Stone Clouds preview

[RadioactivePanda]

I’m gonna talk for a while. If you’re just here for the pictures, they’re at the bottom.


Somewhere around the start of 2007, Radioactive Panda is going to end.

The general plan is to finish it on strip 150, which puts the end somewhere in February. I may however end it a bit early and revisit it later on to bring the number up to that point.

In any event, its days are numbered.

Once it’s done, I’ll be taking approximately 6 months off from regular comic updates, in order to work on my next project.

The new strip is called Stone Clouds, and it’s something I’ve been working on here and there over the past 15 years or so. Up till recently I never thought I’d be able to draw it, but the last year or so has changed that.

Stone Clouds is set in a high-tech underground world where giant sprawling cities are connected by countless miles of winding tunnels, expansive caverns and twisting rocky corridors. Imagine if Star Wars were set underground, and instead of differently vegetated planets, you had cavernous city systems built around different kinds of geology. Rather than the gulf of space, you have a frontier of largely unexplored tunnels connecting the main cities. The technology differs throughout the underworld as well, and one of the challenges I’m going to be facing is to create unique design styles for the various cities and civilizations.

As for the story itself, this is a long-term project. There is a very definite beginning, middle, and end. Having worked on the plot for so long, I’ve got a lot of story to tell and a lot of background to work with. One of the reasons I plan to take so long off is to put all the scattered elements together that I’ve written over the years, and hammer them into chronological order. I can’t tell you too much about it just yet, but there will be more updates between now and then.

Radioactive Panda has been for the most part a gag-a-week strip. It’s expected to have a punchline at the end of each page. Stone Clouds is an adventure drama, and while it will have humor from time to time, it’s designed to be read as a story, not simply a series of one-off pages.

Stone Clouds does not take place in the same universe as Radioactive Panda, so don’t expect any crossovers to take place. Actually that isn’t completely true, as one RP cast member will appear in SC, but you’ll have to wait to see what I mean. As for the rest of the gang, they’ll be appearing in various capacities throughout the site itself. In particular, I plan to have a recurring “Encyclopedia” box underneath the pages, in which one or more of the RP cast will appear to discuss technology or history relating to the above story. Similar to the way Shirow uses the Fuchikoma in the Ghost in the Shell manga. It’ll let me introduce concepts and explanations that there isn’t room or time for in the strip itself.

On the visual side, Stone Clouds is going to be a pencil-only strip. I’m not ruling out the possibility of it being colored in the future, but it won’t be done by me. I plan to do the occasional color bit now and then for things like chapter headings and book covers. But the regular pages will be rendered solely in pencils.

There are a number of reasons for this. Mostly, I just like pencil work. I’m a huge fan of black and white comics, and pencil-based series like Megatokyo and Fallen. Both of which look fantastic with or without color, and are excellent examples of why I feel inks are redundant if the pencils are done right. I pencil very differently when I know I won’t be inking it, and I can shade in small details that wouldn’t look right in ink. Since my pencils are digital now, I don’t have to worry about smudges muddying up the image, and I can easily lay down a wide range of line weights. In other words, I can put down pencil lines dark enough to look like ink or light enough to hint at reflected light without changing pencils or worrying about having to erase a misplaced line. In addition, while finished pencils take longer than rough pencils, they’re still considerably faster than colored work. I won’t know the update schedule for sure till I get closer in, but more than once a week is more than just a strong possibility. Due to the amount of story it’s going to be a necessity.

In the space between the end of RP and the start of SC, updates will still appear on the website. I’ll be doing a lot of writing the first couple months, but I’ll still be doing concept art at the same time. Some of that art will find its way online each week. Towards the point where I start doing more art than writing, you may see several updates a week. The bottom line is I won’t be disappearing, and you’ll be able to see a lot of preview stuff while I work on the new pages.

