Meet Charlie.
It’s been a week, and Cura Te Ipsum progresses nicely. As I build a buffer of pages (so there’s never a missed update), I will post teases here to let you all know how things progress and, hopefully, grow some excitement about the project.
The first thing I want to share with you is my collaborator, an incredible artist I came to by way of Skipper Martin (creator of Bizzarre New World, whose praises I can’t sing enough of). His name is Dexter Wee, and you can check out his extensive deviantart page here.
He’s already hard at work on Cura, and has been for a bit. I wanted to make sure things were flowing before I said more. I have some wonderful sketches in my hand, and we’re already plowing through the first week’s worth of pages.
It’s very hard to reveal much about the story without giving away the central twist. Since the essential conceit of the story will be established within the first fifteen pages, I’m okay with that, but at the same time, I’d like to whet your appetite with some sketches along the way. It’s also only fair to introduce you to the main character:
His name is Charlie Everett. He’s named after Charlie Huston (of “Caught Stealing”, which you’d better read, or you’re dead to me), and Hugh Everett III, of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics. He looks like this:
(Click to Embiggen.)
He looks plain, but that’s as it’s supposed to be. He’s a guidance counselor in a high school… at least for now.
Last time I gave you a clue as to what the story will be about, in the form of Goatee Spock. Here you’ll note Charlie’s subtitle: “Prime” That’s a shorthand I’m using in the script, and in a while it’ll make complete sense.
In the next week, I’ll open the website expressly for the webcomic (you’ll still be able to find a link here, when it goes live). I’ve already bought the URL. It’s going to be “CharlieEverett.com”. I was going to go Curateipsum, but that and all of its variants are already taken, and it’s a hell of a lot harder to remember Cura Te Ipsum than it is the name Charlie Everett.
As the weeks progress and our buffer grows, come back here for more sketches and pictures. I’ll try and put them up at the regular Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule the comic itself will have. I’ll also talk a little about the trials and errors of lettering, as I’ll be doing the lettering myself, and hilarity is sure to ensue. Good friend and mentor Eric Trautmann has suggested I go with Comic Sans. Yes, I know it’s a joke. I’m not thick. Still, I will have to post a comic sans page just for fun… or to bring back the horror in horror comics.
More to come.