The Comic Sensation

Hello. This week I am going over the newest comic strip for Hugh Manatee. I am going to be introducing the third comic strip and talking about the changes I made in the color comic compared to the black and white comic.
 

Third comic strip in color: Thomas Sigwalt

Third comic strip in black and white: Thomas Sigwalt

First I'll go over the black and white version of the comic:

third comic strip: by Thomas Sigwalt

For the black and white version I found that I needed to keep things simple enough so the newspaper print could show everything without losing parts of the story.

The title square was harder to come up with this time. I wanted something that showed an ocean scene that could also be viewed as another scene. I figured starfish and a manta ray would be great for illustrating a starry night scene.

For this comic I have only the things that are necessary to tell the story. The background is usually blank to focus on the characters or the object. Too many things in each cell could cause clutter and make it harder to read the comic.

One part of the comic I had troubles with was conveying the fact that Doll Finne was released from prison both in words and in the drawing. That is why I added a small box for the open handcuffs.

Now for the changes I made in the colored version: 

third comic strip: by Thomas Sigwalt

Overall, I added more detail into the comic.

For the title box, I colored the starfish, manta ray and clouds. I then added a gradient to the background. These simple additions really made the scene pop.

For the rest of the comic, I added colors to the background that represent the floor and the walls. This was another subtle change, but it gave the scene a sense of depth that the black and white comic doesn't show as well.

Shading was another addition that gave more dimension to the to the color comic. I could have shaded the black and white version, but for newspaper printings I have found that the ink does not pick up details like shading very well. More details only make the comic look muddy.

This post has really left me animated...