Comic 1 - World Nude Gardening Day
3rd Oct 2020, 8:00 AM
in One-pagers
Transcript
11 panels prefered in four rows, can be 10 if needed*Panel 1*.
In foreground left, Ernst, Sarah and Jamie are gardening nude under a banner that says "Nude gardening Day - Welcome all". They have COVID-19 masks which they're wearing loose around their necks. In background right, George is announcing a camera crew in the door to the back yard. Behind him, the camera crew an be seen in the doorway, wearing COVID-19 masks.
George: Hey mom, grandpa! The TV people are here!
*Panel 2.*
Sarah is upset. Ernst tut-tuts her concerns.
Sarah: You invited a camera crew to our World Nude Gardening Day event?
Ernst: We need to promote our campsite, Sarah.
*Panel 3.*
Sarah keeps putting the pressure on Ernst. Ernst pulls his mask over his face.
Sarah: In case you forgot, there's a pandemic on!
Ernst: Relax! We'll be outside and everyone willl be wearing masks. Including us, when we're not on camera.
*Panel 4*
Sarah: And when we are on camera? What about the kids? You don't know what kind of sickos will be watching!
George: It's OK, mom! I don't care who knows we're nudists.
Jamie: Speak for yourself! I'm putting on pants!
*Panel 5*
The director, wearing a mask, addresses Sarah directly. He may be showing her something that he uses, if possible. His tablet?
Director: Whenever your children appear on camera, we will blur out anything you don't want them to see. Any perverts watching will be very disappointed.
George: Please please please let me go on TV!
*Panel 6*
George enthusiastically guides the camera crew around the garden. Other people from the campsite are also at work. Jamie tags along in pants and stays off-camera.
George: So these are our peppers, and we'll be planting pumpkins for Halloween today!
*Panel 7*
The camera crew tries to engage Ernst and Sarah. George jumps in front of them, waving.
Ernst: Of course, growing peppers outdoors in this climate is-
George: Nude gardening is the best! You don't get sweaty and we're with friends, and it's the best feeling!
*Panel 8*
George sees the crew out, at the other end of the campsite. The crew, still in their masks, look dazed.
George: Bye! Come back some time and we'll talk some more!
Sound person to camera person: By the way, how's your sister's golden retriever doing?
*Panel 9*
At home. Everyone's gathered around the TV like it's the 1950s. Ernst is turning it on
Ernst: Our report should be on soon.
Sarah: There'd better not be any unblurred bits on my boys, or there'll be hell to pay!
TV announcer (on screen): And now…
*Panel 10*
George appears on the TV. His whole face is blurred.
George: And so I'm super open and proud about us being nudists and anyoneme can ask me anything!
George: They blurred my FACE?
*Panel 11*
George is welcoming new people to the campsite. He is wearing a face mask that is a pure pink with no features, and covers his eye.
Jamie is talking to Caroline about George.
George: Hi! Welcome to our campsite! Ask me anything!
Jamie: So he said, "Good thing there's a pandemic on".
Average Rating: 5 (6 votes) Rate this comic
Author Notes:
HOWEVER…
It's really another test page. The first two panels were drawn traditionally, with ink and watercolors. Panels 2-10 were drawn on the iPad, in Procreate while I refined the dimensions for the individual panels. Panel 11 was done in Affinity Photo, also on iPad. All individual panels were assembled in Affinity Designer while I sorted out a dozen niggling technical things and learned a bit about the tools. However, I did not manage to get everything to look consistent while trying out different tools and approaches. I now know what my preferred process is. Future pages will be drawn as whole pages, in Procreate, and Affinity Publisher will only be used for lettering and post-processing.
While I did this, I had some fun with the 11-panel structure that Sjors & Sjimmie creators Wilbert Plijnaar, Jan van Die and Robert van der Kroft developed over the years. It's very difficult to do, actually, though for me most of the difficulty was with writing in that style. For the individual panels, whenever it wasn't easy, it was because I did something wrong while writing and thumbnailing. Even so, with 11 small panels per page and everything being full-body shots, it's a lot of work for a format that maybe doesn't work that great on the web, so future pages will be looser and have fewer panels, and more variety in the angles.
User comments:
This one is off to a great start!
Hey, I still care about the cute fluffy animals.
There is a backstory - an origin story for the campsite, but I am in no position to draw it right now. Once I've worked out a way to massively increase my output, I'll get to it.
And that eleven panel layout works well!