#edge inc.

[jsnsmithart]

On the Verge: the Arrow of Time, eleven

[jsnsmithart]

I love the expressions on this cover!

On the Verge: the Arrow of Time, eight I love the expressions on this cover!

[jsnsmithart]

It’s not that stuff hasn’t happened in the story up until now, but this chapter is where things start to get interesting…

I’m really happy with how this cover turned out. I’ve got to admit that drawing “cool” covers for OTV has been hard because not a lot of “cool action” happens – Hannah isn’t a superhero after all. But I think I managed to capture a good amount of Hannah’s personality and attitude here.

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Ok, as many of you already know, this was the original chapter that I created for THE ARROW OF TIME. At the time I called it “chapter zero” because I wasn’t 100% sure just what I was doing and I was pretty sure that this wasn’t the actual start of the story, but it’s a good name because this is pretty much ground zero for when the shit hits the fan.

I’m still really happy with how this chapter looks 6+ years later. I was just figuring things out at this point and this chapter really set the mood for how the rest of the art ending up looking. I was also trying some stuff out with the storytelling and seeing what I could do and after the fact, I think those things I tried really do work.

This chapter is also where we start to follow Hannah – which is key because she’s our gateway into the world of On the Verge.* Whereas I discussed earlier that Jeremy, Lucas and the Professor were set up to follow the three different types of scientists, Hannah was purposely different. She’s new to everything and really seeing it for the first time just like the reader is. Plus, since she’s not defined as one of these types of scientists, she really gets to question why things are like they are.

I always worried about not really focusing on the main character until this far into the story. But at the same time, I kind of like the plot twist that it serves. We kind of follow this celebrity scientist and the poof! he’s kidnapped. And at the end of the day, it’s how everything kind of shook out. I really tried fighting Hannah being the main character, but it just made so much sense. And now that everything is done, I kind of look back and wonder why I ever doubted it.

So a couple of quick points that I feel are worth sharing:

One of the big things that I was trying to do was figure out “how” to draw the characters here – which is one of the reasons why Hannah is doing so much different stuff. Page 95 for example has seven panels – six of which are Hannah pulling different faces as she works.

The original story that made up “chapter zero” ended when Hannah arrived at home and found the appartment in shambles and Jeremy missing. At this point, I decided I didn’t know what to do next and went off and did part one of THE JUMPER. When I came back, I added the six pages where Mr. Tall deploys the test for the Arrow of Time.

And then the last bit with the Daily Recorder got added in when I decided to go back through and add those sections to each chapter. This really provided me an opportunity to give the reader lots of detail on things that had happened and not take up too much space.

Anyway, I’ve always really loved this chapter and I still do. It’s got a bunch of great little character moments in it and a couple of hidden Easter eggs. I’m glad it still holds up!

*One of the things that I think worked especially well about the Harry Potter series is that as you read through it, Harry is basically the stand in for the reader, seeing everything for the first time. I liked that idea and wanted to replicate it.

Did you guys miss reading #OnTheVerge: the Arrow of Time the first time around. Catch up here! And new art too! #webcomics #comics #scifi It's not that stuff hasn't happened in the story up until now, but this chapter is where things start to get interesting...

[jsnsmithart]

Happy Tuesday! So last week we wrapped up THE ARROW OF TIME story, but as I mentioned I have new art to share because I’ve created covers for each of the chapters. Also, even though I’ve collected the whole story in the archive (since pretty much day one), I realized that not everyone may know this.

So my plan is to post the new cover artwork each week (one chapter a week) and post the accompanying story pages from the chapter as well, in case you’re interested in re-reading.

Anyway, let’s get to the art, here’s the cover to the first chapter and the full chapter.

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This is also a great opportunity for me to offer some overall thoughts and insights into each chapter along the way. I did post stuff for certain pages as I went, but I was really trying to not give away the story and spoil things. And because of that, it was hard to really keep track of exactly what I could or should say. In most cases, I went with the approach of just not saying anything. But now that everything’s been posted, it’s an ideal time to go back through and dig deeper and explain what I was thinking.

So one of the big things that got included in this chapter is the three types of people that I felt framed the idea of “edge” sciences:

Those that stayed in their labs and universities and books and researched, researched, researched, developed theories and tests and pushing things forward

Those out in the world who dealt with the consequences of edge science on a daily basis, and

Those who took all of the knowledge that they had and applied it, no matter what the consequences were.

