About my Comics

About

I make comics with a video game. Although I am very proud of all my comics it should be noted that they are not always the most professional and high-brow of stories. Now I really hope they don’t offend anyone but in case they do, I am sorry.

Process

I first think of an idea, create some pictures and then collect those pictures into a strip. The main differences between me and other comics creates are that I tend to never write scripts and that I use a video game to make the pictures. Not writing down my plan has backfired several times when I’ve made the pictures and then forgot what the story was. Making comics with a video game seems to have worked out fairly well so far.

Posing

The video game in question is called Garry’s mod (GMod) and it is a modification of the source engine by valve. The main thing about this mod from a comic making standpoint is that it allows you to spawn and pose ragdolls into scenes with other models as props. A ragdoll is a model with a skeleton that allows you to position individual parts of a model in a specific pose. Ragdolls are usually humanoid models that can easily be used as characters. There are many other models and maps which can be used as props and locations respectively. You start by spawning ragdolls and props to set up the scene. You then modify the scene and take a picture every time you do. This allows you to create a series of pictures that can be used as frames in a comic.

Editing

I then use photoshop to edit these frames. Editing can mean several things depending on the comic in question. The most basic form is a layout, that is positioning the series of frames into a single image to make them look more like a comic and less like just a bunch of pictures. On top of this dialogue and sound effects are added. These can be done with simple text and speech bubbles ore they can involve fancier fonts and overlays such as stroke and gradients. Beyond this some comics involve additional effects such as motion blur or muzzle flashes to add to the presentation. These are the most difficult to do and require the most work. My general editing style is very minimalistic with a very simple layout and very little additional effects.

Posting

Once the comic is posed and edited it's time to put it out there. Facepunch.com is the main meeting place of the GMod community. There have been several other forums created (Some geared mainly towards comics) but they either died or were not very good. Facepunch has a rather vast comic making community, although it has declined a bit in recent years. You can still find the occasional good comic there.

Characters

This is a list of the characters you might see in my comics.

Antlion King (Normal, Tactical, Old)

Antlion King is a normal everyday person if a little unsure about what is going on around him. His Tactical persona is an everyday badass. His old persona is him when he's old. They all go on adventures with Wearwolf and his various personas

Wearwolf (Normal, Finger poseable, Tactical, Old)

Wearwolf is a crazy person. His finger poseable persona is even crazier and a bit unpleasant. His Tactical persona is a crazy badass. His old persona is a crazy old him. They all go on adventures with Antlion King, sometimes more than one at a time. (Note: The finger poseable version is less relevant these days as all models now have finger posing)

Seb

The everyday face of a superhero. He lives a fairly ordinary life.

Antlion King

The not so super face of a superhero. He runs away to an ordinary life.

Antlion Queen

The everyday girlfriend of a super hero. She a lives fairly ordinary life as well.

Cakeman

Cakeman is an evil villain. He enjoys baking cakes and trying to take over the world. His various attempts so far haven’t gone so well. Most of them have resulted in letting lose other evil things that also want to take over the world.

Cakeman's henchmen

The Minions are the heart of any evil origination. They are the ones who do the dirty work and get hurt in the process. Cakeman’s minions are no different and they are the very best minions that cake can buy.

God

Is this god, someone or something pretending to be god, or maybe just a crazy patient who thinks he’s god? We may never know but what we do know is that he’s up to something.

Teddy Bear:

This Teddy bear is the evilest teddy bear in the entire world. He has the power of mind control and possession and will use them to cause terror and destruction wherever he goes.

Captain Bill

Bill is a decorated officer of the metro police. He has served against for humanity for years and knows all the tricks. He doesn’t suffer fools well and would rather get down to shooting them.

Private Freddie

Freddie is a rookie and the result of a new program to turn out as many cops as possible without training them at all. He’s a little clueless and a bit unsure about everything but he tries his best.

The Comic Maker

The Comic Maker is the control of the comic world. He sets the scene, collects the players and starts the action. This is his world and he intends to have fun with it.

Fred

Fred is caught in the comic world and has no idea why. He is helped along by a narrator that only he can hear and a bunch of faceless voices he can’t quite understand. He has no idea how he’s going to get out.

Sam

Sam has been trapped in the comic world for years. She/he has a faulty gender selector that causes them to constantly switch between genders. She/he is unsure of who he/she is and why she/he are there.

Striker

Striker is infected with explosions. Normally he’s a normal person if a bit weird but the constant presence of the urge to say boom has driven him a bit crazy. He is not entirely sure how to deal with the whole thing.

Nexus

Nexus is Strikers friend and roommate. Though a bit eccentric at times he has a firm grasp of the universe and the universe is alright with this. He sees his friend in pain and wants to help him but isn’t quite sure how.

Wearwolf 2.0

This is basically me. Although I have used many characters to represent me and them all do represent myself in some way this is the highest level one. This is basically me as a comic maker.

Facepunch

One of the things that came out of the facepunch comic community was the idea of personal skins. These are basically characters that are used to represent a real life comic maker in his and other people's comics. People mostly make or get someone else to make an edit of one of the pre-existing models so that it is unique to them in some way.