Well, it’s finally here.  Everything’s a go, and the comics are launching. We’ve been working on getting a robust webcomics line-up going since April, and the fruits of our labor are now here for you all to enjoy every week.   Most important of all is the strip that launched today:  Lightyears Away.  It’s our long-form space opera that stands in contrast to the short storytelling exercises of Floodworks Presents, and the silliness of Fat Baby and Friday Funnies.

Work on Lightyears Away started for me in June, though it’s been one of those projects that Ethan and I have discussed at length ever since our first collaboration years ago in Ghosts of Floodtown.  Artistically, its very different from my usual work.  From its conception, I knew that I wanted to use the project to flex a very different set of storytelling and aesthetic muscles than I’m accustomed to using on our print projects like Breaker, Breaker and The Troubleshooter.  In those projects, I try to maintain a very grounded approach to my design work.  If something appears on a page, technology or otherwise, I’ve often given it more thought than any reader would likely realize just looking at it.  I think “Ok, this ship is a cargo ship.  How would a cargo ship function in a zero-G environment?  What kind of propulsion systems would work best?  What would be the best way for a cargo container to be offloaded or on-loaded?”  Asking myself these questions as I work refines the design and cuts away a lot of the useless visual clutter.  I also tend to think of things such as ventilation systems, deck placement, etc. etc.  This goes for buildings, city planning, pop culture, clothing, everything.

You see where I’m going here.

With this project, however, its a rare foray for Ethan and myself out of the hard science fiction range and into a universe with physics and technology on the rubbery, faster-than-light variety.  This is a chance for us to cut lose and have some fun without that nagging in the back of our heads calling for us to research every minute detail.  And I want the art to reflect that.

Going into the project, I studied the work of Jean Giraud, Enki Bilal, Philippe Druillet, Juan Giminez, and many other 70’s and 80’s bande dessinée artists.  This was the “voice” that I felt best suited Lightyears Away, so I studied the visual language and storytelling used in these artists’ works, and married it with my own sensibilities.  It’s still a bit loose, but as the strip goes on and I get my footing, it will no doubt become an interesting mix. While I wouldn’t call my regular work a particularly American style, I do have a creative voice that has been tempered by growing up in American culture.  So I’m trying to see from outside my own point of view on this book.  I’m attempting to let my lines be freer, as well as my design.  Practicality and functionality is not job 1 in Lightyears Away.  Hopefully as I marry the two schools of storytelling, they work in symbiosis instead of fighting with each other.  We shall see.

Colors are another area where I’m treading into unknown territory.  I’m used to doing more natural colors in my work, so switching to something with a lot more neon-saturated punch to it took a bit of practice.  I did a number of test runs on this first page to arrive at the look it has now.  I’m trying to attain a dyes and airbrush look in Photoshop, so as with the style, it’s a work in progress.  I began to think about what were the various aspects of dyes, and how did they get the color effects that they did using them.  With the next strip, I’m going to try using layers of multiplied color in a limited palette to achieve results closer to what I have in my mind’s eye.  All of this refining will inform not only my work here on Lightyears Away, but my other comics work as well, so it will be a valuable learning experience.

So with that, welcome to Floodworks Webcomics.  While this is a new step for us, we’re glad to have all of you along for the ride.  Feel free to comment on anything we put up, both good and bad.   We’re excited for what we’ve got coming up, and we hope you enjoy the journey as much as we do.