The Secret Project—REVEALED!

Today, I’ll be answering the big question. I’ve mentioned several times on this blog and elsewhere that I’m working on a top secret project. Today is the reveal.

I’m about to try something new. It’s a project that merges two out of three of my major creative passions, and combines their powers into something I find incredibly satisfying. It’s a reckless jump out of a low-flying plane into a world I’ve only observed from the outside. I’m going in, now. Watch this.

All dramatics aside, I’m really excited for it. I’m really holding off on telling you exactly what it is because I’m trying to make sure the reveal itself ends up “below the fold,” if you know what that means. Just open it up and read the whole post already, because here it is.

Guys, I’m breaking into webcomics.

Yeah. I’ve been researching for a long time. Turns out I find the whole process very creatively invigorating. I love combining art and writing in such a harmonious way. I really like visual storytelling. I have an extremely visual imagination. I see lighting and camera angles while I’m writing. And I’ve always wanted to tell stories with my art—as much as I like my art to be beautiful, I also want to create a narrative with it. I want to take the viewer somewhere.

Hence, comics. When I was a kid, I used to make stick-figure stories. They were expressive little figures, simple as they were. I think I learned a lot about portraying action and emotion through body-language back then. When I started thumbnailing the secret project, I was excited to see how much I could say with a lot of minimalist scribbling. The process of getting the story down in that form was exhilarating.

So, specifics. Just what can you expect from this webcomic? Probably not too much. This is my first-ever attempt in this medium, and, crazier still, the first few pages are honestly my first few completed pieces of digital art. I’m brand-new to digital. I just recently bought my drawing tablet—and it isn’t a flashy one. No screen display, or anything. You watch the laptop screen while you draw. It actually feels a little like blind-drawing, at first.

You’re going to see my learning-curve over the course of the comic, which will be interesting. I’m working on page three and am already way more confident than I was on page one.

I wanted to start with a short-run comic. Maybe four episodes, I thought. Nothing over-ambitious. So, I developed this fairly simple story with a three-person cast, and wrote the script. Well, as it turned out, it’s a whole 60 pages long. Oops. So, what have we learned about A. L. Buehrer and short stories?

I’m using this story to learn the medium. I have bigger plans for the future, later this year. But in the mean time, you’ve got about twelve episodes ahead of you here. I can’t wait to start releasing them.

When? Soon. I’ll actually announce the date in my next post. I’ll also announce the project’s title, premise, and inspiration in that post, so watch for it. I’ve got the next post scheduled for Monday, the 7^th.

Now, I’ve got to get back to work. See you all Monday!