SFX for a steampunk manga

[t_orzechowski]

The book I'm sampling here is Clockwork Sky, which may possibly be published before the Mayan calendar runs out. But, it's from a book publisher, and they run on a slower timetable than the straight-on comics houses, so we'll have to wait and see. It isn't properly manga, since it was written in Australia and will be published in New York. It was drawn in Japan, though, and the artist gives it just the proper spunky steampunk look. I jumped in to play it all the way.

The dialogue is in a font of mine that's sort of '30s based. Most of the sound effects were done in very old display fonts, with the exception of a couple of Nate's: PiekosFX Basic and Sanitarium.

Clockwork Sky; St. Martin's Press; 154 pages. It's my fond wish that it will sell well enough to be the first book in a series.

[lordmagnusen]

Looks nice. The display fonts work with the art style.

[Piekos]

I like the white sketchy outlines on page 1.

~N

[lordmagnusen]

Yeah, those really make it feel like it's shaking.

[Piekos]

You do those in photoshop, Tom? I think I'd try to do that with the brush tool in AI.

~N

[t_orzechowski]

No, I did 'em in Illustrator. Hollow sfx with .5 white holding line, x 6, staggered up and down, left and right. I'm pretty unsophisticated and wanted to work fast. At least half the pages have sfx, and there are several per page.

Incidentally, I didn't win the Stumtown lettering award, though I appreciate all the votes I got here. The trophy went to Stan Sakai for his typically magnificent work on Usagi Yojimbo. Hey, I'll be pleased to lose to Stan any day of the week! (And to you, too, Nate!) When I went to congratulate him on the win, he turned it around and asked if I'd be interested in lettering his next project for Dark Horse. Mike Richardson, the publisher, will be writing it. If that's what happens when I lose, then I've lost all interest in winning~!