TGW Comic Logbook

A progress log of the upcoming comic, The "Great" War: a graphic WWI comedy about five misfit soldiers. Updates every week on Monday! For those who want a little extra update on the progression. (+ Some WW1-related reblogs!)

[tgwcomiclog]

i wasnt the one who asked the initial question, but a follow-up anyway: what do you think about the possibility of your characters being genderqueer, GNC or just straight up transgender? i dont think any of them are supposed to be, but do you think any of them could've been, especially had it been a different time? i found it interesting how the circumstances effected sexuality, but i wonder how that factored into gender as well ?

I really appreciate all the questions. You guys have some interesting things to discuss!

From my observations and reading, it also seemed like the war opened up a lot of avenues for people to explore their gender. If I can find the article I’ll add it, but it touched on how some soldiers couldn’t really handle the stress of performing their masculinity constantly and to extremes in a war setting. A lot of them wrote about wanting to be women, and some even found ways to experiment and express this femininity on the job. Super interesting! I imagine the same thing happened with the women as well.

With that in mind, I do think that the cast's genders are similarly fluid to their sexualities, especially in the context of the war. To what degree, I can't really say.

I suppose it's worth mentioning that part of my comic is analysing masculinity, and how it can in fact be a broad expression like femininity. I could say that Roy, Matt, and Will have a more obvious feminine streak to them, but they're still expressing that as men. I don't know if that makes sense! I'd also add that I think Tom, Matt, and Will are the closest to being GNC; I think their sexuality has a hand in how they express their gender as they already deviate from the rigidity of hetero-normative life.

TL;DR they're all men. but in a weird gay war way #wokewin

I'm excited to explore this more in my comic. It's not a main focus, so I can't say how obvious or in-depth it'll be, but it's definitely on my mind when I write. Thanks again for the question! If you want me to explain further, or have another question, please let me know!

[tgwcomiclog]

Thought I'd add that there is someone in the comic on the trans spectrum...

The 19th's darling, Major Josie Barker!

[tgwcomiclog]

i wasnt the one who asked the initial question, but a follow-up anyway: what do you think about the possibility of your characters being genderqueer, GNC or just straight up transgender? i dont think any of them are supposed to be, but do you think any of them could've been, especially had it been a different time? i found it interesting how the circumstances effected sexuality, but i wonder how that factored into gender as well ?

I really appreciate all the questions. You guys have some interesting things to discuss!

From my observations and reading, it also seemed like the war opened up a lot of avenues for people to explore their gender. If I can find the article I’ll add it, but it touched on how some soldiers couldn’t really handle the stress of performing their masculinity constantly and to extremes in a war setting. A lot of them wrote about wanting to be women, and some even found ways to experiment and express this femininity on the job. Super interesting! I imagine the same thing happened with the women as well.

With that in mind, I do think that the cast's genders are similarly fluid to their sexualities, especially in the context of the war. To what degree, I can't really say.

I suppose it's worth mentioning that part of my comic is analysing masculinity, and how it can in fact be a broad expression like femininity. I could say that Roy, Matt, and Will have a more obvious feminine streak to them, but they're still expressing that as men. I don't know if that makes sense! I'd also add that I think Tom, Matt, and Will are the closest to being GNC; I think their sexuality has a hand in how they express their gender as they already deviate from the rigidity of hetero-normative life.

TL;DR they're all men. but in a weird gay war way #wokewin

I'm excited to explore this more in my comic. It's not a main focus, so I can't say how obvious or in-depth it'll be, but it's definitely on my mind when I write. Thanks again for the question! If you want me to explain further, or have another question, please let me know!

[tgwcomiclog]

genuine question, are there any queer characters in your comic? I ask that solely because it takes place in the military and the military has always been historically very gay lol

(plus I need to know if I have a chance with Roy 😔 /lh/j)

Short answer, yes. Here's a handy-dandy reference if you're short on time:

Wow, more like The "Great" Woke, am I right?

