Comic Strip Update - "ELGIN"

I actually did some work. After fighting hellish Wednesday night traffic to and from LAX to pick up Donna's mom, I met Dwight at the stroke of 8:00 PM. At least the traffic wasn't so bad with Donna's mom entertaining us. I love it when Donna and I can just shoot each other looks trying desperately not to crack up as her mom struggles with a heavy Korean accent to tell us a story. Sometimes the stories are not that funny... but the way she does it with her Korean accent just kills me!

Did you know it 'rang' two straight days in South Carolina??? Not only is it funny that she says 'rang' for 'rain' but its funny she thinks raining for two straight days is a story! She makes me laugh... AND SHE COOKS REALLY GOOD SPICY CRAB!!! YUM!

Back to 'work'... Dwight and I went to Barnes & Noble and discussed some more of my scripts for the comic strip. It feels good to get the creative juices flowing again.

I also wrote two new strips and finally came up with some tentative names for the main characters...

The strip is also tentatively called: “ELGIN” ©

Elgin Dags Vadnam, "Elgin" (The Dad) © - Born 30+ years ago and has yet to grown up. The right side and left side of his brain are always butting heads and the only sanity he finds is in the insanity of what he calls, his ‘insane world’. He believes that once he figures out why his life is such a contradiction, everything will be okay.

Chloe (The Mom) © - She doesn't look like a thirty something, but she's somewhere around there. She's the 'go to' person when things get rough. Although she may not be right all the time, shes the voice of reason in the Vadnam household.

Max (The boy) © - A four year old genius who’s destined for a career in sports. Unlike his father, he wears his thoughts on his sleeve and says things that are on his mind.

Stella (The baby) © - There’s always trouble when Stella appears. She’s into everything and challenges Elgin’s intellect, sensibility and reasoning on a daily basis. She loves shoes, purses, make-up and men. She’s only two years old.

Ally (The step daughter) © - Elgin’s step daughter. She's a tom-boy who’d rather shoot hoops in a dress than go to a Junior High Banquet in it. When Elgin is ‘too busy’, Ashley is Max’s sports idol.

The following are two 'test strips'. Dialogue is not yet added but I'll script it below the panel.

This was a redo of the original one posted a while back. I met with Dwight and art directed it a little bit more and he came up with this great strip.

"I believe I can Fly"
©
(Larger view)

Panel 1.
Max: Dad, did I tell you that I know I can fly?
Panel 2.
Elgin freaks out.
Panel 3.
Elgin: Max, people can't fly okay? Please don't ever, ever, ever, ever try to fly because you'll... you'll... just understand people can't fly, okay?
Max: Uh... okay.
Panel 4.
Chole: You have to stop freaking your dad out.
Max: I just like to see him shake while he walks.

"Alarm Clock"
©
(Larger view)

Panel 1.
CAP: 5:30 AM
Panel 2.
CAP: 5:35 AM
Panel 3.
CAP: 5:40 AM
Panel 4.
MAX: Are you done sleeping because I can't hear the TV.

The style of the characters is still in the works. We hope to produce three strips a week for the first couple of weeks. Will build an audience, get the first 24 strips and submit to syndication companies to see what they think.

Hope you'll join us on the ride!