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Apache: A Tank's Tale - A CAAR


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... and Lt. Lawrence himself. He was supposed to be in future US-based comics! :angry: But I managed to get a decent XO (Blanchard) grow into his shoes. Hopefully I'll get to do another one with him in it.

Now you have a character that you can point to a back story that people can actually read, instead of being implied and made up.  You now have a stronger narrative - the up and coming Blanchard who grows from his experience.  You are welcome. :D

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Now you have a character that you can point to a back story that people can actually read, instead of being implied and made up.  You now have a stronger narrative - the up and coming Blanchard who grows from his experience.  You are welcome. :D

Haha! Good point! Thanks for killing Lt. Lawrence for me! 

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As a personal preference I prefer the graphic novel look, I like the cleaner, crisper lines :).  However as people have said above, seeing the comic version takes me right back to when I was a boy and I had tonnes of the Commando comics, 50 pence back then ;), and the annuals of Warlord for Boys, Action annual and Victor.  To my shame I dont know where all my Commando comics went but I still have all my annuals starting from 1986.  Having said that I would say to not fix yourself to one style it must be what feels right to you and what fits the story or impression your trying to get across to the reader's.  Basically dont let yourself become constrained by fan readership, dont worry we'll read them in whichever style you choose.

That's good advice, thanks. :) With the seemingly limited interest in Apache I had to ask as I was wondering what went wrong here, and if I was just wasting my time with a wrong approach. :huh:

I have to be honest, for the Soviet comic I noticed the pre-dominantly red colour scheme but for the rest not so much, so for me not vitally important.

I LOVED the art pieces.  They gave a more direct attachment to the time frame.  I have read  a lot of books regarding WW2, nowhere near as some of our learned gentleman on this forum, but still a lot, words and stories obviously stick but pictures, well when you have seen a picture in a history book then that same picture comes up in one of your comics as conceptual art, well it just takes you straight back to that book and enhance's memory recall of the time frame and story 100%.  Same goes for inserting pictures from the actual events without any tinkering, not to many but just enough to really meld the comic and time frame in question.

That's really great, again, it was another thing that I was trying for the first time, so I wasn't sure if it worked well. 

For me this comes down to YOU and what story your trying to tell, both styles are excellent, i dont think one is better than the other, just different.  Remember variety is the spice of life :D.  I do believe though that your winning formula is the fact that you dont even know how the comic is going to turn out, yes you have your framework of characters and the base of how you want the characters to develop but beyond that, well its in the hands of the pixeltruppen.  This came across very dramatically in Apache, especially when the bren carrier drove over the Teller mine, which if Apache hadn't deviated from the road would have taken them out, RIGHT AT THE VERY END.  (I have to admit to being a little twisted in this aspect, I like authors, film directors who break the mould and are willing to kill the hero at the end).

Yeah, I think that for the readers here, it's a bit different from many stories or films where you're fairly sure the "heroes" won't get killed. But the comics you know that the risk is quite real, that the vagaries of battle may kill the very characters you are keen on seeing survive.

As a side question how do you build your comics, do you make them on a seperate program then as you finish a section transpose it over to the site, or do you use mutiple programs and post directly onto the site as you make the strips.  At the moment I use this method where I will have numerous programs open for editing and such like then I post the screenies one after the other with little descriptions.  Now Im not looking at making a comic, time will not allow for that but I do find that my screenies lack polish and I find it very hard to keep my screenies in order and keep the story fluid in my head.  Is there an easier way of doing it and are there any programs that you could recommend that would make my life easier, but without costing money to use.  I could not justify an expensive program for the use it would get here.  Just as a reference point i started this AAR ages ago, http://community.battlefront.com/topic/120334-the-eagle-and-the-bear-aar/?do=findComment&comment=1622475 but I found it a massive task to keep the screen shots in order and to tie the story together whilst using 3-4 different programs, ie saving screens to D>Pictures>CMBSscreens then using Irfan to edit, then upload to photobucket, drop them onto my topic in the forum then add the narrative.  Its very chaotic and disordered and bloody time consuming doing it that way.  I would love to go back to this and carry on but its a daunting prospect at the moment.

*chuckles*

I feel your pain. The management of the images - from screenshots to the finished product - is a serious PITA. And I'm an organization freak. You can't keep the story fluid in your head except some so basic concepts that they are not necessary to recall. To make a story, I have to story board it, like they do for movie scene planning. Managing the images then is the second stage, which is a nuisance of first order. And it gets worse the bigger the comic (or AAR) one wants to do. Rundstedt had over 700 screenshots, IIRC, and several hundred other edited images.  It was gigs and gigs of JPGs to sort, organize, ensure I'm not using any of them twice, keeping them for reference to ensure I'm keeping story continuity... :blink::wacko:

In answer to the first part of your question - you have to recall that I do everything for these comics on the iPad, except play the game. So I'm using several apps for actually editing the images, creating motion effects, enhancing the images and so on. Layout software to design the frames when the ones I have are not suiting the panel configuration I need to present a scene in an interesting way, apps to upload and mange the online collection, comic design apps, sketching apps, Adobe Acrobat, photoshop apps made for the iPad, and so on. The workflow is laborious, and varies depending on how much image manipulation is needed before I even start using it in the comic. 

You asked:

 ...do you make them on a separate program then as you finish a section transpose it over to the site, or do you use mutiple programs and post directly onto the site as you make the strips?

The answer is the latter; I make them and upload as I go. They don't get posted directly to the BFC forum, they are sent to a hosting site, and then inserted in the forum posts but hosted remotely. 

Edited by Bud Backer
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Bud, you're a true Master. I have followed "Rundstedt" and "Apache," and I stand in awe of your creativity and vision. Now I must read the others before CMFB hits the store. I greatly appreciate everything you're done.

I hope your wife is feeling well and recovering rapidly. I continue to pray for a rapid and pain-free recovery.

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Bud, you're a true Master. I have followed "Rundstedt" and "Apache," and I stand in awe of your creativity and vision. Now I must read the others before CMFB hits the store. I greatly appreciate everything you're done.

I hope your wife is feeling well and recovering rapidly. I continue to pray for a rapid and pain-free recovery.

Vet, thanks for the comments. It's always nice to hear that the older material still gets noticed. And of course there is do eyeing newer in the offing.

My wife is recovering still, but all signs are positive; I think you for your kindness. :)

 

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