Long answer, it's weird and complicated.

I think the fascination with wartime queerness is that it's so far removed from regular society, and segregated by gender (traditionally). These sorts of chasms left by the groups sort of gave way for men and women to meld themselves to the feminine and masculine voids left behind. Also, because of the lack of women, men were simply more inclined to find affection and comfort in their friends. The similarity in their experiences and gender probably made the bonds formed far more intimate than any traditional relationship. Which is why it appears so gay to us.

This idea was also reflected in a recent read of mine; it seems that men in the army could basically fall in love with each other. The relationships and bonds they had could be and often were described as romantic. However, the few entries and accounts of soldiers' experiences did emphasise that it was a pure, non-physical form of love, no matter how deep it ran. Kind of beautiful in a way, but the whole sodomy thing was a crime a lot of men were incredibly hesitant to align themselves anywhere near the homosexual label.

Not Tom, though. He's probably the most out-and-proud gay guy, or at least as out as you can be in the military.

The other four? I dunno. But as this excerpt puts it, "There is a strain of homosexuality in most men.". I think that's true for my cast.

I've always had trouble defining my characters' identities since there was so little language to describe it back in the day, as well as people just having a completely different understanding of their sexuality and gender. I wouldn't even call the little doodle above accurate. Giving them labels comes with a culture, and one that's relatively modern. That modern culture is just... difficult to project onto these characters. It's hard to really articulate my feelings around it without being too pedantic. But I suppose for brevity's sake, it's accurate enough.

Sorry if that was super long. To everyone's dismay, I have the never-ending mindset of "well, it depends!". Thanks for reading through if you did, though. Sexuality and gender during wartime is super fun to research.

[tgwcomiclog]

Hello!!

Wanted to say that seeing your art for your story and these update logs has been so inspiring to work on my own worldbuilding so cheers to that!

Secondly, I'm curious how you handle writing/just generally handle a larger cast of characters without severely neglecting any of them? (Like going crazy over like a pair of ocs and leaving like another oc in the dust)

hopefully my question makes sense !! Thank you!!!

Hey! I'm so glad to hear you're feeling inspired. It always excites me to be around other artists and writers so I wish you all the best in your own work!

As for the question...

Like most writing advice, I think it depends. For this in particular, if you want your cast to get equal attention, you sort of just have to put in the conscious effort to do so. Unhelpful, right? Sometimes all your mind can handle is a specific OC, or OC pair.

But for some more concrete tips that have helped me, I'd suggest:

giving your OCs an arc you want to write,

identifying who your main cast is, and

determining how to divide your story's runtime between the characters.

For number one, the main thing that really allowed me to share the comic between everyone was simply giving them a story I wanted to write. For a long time, Will was my favourite because he was the only one with a properly expanded arc (Will has always given me headaches so he just needed the extra attention). But after taking the time to work with the other four, I ended up having so much more fun. I was so eager to put it down in my documents! I also think rounding out your cast as individuals ends up elevating them all. So, if anything, you can start working on other OCs through their relationship between the ones you're fixated on. From experience, it's a fantastic way to get the ball rolling.

For the second thing, it all comes down to the hierarchy. Regardless of cast size, you'll have main characters, secondary characters, background characters, etc. They don't all need the same amount of attention! This might be because they don't have a big role in the plot, or maybe their arc is simpler or slower. Tom is my main-main character because he's the reason their story is kicked off at all. Therefore, he gets a bit more time on-screen (or on-panel?). Matt and Will are the ones closest to him so they end up being the most influential aside from him, and so on. So, I think it's good to give certain characters more elaborate and long stories, as long as they earn it.

Then, thirdly! Giving your OCs the time to explore their personal arcs! I think this bit is the most intuitive part, unfortunately, but then again I think a lot of factors in storytelling are dependant on what exactly you're trying to tell. You might not have time for the OCs if your story is more plot-focused, for example. A lot of it comes from experience, observation, and experimentation. As mentioned in the previous point, some characters will need more time to resolve their arcs, so that usually gives a good indication of how long you need to spend on them.

