Blog

How much to expect from a reader?

Brock Beauchamp
January 26, 2012

  This is something that I’ve been mulling over for awhile ever since I started drafting the 2002 story arc. The first Variables arc (that I have yet to finish) is very Ameri-centric in nature and can easily be picked up by any English-speaking person and read without difficulty. But that’s not what Variables is about, really. When I started drafting the concept with my friend Nick back in 2008, it was about placing super-humans in the real world and fitting them into realistic situations and actual events that happened. It also wouldn’t be confined to North America, as so... View Article

Introduction to Henri

Brock Beauchamp
January 24, 2012

This page starts off the explanation phase of this issue with the introduction of Henri. He’s a bit of a weasel and Karter has known him for quite some time. But given Karter’s past, he knows many sketchy characters because he is one himself. He’s not really a good guy. He has the best of intentions but, as with many nationalistic people, that fervor for their country is often led in a destructive direction. In other stuff news whatever, I’m building a bit of a buffer up right now. I’m one full page ahead as of today and by next... View Article

New art preview setup

Brock Beauchamp
January 23, 2012

I have never been entirely satisfied with the art preview setup I’ve used for Variables. While I think it’s cool to show the inks for an upcoming page, I wasn’t sold on showing the entire page and revealing what happens next in the comic. So I’m going to change it up for awhile and see how it goes. Instead of showing the entire page of inks, I’m going to show part of the page, fully colored, with no text bubbles in place. So there you go. I’m really enjoying this new coloring method I’m using, though the tiered nature of... View Article

Walkin’ down the street

Brock Beauchamp
January 17, 2012

One of the most irritating part of my mornings are coming up with blog titles for the day. It shouldn’t be that frustrating; they don’t matter. But I sit and stare at the empty field for five minutes anyway. I’m somewhat happy with this page. I like my new coloring style and think it will work nicely once I refine it a bit. On the other hand, much of the anatomy on this page is a mess. Overall, the page is a wash. I really don’t have much to say about it this morning other than “check back on Thursday”... View Article

Introduction to Nora

Brock Beauchamp
January 16, 2012

When I first started writing the 2002 arc, I decided early on that I needed a lighter character to compensate for Karter’s rather dark personality. Over the course of a few days, that character became the young girl Nora, a girl from an immigrant family in the Exarcheia area. She will appear a few times throughout the 40 or so pages of this arc and plays a key role in the end game of the 2002 story. I’m much happier with this page than the last, which is a little surprising. It has too many anatomy errors and by the... View Article

Laughing at the cops

Brock Beauchamp
January 11, 2012

This page’s coloring and lettering went much faster (and better) than I expected. Initially, I really disliked this page. Now, I kind of like the first panel. I think I did an okay job on the buildings and they came out pretty realistic-looking. Overall, I’m happy the page is done and I’m (mostly) not ashamed of it. This week, I’m getting back on schedule. Expect to see the next page preview on Friday or Monday (probably Monday) and then the full page on Tuesday. After that, I may slip in an extra page to try to catch up on a... View Article

Scene change

Brock Beauchamp
December 27, 2011

Strangely enough, the hardest part of this page was to find pictures of the uniforms of the Hellenic Police. I searched for nearly an hour before coming up with one image to show the upper half of their uniforms. After spending another half an hour looking for a photo displaying the lower half, I gave up and winged it. Sometimes, a guy can get stuck on the stupidest things that slow down production. Originally, this was going to be a two page week but with the holidays and family visiting, I doubt that’s going to be the case. Hopefully I... View Article

Cops!

Brock Beauchamp
December 22, 2011

I’ve been trying to see how much content I could produce for Variables on a weekly basis and after trying to draw, color, and publish two pages a week and failing at it for about a month, I’ve settled on a three pages every two weeks schedule for the time being. One week (like, say, this one), I’ll publish a finished page on Tuesday and a preview on Thursday. The following week, I will publish a page on both Tuesday and Thursday. That schedule seems to be my limit for production now that each page is taking me close to... View Article

Karter looking tough.

Brock Beauchamp
December 20, 2011

Here is the colored and lettered version of page six. I’m pretty meh about this page but considering the lack of action drawing I’ve done over the past year, the practice was sorely needed. Getting the poses correct was almost impossible and I had to give up at a certain point to prevent the page from taking 25 hours to finish. Next up is another 2002 page. Keep an eye out for the preview tomorrow or Thursday. I’m not very wordy this morning so that’s all I gots. Click through the image to jump to the first issue of Variables... View Article

Pow! Bang! Ker-thunk!

Brock Beauchamp
December 19, 2011

One of the reasons I wanted to start this story was that it finally allowed me to consistently draw action scenes. Variables will never be like a typical Spider-Man or Superman book with the amount of action it contains per issue but the first 30 pages of the 1992 arc were almost completely devoid of it, which kinda gets boring to draw after awhile. Plus, while intrigue is fun to read, it should be broken up now and again with action sequences. It’s one of the reasons I decided to re-write the second half of the 1992 storyline. Anyway, before... View Article

Return to 1992, colored

Brock Beauchamp
December 15, 2011

Here’s the finished page ten of 1992 #2! It’s kind of comical to flip back one page and see how much my coloring and drawing style has changed in a mere three months. I’m pretty happy with how the page turned out and while my next page is going to be a return to the 2002 story arc, expect to see another 1992 page posted within two or three weeks. I will bounce back and forth like this until I finish the first issue of the 2002 arc, at which point I will finish this issue and then, I’ll return... View Article

Return to 1992

Brock Beauchamp
December 14, 2011

Before I had finished too many pages of the 2002 arc and completely changed both my drawing and coloring style, I wanted to return to the 1992 arc for a page or two so that the disconnect between pages nine and ten of the second issue didn’t become worse than it was already going to be. So here is the first preview of the 1992 arc since I posted page nine over three months ago. As you can see, my use of black is going to alter how the rest of the book reads a lot. In previous pages, I... View Article

Agent Orange

Brock Beauchamp
December 13, 2011

Yeah… there’s a lot of orange on this page. I wanted to brighten it a bit to make the action standout but by the time I was finished, yikes. Still, I’m happy with the page and it was fun to draw something outside of people talking or an enormous background. The page even has a punching sound effect, whoo! I’m already pencilling the next page so expect to see that preview tomorrow or Thursday. I’m gonna keep it short and sweet so that’s it for this morning. As always, click through the image below to jump to the entire issue... View Article

And… Action! Again!

Brock Beauchamp
December 12, 2011

One of the great things about this story (and the reason I started it in place of the 1992 story) is that it’s full of action. Shooting, jumping, punching, blah blah blah, there’s a bunch of it. Every few pages, something else is happening to Karter that forces him to physically react to the situation. Considering how little action I’ve been able to draw in Variables (almost none since the first page of 1992), it’s cool to get to draw something so comic-booky. Speaking of the 1992 arc, I will probably return to drawing it this week and will post... View Article