Making of Gustoso Part 2
The draft for Gustoso! comics was completed in a single day. And the first process is to run the draft by Rameeza. She liked the story instantly, and that is the first approval process, I generally go through. And the first review I mostly get from is my mother, Bina, who has always advised me on anything cartoon, comic related since my childhood. But that is a topic for a long blog for a different time.
So as I said, the first panel I drew for Gustoso! was this. Naming the comic Oreo.
But after the first page itself, I knew something was off. There were two reasons.
One, the story is about strays who embark on a journey searching for something mysterious, mythical, elusive, and magical. And to give Oreo that status, won’t work as a story, because most readers might know what an Oreo tastes like.
Two, what if this comic became a huge success and then Oreo company decided to sue me! 😊 Wishful thinking, I know!
So I quickly started googling some foreign names for a biscuit, and eventually, I found that ‘tasty’ in Italian is ‘Gustoso’. It clicked with me immediately and on the same first page itself, I noted the name Gustoso!
Now, I will write a bit about the process I followed for Gustoso! This of course cannot be considered a blueprint to start your comic, but I hope this helps in figuring out your way of making comics.
While writing/drawing the draft, I don’t think too much about design, I just draw panel after panel. My intention here is to get the story flowing as fast as possible. My focus is mostly on the characters and their reaction.
Here as you can see I have numbered the panels as 2.4, 2.5,2.6, etc, which means it’s the 4th, 5th, and 6th panels on the second page of the comic. All these will change while I am finally going to the ink comic.
And here one panel is numbered 3.3,3.4,3.5,3.6, which means eventually in the comic, 4 panels will be combined into one. I don’t always make these design decisions while drafting, but some story beats deserve, more than a single panel treatment
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As you can see this is the panel, where we are introduced to the name ‘Gustoso!’ from a character’s mouth. And as the entire story revolves around the biscuit, I thought it needed that moment, so that emphasis is there from the beginning.
My main focus here while drafting is the expressions of three characters, a very happy cat, an angry dog, and a confused crow. In the background, I only roughly denote waste that is surrounding them.
I feel drafting is the most personal aspect of comic storytelling, it’s you sitting with a paper and letting your mind run wild. You shouldn’t think about the final output at all and should run havoc with your thoughts. Don’t play it to the gallery. 😊
In the next blog, I will explain both the inking and coloring process I did for Gustoso!
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Thanks
Sanid