CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Smugglers Cove

Genre: Mystery/Adventure
Target audience: Males (but females may enjoy it also)
Brief description: A young dectective, Remi is on his way to work. Lost in thought he runs into a man, knocking items onto the ground. The man seems in a hurry and Remi wonders why. The man leaves and Remi finds his wallet on the ground. He is about to return the wallet when he hears a gunshot and some screaming. He finds the man he ran into earlier, dead. Suicide or murder? Remi investigates and it leads him into a more dangerous adventure than he ever imagined.

Minimum age: 13

Violence: 5 - Man shot (some blood), a shoot-out, one neck broken (not graphic), some minor incidents
Language: 0 - None. Unless 'great goannas' is now a swear word (lol)
Sexual Content: 0 - None
Nudity (or skimpy outfits): 0 - None
Bad Religion: 0 - None


My 'Inside the Creative Mind' website idea is going almost nowhere and people have told me they want to see some of my stuff so I'm going to put it up here until my website happens. Here is one:

I did this back in 2001 for one of my main pieces for Year 12 Art class. It took a long time (being my first comic) and was a real lesson in trying to maintain continuity between frames. Comics are harder to do then they look. This was before I was into anime. For those familiar with The Adventures of Tintin you will probably see I derived much inspiration from them. Its only in black and white and is a mystery/adventure. It does have its flaws (it was a learning process for me) but it was lots of fun to create.
Please enjoy it! Comments are welcome.

Tools: Pencil, felt-tip pen, prisma markers?



(First few pages - click thumbnail images to get bigger versions)

Your stories remind me so much of Tintin its almost creepy. And that's a very big compliment. Even the fonts of the title look the same. But you do have your own distinct style.

I can't comment on it all because I've got to go now but I'll read it later. Good luck with it.

Hi J, the font title looks the same because it is! I found the Tintin title font on the Internet and downloaded it. The work is enitirely my own but subconsiously it does share a huge amount with Tintin. Thanks.
I'm wrestling with Image Shack at the moment so hopefully I can upload the rest very soon.

Here are some more pages:

The remainder:







Enjoy!

Link to my other webcomic:
Idol Moments webcomic

Being the big fan of Tintin, I must echo bsleepj's comments: It does carry trademarks of Herge that I love, only without the color and a little less violence (f I recall properly, there was almost no blood in Tintin).

I had fun reading this and hope to know what happens in the end eventually. XD

Bump to fix last posted flag. Carry on.

Thanks Mave! Unfortunately this was the end. Unless I do a sequel in the future. I planned it as a two part story but time restrictions led me to be only able to do the first part. The end is a bit abrupt because of this. The second part was going to have Remi track the gangsters to the man's mansion where he would go up against animal smugglers. Maybe its best it wasn't done. Wouldn't really suit the story style I guess.

XD I must admit, that when I saw the "good goanas!" I absolutely cracked up That is such a nifty saying!
*makes note to say it as much as possible this week*

Btw, interesting story. My one complaint would be that I got a tad confused as to what was happening towards the end.

Oh, quick question... how long did it take you to make all of this?


(PS : I love the main character's sunnies )

The 'great gonnas!' line was meant to be a parody of Tintin's saying: 'Great snakes!' (lol) Don't worry, your not the only one who got a bit confused towards the end - it was a bit rushed. Sorry. Not planned as well towards the end. This was my first attempt at a comic though so I learnt from that experience.

It took me about um... 1 semester but that included lots of backup work and several rough drafts of the comic, writing it up and then the final version. The final version took me about 7 weeks in total I think. Several art lessons a week and then 8-10 hours each weekend. Lots of work but if I put more time into it, could have been better. But I've improved since then so its good.

I love Remi's sunnies too!

Thanks Talame!
God Bless,


Christian

its great W4J!!! keep up the good work!

Warrior 4 Jesus wrote:Thanks Mave! Unfortunately this was the end. Unless I do a sequel in the future. I planned it as a two part story but time restrictions led me to be only able to do the first part. The end is a bit abrupt because of this. The second part was going to have Remi track the gangsters to the man's mansion where he would go up against animal smugglers. Maybe its best it wasn't done. Wouldn't really suit the story style I guess.

