3. Character Concepts and Sequential Sketches

Hey everyone! Welcome back to The Warrior's Journey! Over the last few months (when not working on Commission projects or other business-related stuff), I have been furiously scribbling tons of concept art for this comic. The look for the main character, Mike Sloane a.k.a. The Warrior, has been firmly established - although both his costume design and his powers will evolve throughout the story. So, I have been focusing primarily on developing other characters. I'm not gonna go into too much detail about these guys yet, but we're basically looking at some pretty crucial archetypes including a mentor, a love interest, allies, a primary villain, and sub-villains.

Beyond character development, I have begun some initial panel work. I started with a test page designed to see where my skills were at. There are quite a few technical flaws, but that was the point...

I have also started sketching out the origin story - right at the moment where Mike's life is changed forever. This is when he is first bestowed with power - it's new, he has no control, and something something tragic happens. This will set the stage for everything! I haven't finished sketching the tragedy yet, but that's coming soon.

Concept Art

Drawing this first set of panels also prompted me to think about some of the nitty-gritty details that hadn't really crossed my mind. The first of which is the transformation of Mike Sloane into The Warrior. The artefact that gives him the power is both magical and technological (depending on your point of view), but what does it actually look like during the transformation process? I don't want the mask, cape, and costume to just suddenly appear - I want there to be a transformation. It doesn't have to be as dramatic as Bruce Banner changing into the Hulk or anything, but it should have a distinct look to it. Since the energy power coming off his blades looks kind of like a mixture of crackling electricity and particles of light, I want the transformation to look like that, but more intense. Here is my initial idea for that transformation:

That's all I've got for now. I'm going to continue cranking away at this stuff, and I hope to have the full origin story sketched out within the next month or two.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

-- Matt Nickola