Also, I'd like to say, I think a lot of projects just need time to marinate. I see a lot of young or beginner storytellers try to speed-run the story process, but from experience in my past projects, you sort of just... have to get to know your story and characters. They're a bit like people. So in the meantime, have some fun... experiment, play around, see what works and what doesn't. Most people can usually sense when something is a little off, or ineffective.

There's probably a lot more to add, but people do whole courses on creative writing. There's no way I can summarise that in a blog post. Anyway, I'm not a professional by any means, but I hope some of it can be useful regardless.

Thanks for reading! Cheers,

-Joe

[tgwcomiclog]

Just wanted to add, I opened my brainstorming doc that has all my episode drafts in it, and I forgot to mention this:

It's a more quantitative way to track who I need to elevate during what episode, and that personally helps me visualise it.

I think it could work for other structures as well, like chapters in a novel or acts in a video game. Not sure if it really helps, but it helps for me.

[tgwcomiclog]

Hello!!

Wanted to say that seeing your art for your story and these update logs has been so inspiring to work on my own worldbuilding so cheers to that!

Secondly, I'm curious how you handle writing/just generally handle a larger cast of characters without severely neglecting any of them? (Like going crazy over like a pair of ocs and leaving like another oc in the dust)

hopefully my question makes sense !! Thank you!!!

Hey! I'm so glad to hear you're feeling inspired. It always excites me to be around other artists and writers so I wish you all the best in your own work!

As for the question...

Like most writing advice, I think it depends. For this in particular, if you want your cast to get equal attention, you sort of just have to put in the conscious effort to do so. Unhelpful, right? Sometimes all your mind can handle is a specific OC, or OC pair.

But for some more concrete tips that have helped me, I'd suggest:

giving your OCs an arc you want to write,

identifying who your main cast is, and

determining how to divide your story's runtime between the characters.

For number one, the main thing that really allowed me to share the comic between everyone was simply giving them a story I wanted to write. For a long time, Will was my favourite because he was the only one with a properly expanded arc (Will has always given me headaches so he just needed the extra attention). But after taking the time to work with the other four, I ended up having so much more fun. I was so eager to put it down in my documents! I also think rounding out your cast as individuals ends up elevating them all. So, if anything, you can start working on other OCs through their relationship between the ones you're fixated on. From experience, it's a fantastic way to get the ball rolling.

For the second thing, it all comes down to the hierarchy. Regardless of cast size, you'll have main characters, secondary characters, background characters, etc. They don't all need the same amount of attention! This might be because they don't have a big role in the plot, or maybe their arc is simpler or slower. Tom is my main-main character because he's the reason their story is kicked off at all. Therefore, he gets a bit more time on-screen (or on-panel?). Matt and Will are the ones closest to him so they end up being the most influential aside from him, and so on. So, I think it's good to give certain characters more elaborate and long stories, as long as they earn it.

Then, thirdly! Giving your OCs the time to explore their personal arcs! I think this bit is the most intuitive part, unfortunately, but then again I think a lot of factors in storytelling are dependant on what exactly you're trying to tell. You might not have time for the OCs if your story is more plot-focused, for example. A lot of it comes from experience, observation, and experimentation. As mentioned in the previous point, some characters will need more time to resolve their arcs, so that usually gives a good indication of how long you need to spend on them.

Also, I'd like to say, I think a lot of projects just need time to marinate. I see a lot of young or beginner storytellers try to speed-run the story process, but from experience in my past projects, you sort of just... have to get to know your story and characters. They're a bit like people. So in the meantime, have some fun... experiment, play around, see what works and what doesn't. Most people can usually sense when something is a little off, or ineffective.

