lantes-blog

[lantes-blog]

I was busy this weekend and could barely join the lives, I'm just happy I got to contribute to the Magma board for A2Z!

Here's the screenshot I got before I had to go, my three doodles in the bottom left of the page <3

It was my first time on magma so don't mind the crudeness haha

[lantes-blog]

hi hello..... i love ur art....... drop the cuteguy design and my life is yours.....

heh... here you go, have a thorough breakdown of it as well

[lantes-blog]

[Day 359]

Let the show begin

[lantes-blog]

MY BEHIND THE SCENES!! DESIGNS SHEETS!! in @hotguycomiczine :D *throwing these over like bricks*

If you haven't read the zine yet, you can download it here! and/or read my comics that used these designs here <3

More messy and silly early designs and process under the cut ↓↓ (I will maybe ramble more abt the thought process and such later in one ask o7 I just. keep procrastinating on answering it ASKDAKJW ANON IF U SEE THIS I DID NOT FORGET U I PROMISE)

So first off, my endless cg design suffering (this guy gave me sm pain i SWEAR TO GOD

Gem and Pearl concepts :D Pearl's design got revamped a bit after I started coloring my comics tho o7

Early bug concepts from me!! (super honored to do the final design for the bug I love this evil little guy)

And just some miscellaneous/scrapped and silly stuff during the comic making LOL

Last but not least hi ppl who kept up with ddd. how do u :3 feel about this :3 ringing any bells :3 /SILLY HASDAHJKLHEAKWEH👍💥

[lantes-blog]

i love having the hubris to go 'sure i'll try that, how hard can it be' about every creative skill under the sun. jack of all trades master of shit fuck but who says you have to be a master??? maybe i want to sew a mediocre plushie and code a janky mod and write a bland song. im having fun. im in my lane. im learning and im thriving.

[lantes-blog]

hey! as a matter of fact, i would. there's a lot of videos that will give you knowledge on book binding in general, like this one i used a lot, i really recommend watching it before starting.

i'll be splitting the tips up into formatting, printing, and binding.

tips for formatting:

You Will Format Your Pdf. you need to convert the hgcz pdf (or any text you want to bind) into a pdf that has the pages offset for printing (the video explains this. watch it 🫵) i had 4 pages per sheet

there are online tools (this one's my favorite and does all the other pdf editing things needed) that will format a pdf into the booklet, but you may need to be kinda good at counting. i am not good at counting. i messed this part up so many times. so golden era had 172 pages, which at 4 pages per sheet, means 43 sheets of paper. you will need to split up the pages into signatures as individual pdfs before feeding them into online2pdf booklet maker. you will need to count them properly. Make Sure They Are Divisible By 4 i cannot tell you the amount of times i messed up counting the pages and would open the separations and see an odd number.

signature separations seen below. it's a tedious process

(many of these were updated 2/5 because originally the signatures were 32 pages which is way too thick for cardstock. fine for paper, cardstock can take a max of 16 pages (4 sheets) before the print near the back starts warping around the spine. rip synergy victim of the first)

if you're planning on bookbinding a comic/zine like hgcz that requires color, and you don't have a color printer like me, you'll probably have to go to a store that offers it as a service.

tips below for color printing (skip ahead if it's a text fanfic or something that a normal bw printer can do):

i did this at the ups store and they did not tell me that i could bring my own paper (cardstock for me, which was $2 a page. not even for any color printing. just the page. yikes) until way later than i would have liked. Bring Your Own Paper. the paper is probably going to be massively overpriced and i was able to buy and bring 50 pages of cardstock at an art store for like. $6. crazy

do NOT print all your signatures all at once. i had several instances where the week's copies were all slightly cut off at the edge and if that had happened to the whole book all at once i would Not have been able to afford reprinting

i printed ~8 sheets of paper a trip, so two signatures. this is easier to keep track of in case your pages get mixed up (and less overwhelming to bind)

if an edge gets cut off, add maybe 2cm of space to that side in the pdf and then resize it to A4 dimensions.

