Okay. Seeing as I’m always too tired to be bothered with thinking up comments when I upload TLKc I thought I’d just reflect on it in a journal.

One of the main reasons why I started this comic was because I was terrible at drawing anything on four legs. I could draw quads standing up and staring blankly at the viewer but I couldn’t draw them doing much else. So I chose to draw a comic that would force me to draw what I couldn’t.

The first issue was a disappointment. The art wasn’t too flash. I drew simplified versions of the TLK characters because I skilled enough to understand or replicate them. I wanted to keep the art consistent, but I kept on improving so unfortunately the art of the backup was a lot better than the art of the main. The opposite of what it should be. Also, I had no understanding of how colours relate to each other and it showed and the only method of adding dimension I knew how to do was in big blocks or a darker colour and with line weights. It’s not very noticeable but the line is thicker where I expect a shadow to be.

But it wasn’t because of the art that I was disappointed with the first issue. I knew that I was drawing above my level so of course it’s not going to reach the level I aim for. The reason why I was disappointed was because of the writing in the main story. I thought I did a pretty good job with the backup, but that added to the problems with the main. The main story is supposed to be the meat of the issue but I felt it necessary to say to hold out for the backup.

In the main story, I missed many opportunities for character development and I completely wasted my chance to establish Simba’s character. I did this by breaking one of my writing rules: characters should always be responsible for their actions. Mind control is a cheap trick used to preserve the goodness of a character while allowing you to make that character do bad things, and I don’t like to resort to such tricks. However, This mistake got through during the process. Initially, Gale simply convinces Simba to do as she says, but somehow, probably while trying to fit the story in 16pgs, I broke my rule. And all that Simba did was no reflection of who he is.

I paid little attention to character development in the main story. I took it for granted that people have seen the movies and know the characters and I jumped straight into a story, which needed buildup. Further limitations were created by using such a massive font size, reducing the amount of dialogue I could have, and dominating each panel. The general idea is satisfactory, but I gave little reason for people to care about the characters in the story, and if you don’t care about the characters in the story then that story is meaningless.

The backup, I thought, was a different story. I focused only on a few characters and I actually, established them, as a first issue should do. I think it was a good idea executed relatively well, although it wasn’t without its problems. I had just read the first twenty issues of amazing spiderman and, back then, there was a lot of narration. In my first draft of the backup story there was no narration at all. But I left that draft in Brisbane and I was currently in the Gold Coast. So in my newer draft I had a lot of unnecessary narration. I now think that the less narration you have the better.

After the first issue I felt I needed to step it up in the second. It was originally conceived as just a filler issue. All wanted to do with it was to edit Kiara’s character design so I could have her and Nala in the same room without getting confused because they look the same, and use Timon and Pumbaa to explain what the white lion is about. But I milked it for all it was worth so hopefully when people read it they think that I know what I’m doing.

Unfortunately, again the art was inconsistent, even more so than in the first issue. The character designs I had used for Kovu became unworkable so I had to change it into a more accurate one halfway through the main story. I later changed Vitani’s design in the backup because I felt skilled enough by then to draw her properly, and I didn’t think it would be too much of a problem because often there is a different artist for backups.

The backgrounds in the backup was a lot more impressive than in the main (not hard to beat a line for the horizon) by I responded to this by using flat colours for the backup to draw attention away from the complexity of it.

I used no narration throughout the issue because I felt I overused it in issue 1 and I’m going to have to use it again in the next issue. One mistake I made in the first issue was that I wrote each page to stand separately, which made the comic disjointed and jumpy reading. The reason I wrote like this was to try to create a pause for every page turn. But, because I didn’t fully understand the concept back then, I didn’t connect each page. I think I did a better job of it this time round. The story is continuous with very few jumps in time so readers can follow the featured character more closely.

I wrote the main story from the perspective of Vitani so that readers will hopefully develop a connection with her through the story, and care about what happens. I do change perspective to give Simba some overdue character development, and I distance readers from her when she becomes violent with Kiara by hiding her face.

I had a lot of trouble with the backup. I found Timon and Pumbaa extremely difficult to draw because they were characters of different scales that were in constant interaction, and Timon is more over the top with his expressions than characters I’ve drawn before. As a result, they’re both a bit stiff early on, but eventually I use these difficulties to my advantage (the best example of use of scale seen in pg22).

The other problem I had was understanding the characters of Timon and Pumbaa. The movies didn’t help, so I went back to the original source material and paid close attention to Bucky and Pauly Cracker. I didn’t get the voices exactly right, but I think I’ve come close and I’m satisfied with that for now.

Well, I’m satisfied with my latest effort, but I hope to make next issue even better.