Reflections

The final page to my 2nd and month late comic is here. It's been fun, it's been a pain, and now it's finally over. Join old Nick and Finnick as they try becoming TV paranormal investigators.Oh boy time to write me some words! I have personal thoughts about this seemingly small project that might be of interest to you.Ok how the hell this even became a thing in the first place? Well it started with a short discussion after seeing the original Ghost Adventures AU by KungFuFreak07 . Basically I remember the comment I left on reddit being, "Nick's greatest hustle yet". Now if you are unaware of these shows, they basically have dudes going to haunted places dressed in black hoodies, and record "paranormal activity". Just so you know where I stand on this whole thing, These shows are fake and created just for entertainment. So naturally when I saw art I thought it'd fit Nick and Finnick really well since it is pretty similar to their hustles, my exact words being I think, "it'd be funny if they did this and actually had a run in with a ghost.", and boom a story was born. I'd to say that I tried very hard not to let my own views show to hard in this, while I did poke fun at those types of shows, I introduced to the possibility that ghosts may be real, something I do not agree with. Originally to be companion art made for a fic written by u/AeroQC for his Halloween extravaganza, when he could no longer work on and thus I decided to continue on and make this thing a comic.So a bit on the story premise for this. I decided to place this story in-universe which sort of forced it into Nick's pre-film life, as it would make zero sense to have him doing this stuff while being a police officer. This unfortunately ruled out Judy from the equation, which for me was fine but I knew going forward that this would hurt this comics appeal for many. Nick's character would also be a little tricky. He's suppose to be broken internally at this point, probably genially resenting the world he lives in. Finnick was hard just with the fact that I don't know much about him, other than that he's pretty much the same. The fact that to get my references you'd have to have seen a lot of those shows as well was problem for me too. Couple all of this with the fact that I'm not a skilled writer, and we've a recipe for disaster.Artwise, going into this comic was essentially the same as Hour Shower Fox, with the biggest issues being the low light levels, the sheer number of panels, and having to draw Finnick a lot, a character that despite what my DA gallery says, isn't one I draw all to often. Nick is my most drawn character. My workflow was basically construction, linework, color blocking, shading. I feel like I've become way more efficient with this since HSF, and I think it shows. Still, I dislike having to take all kinds of shortcuts in quality, and am happy that I can go back to actually rendering stuff again. Anything questions relating to the art side a certainly welcome and I'd be happy to help.So, asking myself, did I do a good job? Honestly, on a personal level I'm happy that I could get through all of this in this relatively short amount of time. I made mistakes, I cut quite a few panels, I reused tons of stuff, but I did it. I always am looking to improve more, but I am honestly content with what I made, at least art wise. Story wise, eh it's ok. If you see any kind of long term narrative from me in future I'll assure you that someone else will be writing it.