Cura Te Ipsum – A Digital Comic by Neal Bailey and Dexter Wee

So, I think I’m getting a little better at lettering, which is a sure sign I’m about to get smacked down. I already was once, when I did them all in an 11X17 page in 10 point. You open it the next day, you look at it, you go WHOA! WHOA! and then you compare it to other comics at a similar size…

The biggest struggle I see, thusfar, is the way that I’m competing in the mediums. Make no mistake, I plan on putting this book out in a trade at some point (maybe even a deluxe, colored trade, should it succeed beyond my wildest dreams). The problem then becomes, what do I pay MORE attention to, the medium, or the secondary medium? And which is which? And is there a difference? These are things that have eaten up multiple hours of research, because GOD KNOWS, we don’t want to be unprofessional here.

Boobies.

Girl Genius is a large format trade, and that serves the broad, sweeping art well. Dr. McNinja (it’s rad) has a normal sized trade. Neither suffer for it, in fact, both are just as good as their online incarnations. Looking at them, I realize I may be tweaking the font to find my sweet spot for multiple days, but the good thing is, once I lay in my pattern, I should be okay, because I’ve studied the conventions and know where I want to stand on certain things.

One thing that I am waffling on is bubbles that break the border. I dig ’em. In fact, I dig anything that breaks the panel frame. Problem is, if it will turn off readers, should I accede? I mean, they’re letters. LETTERS. The words are what they should be thinking about.

Designing the website is complex, as was coming up with the logo. I beat myself about the face until Steve Younis, my good friend and editor at the Superman Homepage, offered to save my life by designing the logo. We goofed around a bit, and he came up with a number of different ideas. They serve as an example of a good graphic artist working with my awful indecision, and they also serve as the clue/story hint for this entry (click to embiggen any of them):

These were the first basic rough-ins. Steve gave me a bunch of colors and ideas to chose from… I dug the blue one, so he took it back to the lab and brought back this:

I said “ME PLAY WITH THIS WITH CRAYON!” and handed him back this:

He wept, shook with rage, and then returneth with this, fantastically interpreting my retarded imitation of depth:

We were close… but I said…. NEEDS MORE EARTH! To which he kindly obliged:

At which point it was VERY, VERY late in Australia. The following morning, I woke up to this, which he’d put together from what we’d talked about:

From there, I thought, “Hey, why not a black background.” This is when Steve shot me. When I woke up from the coma, he had this:

It’s ALIVE! I cry, and then hold up my hands for a goal. He cannot see this in Australia, but nonetheless, THERE IT IS, the logo. We have a bright one, and a dark one, and that’s what it’ll be up at the top of the page, depending on the CSS I use for the visual look of the comic. It might change color, but that’s pretty much it, for now.

I’m gonna play with ComicPress for WordPress for the next few days, and with any luck, I’ll have more insight into lettering. Likely not.

But at any rate, that’s your taste for today…

(Image yanked from Toothpaste For Dinner, my favorite webcomic of all time. Go there. Buy!)

You thought I’d dropped off the face of the Earth, didn’t you?

Well, I kinda did.

BUT, and I say this without the traditional lying a man with a blog is subject to, updates are about to start up again. This isn’t an official announcement, by any stretch, I’m still signing a contract before I break out with the coolness.

However, that said, this space is about to change. Adapt. Become something really, really NEAT. And when that happens, I’ll finally have something other than my ranting to have you spread the word for.

It’ll update Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and it will involve original graphic stories and a blog entry to go with each new page about the process and the ideas presented. What the yunguns call a webcomic. Not a strip, note, but an ongoing story, in the same sense that Girl Genius is a webcomic.

Provided there are no major hiccups, in three to four months, from here, you will be able to read Cura Te Ipsum, a story I’ve been working on refining for more than a year. Actually, that’s a bit unfair. I initially came up with this idea ten years ago, but it’s taken me this long to find the right vehicle.

I’m finalizing an ongoing penciller right now, and the work is thusfar astounding.

In Latin, that phrase means “Physician, Heal Thyself.” It may be slightly off, but even the loosest interpretation means “heal yourself,” which is the central theme of this story, which will be a long one. It’s a story about coming to terms with who you are by confronting yourself. Literally. That’ll make sense. You’ll see. I’m so excited about this.

I don’t want to give away too much, but I’ve come up with a story that I’m so sufficiently jazzed about, I am literally bursting with the desire to bring it to you.

Watch this space for the next few, and I’ll be posting character sketches as they come in. I’ll also be announcing the URL where the comic will be hosted, along with more details.

Wish me luck!

And here’s your first oblique clue as to what the story’s actually about:

Beyond all that, however, I also have other news… I saw proof copies of Nightmares of the Macabre this weekend at the Jet City con, and I will have comics out again shortly. I am also, pending a few details, the new ongoing writer for the series.

Go me!

So that’s where I’ve been. Well, some of it. There’s other stuff I can’t talk about that’s going extraordinarily well.