On the subject of pages, I’ll be handling the writing a bit different from how I’ve done Radioactive Panda. RP has never really had an overall story, and even the current storyline is written more or less on the fly. Some stuff is planned, but I have a lot of leeway. Too much, really. It’s been a mess. The complete story of Stone Clouds is already laid out in rough form, and will be cleaned up and polished a bit before I write the script for the first chapter. As it stands, the whole thing is set for 3 main stories, each with about 25-30 chapters each. I won’t know the page count of each chapter for a while, but I’m aiming for an average of 30-40 pages. Some are shorter tales, some are longer. There’s already one that won’t be more than 12, and one that’s likely to take 50-60, but on average I want them to be pretty much standard issue sizes.

Now I know some of you are already skeptical of this happening, or at least of its potential quality. So I’ll just say, I started RP in large part because I couldn’t draw Stone Clouds. I did it to teach myself how to draw, and it’s done that job. I did not start it to tell a story, and I’ve never really been interested in it enough to keep the narrative even remotely under control. Stone Clouds has kept my interest for well over a decade, and it’s very much my baby.

In order to maintain quality, each chapter will be completely finished before it goes online. I’m not going to quite go the Platinum Grit route, and make you wait months in between updates, before getting an entire issue in one go. But I’m not going to risk missing updates either. You’ll get at least a page a week, but that first page won’t go up till I’m working on chapter two.

The images below are all extremely early concept art. For the most part, everything you see here is purely practice and experimentation. You’ll see MUCH better stuff once I have time to devote to drawing it, and it really isn’t going to look much like this at all. Think of these as really rough sketches. Cause they are. RP still has another 30+ pages for me to learn from, and I’ll be experimenting as always.

At this stage these drawings are just playing around with the landscape. It’s important to me that the geography of this world not simply be big round caverns with stalactites hanging everywhere. I’m still figuring out how to draw rock the way I want, and this is me taking some baby steps in that direction. The architecture is going to be a big challenge. I don’t simply want buildings covering the ground, I want them growing out of the walls and caverns like moss and barnacles. Some cities might be all towers growing up like metal stalagmites, bits of landing platforms and promenades jutting out all over. Some might be all curving rings and spikes, looping in around themselves. Slim slices, squat buttes, honeycombed lattices, etc. I have a lot planned, and it should be pretty interesting once I get going on it.

So for now I’m gonna stop my rambling. Enjoy this sneak preview, and I’ll be back with more in due time.

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This ship will be a major setting in the series, and it’s one of the few things I’ve found time to specifically work on. This design is not 100% final, but it’s getting there. The color version here was an afterthought, done as a test of Alias Sketchbook Pro's color capabilities. There’s a version of this image with a background further down.



The following two images are of very general environment studies. I’ll be doing a lot more of these before I work on much of anything else.




Ship study. I’m not terribly fond of the engines.



I tried my hand at adding a background to this shot. It came out looking like stock footage from an old He-Man cartoon. Not quite what I intended, but I like it. Just don’t expect to see more in this style



Thanks for checking this out, hope you enjoy what's to come.

[Ferrian]

That's a long break to take, I hope when you return you can draw back all the readers who have hung with you through RP. I reckon it'll be worth the wait, just have to hope I remember to keep coming!

Maybe you could sort out a mailing list for those of us willing to give you our email addresses, who want to be kept informed of any major breakthroughs or events?

I look forward to the rest of your RP storyline, I know it's something I've really enjoyed, and I do look forward to Stone Clouds, whenever it may appear.

But in a fit of fanboy mania I just feel the need to shout... "NOOOOOO, Dun get rid of AL!" Ok I'm done

[Max Radical]

Good luck on your new project!

RP has been great fun for me as a reader, I've enjoyed both the initial "Read a ton in one go" session when I found it, and the "Each strip by itself" as I check back for more each week. Both the ideas and the artwork are well above average and if it was an experiment/learning experience for you, I can only suggest that it was a succesfull one.

But I'm not sorry to see it go if the reason is the fulfilment of a lifelong goal. To finally do (and do properly) a project that you've been thinking of and working towards is a wonderful experience, and one that provides an awful lot of energy and joy when you have the skills and find yourself thinking "Wow, I'm actually doing it now".