tips for binding:

you dont need anything fancy. i used the handle of scissors as a bone folder, regular sewing thread and needle for the bindings, a thumbtack for an awl, and (extra strong) elmers glue for the glue (we will see if this starts falling apart it is only a couple weeks old. it's holding up great so far though)

i did wax the thread with a beeswax candle (couldn't find any wax by itself) (i did set some tissue paper on fire accidentally while trying to get some), i'd recommend this because pulling the thread through all the holes can be a pain if it separates and tangles up

try to do some practice before, make a blank sketchbook or something just so you kind have some experience before the actual thing

sewing in two signatures at a time was pretty nice because it wasn't ever stressful having papers everywhere and this became a weekly project that i did not give up halfway through

i've tried making covers out of fabric before but they kinda look ugly i'm ngl so i skinned an old hardcover book from the library bookstore (was like $2) with similar dimensions. the spine letters can be removed with nail polish remover, though the indent will remain.

the sides and edges of the book WILL be uneven. it is inevitable. it is okay. modern books are only so smooth because they don't make books like this anymore. if you have a paper guillotine (i don't) you can try to even it out, but that risks chopping off some text (i wouldn't) (especially not a color printed comic) and also it ending up uneven anyway esp for thick books like fanfiction often is. there is a method for using an x-acto knife to carefully even it out by hand but i've tried that for bound sketchbooks and i just don't have the precision for it it's pretty awful

that's all i can think of for now! feel free to ask any more questions if you have any. i feel like i should note that hgcz has announced a physical edition to come in the future, so if your goal is to just have a copy, it'd be way easier and cheaper to get that when it comes out. if your goal is the love of the game though? go nuts.

IT'S DONE. MY BOOKBOUND PHYSICAL HGCZ GOLDEN ERA. if you have read hgcz read it NOW. literally right now you can find it at @hotguycomiczine it will change your life

i've been working on this since january (mostly due to the budgeting issues involving printing), and i believe have just narrowly completed this in a shorter timeframe than the actual zine (sheer embarrassment for taking so long was a great motivation). and YES i found out there was an official physical edition in production about 90% of the way through

i did draw a new cover and design a book jacket for golden era! i've never done something like that before so it was a great challenge

genuinely, hgcz might be one of the greatest pieces of art to ever come out of a fandom. i absolutely loved like. everything about the overarching story and all the details that went into this i could ramble on for hours. i have so sososo much more respect for everyone who worked on this now that i tried creating smth adjacent. this whole project, especially as a fandom related collaborative effort, is just incredible to me

bonus content under the cut!

hgcz cover notes:

there's a lot of stuff i tried to put into the golden era cover

i really liked the original wormtime cover, so the colors are very inspired by that

photograph meant to show the duo at the beginning of Golden Era, for the contrast with isjasz's polaroid by Legacy

hg is angling the camera to catch himself first and foremost, cg being in there is almost an afterthought. he's still a prideful guy!

speaking of which, they're angled away from each other as they're still not fully working together as a team

cuteguy and hotguy designs a mashup of several creators (particularly tibby-art for cuteguy and chrisrin for hotguy)

cg's eyes are visible but hg's visor hides his

hg's scars are also slightly visible as reflections, including a harsh reflection across his left eye. hmmm..

my hotguy and cuteguy refs for the cover. you can see which other artists from hgcz i took inspiration from i think

i had. so many issues. with the physical pages. sometimes my spacing would be off and some parts of the comic would get cut off and i'd have to go buy them again (i don't have a color printer). and i couldn't afford to buy all 172 pages at once so i split the trips up biweekly. anyway it was just a whole process. i ended up with so many offprints i had enough to bookbind an extra hgcz scraps book.

also where i did sketches and thumbnailing

some pics of the book in progress

[lantes-blog]

