Haunted 1-1
Welp! This is the first one, and I can’t get the comic to show up correctly in ‘Preview,’ so bear with me for a couple minutes if nothing shows up. It may break everything. We’ll see.
If you’re new, here’s what you need to know: Xiyuan Liu is the least sane sim I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Haunted is a retelling of the gloriously bonkers stunt he pulled 0.3 microseconds after being given free will. This event happens toward the beginning of Catastrophe Theory, in case you’d like to spoil it for yourself. Mm-hmm. This is a spinoff. But because CT is an emergent story, the early stuff is weaker, and this is my chance to retell Yuan’s story with the new skills I’ve developed.
Or rather, ‘am developing’ is more accurate, since I started digital art in June. So expect varying levels of wonk for a while. I’ll do my best to maintain a negative derivative in wonk.
And while I have you, here’s a shameless plug.
- Are you participating in the Monthly SimLit Short Story Challenge?
- Why not?
- You can do it, dawg! I believe in you!
Discussion (20) ¬
Bummer, I’m getting Page Not Found. Can you reshare link?
Oof, thanks for letting me know. ComicPress and Multiple Themes together are turning out to be a headache and a half. It’s not handling email notifications correctly either. Does it work for you now?
It must be working! I’m on the browser, now (not in the Reader on my tablet) and when I clicked “Open in New Window” on the comment, it seems to have opened it! Seems like it’s working! 🙂
It worked but it seems my comments didn’t show up? not sure… I was raving about your art, but if the comments don’t show up, and I’ll find a way to rave so that you can actually receive the praise!
Yes! I plan to participate in the Nov-Dec Short Story Challenge! I have two weeks off! So… I should be able to! (I have two weeks off, then I work one day, then I retire…. and have forever off! LOL! But I’m only retiring from one job, so the teaching job continues, with luck, for a very long time…)
Your art is amazing. I love the skyline and the wall with the art, especially wow! Also the glasses thing with the focus-out-of-focus is really cool.
Oh, man, that sounds like the life. Are you still planning on making comics when you retire?
Thank you 🙂 I have further to go before my art’s where I want it to be, but have still learned a lot in the past few months.
Yes! I will be making comics! My plan is to spend the first year playing with my new iPad and Apple Pencil and getting to know Affinity Designer, which is the graphic design program I will start with, at least. And I’m super excited to be following your graphic novel because it will teach me so much and let me know what’s possible. I’m also going to be using old Pogo comics as models–learn from the master! 🙂
That’s awesome! I’m excited to see what your style ends up being. Pogo is old-school. Respect.
Yes, it’s an educational experience! I’ve learned there are some techniques that are easier to implement in digital art than in print—like texture overlays or using clipping masks to create oddly shaped panels—so I’ve been keeping an eye out for those. Hiveworks comics have some great examples.
There’s also one feature of the execution unique to Haunted: it’s not hard to do, but if this technique shows up in another work, it’ll be for different reasons. I’m not going to explain until much later. You do have enough context to call it out long before the official reveal, though!
It’s here! And I am so ready to be Haunted!
I cannot stop staring at that first panel. I can FEEL that sunrise. The soft color scheme and the level of detail is incredible. In particular, I love the little canvas-style inset panels that each reveal a little something about Xiyuan’s character: Shu’s drawings, Chelsea boots, landline phone + keys with piggy keychain. Good stuff.
Now, why was ‘Yuan sleeping on the floor?
You know that means a lot coming from an experienced artist like you, dawg!
I’ve been waiting to get tired of his Chelsea boots, and you know what? I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.
Yay! So I did read the entire thing. Was withholding commenting because I thought I had a browser issue. Wanted to read to the end before chipping in.
That’s Del Sol Valley pinnacles 64×64 lot isn’t it?! I love it! I’m so excited for your comic to take off! Love the sunrise, or sunset. You’ll never know with an artist’s erractic sleep cycle. xD
I feel like your tiny footer is aimed at peeples like me. I’ve been wanting to participate in the monthly simlit short stories since February and haven’t participated. 😂 I like reading the entries though.
Ahahaha! Yes! Do the short story challenge! I also noticed your spiffy new banner in the forums—looks great!
So, I love that you’re guessing what lot this is from a single shot of his living room. That’s hardcore. You’ll know it in five-ish pages when we meet the neighbors. (The Location tag under the comic gives it away, but that’s not as fun.)