The key thing about this idea is that each of the “personas” is reflected in the three scientists in the story:

Jeremy is the researcher, always striving for knowledge and pushing forward

Lucas is the man-on-the-ground, out in the real world dealing with edge sciences and how they affect people, and

The Professor is the character who’s going to apply all of this knowledge, consequences be damned.

I think what I wanted to do with these different types of scientists is to really frame edge science as a field of study that had lots of different people involved and lots of parties who have different interests that they want to protect. And to be honest, my guess is that this is probably true of the real world to some extent.

Now back when I was first writing the start of this story, I felt it was super important that I included that the public wasn’t entirely on-board with “edge” sciences. This kind of provided a key counterpoint to the three scientists in the story. I think the key thing to me was that I wanted to establish that edge science was really out there, crazy sci-fi stuff and could be very dangerous and that not everyone was ok with blindly letting scientists do whatever they wanted to do. So the protests served to really highlight that people had maybe had enough and were starting to push back. What’s interesting is that this has actually happened in the “real” world since I wrote this. The stuff that’s happened with the Hadron Collider, etc., kind of proves that in general, weird science freaks people out. I’ve probably spent way too much time over the years really thinking about technology and science and how it affects our lives. The minute I started using a computer in my artwork, it became apparent that technology was changing things and this actually started to be reflected in some of the art that I was creating at the time.

The other thing that I remember really wanting to include was how people that know nothing about edge science would actually try to debate with someone like Jeremy – ie. one of the top scientists in the world. Now back when I was first starting to work on this, the anti-vaccine debate was something that was going on and I found it really amazing to follow. What interested me the most was people who had no formal training in science trying to tell professional scientists that they were wrong.* The thing about this whole debate, is that it’s probably gotten worse as we’re not literally having a renewed debate about global warming (hard to believe) and “fake news” or “alternate facts” are part of our daily life. Anyway, if you’re interested in these types of things, I actually just read two really good articles that I’d recommend: “Why facts don’t change our minds” and “How America lost faith in expertise”.

So yeah, it’s crazy how some of this stuff seems more relevant than ever. Crazy times indeed.

*Maybe it’s because as a graphic designer and illustrator I deal with people who think that they’re designers and illustrators (it’s just pictures and colour, right?), but I could empathize with this debate.

Did you guys miss reading #OnTheVerge: the Arrow of Time the first time around. Start here! And new art too! #webcomics #comics #scifi Happy Tuesday! So last week we wrapped up THE ARROW OF TIME story, but as I mentioned I have new art to share because I’ve created covers for each of the chapters.

[jsnsmithart]

Chapter 10 continues! Read #OnTheVerge: The Arrow of Time page 319 here. #webcomics #comics #lfwc #sciencefiction #scifi #weirdscience So today we wrap up this scene. Here's the new page:

[jsnsmithart]

On the Verge – The Arrow of Time – Page 318

Chapter 10 continues! Read #OnTheVerge: The Arrow of Time page 318 here. #webcomics #comics #lfwc #sciencefiction #scifi #weirdscience

I had fun with today’s page. I was trying to figure out how to cut down the number of panels and finally settled on (what I think) is a pretty cool angle for the first panel. At this point in the process, I was trying to come up with new stuff and this just seemed to work. But hey! After 317 pages, I guess it’s a good thing to still come up with new stuff :) Anyway, here’s today’s page… Also, I’m…

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[jsnsmithart]

On the Verge – The Arrow of Time – Page 317

Chapter 10 continues! Read #OnTheVerge: The Arrow of Time page 317 here. #webcomics #comics #lfwc #sciencefiction #scifi #weirdscience

Page two of this new scene and some characters make a reappearance… Last week I talked a bit about what I wanted this last chapter to accomplish. The one thing I didn’t mention is that I wanted to really touch base with all of the various characters that we’ve see throughout the story. The challenge then became finding a way to weave characters into things. We’ll see how that goes. Anyway, last…

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[jsnsmithart]

On the Verge – The Arrow of Time – Page 316

Chapter 10 continues! Read #OnTheVerge: The Arrow of Time page 316 here. #webcomics #comics #lfwc #sciencefiction #scifi #weirdscience

Welcome back! I hope you guys didn’t miss your weekly dose of weird science and comics – otherwise known as On the Verge. Anyway, happy new year and let’s start it off with a new scene. Here’s this week’s page… One of the things that I wanted to do with this last chapter was to tie up lose ends and as you can tell from this page, dangle some story threads that maybe will lead somewhere down the…

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