Wednesday's WIP 25 - Carlotta and Bahia Steps

Hi!

Thought I'd show you a case of strip creation and progression!

The first thing that happens is that I do the script (we have our own page dedicated to that).

The result looks like this:

SCRIPT 0135

SCRIPT SUMMARY

Carlotta is in Captain Bahia's cabin and realizes what she is after.

CHARACTERS

Carlotta

Bahia

PANEL 1

Bahia is sitting next to Carlotta now instead of opposite of her, feeding her another bite that Carlotta is accepting.

BAHIA: "One more?"

CARLOTTA: "Just one."

CARLOTTA: "Lobster, please."

BAHIA: "You have a good taste."

CARLOTTA: "You know you're wasting your time?"

PANEL 2

Bahia is using a napkin to wipe Carlotta's mouth now.

CARLOTTA: "No one will pay ransom for me."

BAHIA: "Shush. Shall we move on to dessert now?"

CARLOTTA: "Thanks, I'm full."

BAHIA: "Not that kind of dessert, silly."

PANEL 3

Bahia has a hand on Carlotta's leg, stroking it while leaning in, talking into Carlotta's ear.

BAHIA: "I was thinking of a more intimate feast."

CARLOTTA: "Ohhh, is that why you kidnapped me?"

BAHIA (whispers): "I will show you pleasures unkown!"

PANEL 4

Carlotta is laughing, amused now that she realizes what Bahia is offering. Bahia seems a bit confused and grumpy now.

CARLOTTA: "Pleasures unknown?"

BAHIA: "Are you trying to refuse ..."

CARLOTTA: "Hell, no!"

CARLOTTA: "Untie me and I'll show you who you're dealing with."

Elena then reads the script and does a first layout draft (step 1) and sends it to me. If there are any changes (sometimes happens), we fix them and then she moves on to the lineart (step 2), again sending that to me. It's rare that there are still things to fix at that stage, but it can still happen. Then she does the halftones and sends them to me (step 3).

Finally, I do the lettering of the strip (step 4). Very often there are some tweaks in the text, because I either realize I don't have enough space, too much space or have the feeling (like in this script) that the punchline is not funny enough. It's not uncommon for me to revisit a script several times before I'm happy with it (and still make changes when lettering. :P)

Further steps (not shown) are to include the character logo on top, resize, then also create a version with text at the bottom (for posting on social media) AND also a censored version if needed (mostly for Instagram and Facebook, in case of nudity).

Before the actual update, I also create a teaser to post on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).

A day before official release, I (of course) post the strip here, then release the teaser to Social Media.

Also on that day, I usually make the webpage changes offline and then test them. The testing space is great because I can often catch small errors in the html code there (sometimes they slip through, unfortunately, really depends on what they are).

And finally, on update day, I then put it live on the webpage and post the strip to social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit - 3 channels).

Then on to the next one! :D