Adventures of Erc

[RickZarber]

(Reposting after the Time Skip.)

I posted a lot of this in the sketches thread, but as it's something I plan on working on for a while, I figure why not give it a dedicated home.

So, recap, back around early 2005, even before I did my first NPF comic, one of my friends started a webcomic called The Not-So-Ordinary Adventures of Erc and Friends (Adventures of Erc or AOE for short). Over the course of about a year he managed seventeen updates, and only seven of those were actual story comics (the rest were intro and filler). Thing was, he'd done a whole lot of work plotting out the story and fleshing out the world and the characters. Flash forward to sometime around 2011--after he became my roommate--I got him talking one night and managed to get him to tell me what he'd planned for the story. And I felt robbed. It was good! It was really, really good! It needed to see the light of day. He was considering adapting it as prose, and he finished a whole chapter and started the second, but it was slow going; the story was designed to be told visually. So earlier this summer I tentatively suggested that I could try to draw it.

Now, we haven't decided 100% that we're going forward with this. I'm still very much in the design phase, testing the waters. On top of that, I'm struggling with my joint problems, and my art skills (and the results) are still a bit shakey. But I'm working at it, and that's what counts. (In fact I'm trying to use this as a platform to build myself back up to the point where I can work on my JAQ book illustrations without feeling like I want to die.) But in the meantime, I figured I can share what I'm doing.

These were the most recent character designs done by my roommate, set in the order I tackled adapting their designs:


So first off we get our titular character, Erc:



Erc is a college freshman and a bit of a mystery. He's ripped, but his hair is weird, he loves shōjo manga, he's always been rather standoffish and is considered a weirdo by pretty much everyone but his few friends. Erc went away for a few years during middle/high school, but when he came back he'd never talk about it. The only person who might know what's going on is his closest childhood friend, Dex:



Dex (also a college freshman) is more your typical teenage nerd guy. Sarcastic, shy, pasty, way too into video games. He and Erc were best friends, but when Erc left, Dex had to find new friends. That's where Alicia comes in:



Alicia is a year behind Dex and Erc. She's as geeky as the others but is way more socially acclimated; the guys can be an embarrassment sometimes. She is our audience surrogate character, and all of the (eventual) weirdness of the story is seen pretty much through her eyes. When Erc came back from wherever, she was a bit scared of him. But since Dex was always going to hang out with Erc, Alicia built up the courage and eventually they were all fast friends.

After finishing her sheet, I tried a bit of digital inking and coloring. I'm not very good at inking with my tablet, but I was happy with how the look of the coloring turned out. The eyes were a stylistic experiment, but I think I might stick with it. Her hair is actually the wrong color here; I was working off of my roommate's color sheet, but apparently his monitor back in the day was really... off. We've since made changes.



Here's a group shot I did, based on one of the original comics (sample panel of that):



And also I decided to try a quick sketch version of remaking one of his comics completely.

Here's the original.



Next up we have Megumi. She doesn't actually show up in the comic until the end of the first "book" (no idea how many comics / how long that will be at this point), but once she does, she's one of the main characters for the rest of the story:



Megumi is a high school junior, though she goes to a different school than everyone else does/did. She's smart, hard working, trendy, friendly, and altogether far too pretty. She couldn't be put on a higher pedestal if she tried. And she's miserable.

I had a bit of a hard time with Meg's design. I felt like I got it right the first time (top left) and then couldn't manage it again. She's supposed to be half-Japanese, and I was trying to imply that without overly-stereotypical eye shapes. I've settled for just emphasizing the epicanthal fold.

This next one was mainly to work out body shapes. Though the bathing suits are drawn pretty terribly and I was having some trouble with anatomy, which became blindingly clear once I inked and colored it. I tried to fix some of the problems afterwards, but it still looks pretty bad to me now. Ah well, at least you can see Megumi's color scheme. (Hair and eye colors in this universe are working under anime rules; anything goes). I do really like how Alicia's pool shoes came out though.

Click the picture to swap to the original pencils and back.



This was inked with a brush pen, rather than digitally. As you can see I'm still struggling with control / precision--I end up having to do a good bit of clean-up in Photoshop. I tried inking the hair here the way it was in the original comics, but I don't think I like it. At least Alicia's hair's been restored to its proper hue.

Quick sketches finalizing body shapes:



Next up, we have Alicia's best friend, Lydia.



Lydia is also a highschool senior, same school as Alicia. She tolerated Dex hanging out with Alicia, but she can't stand Erc and all of his creepy weirdness. Luckily for her, she doesn't have to deal with it at school every day anymore. All the same, Alicia wishes she could get all of her friends to hang out together...

Tried a sketch of the girls at school, mostly to work on my backgrounds (which will need a lot of work):



And another attempt at inking / coloring. My arm was super unstable on this one, though, and the inks are a complete mess. Mostly I just wanted to color Lydia. I did the eyes differently this time, more like the original comics, but I'm not sure it really works with my style. Still not happy with the hair either.

Again, click to see the--much better--pencils.



Some more Erc sketches next, this time we get a first glimpse at one of the three main aspects of the comics: crazy martial arts stuff. Meet Erc's Huge Fucking Axe:



Next up is a group shot and my best inking/coloring attempt so far. I think I've finally settled on hair and eye styles. This is not a scene from the story, more just me trying to capture a dynamic. The only things I'm not really happy about are that Erc's glasses are way too big here and Alica is posed awkwardly.

Yet again, click to see pencils. (Pencil version of Lydia here is my favorite.)



Next up is just a random sketch page:



And finally here's a few sketches of Alicia training / working out. (She's supposed to be kneeling on the ground in that top right bit, but I messed up her height relative to Erc. ...Other two are rough too for that matter, but that's just me tryin' to learn.)



Okay, sorry for megapost, I'm done now.


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Also, for completion's sake and so's I don't forget:

Originally Posted by rpgdemon "The most vague comment ever?"

Hey I own that shirt.

Originally Posted by Mauve Mage

Really nice work! It all looks great!