At last! Episode One is complete, though that doesn't mean the doors for constructive criticism are closed. While I am currently focusing on just finishing the following episodes as best of my ability, I can take any suggestions for improvement, take note, and return later to improve. This comic, as well as most of my others, have been through production hell and victims of procrastination neglect for a while now. That and I couldn't figure out how I wanted the layout for the comic, specifically the title texts, and how I was going to add the text bubbles. The preset text bubbles that come in the software seemed too "perfect" for me, so I hand drew the dialog bubbles around the text. A bit of a tedious process, but not too bad. I like the hand drawn look of the text bubbles anyway. 

 Since I was already a third of the way through finishing the artwork, I revised the script while in the coloring stage, so any revisions had to fit with the action of the panel. Yeah, I'm not drawing the whole damn thing again. However, part of the reason this episode took so long too was because I was still in the design revision stage for Count Critzey which I had been in for the last six years or so. Every time I thought I had a decent design for the character, I drew him again and liked it more, so I had to keep redrawing his panels with the updated design. I couldn't decide if I wanted him to have eyebrows or not, either, hahah.

Mister Tawl and Mister Pudgie are a few of the first ghouls that I drew for the comic and I usually only do one draft of a character, meaning I'll draw it once, like it, then I shelf it for a bit to see if I come up with a better design, which usually I don't. But I do make improvements to the characters as my art skills improve.  

   Writing the dialog, even to me, sounds a little "uncomfortable" if you will, but I'm considering the first episode a warm up. The execution of dialog will get better down the line. Backgrounds are something I wish I could take more time on, but time is not cheap nor is it plentiful so I tried to make them as detailed as possible but still in that sort of simple, cartoon look that I really like. Placing the dialog and bubbles was another challenge, and I think it's something that I should probably plan out a bit better next time. 

 I'll be posting Timelapse's of the entire comic drawing session, but I am giving those a bit of time because I want to add my own custom music to it so that it's not just a silent film. I want to make an interesting sound that fits with the world of Death Valley and recently I haven't had any real inspiration. Well I did for a minute but when I tried to put my idea to music studio, it just wasn't coming out right. 

I know I said I aint drawing the same comic more than once, but maybe in the future I'll redraw some of the panels that obviously need a revision. 

   in this episode, unseen to the audience at first, Count Critzey and his two loyal, ghoulish henchmen are visiting The Spookyard Cemetery to retrieve the reported "Unknown Ghoul" for Lord Necrow. But once they find the grave, Mister Tawl points out that something wasn't right about the spelling (that ends up becoming something important later on). When they dig up the coffin, not only is Unknown still spelled wrong, but it seemed a bit light for an occupied coffin, as Mister Tawl also points out. They then return to Necrow's lair to present the coffin of the Unknown Ghoul as he requested.