Also those sketches are looking sweet.

The very best on your new project, and I'll be here to see it take off (and all the material in the interim). I also like the idea of RP characters hanging around to fulfill other functions, they're a nice group of charas and it's good that they'll still be taking part.

[Flamekist]

Best of luck with the new project! I'll miss RP once it's gone but I'm also looking forward to Stone Clouds. The preview art you've done so far looks great! Take your time to get it right. I'll keep waiting for it!
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It's not you, it's me. I don't like you.

[jackfrostzzz]

I'm really disappointed to hear that the clock is ticking on Radioactive Panda, but it's a stupid fan that tries to tell the artist what he should do. All I can say is thanks for what you've given us so far and good luck on the next project. You're a clever writer and I love your artistic style, so I know it'll be great.

[Hamster Ninja]

Darn, My monday's will be less joyful without RP. And I must agree with Ferrian that a mailing list to update people on when Stone Cloud is going to start updating would be most helpful.

[RomyNo1]

Holy cow! This sounds colossally, stupendously epic. I love it when things like this happen. I know it means that there'll be a major break, but the final result is always breathtaking! I'll be waiting with bated breath.

[RadioactivePanda]

Don't know about the mailing lists, but I'll look into it.

I expect to lose about 90% of my readers in the change, no matter what I do. Hopefully some of them will come back later, but I'm being realistic.

The irony of it is that updates are likely to be more frequent during the hiatus than they are now.

[sibanac]

I'dd like to wish you best of luck with the new project,
And thank you for all the wonderfull work done in RP.


I'll miss RP.

p.s. The mailing list is a good idee
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[Carmel]

The layout you've presented seems very elaborated and I wish you luck with this project.
RP was great fun to read and view, but I must say I am excited about SC now, it seems you've put in a lot into this and hopefully you will succeed in portraying your ideas.

I have a question though, will SC be on the same standard as RP, in the aspect of quantity of plot that will be presented every week?
I would assume that such an epic comic will be with more content (since there is a lot to explain about the new realm) and I was wondering if the pace you have planed for the progress of the story will be faster or rather will spread for a lot more strips.

It is a bit early to ask this I suppose, since we don't even know what the story IS, but I am curious to your plans for such a wide, and obviously full of details, world.

As for your choice for the artistic side, I see much greater challange in a black and white comic, and for that my hat off to you. I think a lot of readers expect more of B&W comics, and pencil drawn ones especially, but for such a long worked on project, I'm sure you have thought through all of the angles.

In any case, I will be waiting to see this one come to life.

Good luck.

Carmel

[RadioactivePanda]

[Astrobot7000]

I hate to say this, but I have almsot no interest in Stone Clouds. I absolutly love RP and will be really sad when it goes. Stone Clouds seems interesting, but an epic drama is not something I am currently intrested in whatsoever. I guess I will give it a try, but it certainly wont be RP. I wish you luck on the project, and I hope that you at least release another RP book with the rest of he strips in it with bonus stuff for the fans when you end the series.

[wararcher]

While RP will be greatly missed (I had always hoped for more DeathToast episodes), I applaud you for following your heart and your dream. Growth is essential in all walks of life, especially art.
The time you are taking to prepare for the new strip bespeaks the passion and drive you have for it and all your RP fans stand behind you in your new endevour!

Again, thanks for the memories and good luck!

Break a pencil !!
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W.A. Rarcher of the 3rd Coast

[JJ]

RP will be missed indeed... but stone clouds sounds far better, and following your dreams is always the way forward!

Oh, and if you want a mailing list but don't have the facilities I can set one up for you, just drop me a line.

[mikhael]

I don't know Radioactive Panda. I was directed to it by a buddy who wanted me to know about Stone Clouds. It turns out I love the design in RP--enough that I'll go back and read it (I haven't read a webcomic regularly since Sluggy and Sinfest).

Now, Stone Clouds. I love the design. That ship study there (SC-01.jpg) is rockin. If you don't mind, I'd like to spend a little time with Lightwave, those images and put together that ship in 3d.