got a question?
email me at mild (dot) tarantula (at) gmail (dot) com!
who are you?
my name is josceline and i'm a final year graphic design student at the london college of communication. i specialize in design for print and illustration. my first self-published comic was "circle", and "hemlock" is my first webcomic.
what's your update schedule?
by popular vote, hemlock is updated on fridays (but they usually turn up thursday evening GMT time). however many pages have been completed between each friday will be uploaded - for example if i've done 5 pages that week, there will be 5 new pages when i update on friday. there will always be at least one new page, hopefully.
do you have an RSS feed?
yup, here it is: hemlock RSS
how do you make each page?
- first, the page is painted using an 0, 1, 2 and 4 brush, using winsor and newton indian ink and faber castell pitt pens on heavyweight paper
- the image is scanned in and converted to monochrome bitmap
- screentone is added using manga studio debut v4
- for a detailed look at the process, i have made a walkthrough in two parts using page 1.34. it can be found here and here
how long does it take you to make each page?
it used to be 2 hours, now it's more like 4. it depends on the page. inking always takes the longest, and then it takes maybe half an hour to do all the digital clean-up/text bubbles etc.
will there be hard copies of "hemlock"?
yes. each chapter will be printed as a single paperback issue. the hard copies are self-published and printed through lulu. in future, and depending on demand/costs/other things, there may be "special edition" or collected edition copies which will come with extras, but this is still in planning.
why isn't the comic in colour?
black and white lets me update faster and get more pages out there, and it's much cheaper to print in B/W than in colour.
what is your style inspired by?
because i kept getting this question, i actually wrote out a list. it was HUGE. but here are some of the most important names: aubrey beardsley (late victorian illustrator), john bauer (swedish illustrator), foo swee chin (aka FSc), ted naifeh (cartoonist), mike mignola (cartoonist/writer), tove jansson (finnish cartoonist/writer), egon schiele (painter), gustav klimt (painter), serena valentino (writer), ai yazawa (mangaka), bruce timm (cartoonist), etc, etc... also, woodblock prints, barbie dolls, japanese fashion, traditional/national/historical costume...the list goes on and on! that's why i HATE this question! orz
do you have any other comics?
yes, but they're only in printed format. they can be found and purchased in my lulu bookshop here.
are you ever at conventions?
yes, keep checking the news page or my twitter/facebook page (links on my smackjeeves profile) for news of which ones i'll be selling at.
