Before I started Mechanaflux, I was working on this, my first 3 issue mini-series, Displacement, with Michelle Balze. Now, that comic, after many years, was submitted and accepted to Comixology. You can download the entire digital graphic novel for only $4.99!
What is Displacement? Well, read this picture that I have captured for posterity:
The End #2 is now available on IndyPlanet Digital:
http://www.indyplanet.com/front/?product=104997
The price is currently $3.50 for a physical comic. I am going to try and lower that to $2.99.
My Kickstarter for my comic book series The End is to fund issues 4 & 5. The artists for those issues are Kathleen Parker, Sonia Liao, Tina Lee, & Lauren Sparks.
Please view my Kickstarter to see their art. Their pages are available to view after the Kickstarter description, and lots of their art is within the video (so please watch).
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1945380719/the-end-4-and-5/
Also, check the Updates tab to see the page’s transformation from Pencils to fully finished Inks.
See my Kickstarter Updates to see samples of the art these artists have created for The End from artists Brad Bowersox (Update #4), Rand Arrington (Update #5), and Wu-Gene Hong (Update #6)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1945380719/the-end-4-and-5/posts
Brad’s story is a short tale about a man who tries to make up for his past deeds. In Rand’s story, Lester has been neglecting his wife for a promotion at work, but when he finds out the wold is going to end, he is determined to make his way home and spend the rest of his time with her. Then, in Wu-Gene’s tale, I have posted the first 3 pages, so give it a look.
Check out my comic book Kickstarter: The End. If the world was going to end in seven days, how would you spend your last week alive? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1945380719/the-end-4-and-5?ref=live
My 5th issue of The End is now available for Print-to-Order on IndyPlanet. And finally, after a long wait, so is #2. But where is #4? I was working on 4 & 5 at the same time, and 5 just happen to get finished sooner. And don’t worry, as each issue is stand-alone. You can expect to see The End #5 premiere at
See this link for a preview of the 1st story by Sonia Liao. Click here to see a preview of the 2nd story by Kathleen Parker.
You can expect to see The End #5 premiere at the SPACE, Tri-Con, & AwesomeCon conventions this April & May.
The End #5: http://www.indyplanet.com/front/?product=the-end-5
the End #2: http://www.indyplanet.com/front/?product=the-end-2
Here is a preview of the 2nd story in The End #5.
Is there any way to survive the coming end of the world? The theme for this issue is Survival. Previously, people escaped onto a space station, but now one man has a radical idea. He thinks he can escape the destruction of the world and be the only remaining person left alive by simply going into the deepest caves. Left with only his thoughts, he starts his decent.
Art by Kathleen Parker.
The End #5 – Story #2 – Cave Explorer (Pencils) by thescarletspider on deviantART
The End #5 – Story #2 – Cave Explorer (Inks – Fin) by thescarletspider on deviantART
Displacement, my first, semi-autobiographical comic book, is now available on Kindle Fire. It is available at LushComics:
http://lushcomics.com/comic/displacement-graphic-novel
The direct link to Amazon is below:
http://www.amazon.com/Displacement-Graphic-Shawn-Padraic-Murphy-ebook/dp/B00I8PACBQ/
For Mechanaflux #1, I had put the transition from the original screenplay to finished comic book to show how Mechanaflux changed between all the versions. This time, I’m going to chose a page from Issue #2 and do that again. This page is the arrival of Redwing the dragon from my initial draft.
Five more Mecheers emerge to their left as they run by a building.
Jackson, Cory, and Arad pick up their pace and run closer behind Gluss, Darius and Maria. They reach the edge of the town and run into the Metal Plains. From behind, they see over fifty Mecheers marching toward them.
How are we supposed to avoid so many of those things?
ANGLE ON: Ariel shot of the group with sunlight shining on them. A shadow covers them as something flies over their heads, then leaves.
A giant red dragon (four stories tall) hovers above the ground, then lands in front of the group. The dragon’s neck sways upward and coughs. He coughs again, then fire breathes from his mouth into the air. Jackson, Arad, and Cory stare at the dragon, eyes wide open. Jackson covers the boys as if the dragon will attack them.
As the dragon lowers his head, the boys notice that he wears glasses. The dragon speaks with an intelligent British accent.
That insidious metal dust can’t be good for my lungs.
Darius old friend, I see you’ve gotten yourself in a spot of trouble. Take cover.
Darius, Gluss, and Maria run behind Redwing’s leg. They motion for the others to follow. Arad, Jackson, and Cory look at the dragon. Then, they look at the army behind them. They immediately run behind Redwing.
