Prologue- The Old Beginning of Loud Era



      A small confession I have to make- one problem I have as a writer is that, as I'm working on a story, I'm constantly going back to tweak the beginning of it. Not so bad when you're talking about a written piece that's sitting in a word document only I can see, but it can get a little tricky when it's a comic, particularly one that's readily available to the world on the internet. Then, making changes gets a bit more complicated.
      The following narrative jumble was the opening chapter to Loud Era, but I got to realizing that 1. it's very long, 2. it's a bit confusing, 3. it doesn't really set up for events to follow, doesn't provide particular insight into the characters, and delays the reader from getting to the proper plot.
      I cut the chapter for those reasons, but the events herein are still canon, and some of the vignettes are kind of cute, so I figured I ought to include the chapter somewhere on the site so it can still be accessed but won't hinder anyone's reading enjoyment if they just want to sit and read the better parts of the comic. If you're interested, read below! Artist commentary is wedged between the pictures for you to read if you so care to.



This opening is entirely original. Never before has a work started with a main character waking up in the morning. Do give me some credit for not making him late to school as per the standard.



This page was added to the archive much later (part of that tweaking I was talking about). Some of the coloring is a bit nicer and the lineart is more confident. There are some more pages like this in this chapter, I'll point them out as we travel across them.



This page disturbed a few readers, and with good reason. It's this random really graphic image in the middle of an otherwise clean comic. It was intended as a metaphor but didn't quite come across that way, I suppose.



Oooh, another comic that was added in later. Look at those smooth, smooth colors.



So sassy! This was one of those pages where the dialogue is really out of place given the time period, a problem that a few people pointed out to me over the course of time. Also, look how little effort I put into drawing the inside of the damn car. Past self, what were you thinking? You ain't foolin nobody.



This comic is a nice hybrid of a newer added comic (the first panel) smashed together with the original storyline (the panels that follow). I rather like the way the first panel came out, to be braggy. But little else of value is found here.



Another added in page.



Enter Tony and Eddie. I've had a lot of trouble keeping Tony's face consistent over the years. If you look at this page and compare it to a recent one in the real archive, it's painfully apparent. Check out those GIMP sparkles there on that smooth chassis. Or check out how I couldn't color all the way to the edges of the panel. Fine motor skills are hard!

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