As some of you may know, I’ve been working on a new project for the past year or so. It’s intended to be another webcomic, released in chapters (or maybe scenes, I don’t know yet), and I’ve been in the writing stage for what feels like forever. I’m still writing it but I’m getting closer to a place where I can start doing some actual drawing.

Usually, I come up with a very loose idea for a story and then just start drawing it, hoping that instinct and serendipity will get me somewhere good. This time, I’m trying really hard to actually write the thing first–make it good and solid from the ground floor so that it works as a proper story without my having to worry about what it is half way through. I’ll post some of my scripting false-starts later but today I thought I’d share some preliminary character designs.

These are by no means final. They’re just scribbles and sketches to see if I can coax the vague concepts from my head and turn them into something real. If all goes well, the visual depictions of these guys, even incomplete, will work back into the scripting and make the writing more clear for me. It’s kind of a give-and-take; the more I explore the kids and their world, the easier it is to imagine actual scenes and dialogue while I’m writing. So without further ado, here are some of the first sketches: