A little earlier today we heard from Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook about “Harrow County,” their new series from Dark Horse Comics. As a sort of addendum to that conversation, we wanted to talk a little more with Crook about his process and what it takes to get to a finished page.

To help us in our endeavor the good folks at Dark Horse sent along this video for us to share with you, our dear readers.

I really enjoy watching art come together in time-lapse videos, and the always make me wonder the same thing: how long would this have been in real-time?

Tyler Crook: Thanks! I really like making those videos. They make drawing look way more magical than it really is. I made 3 different videos one of me penciling, one inking and one coloring. Together, they are about 15 minuets long. In real life though, it took me about a day and a half to finish that whole two-page spread.

Can you describe your character design process? Do the characters you create come to you quickly, or is there a longer, revision heavy process you go through?

TC: It’s totally different from character to character. The design for Emmy started out with a pretty quick sketch and a sample page that we used when we pitched the project to Dark Horse. But if you look at that sample page, Emmy’s not quite right. Her hair is weird and her face shape is kind of wrong. It took me 3 or 4 months of sketching to figure her out. And even after all that, her “design” is still developing as I get to know her character better.

In contrast to that I just started drawing a character today that I just did about an hour of quick sketches and now he’s already been penciled on two pages.

Would you say that this process is the same for your non-human characters? Or is there something different at work when you’re designing monsters and creatures?

TC: In a lot of ways they are the same. It’s working out the history of the character/creature and figuring out what they need to fulfill their roll in the story. Once I have that figured out most of the work is done. The two are different because humans can sort of come from a standard template. I know how many eyes and limbs most humans will have before I start drawing. That’s not true for monsters. So there is an added level when designing monsters because you are also inventing their biology.

The first two Issues of “Harrow County” take place on a farm and a little of the land surrounding it. How well do you know that area? Do you have rough maps for it, or do you keep it fluid and let the narrative dictate the landscape?

TC: Before I started penciling the first issue I made a little map of the farm and the surrounding woods. But beyond that who knows what’s out there. You have to be careful about stuff like that. It’s really easy to paint yourself into a corner and suddenly you can’t stage things the way the story requires. So really it’s best to keep that stuff a little fluid and ambiguous.

When Cullen sends you a script, what’re the steps you take before you begin penciling what’ll be the final page?

TC: It’s a pretty straightforward process. I start with going over the script so that I have a good understanding of the issue. Sometimes I’ll draw a little diagram so that I can see how all the scenes fit together and how the action and tension need to shift throughout the issue.

Then I do my layouts. Layouts are the hardest part because that where I make all my important decisions. I do them two pages to a sheet so that I can see how the spread is going to work. At this point I’m just trying to figure out camera angle, staging and rough acting. I want everything to be clear and readable.

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Once I have an issue laid out, and I can read the whole thing, I go through and figure out what I need to design. I do my designs after I do layouts so that I’m only designing stuff that I’m going to use and I’m designing characters and stuff that will fit with how they will be used in the story.

On Harrow County I’m also doing the lettering. So I scan in my layouts and letter over those. When the book is all lettered, I print out the lettering on 11 x 17 paper as a light blue. Then I pencil over the top of that.

There are a few other steps that I left out, like curling up in a ball and crying from anxiety and goofing off on Twitter, etc.

Ha! I know you’re partly joking but that raises an interesting question. How do you deal with getting stuck somewhere in the process? Is that where Twitter comes into play? Or can you switch gears and work on something different?

TC: I get stuck on stuff almost daily. Sometimes it’s just bad drawing sometimes it’s anxiety wearing me down. Over the years, I’ve managed to develop a lot of different strategies for dealing with that stuff. So it’s hard to give an answer that’ll mean anything to other people. For me, I guess, it comes down to trying to be self aware and present in the art process. If I’m drawing like a jerk it might be that I just need to eat lunch or switch to some other task for awhile. But often the problem is more of a problem of bad choices. Like maybe I’m struggling with a particular pose that I had my heart set on but I just can’t get it to make sense on the page. when that happens I need to step back and reevaluate the choices I made and see if there is a better solution. It’s funny how often I get stuck because I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and as soon as I start drawing round pegs everything falls into place. I don’t know if any of that makes sense.

We want to thank Tyler for taking the time to chat. “Harrow County” is a hauntingly beautiful comic from an artist who seems to grow by leaps and bounds with every new project we see him on. Issue one hits stand on May 13.