1) The Script

So, you want to know how the strips for One-liners are made? Well,let's take strip #30 as an example. It all begins with Shishio writing the script. It looks like this:

Panel 1:

Shishio is at a zoo. He can see the monkey cage from where he is, but is off to the side from it. A teenager (15 or 16.) stands on the lower rung of the bars in front of the monkey cage, behaving like a monkey himself.

Caption:

I saw something incredibly funny at the zoo once.

Panel 2:

We close in more on the teenager, who is still behaving like a monkey. Shishio is not in this panel, or any following, for that matter.

Caption:

A teenager was indulging his inner child--

Panel 3:

One of the monkeys moves in such a way that it looks like he's humping the fence, and pisses on the teenager's face.

Caption:

--and the monkeys responded in kind.

Panel 4:

Teenager:

YOU FUCKING COCKSUCKER!

Caption:

Don't you just love it when little brats get what they deserve?

Some writers like to write very descriptive scripts. Some others leave all up to the artists. Actually there's no right or wrong way to write the script of a comic, as long as the story is clear and as long as the writer and the artist communicate well with each other. Right after I receive the script by e-mail, it's time to begin drawing.

2) The Thumbnail

In order of visualize how the strip will end up, it's necessary to do some sketches and thumbnails. I usually draw these digitally at a low resolution. Drawing in the computer is practical as it allows me to make corrections quick and easily without wasting paper --these images are just for reference after all. When I finish drawing these rough pictures I send them back to Shishio so he can indicate any suggestions or corrections. For this strip for example, he asked me to change the body language of the teenager in the 2nd panel. (In the fourth as well. -Shishio) When the strip is greenlighted, it's time to actually begin drawing.

3) The Drawing Surface

For One-liners strips, I use sheets of white cardboard --Firenze brand. Then,using a ruler and a mechanical pencil with blue lead, I draw some guides in the shape of a 10 x 7 inches area. I could just print these, but I like to do it by hand, as kind of a zen ritual. You'll notice two other inner boxes. The first one indicates the actual drawing area for the strip, and the smaller area is for helping me to keep all the most important elements inside the visual area. Using the same blue pencil, I also indicate the panels for the strip. I retouched this image in Photoshop so you can see the lines clearly --they actually are very thin and soft.

4) The Pencils

When the reference lines are ready, the next step is drawing the characters, props and backgrounds. For this step I use another mechanical pencil, this time with 0.5mm HB lead. Because I ink my own pencils I don't put too many details --most of these lines will be erased in the next step anyway. In this strip the 3rd panel is very similar to the 2nd so I didn't draw it. In situations like this I usually use tracing paper to copy the similar panels as needed. But this time I decided to do it digitally, after scanning the page.

5) The Inks I

When I'm done with the pencil, I take a 0.4 technical pen and begin drawing all the details. Since this is a comic strip I don't give much atention to the backgrounds and instead try to focus on image composition and the body language of the characters. When drawing comic books, it's important to keep in mind some space for the text. Usually 30% space in the upper part of panels is enough, so try to keep that area free of any important details that we don't want to be obscured by speech bubbles. For One-liners, to keep kind of a 'rough' look, I like to draw straight lines in the background by hand. But since this story happens in a zoo, that means lots of parallel lines, and so for the sake of visual cleanliness I used a square for drawing all the fences and cages. You'll notice some mistakes here and there with the straight lines --these were fixed later.

6) The Inks II

As soon as the ink from the pen is dry, I take a #4 brush to add shadows and volumes so the pictures get some depth and a more organic apearance. This step could also be done with other pens or even markers, but personally I like the brush the best, as it lets me get more variation in the lines widths --besides, inking with brush relaxes me a lot. In this step, if necessary, sometimes I add extra fine details with a 0.2 technical pen. When the image is ready, it's time to scan it in bitmap mode so the picture is pure black and white pixels. Using Photoshop,I add some extra details like the kanji on Shishio's shirt and fix mistakes like the straight lines mentioned before. For the missing panel, I just copy and paste the previous one, and do all the proper changes --the jumping monkey, the laughing monkey and of course, the piss over the boy. Of course, I could have drawn all the page directly in the computer. As a matter of fact,I have indeed made some strips that way, but so far I think that One-liners' 'voice' is best when drawings are done in paper first.

And that's all. There's still the lettering left of course, but that step in the process is done by Shishio himself.

(Here is the finished strip. -Shishio)