There's probably a lot more to add, but people do whole courses on creative writing. There's no way I can summarise that in a blog post. Anyway, I'm not a professional by any means, but I hope some of it can be useful regardless.

Thanks for reading! Cheers,

-Joe

[tgwcomiclog]

Entry #4 - Favouritism

23/06/2026

Hi all. I missed Monday again! But oh well. I guess there's still a week in-between posts.

Like last week, I don't have tonnes to say about the comic. Been focused on comms and doing some fanart to keep me sane... Still hammering away at those cover pieces, though! I do have some thoughts. Conceptual ones. Uh oh!

So, the TADC finale dropped last week. Bear with me. And Jax was rightfully getting a lot of criticism. Bear with me. I think it's pretty clear that Jax was the favourite. It's not necessarily a bad thing to have a favourite character when you're working, but I think it can end up being detrimental for the character. Jax was cruel and never got punished for his actions, which made every second of his screen time totally unbearable for me. It felt like this was connected to how much Gooseworks loved him.

I bring this up because I have a favourite, too!

Over the years, Tom became the face of the comic, and I think he has good reason to be. I love his arc, his personality, and his design. I'm especially proud of how far he's come over my time with this project. HOWEVER! This means I have to be veeeeeery careful. He is incredibly flawed, and a bit of an acquired taste for many people (so, similar to Jax in that sense, but I like to think he won't be as grating but a long shot). It would be really easy for me to give him too much time in the spotlight. I'm really happy with where the story is right now, and I'm confident that Tom's arc will be nowhere near as poor as Jax's was.

I suppose the TL;DR of this all is that I need to be wary. Balance is key, and it's a hard thing to get right. A lot of the episodes are not fully drafted, so I still have oodles and oodles of room for error. And god forbid Tom becomes the WWI-equivalent to Jax... eugh.

We'll just have to wait and see. Fingers crossed I'm conscious enough to do my soldiers justice on the page. Thanks so much for reading this entry, if you did. It's a bit of a weird one.

Cheers,

-Joe

P.S. I have an ask box if any of you have questions for me or something. It's always really nice to read your thoughts and opinions if you have them!

[tgwcomiclog]

Entry #3 - Slow Roll

17/06/2026

Hiii... who missed me.

So, I missed Monday. My bad! I've been trialling for jobs, so wish me luck. It also means I haven't gotten a lot done over the last week. Not even conceptually! I guess I wasted all my thoughts on last week's log. Apart from commissions, I've been trying to mock up some covers. I like to believe my comic will (eventually) go into print... and comics need a cover! I've genuinely been obsessed with illustrating for this comic since 2022, so no wonder.

I feel like the art direction I've chosen has been incredibly helpful as of late. There's a great big chance I haven't done enough exploration, but combining the the old aesthetics of WWI with the newer styles of the 90s and 00s has left me with so much new territory to tread. I wish it would look as fresh as I envision, but I think my art still has a way to go before I'm there. I risk developing a horrible ego if I'm not careful.

Anyway, thanks for reading this week's update. I'll see you all next Monday.

Cheers!

-Joe

[elysiumwaters]

Me when I see people knowing more about my special interest than I do

[tgwcomiclog]

Entry #2 - Some thoughts

08/06/2026

Hi again!

Been looking forward to making another entry. I do a lot of thinking in my spare time. But before I ramble, I'd like to give the important update... the comic has been coming along at a speed which I've never had. I was in a background mood, so I filled a lot of those in. I was seriously putting those off. Not sure if I'll make pre-sets in the future... I think there's a reason a lot of veteran creators tell the amateurs to start small; there needs to be time for them to understand their own workflow before really committing to a big project. Regardless of the setbacks, I'm glad to finally be pushing through!

This week I haven't really been at my desk. I suppose I've made myself a bit busy (sorry to those waiting on commissions!). But I've done some thinking.

The Visuals

Ooh, we have subheadings now. Well, I suppose I just have a lot to say this week.

