Clark-Gibson 2nd Year Anniversary: History and Concept Art
On July 25, 2020, I posted the first two pages of my webcomic, Clark-Gibson, on Neocities. Two years later and almost 80 pages later, I'm still chugging along just fine. A few hiatuses here and there, but still going.
Today, I am going to show off the earliest concepts and designs for Clark-Gibson that I could find in my sketchbook along with some of my ramblings. I was planning to do this for the first
year anniversary, but at that time I had just graduated college and was busy trying to get accustomed to my new job.
Anyways, let's start at the very beginning.
Before the Webcomic: The Jupiter RPG
A few years back, I had this idea for an RPGMaker game. It was about some strange, cartoonish aliens going on an adventure between the moons of Jupiter. Of course, this never left
the notebook papers that I had drew it on and would later throw away. The drawings of the main characters/party above were actually recreated from memory recently just for this page.
Character A is, well, Clark. Pretty much exactly. Though, I remember that I wanted him to be an indigo color instead of orange, along with "Indigo" being his actual name. I also remember
coming up with a gameplay mechanic where this character would switch between two transformations: "Normal Mode" and "Flying Mode", each with their own stats and abilities. The Flying Mode
would later become Super Clark in Clark-Gibson.
Character B looks like Gibson, but with more of a "seal-like" body. He was going to be Indigo's best friend that would've joined very early on in the game. I don't have much else
to say about this guy. Like the rest of these characters, I didn't come up with a proper name for him. I think he was meant to be a yellow color.
Character C is Shogi, but molded into the shape of Clark. This character was meant to be a recurring rival/enemy to Indigo in the first half of the game, only to join the party in the second half.
However, this doesn't mean he would have a change of heart. At the very end, he would betray the main cast and transform into a large, jellyfish-like creature, becoming the final boss! This jellyfish
form would be the inspiration for Shogi's design.
If you've been following the webcomic for the past few months, you probably recognize Character D as Officer Bubbles. This guy was meant to be an optional fourth party member you could recruit.
He had a similar transformation mechanic as Indigo, switching between "Combined" and "Split" modes, which would also make it to the webcomic. I remember him not being able to speak and acted almost robotic.
As you can tell, these designs would be HEAVILY used for the final webcomic, but with the next incarnation, it could've gone very differently...
A Slight Detour: Clark-Gibson Alpha
Eventually, I decided I wanted to make a webcomic, which starts the phase I like to call Clark-Gibson Alpha. Above is another recent recreation of the main cast. I do have some art saved
of this time, but no proper character chart, sadly.
Alpha Clark and Alpha Gibson look a bit different than in the Jupiter RPG (Alpha Gibson looks like the lovechild of current Clark and current Gibson). Their personalities were very different too. Clark was meant to be very uptight with a high-strung side, while Gibson
was laidback and absent-minded. Gibson also worked at a convience store with his co-worker, a sweet but naive girl named Merang, and their abrasive boss, Mr. Cup.
Collins and Character E were troublemaking doppelgangers of Clark and Gibson who came from across the sea in some sort of amphibious boat-house. Character E actually does have a name, but I
am redacting it here because... well... I don't want to spoil anything.
??? was some sort of abstract, indescribable horror that would torment Clark and Gibson only during Halloween comics.
The Commoner was just referring to various, generic background characters that I would use for certain scenarios.
Here is a color chart that I was planning to use. You'll notice that I've reused some of these colors for Clark-Gibson. Collins' purple became Shogi's, E's green became Cutlass's, and Mr. Cup's blue became Strength's.
Those two circles in the lower left were most likely for testing, as the blue one is the same blue as current Gibson! Go figure.
I actually forgot a few of these characters' names, so finding this was helpful for this page :).
Here is a page comprised of almost entirely of Clark-Gibson Alpha sketches.
Collins seems to be fighting against some old man. I have a faint memory of wanting to make him a kickboxer. Also Character E is rocking that "Big Love" t-shirt.
The tadpole and frog monsters in the bottom right were from a big storyline I wanted to do where Clark and Gibson go out to sea with their doppelgangers. They would've traveled to strange islands
and encountered numerous sea monsters and other dangerous foes.
There's also a weird Clark-face guy in the bottom left, a surprise appearance of current Gibson above that, and the Jupiter guys near the bottom. When in the timeline did I
draw this!?
While I was writing this, I found another page of sketches from this era! What a surprise!
A few nice casual drawings of Clark and Gibson chilling out and Gibson and Merang working. I really think that the Alpha version of the webcomic was supposed to be a lot
more episodic than the final product is. Clark-Gibson has storylines interspliced with standalone comics, but Alpha was meant to be mostly standalone with a BIG sea adventure
storyline later on.
Speaking of the which, there are some designs from the sea story here. The giant Eel creature and that octopus pirate guy on the right were meant to show up during that.
I'm fond of the pirate's design. I might re-use him.
The old man from the previous sketch page appears again in the top right. He was most likely a "old mentor" character for Clark and/or Collins.
