Shatterspin #1 is out!
Hey all! In case you missed the news, Shatterspin #1 is out in stores right now! I know it's taken a little longer than expected to get the comics in your hands but I hope that it's been worth the wait.
With the book finally released, I thought now would be a good time to delve into some behind the scenes stuff about the making of the comic.
Things are a little bit different the second time around.
So here's an interesting bit of information: I was not originally supposed to be on (interior) art duties for Shatterspin.
As soon as Ninjago: Garmadon wrapped up, I was pretty much signed on to tackle the follow up series but in the more limited role of writer and cover artist. These Ninjago books are super fun to work on but also require significantly more time and effort than any other comic to produce(in my experience) and I already had my hands full working on "The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn" and "Big Dreamers".
Thus, I wrote the first several scripts of Shatterspin thinking that I could write with impunity, believing that some other poor sap would have to figure out how to draw it later. Well fast forward a year, I found an opening in my schedule to be the penciller (but not inker) for Shatterspin and I'm wondering to myself why I decided to have Garmadon change to a drastic new location every four pages in the first issue of Shatterspin.
Pencils.
I've never actually "pencilled" a comic before. In this digital age, the line between "layouts", "pencils" and "inks" can be extremely blurry. Because I tend to do everything myself, I often take shortcuts in the "pencilling" stage and just draw enough for me to be able to ink over.
With Shatterspin, however, somebody else would be providing the finished line art so I needed to find a balance of drawing the pages tight enough for somebody to understand but not TOO tight where they feel like they just tracing over my drawings (which is no fun). Because I didn't know who would be eventually be inking my pencils, I erred on the side of caution and probably pencilled the pages a little tighter than usual.
Fun fact: I tend to make to do a rough lettering pass in the pencils so I can tweak the dialog to better match the visuals.
The Inks.
Shortly after, the project found its inker: Riccardo Robaldo!
I've never actually met Riccardo before and to this day, we haven't even exchanged an e-mail. But I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw his inks for these pages:
This was the first time any one's inked my work and it was interesting to see how another artist handles things differently than I would have. Riccardo has such a beautiful, precise, but also energetic line... I'm a little jealous of it haha!
After seeing these pages, I felt a lot more comfortable to loosen up my pencils because I knew the book was in good hands. If you've seen the book, you'll know what I'm talking about!
So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this little behind the scenes look at Shatterspin #1. If you have any questions or if there's anything you want me to cover, let me know in the comments below!
Cheers!
Tri