You’re so good at this! Loved how you captured the warmth of sunrise and that sleepy groggy feeling. Oh, and look at that, it’s a drawing of Shu’s drawing of Xiyuan painting that very painting of throwing up sun. That’s like, three levels here, inception style!
I like reading the short story challenge entries, it’s very fun to see what people come up with! I’ve thought about taking part, but I don’t think I’m concise enough to convey any kind of story in a thousand words or less 😀
^^^ EVERYONE
IT’S THAT STUPID MF-ING SUN PAINTING
(Thank you, thank you! It’ll tighten up as I get more practice but I’m already happy to have learned so many new skills. And I’m sure you totally could get within the word limit if you felt like it, though I’ve also been happy to just stand by as moral support these days.)
This is beautiful. You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. This is spectacularly great 😀
I love your use of shadows. Xi’s artwork on the walls is uh… …. >.< So, he’s into painting. That’s cute.
The paint splatter under the easel looks like the artwork on the walls (more-or-less). Actually, maybe even better than what is hanging on the walls. It looks like an abstract painting of a person with a very bulbous (turnip-y) body.
Piggy keychain is cute. Nice detail. Just curious but what’s the backstory with the pig (if there is one, maybe he just likes pigs, but I’m just nerding-out with the whole glasses bit, and wonder if the Pig is a reference to Piggy from Lord of the Flies).
I like how you show Xi focusing on his glasses
Xi placing the glasses on his face = having clarity.
Nicely done.
D’awww, well, thank you! All the webcomics I follow are drawn by professional artists, so I’m happy with my progress as an amateur but am not expecting to perform at their level right out the gate. That having been said, I was trying to make the close-up paintings like that to imply they were by a child, in this case Xiyuan’s son (Easter egg: it’s signed Liu Xishu), and my art is definitely better than that so SUCK IT, KID.
(And now I’ve realized that the skill-level-1 paintings are so bad it’s not immediately clear these are by a child.)
Funny—Lord of the Flies does show up in the chapter I’m writing right now. The pig’s backstory does show up but not quite yet. THE PIG IS A MYSTERY AS OF TODAY
Please, continue to hunt for symbolism! I’m one of those assholes who can’t let the curtains just be blue. Oof—I could give direction here but don’t want to spoil it if you prefer to figure things out for yourself!
I get what you’re saying 🙂 A lot of professional comics aren’t up to a perfectionist standard, and people enjoy them for their simplicity (not that yours are simple, far from it, but seriously you can have stick figure drawings and as long as your content is good no one will art-shame you :p).
Haha yaaaaaah about that skill-level-1. In-game it does make it dif to know the age of the artist lol but I totally get that those are supposed to be the artwork of a kid. I like that he was so confident with his artwork he signed his paintings.
I look forward to unraveling The Mystery of the Pig.
Lol honestly you could give me direction and I’d still be lost. Nah, I don’t mind hunting symbolism. Will it have to hit me upside the head? Most likely. Anyways, I like (I’m not going to use the term assholes) authors who use symbolism. Authors that use symbolism and then just throw in random shit and drone on about that random shit, as though it holds some symbolic reference, for pages, now that’s the asshole.
Since you can’t see that this is my 4th reading of Haunted, I shall tell you through COMMENTS.
That first panel is just art and I love it and I would hang that sunrise on my walls.
I love that I can recognise all of this furniture from the actual game. From the plant thingie to the specific chairs to that fucking copper SINK. And your perspective is spot on.
The zoom/blue effect in the two panels with the glasses is amazing, very cinematic (I am a sucker for people who are able to transcend the medium and make cinematic drawings or movies where every frame could be a painting)
Love the pig chain. Big, big props for drawing it from that angle and trusting that it’s obviously a pig instead of falling prey to the temptation of drawing it from a more easily recognisable angle.
(I love Shu’s drawings. Skill level 1 paintings may be sorta shitty, but this is clearly a child’s drawing of their dad – who is painting an angry vomiting sun, but still wholesome!)
WELCOME SIRI
WE LOVE YOU SIRI
(minor confession here: the perspective is so good because many backgrounds are traced from the game. I’m at the skill level where I still get value out of doing things that way, and it makes sense for a comic based on a videogame with loads of object models)