Redwing summons a breath in his throat, then lets loose a humongous amount of flame.
ANGLE ON: The Mecheers walking forward toward Redwing as fire engulfs them all. The camera pans back to show more Mecheers, and even some buildings, getting taken out by the fire.
Redwing breathes smoke from his mouth then moves his hand up to his face.
One day Darius, I hope you won’t need my violent skills.
Gluss, are you alright?
I’ll be fine.
And who are these young friends of yours?
Redwing walks away from them, turns his body around, then lays down so his head will be closer to them.
After Redwing appears, he suddenly attacks the Mecheers. What, did he destroy all 50 of them I mentioned? Later, I’d make them run away, because Redwing couldn’t be all powerful in the plot (as seen in Issue #3). Plus, him attacking the Mecheers in my comic in 3 different instances would get repetitive. Also, my dialogue continues for 2 more pages. I won’t bore you with it, but will tell you most of it was cut.
Page 6
5 – Arad, Jackson, & Cory are now standing at the edge of town, in the Metal Plains. Buildings are at least 100 yards away from them.
JACKSON: This is ridiculous.
6 – Jackson turns toward where they ran. In the distance, there are at least 50 Mecheers walking toward them.
ARAD: Come on, how are we supposed to avoid so many of those things?
7 – ANGLE ON: Ariel shot of the group with sunlight shining on them. However, there is a dragon shaped silhouette directly above them.
8 – CLOSE-UP of Darius’ face. She is smiling, while still covered by the shadow above.
DARIUS: We don’t.
Page 7
EXT: TOLT – OUTER EDGE OF THE CITY – (METAL PLAINS)
1 – A giant red dragon (Redwing) appears before the group. Redwing wears glasses. Redwing shouldn’t be so large that he appears as if he can take anything. He should be smaller than most sizes you see on dragon books (or Dungeon & Dragon’s manuals)
2 – Redwing coughs. Some fire emerges from his breath, but doesn’t reach the ground. It stops short of Arad, Jackson, & Cory, scaring them.
3 – Jackson acts like a protective older brother and uses his hands to block Cory and Arad from going near the dragon. Arad looks amazed. Cory looks confused. Jackson looks defensive.
4 – Redwing’s head is now lowered toward Darius.
REDWING: Sorry about that old friend, but flying through the Metal Plains is bad for my lungs.
REDWING: I suggest you climb aboard before those metal heathens get clos…oh, no.
5 – Redwing raises his head and turns away from the city, looking past Arad, Cory, & Jackson.
REDWING: A rust storm. Everyone, get on quickly.
6 – Close-Up of Cory, Arad, & Jackson looking frozen in terror.
Panels 7, 8, & 9 are the same long line and should be together at the bottom. One of the kid’s heads should be at the bottom of each panel.
7 – To the left, on Panel #7, an army of Mecheers approaches them.
8 – Directly in front, is the giant Red Dragon.
9 – To the right, is a piercing metallic storm tornado.
I had considered putting blue energy (Darius’ sleep spell) seeping and increasing with each panel.
The original wasn’t dramatic enough. Redwing met the cast outside the city, and it was supposed to indicate that the Mecheers were on their way, but not so close that they can’t all talk for a bit. I increased the the intensity a bit by having them coming closer quicker. Then, in the actual comic below, you will see that the Mecheers were just already in their face. I did just notices that both times I had Redwing cough fire and scare the kids, but there wasn’t enough space to do this in the actual pages. He also didn’t acknowledge Gluss’ injury, but then that was very minor and not important enough to keep.
I then wrote on the thumbnails some small corrections. My biggest concern was how Redwing was going to talk to them after landing if they were completely surrounded by Mecheers. Solved that by having him land directly over them and causing a shockwave that knocks most of them down. Hopefully he doesn’t appear too powerful, as his skin isn’t immune to the Mecheer’s blasts. Also, after this phase, my artist thought of a way to make the final panels more suspenseful, which we’ll see next week.
Here are the final pages (minus the lettering). Hope you enjoyed this step-by-step journey.
The End #4 & #5 are nearly complete, so I am going to post to you a page from the first story drawn by Sonia Liao. A group of astronauts hijack a space shuttle and make off for a space station, where they hope to avoid all the comets completely and return to Earth later. Now, they are still alive, but was survival at any cost worth the price?
Wow, I am loving this new Embed feature on DeviantArt; the art scales to the webpage itself instead of expanding out so much that I have to lower the file size then repost it.