Robin Enrico's Jam in the Band

I kind of love what I did with the halo-y outline-y background here. Well, you have to understand that not everything I do in comics is a conscious decision. Long, long ago, I used to use gray tone on my comics. Only problem was that when I had to xerox them, the grays never looked as good on paper as the did on the computer. So starting with Stupid and Unkind I decided to only use blacks and whites.

So how do you render a night time scene then? On the page below I came up with my answer out of necessity.

But over time I have been able to morph and stretch this idea to actually enhance the art work. The background here I feel is not poor realism, but is more expressionistic. And it was probably around this time that I realized that Jam in the Band takes place in a more expressionistic world. And that I should really run with that.

So there’s a couple things to note here. This is the start of my use of the red pencil as apposed to traditional lead. Not having to erase my pencil line became a tremendous boon for me as it freed up my style and my line work immensely. I was able to take more risks and try new things, without having to worry about erasing everything. Here’s a sample panel.

Notice something else? Tiara’s mouth isn’t open. I drew most of Jam in the Band vol.1 with closed mouths. After I realized this was a terrible choice, I had to go back into Photoshop and change every mouth for every page. The things I do for my art.

Obviously there is no such thing as a Shadow of the Colossus stamp, but one can dream can’t they. So much about this game has already been written, so let me discuss the most important element of it to me.

I feel that the game succeeds as interactive fiction. There’s so much freedom to aimlessly explore the word and in many respects, there’s no real reason to do so. But the key moment is the ending. You’ve spent SO much time in the game relying on your grip meter to hang on to the giant monsters you are trying to kill. Little do you know that killing these monsters was actually the wrong thing to do, and that you will have to pay the price for your transgression. Let’s watch shall we.

So here at the last you as you try to hang on for dear life, you watch that meter slowly drop to zero, knowing you are doomed to be sucked into the abyss. The moment works because you the player decide how long you want to hang on for. It’s the kind of moment you can only have in a game.

If you remember this page where I talked about Jennet’s art being a cross between Junko Mizuno and Chiho Aoshima. Well here is some more Jennet Howard art work. I feel this is a pretty decent Junko Mizuno rip off here.

What’s funny to me is how the girl on the flier is almost a prototype for Becky Vice (who will appear in just a few pages). See what I mean.

Scars, check. Eye patch, check. Tits hanging out, check.