We thought some of you might enjoy seeing how Carlos and I worked. We’d never collaborated before beginning Brother to Dragons, so for the 6 prologue pages, Carlos took a lot of steps to make sure we were on the same wavelength.
We’ve chosen to show you how page 5 of the prologue came to be. Obviously, it all begins with the word. Here’s my script for that page:
Panel 1 (large)
The innkeeper and Jiky are both cumming. Jiky’s on Alaï’s chest, the innkeeper on Jiky’s face. Much noise and rejoicing.
We see Jiky from behind, as he’s cumming. On the small of his back, a small tattoo has appeared and is slightly glowing red. There’s a bat-like wing, and a circle besides. Attention should not be drawn to this tattoo. We only want to make it look a part of the picture, seemingly an unimportant part.
Panel 2
The three of them, still naked, are near a kind of sink in the stable. Jiky is washing his face with a cloth (his tattoo has disappeared), and Alaï is doing the same for his chest. He’s blushing.
INNKEEPER (smiling): Well, your young friend is a find.
JIKY: He’d make a fine coachman. He likes grivs.
Panel 3
The three of them, now dressed, are going back to the coach, taking with them two grivs. The other passengers, chatting, are getting in.
The innkeeper is shaking Alaï’s hand.
INNKEEPER: Goodbye, Alaï. You’re always welcome at my inn.
ALAÏ: Thank you. I’ll remember that.
Panel 4
Alaï is getting in the coach. The grivs are harnessed.
The innkeeper and Jiky are hugging.
INNKEEPER: Come back quickly.
JIKY: I will. I’ll miss you, Boran.
Panel 5
Jiky is back on the top of the coach. The innkeeper is standing beside the coach. Alaï is looking at them through the window, smiling. Jiky’s eyes are beginning to glow, of the same red as his on/off tattoo.
INNKEEPER: And you too, young man. You have shown great promise.
JIKY (not very loud, speaking to nobody in particular): Yes, he has.
And now, the layouts that Carlos sent me:
As you can see, at that stage, Carlos pretty much stuck to my layouts for the page, but decided to put the emphasis on that first panel where everybody cums. I didn’t complain.
Here are the pencils:
What’s interesting for me is how Carlos already made some small changes, like the position of Jiky in the last panel. It’s more attractive and draws the eye of the reader to his expression. Then came the dialogue and colors:
Wonderful, warm colors (the red in that first panel was not chosen arbitrarily, by the way). Well, that should be it, shouldn’t it? But Carlos is the kind of artist who’s not easily pleased by his own work, and he decided to redraw the whole prologue. The version above is what we showed to Class Comics, our publisher, when we submitted the series, but the preview pages posted on this blog are what you’ll find in the published comic. So, here are the three stages of the second, improved version:
As you can see, the style is a bit more realistic (especially for the innkeeper), and panels have been added. Once I saw that Carlos liked dense pages (or at least, denser than what I’d expected), I did write layouts with more panels in the following chapters. More value for your buck!
I also like very much the new choices Carlos made, as in that last panel. Only showing half of Jiky’s face is really striking, in my opinion–and of course, it enables Carlos to add a panel in that last row. The new depth in the first panel is something that I’ve seen appearing more and more in Carlos’s art. This guy hasn’t done a lot of comics pages yet, but he’s definitely thinking hard about them.
Fortunately for his hand, Carlos didn’t do so many stages for each page of the comic. Once we’d understood that, yes, we were on same wavelength in terms of style and storytelling, he stopped showing me layouts and went directly to the pencil stage.
And that’s the true story of how Brother to Dragons was created.
After a long wait, the first issue of Brother to Dragons is now available from the Class Comics site, or from your comic shop if they’ve pre-ordered it.
