Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 16

This is why I love comics. No words can do justice to the image Jake drew on this page. Here you can read why I had asked Jake to draw, but really what I wanted was exactly what he did draw.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 15

I had originally though the countdown would be best in numbers (10, 9, 8...) but when I saw it lettered, it had a really strange feel, so we switched it to spelling out the numbers (ten, nine, eight...). Part of it was that last balloon. A single "1" felt like it was not a word -- it was too lonely. "One" fit so much better.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 14

This page has the important Pasconian line "It's all my fault." A lot of the stories that I write have this line, because I'm obsessed with characters who struggle with the culpability surrounding their lot in life. In other words, characters who blame themselves for things that are bigger than them. What's really interesting to me is that by saying, "It's all my fault," Sama seems to be taking all the blame, but in reality it's a defensive dodge. By saying this, Sama avoids taking responsibi...

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 13

Yes, in panel two I give Jake about three different options of what to draw! Not usually a good thing in a comics script. But even early in this book, I really trusted Jake. I think he pulled it off.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 12

In the description of panel one, I suggested to Jake that he wait until the end to draw details of Sama's room. Jake outdid himself with nicely subtle touches like the growth chart that's shaped like the Butterfly Tree, the robo penguin toy (Broom!), and the tiny snail (one of MANY that Jake drew in the fringes of the book). But my fave is the inexplicable propaganda poster, featuring a character who looks surprisingly like Mr. Chain, with the word WIN in big bold letters.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 11

I knew that I didn't want the insects to salute each other in the same way that an America soldier would. I wanted it to be more ... involved. I practiced a lot of gestures during the day (which means a lot of people looked at me like I was insane). Eventually I came up with this two-handed insect salute. The right hand placed palm-out on the forehead, and the left hand stuck out from the chin, palm up.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 10

CAUTION: Spoiler! In the script I refer to the Cloud as "her," but if you pay attention in the printed manga, the Cloud is never called her, him, he or she.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 9

While I originally called out for Sama's mom to be off-panel, Jake made a great call by adding a new panel for her in the second tier. This is the kind of thing that excites me about comics -- what because panels two and three are actually a single moment in time (the balloon that overlaps the panels helps bring them closer together) but different camera views. By adding this new panel, Jake is literally separating Sam's mom from Sama and the old man, putting them in their own space. And by d...

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 8

This page is a great example of me going on and on to inspire Jake. Yes, instead of just saying "draw a picture of undertown landscape" I babble on for several paragraphs! Additionally, you can see that this is not the first time Jake and I have discussed these images. And yes, there are hints about the Sugar Factory's history in this script page!

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 7

A little dialog polish in the first panel, but otherwise, this is a pretty straight-forward page.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 6

I originally told Jake that I envisioned the Old Man with facial hair ... but when I saw the early sketches, he looked too much like a kind old (but weird) grandfather. It was Jake's idea to add the liver spots to his head, which totally works for me.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 5

I changed a line in panel three to echo the same line that is said at the end of the book. I feel lucky to have been able to make changes like that!

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 4

One of the nice things about writing comics in the Internet Age is that it's easy to share reference photos with your collaborating artist by simply including a link in the script. It's interesting to look at the book cover I sent Jake and see how he took inspiration from it while making it his own.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 3

All of the dialog is numbered per page, that way the person lettering the manga can make sure he or she didn't miss a balloon! Also, I've included here some pics that I sent to Jake as reference. Even though Sama's dad isn't supposed to BE my dad, I though this visual reference would be a nice touch, especially considering my dad's very real heart condition was such an important inspiration for this story. (Yes, that's a little Jim Pascoe in those photos.)

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 2

Jake did draw a number of different versions of this page. We liked them all, but decided this one had the most tension.

Articles: UNDERTOWN: THE SCRIPT -- BK 1 PAGE 1

Welcome to the serialization of the full script for Undertown Book One! I will be posting the entire script unedited (well MOSTLY unedited ... I'll take out my occasional foul language and any spoilers). This is what Jake used to draw the book. A couple notes: 1. This script includes not-final dialog. After the book was done, I polished up a lot of the words, making sure the characters were sounding right. So you may find that what you read here doesn't match up. But that's part of the fun! 2...

Blogs: DEAR GOD...

Still very lazy. I really need to get on the ball and start writing again. Oh well; at least I'm still drawing, in any event.   Speaking of drawing... if you're an artist, you'll understand exactly what I'm saying; whenever I look at my old art, it feels like stepping into the Twilight Zone-- a crappy drawing you made, like, four years ago, you were all proud of it then and it took you, like, an hour to draw, but then four years later, it takes you an hour still to draw, but your art l...

Blogs: I WON!!!

Hello there everyone! For this entry, I'd like to do some bragging: I am an official winner of Script Frenzy 2008! My hard work this month has paid off!!     Now, on to my future progress for anyone who cares. Right now, the plan is to continue writing scenes for my script, lay it down, and then adapt it into a novel, to make my plot stronger. Once I'm done with that, I shall edit my script officially, using the novel's plot, and possibly even adapt it into a graphic novel/webcom...

Blogs: NO MORE FRENZY.

Script Frenzy ended at midnight this morning.   It came as a bit of a surprise to me. All day I was either at home and too busy to write (laundry, food preparation, schoolwork, etc.), or somewhere else and not able to write for the script (music lesson, church homework program, grocery store). After staying at church until some time past 10 in the evening, we went to the grocery store and lingered there until well past 11. The trip itself was good because I remembered everything I want...

Blogs: STILL WAITING...

My previous post about how long it would take to get some of the pages up, I now know, is still very best-case scenario. It was based on the assumption that I would finish my script this month and get to work right away... either drawing or revising. But I might not be able to get to work drawing and revising right away. I probably won't have the script finished by the end of the month.   What happens when I'm stuck a little over the halfway point six days from the end and have little ...

Fiction: TAI'S CHRISTMAS

This will be a one chapter story with just Tai. I'm doing this so that I can practice before moving on to officially making Judgement and submitting it to Tokyopop. The script is really small I know, but like I said, it's really just for practice. And if you're wondering why it's a Christmas story even though it's April, it's because I have a wierd obsession with Christmas time, and I think that with all the Christmas decorations and snow falling it should be very challenging for me t...

Blogs: FOURTH FRENZY DAY... FINALLY.

Fourth of April, fourth of Script Frenzy month... about 12% through the month with 12% of my script finished... and a whole bunch of things.   I think I really did a lot yesterday... I cleaned out my inbox and deleted old messages (~570!), drew a few pictures, practiced music, did a whole chapter from my Earth Science book, wrote four pages to my script, and I think I did a bit of programming too.   Somehow, I'm well on my way down the same path for today, since I had a chapter ...

Fiction: JUDGEMENT CHAPTER 1 SCRIPT

This is the script for the first chapter of Judgement. I'll add the story board for this chapter once I'm done with it.

Illustrations: COVER DESIGN FOR "UNION OF THE EAST'

Sets in future earth is far East. All the races like Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Manchurians and Mongolians had changed name. One alien race the Eaglotons ruled all of them in a very crude way. One young man was chosen to do something bold. To unite all the races as one, into one country to overthrone that alien race to regain independance.

Illustrations: COVER DESIGN FOR "LOVE BEYOND THE LAW'

A story written by me mainly about two lawyers who didn't know their blood brothers until they took a murder case. The convict is an aged woman who turn out to be their long lost mother. One of them is trying to rescue her but another pushing her to the death row.