IT'S DONE. MY BOOKBOUND PHYSICAL HGCZ GOLDEN ERA. if you have read hgcz read it NOW. literally right now you can find it at @hotguycomiczine it will change your life

i've been working on this since january (mostly due to the budgeting issues involving printing), and i believe have just narrowly completed this in a shorter timeframe than the actual zine (sheer embarrassment for taking so long was a great motivation). and YES i found out there was an official physical edition in production about 90% of the way through

i did draw a new cover and design a book jacket for golden era! i've never done something like that before so it was a great challenge

genuinely, hgcz might be one of the greatest pieces of art to ever come out of a fandom. i absolutely loved like. everything about the overarching story and all the details that went into this i could ramble on for hours. i have so sososo much more respect for everyone who worked on this now that i tried creating smth adjacent. this whole project, especially as a fandom related collaborative effort, is just incredible to me

bonus content under the cut!

hgcz cover notes:

there's a lot of stuff i tried to put into the golden era cover

i really liked the original wormtime cover, so the colors are very inspired by that

photograph meant to show the duo at the beginning of Golden Era, for the contrast with isjasz's polaroid by Legacy

hg is angling the camera to catch himself first and foremost, cg being in there is almost an afterthought. he's still a prideful guy!

speaking of which, they're angled away from each other as they're still not fully working together as a team

cuteguy and hotguy designs a mashup of several creators (particularly tibby-art for cuteguy and chrisrin for hotguy)

cg's eyes are visible but hg's visor hides his

hg's scars are also slightly visible as reflections, including a harsh reflection across his left eye. hmmm..

my hotguy and cuteguy refs for the cover. you can see which other artists from hgcz i took inspiration from i think

i had. so many issues. with the physical pages. sometimes my spacing would be off and some parts of the comic would get cut off and i'd have to go buy them again (i don't have a color printer). and i couldn't afford to buy all 172 pages at once so i split the trips up biweekly. anyway it was just a whole process. i ended up with so many offprints i had enough to bookbind an extra hgcz scraps book.

also where i did sketches and thumbnailing

some pics of the book in progress

[lantes-blog]

💫What's this about a physical comic book?

You've probably heard it by now, but we're so happy to announce Ghost Issues!

With returning comic artists, writers, page illustrators and merch artists, we'll have stories and illustrations covering arcs, characters and so much more that the readers didn't get to explore into the world of HOTGUY COMICS!

And that's not all, a physical release for Volume One and Ghost Issues?! That's crazy! We hope you're as excited as we are! We'll continue to use our social media to update you guys on Ghost Issues, the physical release, and answer any questions you might have!

Stay informed on our social media!

ITCH.IO • CARRD • TWITTER • ASK

[lantes-blog]

EXTRY! EXTRY!

Behind the scenes, our team has been planning and plotting something BIG. And it's not just us, either; we've teamed up with the Scarland Artbook organizers! After months of nonstop effort, we're eager to invite YOU to our biggest project yet.

INTRODUCING...

What is A2Z?

Artbooks to Zinethologies is a collaborative charity event hosted by the organizers of both Scarland Artbook (@scarland-artbook) and HOTGUY COMICS (@hotguycomiczine), celebrating the Artbook's donation to Give Kids The World Village and aiming to fundraise a little extra in the process!

What will the event be like?

Falling somewhere between a streamathon and an online convention, our aim is to provide behind-the-scenes insight on how both of these massive projects came to life; answer questions on what it took to tackle them; and share our favorite anecdotes from each project. Three days of streaming, multiple panels, many participant-open activities, and several exciting announcements for the future are coming your way with A2Z's schedule!

So when is it?

Mark your calendars for May 23rd, 24th, and 25th to watch us dive deep into never-before-seen secrets and tidbits from these unique community projects. Keep your eyes peeled in the next few days for more information on our exact schedule, and what panels we plan to cover!

Any questions?

Send us your questions to our shared inbox on neospring!

Join us in celebrating Scarland Artbook's incredible donation to Give Kids The World Village, and help us raise more money for their cause.

