Greetings mortals, I am Jussi and I have been summoned from the void today to talk about the CD2 comic.
I’ve been a comic enthusiast for as long as I (or humanity) can remember, and I’ve always fancied myself as a comic artist, even though I’ve never managed to publish anything. So I was ecstatic when I was informed that the story of CD2 would be told through comic pages, and I would be the one to draw them.
I usually draw comics in a style similar to Mike Mignola, with lots of black areas and simplified shapes. Our art director felt it would not fit the style of the game too well, though, so I had to adapt a bit. At first it felt weird not getting to use a ton of pitch black shadows, but it was interesting (and somewhat time consuming) to come up with a new tweaked style that still fit into my comfort zone and didn’t take ages to produce. I did get to try out a bunch of new things though and I might have actually learned a thing or two.
First thing to do, was designing our main character, Clayton. He originated from an old pre-production picture where he was still just a random nameless digger lost in the caves. I can’t even remember how he ended up as the comic character eventually. His first iteration was problematic with all the details it had, so he kept evolving into a more simplified design. Also, the first concept really makes him look too innocent compared to the rough & tough a-hole he is.
I also ended up removing most of his weird glowing gadgets, as they would have made everything a bit too colorful for my tastes.
The overall process of drawing a page starts with me trying to decipher the thoughts of Jaakko or Ari-matti (depending on who wrote the issue). Then I quickly whip up a storyboard page so we can all be sure we are on the same page, and I didn’t completely misunderstand their point. Once we have a complete storyboard for the issue, it’s easier to spot some logic or continuity errors, and I can finally start drawing the real thing.
The most surprising thing about the comic for me was how long it took to make detailed line-art when one can’t hide things under a completely black shadow. The lizard city shown above took longer than I’m willing to admit. Also, since we don’t have that many pages to tell the story, I have to cram a lot of detail to the panels we have. Normally I would have drawn completely new panels just to show the atmosphere stuff in the background of most panels, but you work with what you got. Not that panels without any text or action would make great content for a comic inside a game anyways.
Although it is still mostly a product completely dependant on the premise of CD2, it did feel great to finally get a printed copy in my hands though. It kind of made the comic finally feel real to me. I could actually see it as a comic and not just some random extension to the game itself.
I don’t really know what else I’m supposed to write here. A complete depiction of the process of making a full page step by step would take me a whole day (not to mention how boring that would be), and I do not feel up to that.
After all, I’m here to draw, not to write.
-A human with a pen (Jussi Pylkäs)
Random development quote: “Justus miten menee? -Jee kivvaa…“
