like this pen sketch did catch the general tone that Long John has held, especially through Chapter 2.