We sincerely hope to see you there at the event!

A2Z | CARRD • INBOX • YOUTUBE

HOTGUY COMICS ZINETHOLOGY | ITCH.IO • CARRD • TWITTER

SCARLAND ARTBOOK | ITCH.IO • WEBSITE • TWITTER • TUMBLR

ALT IMAGES UNDER THE CUT.

[lantes-blog]

Of the Heart🌄

Writer: @zipzapzooooooom Editor: @onawhimsicot Assistance: @gingermaple @kunehokki @corvidaearts @/mybrotherjoso7

===

PART TWO!!!!!! <3333 Can you spot all the different moments on the cover from previous pieces of the zine? ;3

These two comics were one whole ass long comic before I decided to draw the cover tbh LMAO. I had such a wild time doing these fr tho. ARGH I can't express how much I love this project. Again go check out the whole zine here!!! 💥🫶

===

[ START | PREVIOUS | NEXT ] [ MERCH ] [ MISC ]

[lantes-blog]

this spiderverse type idea has been floating in my head since the start of the zine and we've officially reached full AUception so i'm subjecting everyone here to it too. i love hotgal & cutegal :]

[lantes-blog]

Can I please get Mumbo and Cuteguy pretty pls <3 <3 <3

he yappin to bestie about his day

[lantes-blog]

📸

===

<3 The polaroid at the end of @hotguycomiczine !

Thank you so much for reading. I said it too many times and I will say it again, love this project so so much and everyone in it 🫶🫶🫶

===

[ START | PREVIOUS | END ]

[ MERCH ] [ MISC ]

[lantes-blog]

Full references I made for my HotGuy, Cuteguy and Cub designs for Hotguy Comics Zine! + the first concept sketch I made for HotGuy and Cuteguy ^^

I think I had two main goals in mind when coming up with designs for them; #1 being that I wanted their outfits to be similar, but not necessarily matching; COTMC is one of their first missions together and it explores how they're still learning to work as a team. They may think differently, but their hearts are in the right place. ...Mostly. #2 was that I wanted them to be wearing clothes that would be cool-looking, yet practical. CuteGuy I especially wanted to be wearing clothes that would be more sporty and suited for a more close-combat fighting style. I liked to reference cool streetwear outfits I would find on Pinterest, you can kind of see where my mind was at with these old CuteGuy designs.

[lantes-blog]

MY BEHIND THE SCENES!! DESIGNS SHEETS!! in @hotguycomiczine :D *throwing these over like bricks*

If you haven't read the zine yet, you can download it here! and/or read my comics that used these designs here <3

More messy and silly early designs and process under the cut ↓↓ (I will maybe ramble more abt the thought process and such later in one ask o7 I just. keep procrastinating on answering it ASKDAKJW ANON IF U SEE THIS I DID NOT FORGET U I PROMISE)

So first off, my endless cg design suffering (this guy gave me sm pain i SWEAR TO GOD

Gem and Pearl concepts :D Pearl's design got revamped a bit after I started coloring my comics tho o7

Early bug concepts from me!! (super honored to do the final design for the bug I love this evil little guy)

And just some miscellaneous/scrapped and silly stuff during the comic making LOL

Last but not least hi ppl who kept up with ddd. how do u :3 feel about this :3 ringing any bells :3 /SILLY HASDAHJKLHEAKWEH👍💥

[lantes-blog]

i had such a lovely time collabing with @wormtime123 and @isjasz to create the cover for @alicenotalice's hgcz piece!

i did the concept/composition, lineart, and flats worm did the clean sketch and let us use their awesome designs! and jas did the rendering that really tied the whole thing together!!! check out @hotguycomiczine and read the accompanying fic here!!!

[ START | PREVIOUS | NEXT ]

[ MERCH ] [ MISC ]

[lantes-blog]

all my behind-the-scenes concept work and such for the HGCZ! i had a blast working on it all.

check out my finished piece here, and check out @hotguycomiczine for the full zine!