Returning to Level One

I’ve been gone a while. I was technology-saturated after a year of build-up to the Kickstarter, and after writing this last update over on my Kickstarter page, my ability to write anything that could be construed by my psyche as “content” simply… withered away.

But I’m back now, and I’ve missed you. Oh, how I’ve missed you!

(The Kickstarter was a huge success, by the way. Over 2,100 of you threw in your support, making Quiet: Level One the most-funded graphic novel from a first-time creator with an original IP on Kickstarter ever!)

Despite my absence from Substack, I never once stopped working on the book. Quiet, Galahorn, Threadcutter, and the Narrator Worm - these characters have served as my companions these last few months. After all, our future together is now assured, and Quiet: Level One, the graphic novel, is truly underway.

With the business of the Kickstarter behind me, I have become a bubbling cauldron of creative energy. Sketching, inking, coloring and re-writing… this has become my life.

Picture me now: writing and making art all the time, excited and happy and torn between two necessities:

1. Expedience - I want to get this book into the hands of my backers ASAP!

2. Awesomeness - the first book in this series needs to be really good to hook my audience for what’s to come, plus my generous backers deserve only the best.

As I double-down on the creation of Q:L1, I’ll bridge this gap by moving through pages as quickly as possible while also not entirely completing them. In short, progress is better than polish, so I’m prioritizing progress… for the moment.

Here’s some of my work so far (some pages more finalized than others):

I’m churning through pages: finishing the sketches and most of the linework, blocking in the characters and applying flat values, and getting every panel or page up to a certain level of finish… and no further.

As you can see, there’s virtually no shading in this frame

Quiet: Level One is epic in scope, and I need to cover a lot of ground very quickly. I’ve also learned the importance of good lettering - the way it adds polish to a page and helps pace the reader - so I’ll be involving Tom Napolitano, my letterer, way sooner in the process. A panel like the one below, for instance, can change completely based on the look of the text:

I’m also revising the writing of a few scenes, but that’s a post for another day. Today’s teaser post is simply me getting back on the horse and getting you caught-up on the project. I’ve done so in other ways, but I recognize that not all of you follow the visual progress over on Instagram or the project updates on Kickstarter (though it’s not too late to secure your custom copy there!). I’ve got plenty of juicy behind-the-scenes content ahead. For now, I simply needed to break the seal and write this long-postponed post.

And there - I did it!

See you very soon…

Jonah