Earlier this year, I made the decision to stop forcing myself to take inspiration from the early 20th century. Which was scary! I don't think I know any historical artist who really uses modern visual styles, so I'm navigating this by myself a bit. But anyway. I've found that the graphic styles of the 1990s/2000s have captured me. I think their underlying philosophy of rebellion and experimenting suit my comic and my characters more, so I want to make it my primary reference point. At the moment, I'm still trying to see if I can find any particular artists to take after. This isn't to say I want to abandon any imagery from the time period. It is WWI after all. I think my tastes have simply changed over time. As much as I still admire the movements that were alive during the war, it was getting stifling.

I think it's also important to me to really lean into the grossness of the war. It reeked, it was unsanitary in every way imaginable, and it was sickening to be around. There's a lot of beats in the episodes and arcs where I hope people wrinkle their nose a bit. I don't think I had the skills to do that, but maybe now I can.

The Symbols

Speaking of the gross factor, I wanted a little subheading for a theme/idea I've had for a while. I've started to take the plunge and really integrate the theme of consumption, which is one I've wanted to include for about a year now.

I say this about all wars, but they are the biggest consumers of anything. Most of them are started over greed, or ego. Some aren't wars at all. Whatever the conflict is, the uniting factor is just just how insatiable the war machine is. It sucks up resources, bodies, and even sanity of anyone in the vicinity. I wrote an entire document on it.

I put this under a separate subheading because I wanted to symbolise this theme with imagery of eating, and organs. I could be more squeamish than I thought, but I think the physical process of eating something is just so gross. And fascinating at the same time! I have a whole thing about how I think no-man's land mirrors a digestive system in a way, but that's like a whole other thing. Maybe I'll expand on it, maybe I won't. #mysterious

I am a little worried that I'm making this all a bit too much. I don't want to deter my readers away with all the gore-y/vore-y stuff I have planned for future episodes. Then again, I think that's a reality I'll have to expect if I'm serious about ousting the "cuter" aspects.

Anyway, those are my thoughts from this week. If you read all that, thanks. I really appreciate it! I hope next week I can talk about something else fun. I've always got something in my head about this comic.

Cheers,

-Joe

P.S. I'll start leaving some panels at the end of these posts. I've been pretty proud of the ones I've been finishing up recently. Hope you like them!

[longislandairpower]

[classicwoodie]

The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 is a British biplanefighter aircraft of the First World War. It was developed at the Royal Aircraft Factory by a team consisting of Henry Folland, John Kenworthy and Major Frank Goodden. It was one of the fastest aircraft of the war, while being both stable and relatively manoeuvrable. According to aviation author Robert Jackson, the S.E.5 was: "the nimble fighter that has since been described as the 'Spitfire of World War One'".[2]

[tgwcomiclog]

Entry #1: The First

01/06/2026

Hi all!

I've had the idea for a long time to create a log for the progression of my comic. Ideally, I should've done this the moment I decided to create a comic, but I wasn't expecting to make it this far in the journey. Now, I'm preparing to launch the first act of the pilot, somewhere in the coming year. How exciting!

The purpose of this blog was to keep the more voracious fans (fans! I have fans!!!) occupied while I do my best working on the comic. And also, for myself. Just to keep the history somewhere organised instead of buried deep in my friends' DMs. I think a lot, so hopefully updates not only about the physical comic, but its concepts and themes, would be welcome.

To mark my first update, I've finished outlining 36/62 pages of the first act. And today, I finally think I've decided on a flow for my screen-tones. I had a lot of trouble trying to decide how I wanted it to look, considering I don't want to rely on them. I think they can look a little flat if they're overused, so I wanted to avoid that. Right now, I've chosen a two-tone scheme for the uniforms and skin tones, while occasionally supplementing the background with a light texture brush. I can't understate how happy I am. It was doing my head in!

Anyway, looking forward to seeing you in next week's update. I'm sure I'll have far more brainwaves to share. Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

-Joe