Along with the strip, I’ll be keeping a blog that will go up simultaneously. The first many blogs will be shout-outs for the support I’ve received, and then likely get into reviewing SF strips, books, etc.
There are many “thank yous” I owe for everyone who helped me develop Spacetrawler over the last year. There are plenty of incidentals, people who lent an ear and fielded ideas. Anya, Catherine, Naomi, & Indigo come to mind, although I’m sure there have been many others I’ve talked about it with, and many others who have put up with my chatter about it.
As far as direct editorial feedback, for this post I wanted to mention Dan Wolff, who provided me with strip-by-strip editorial remarks on the entire batch of the first half year of strips. Actually, he did this TWICE at two different stages.
I originally met Dan because I was reading local blogs, and I came across his. I was astounded by his writing ability (and continue to be). He and I became friends, and eventually collaborated on our Wild Life project, and he and I (with two others) formed cookrookery, where you can read his excellent writing.
On Spacetrawler, he provided guidance with everything from tone, to character, to jokes, to grammar. Â I found his feedback on the tone of characters and suggestions for punchline tweaks to be continuously solid. Thanks, Dan!
Well, for the background of Spacetrawler, I plan to do much of the reference layout  on the computer, and then then do loads of trace-work. My Lilliputian light table, knee high to a grasshopper, I knew would eventually cause my emotional breakdown.
Will I have all that much to show before the strip begins (current guestimate, the first week in January)? Well… likely not. Visually I want it to be a lovely surprise. That said, I will show you here some sketches I did for some interiors (at bottom of this post). Currently I am working with Bob Goff to build the interior for the main spaceship of the comic in 3-D models, so i can do constant quick references for each panel. So, these interiors I’m showing here will bear similarities to what will come, but are far from what you’ll see.
Spacetrawler is a new comic I’ve been working on since around  November, 2008. I played with characters and storylines until early 2009, when i finally nailed them down and began writing scripts for it in earnest. I worked with someone to design 3-D models of my spaceships in the spring, and am currently working with someone else to build the interiors. Sometime in late August I finished writing and thumbnailing almost 1/2 year’s worth of strips. I then had the had help from 3 friends in editing the heck out of it. I just last week finished a new draft, and am already working on tearing that one down. I also have worked over many designs on the characters, and finally feel I am close to knowing what they will look like. Thanks to my webmaster, I have the website now up and going, and I am going to start documenting my work more, as well as figure out how to use ComicPress.
