Reclaimer - A Halo 3 Comic

Today’s comic is the first ‘official’ strip of the series, even though the first comic itself sets up just a little of the background and context for events yet to come.  This is also the first strip I built with Photoshop, and let me just say that I will never go back to GIMP for this project.  GIMP makes an acceptable substitute for some project for when Photoshop isn’t available, but Photoshop is, by far, more user-friendly for this sort of work.  For instance, creating dialogue balloons in GIMP is an absolute nightmare.  In fact, doing just about anything in GIMP is more difficult than doing it in Photoshop due to the fact that most adjustments require 2-3 times as many steps to accomplish.

As you can see from the proof-of-concept strip, I had a difficult time positioning things with GIMP.  I didn’t worry overmuch about the final product, however, since I knew that the official story wouldn’t start until the next strip I produced.  The final product of that one, done in the aforementioned Photoshop, is much cleaner and professional looking.  It’s nice to be able to just nudge things into place where required.

So, with Chapter One, Part One, we’re introduced to two of our main characters.  Writing in this medium is much different than writing in story medium, so again please bear with me as I adapt.  I like most of the dialogue in this one, though a frame or two feel a bit stilted to me.  I’ll work on that – I promise.  In the meantime, we have a delicious hint of a conspiracy, plus the puzzle of the relationship between these characters.

As I mentioned in the previous news post, I intend to put together a new comic every week, at least to begin with.  This may become more frequent, however, as I get my storyline laid out and get comfortable enough with this process to replicate it several times a week.  I may also put a callout at some point for ‘actors’ to help me stage some scenes, so stay tuned here for that.

I hope you enjoy this comic.  I know I’m already having fun putting it together, and I look forward as much as you do to seeing where it goes.