Bummer. Oh well, it was good while it lasts. ^^

Though the ending was a bit abrupt, I really did enjoy it. I think my favourite part was at the end of page 11, with Remi getting shot at while he was at the window . Yeah, I really liked Remi's shades and suit as well. ^_^ It is definitely reminiscent of Tintin, and in a good way. I never read many Tintin novels, but the ones I did read I found I enjoyed.
I also liked the way you shaded some panels to give it a night-time look. What did you use for that?

(Sorry for the over-usage of the word 'liked'; I'm kind of foggy-headed and tired today, but I did really enjoy 'Smuggler's Cover').

Thanks Photosoph! I used those Prisma markers to do the night shading. It was the first time I used them, so they aren't blended the best. Thankyou!

I've never used Prisma markers, only the colored pencils. Do they live up to the hype?

Hi Gypsy, (your manga is very good!) The markers are very good but a bit hard to get the hang of at first. A steep learning curve to use them correctly. They cost a pretty penny too. The hype is well deserved.

Warrior 4 Jesus wrote:The markers are very good but a bit hard to get the hang of at first. A steep learning curve to use them correctly. They cost a pretty penny too. The hype is well deserved.

Hmm ... I think I'll be a chicken and stick to digital coloring for now.

heh, these are cool

Hi, Christian!

I FINALLY had a chance to read through it. I have a few crititques and minor questions. Please know that these critiques are meant with the best possible intentions. There is no such thing as bad criticism (unless its made by a cynic whose critical oppinion counts for nothing). This actually turned out more in-depth than planned so please don't take it the wrong way.

First of all I really enjoyed it. The story really does has the feel of a Tintin story - mixing humour and action. I especially loved the part where Remi removes his gun only to be foiled by the door being opened. Your art style however needs work I'm sorry to say - but you say you're taking many art classes so that will not be an issue for long I suspect. I also know that one has to rush when you create comics like this so that was also a factor, I suspect. But then again my own art needs a lot of work so maybe I'm the last person to be lecturing you on the subject. The plot was solid but I rather thought that the smugglers would have gone after Remi first then go to the hut for the rendez-vous with the Cossack since having an inspector in the general vicinity of your base of operations is considered to be highly questionable prospect. Also, should they decide to risk it then they would not go sit on the table and discuss if as if they have all the time in the world when they know he's called the police. (although it could have been worse - I once wrote a comic in which I introduced a major character who was a recurring enemy of my hero...and then forgot about him by the end of the story so he kind of appears in the middle, threatens the hero with a miserable death and is never seen again - the plot was anyway a pathetic rip-off version of "Tintin and the Picaros" with aliens and a musical sequence thrown in for no real reason)

The general pacing of Smuggler's Cove was good for the length of pages (you got a lot of story out of those few pages - thats certainly VERY impressive!) but occasionally it was rather too quick (like the ending but that's been discussed). (my own unfinished comic for instance has a part thats just a long discription - banged my pacing up severely since it went on and on and on... ).

But don't let these comments bother you. In all you're really off to a good start - if you keep it up you'd create some really good comics. Its always a matter of trial and error to get it right (and remembering to account for all your characters).

Observations & Questions: Hmmm. He's inspector Remi - that's the real name of Hergé who created Tintin - Georges Remi. The other fellow is called Chung - is this a reference to Chang Ch'ung-jen (or Zhang Chongren), an old Chinese friend to Remi who inspired the Chang character in The Blue Lotus or just an incredible coincidence? Is it also an incredible coincidence that the antagonist has the same name as the protagonist in "Alone in the Dark"?

Just a note of encouragement, you know there's nothing wrong with going back to edit stuff eventhough you've posted it. I do that all the time and always consider all my posted pages as pilot pages. ^_~

Hi J,

Thanks for the critique mate, I really appreciate it! No, those two names, Remi and Chung were no coincidence. Yes, one is part of Herge's true name and the other is a variation of Chang's name from Blue Lotus. Good spotting! Once again, thanks for the help. This was my first comic and I can only improve from hereon.
God Bless!

Well, as I said, if you work at it you have the possibility to actually make name for you in the genre. Keep working at it. And Mave's suggestion is a good once as well.

Wow, I love this! I like the story and charecters a lot!
Keep it up, and I must say that this is one of the best webcomics I've read!

I'll keep that in mind Mave.

Many thanks Last Bard!
God Bless!

wow, its been so long since i read tintin and this reminds me of it so much^^
good stuff, very fun to read, old memories of tintin, those were good time heh