Warm-Up Sketches - Cycle 3947 - P. A. Nolte

1/ A dusty wasteland.  The rock formations are strange and there is more than one sun in the sky, if they are indeed suns.

2/ Obscuring the view of the wasteland is the mask of our scout.  He has stood up quite suddenly.

3/ At his feet is a pile of bones.

4/ He takes a handheld device from his belt and scans what used to be a body.

5/ The screen reads, along with a reconstruction of a vaguely humanoid outline, a single word.  MATCH.

6/ Returning the device to his belt, the scout has turned and begun to walk away.  In the dirt, next to the bones, a small flag has been planted.  It bears a crude alien symbol not known to us.

Caption: Cycle 3947--  I know now, conclusively, that I will not make it off this planet.  Best to use the time I have left to record my findings.  No one else need die here.

Warm-up Sketches: "The Storm"--David Press

PAGE ONE.

1.1: A ghastly winter storm streaks across the first wide panel on the page.

1. CAPTION:                         In the old tales there was a popular phrase.

2. CAPTION:                         “Winter is coming.”

1.2: There’s a figure in the winter storm.

3. CAPTION:                         Winter’s always been here.

1.3: Close on the face of the SHADOW. The shadow is ARBOR, our hero. He’s wearing a Moebius-like facemask. Let’s have it long and pointed like a bird’s face. This can be a small panel.

4. CAPTION:                         They call it “Infinite Winter.”

1.4: Arbor’s white boot steps up to a skull in the shallow snow.  

5. CAPTION:                         This is bad.

1.5: A white-gloved hand sweeps away the edges of snow around the skull to see bits of ribcage and some spinal cord. The glove should be one of this heavy-duty winter gloves—perhaps there’s a steel plate covering the hand for protection.

6. CAPTION:                         Very bad. These bones aren’t going to talk much.

1.6: Pan out to the reference image: the dialogue of ARBOR appears above his head.

7. CAPTION:                         How am I going to bring this to the boss? He’s not going to be happy.

Warm-Up Sketches - One Confusing Step - Perry Kent

Panel 1

Exterior, dark, alien planet. An astronaut in a bulky space suit steps out of a shuttle-like craft that has landed in the dirt of the alien world. A large light shines from the top of his helmet out into the darkness of the world. The planet is dirt and rock.

1. ASTRONAUT: Surface contact established. Sending readings now.

2. RADIO (op): Confirmed.

Panel 2

The astronaut walks away from the shuttle, preceded by the beam of his head lamp.

3. ASTRONAUT: Initiating immediate environmental recon.

4. RADIO (op): Confirmed. Looks like a pretty barren world.

Panel 3

The astronaut climbs a slope of rock and dirt.

5. ASTRONAUT: I'm not sure we'll find much besides single cell life.

6. RADIO (op): Too bad.

7. RADIO (op): How's it feel to be the first man on this moon?

Panel 4

The astronaut stands at the top of the slope, looking down at the ground. His helmet light illuminates an unseen patch of ground.

8. ASTRONAUT: Worrisome.

9. RADIO (op): What? Why?

Panel 5

The astronaut stands next to a set of human bones, his helmet light fully circling and illuminating the remains.

10. ASTRONAUT: Looks like I'm not the first.

Warm-Up Sketches – Distraction – MK Stangeland, Jr.

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: DRONE stands in front of a skeleton, an image very similar to that of the PROMPT IMAGE.

Panel 2: DRONE looks around for something. It looks suspicious.

HANK: (Off panel) Did it work?

HENRY (Off panel) Shhh…You’re going to give us away.

Panel 3: DRONE looks down at the skeleton. Words of some kind comes from it in an inhuman language.

DRONE (1): (Inhuman gibberish)

DRONE (2): (More inhuman gibberish)

DRONE (3): (Yet more inhuman gibberish)

HANK (Off panel) What is it doing?

HENRY (Off panel) I said shush!

Panel 4: Reveal of HANK and HENRY – two soldiers in futuristic sci-fi gear - hiding on the other side of a ridge near the DRONE, which can still be seen in the background looking in HANK and HENRY’s general direction. HENRY is holding something up that peeks just above the ridge which allows him to see what’s on the other side.

DRONE: (Continuing inhuman gibberish)

HANK: Excuse me if I’m antsy about the creep.

HENRY: Excuse me if I’m panicking on the inside about you leading it to us.

Panel 5: The DRONE walks off. HENRY is noticeably relieved.

HENRY: *whew*

HANK: That mean it’s gone?

Panel 6: HENRY stays close to the ground as he begins to make an escape from the ridge. HANK looks about to follow.

HENRY (1): Shutup, ya idiot.

HENRY (2): We got to get this back to base ASAP.

HANK: Hey look! Something we can agree on.

(END PAGE)

Warm-Up Sketches - "The Incident" - Grant McLaughlin

1 - A psychologist's office.  We're close on the pen and clipboard of said psychologist.  Their body / torso can be visible behind, but their face should not be on-panel.

PSYCHOLOGIST: So...

2 - On war-torn streets in a nondescript city.  Two robots, IL5A and IL5P (not dissimilar to André Lima Araújo's sketch - perhaps they have written markings somewhere to identify which is which) have their weapons out and are firing, with unseen forces firing back.  Plasma pulses fly throughout the scene.
LETTERING NOTE: There should likely be some type of difference from the regular in the robot font / balloon choice.

IL5A: Fall back!  I will cover you!

3 - Back in the psychologist office.  The psychologist sits to one side, pen and clipboard ready (but face still off-panel), while IL5P sits on a couch across from the psychologist.  IL5P sits with slumped body-language.

PSYCHOLOGIST: ...is there anything you want to talk about?

4 - Back on the war-torn streets.  A plasma pulse blasts apart IL5A's side, with a huge hole opening up where before there was torso and arms.  IL5P looks over in surprise, reaching out uselessly.

IL5P: Elsa!

5 - Psychologist office.  On IL5P.  Its hands are clasped, hanging between its legs.  It looks down, not making eye contact.

NO COPY

6 - War-torn streets.  IL5P kneels next to IL5A, cradling what little is left of its disintegrated chassis. While the scene is obviously on the streets, maybe we could do without the background to emphasize the moment.

NO COPY

7 - Psychologist office.  On IL5P.  Maybe pull away a bit from IL5P, but the robot holds the same position as in panel 5.

IL5P: (small): no

Why Warm-Up Sketches?

I often wish I had taken the time to learn to draw.

There are a plethora of reasons for this, some of which you can surely guess at, but one of the main reasons is warm-up sketches.

These things are pure magic.  The idea that artists sit down with a blank sheet of paper, throw down some quick marks, and suddenly have a beautiful image, a thrilling story, is stupefying.  Of course I recognize that there's a lot more work to it than that and that warm-up sketches can be lead just as often as they can be gold (perhaps more so, even), but that doesn't lessen my admiration.

One such golden sketch is that which you see below, courtesy of .

It was accompanied by the following text:

This was bad. Very bad. He had finally found the scout, but his crumbling bones were not going to talk much. He sighed heavily, thinking of the best way to bring the news to the boss. He was not going to be happy.

Araújo threw this up on his and with no fuss or fanfare almost a year back, and it's been sticking at the back of my mind ever since.  As I said, pure magic.  That figure and those bones say so much that the din is deafening.  And I love it.

There's so many stories to be picked from this image that it's dizzying.  I know what I've found.  How about you?