Now as for this Queen Callista, WOWZA! I forgot I made such a curvy character. She was definitely meant to be a villian for the sea story, as a ruler of her own island.
I really like her design. Octopirate? Might come back. Callista? HIGH CHANCE! One of her henchmen is in the center of the page.
Eventually, for whatever reason, I decided to go back to the designs of the Jupiter RPG, creating the current look of Clark-Gibson we're all familiar with.
Ideas on Paper: Concept Art of Clark-Gibson
Now let's get into the meaty stuff! Here are a bunch of sketches of the more finalized version of Clark-Gibson!
Clark and Gibson, front and center! And what looks like... Mammon? Looking through these, I forgot I created him so early on. Also Super Clark.
I'm not sure who spikehead and fluffball are supposed to be.
Here's Shogi! He's come a long way since the Jupiter days. Even back then he's still got money on the mind.
Mammon making another appearance, but with spots. Who's the longer fellow beside him? His cousin?
I originally wanted Clark to have several different transformations with his lucky feather, like the "Angel" and the "Submarine" forms. I ended up just sticking with the Angel
because I felt like having only one form would make it feel more special. More "Super", I suppose. So yeah, don't expect Submarine Clark any time soon.
So let's discuss the elephant in the room - the black blobs on the sketch. Simply put, they're there to avoid spoilers! There are characters that I'm
still planning to include that I came up with 2 whole years ago! The wait can be agonizing, but their time in the spotlight will come eventually!
There seems to be some lingering aspects from the Alpha still around. Most prominent is an alternate design of Mr. Cup. There's also a Commoner shooting a gun in the bottom left.
You'll notice the Commoners have stuck around for a while. In fact, I haven't had a scene needing a lot of background characters yet, so who's to say they're completely cut?
Not much else to say on this one. Just a few sketches of Clark, Gibson and Shogi. Clark seems to be shooting a lot of guns.
This page seems like average drawings of three of the main characters at first. That is, until you look at the three outliers near the bottom.
First, an alternate design of Merang, with two eyes. Guess I was still playing around with her at this time.
Next, a little guy wearing a jester's hat. He looks a little like another character. He might show up in the future, but nothing too important. Probably why I didn't black
him out.
Finally, another familiar face: Cutlass! But she looks more masculine here. That makes sense, since Cutlass was originally meant to be a male! In fact, she wasn't really planned
to be a main character either! "He" was only going to appear as a very minor recurring character, but I realized early on that there wasn't any female faces in the cast. So, with
a little redesign, Cutlass was born (and promoted)!
And here's more of the girl! A later addition, she hasn't shown up much until now.
I went through a few different designs with the new female Cutlass. My goal was to make a very simple character look feminine at first glance, but not overtly so.
I wanted more of a "tomboy" look. I think the side eyelashes and ponytail did the trick here. Is that even hair anyways? I'm never sure with these odd creatures.
You may notice her mouth mostly stays in a teeth-showing frown here. Since she is Clark's rival, I initially designed her to have a similar look to Clark. While Clark keeps a static face
with his nose, Cutlass would keep a static face with her mouth. I got rid of this aspect because it would be more fun to have a more dynamic look, even if she is usually still scowling.
She doesn't seem amused by Shogi.
Penciled Panels: Comic Rough Drafts
All Clark-Gibson comics start out as a pencil-drawn rough draft. Once that is finished, I scan it into my computer, and then use it as an outline in my image-editing software.
For this section, I wanted to present just a few rough drafts to show what Clark-Gibson looks like before it gets digitalized, with some extra commentary as well.
And what better way to start off than with the very first comic, Goals?
I thought it would important to, right out of the gate, describe both of the character's main motivations plus getting across what both of their personalities are like.
I think I did a pretty okay job with that.
Looking back at both the rough draft and the released comic is, well, rough.
I definitely didn't finalize my comic-making process on the first try, of course. Later on, I would leave the dialogue and the comic title out until after I scanned it in.
I was even still experimenting with the digital part at the start, which leads me to...
Huh? Isn't this just the first comic? Well, yes, but it's just slightly different! That's right! I made the first comic twice! This is the never-before-seen alternate version!
When making Clark-Gibson, I use quite a bit of shape and line tools to give everything a cleaner look. The above version instead was mostly mouse-drawn, with a few exceptions like Clark's body and Gibson's eyes.
It made things a lot more shaky and inconsistent, so the released version won out in the end, and the rest was history.
And yes, Goals County, where most of Clark-Gibson has taken place so far, is named after this first comic.
Here's comic #009: Scouting for Fights
At this point, the process became a lot more streamlined, focusing on just the drawings themselves. If you look closely, Cutlass is still male here! I guess I was in the middle of
this comic when I made that change.
#011: Demon Tracking
Interestingly, I had some silhouettes screaming in fear in Clark's fantasy in the third panel, along with some beard stubble. I don't why I removed them in the actual comic.
I try to draw Clark from more difficult angles from time to time, like in the first and last panels.
#021: Cutlass Down
This is the first comic to have a BIG panel. I try to save these for the more dramatic/climatic shots.
There was a mistake here that actually made it to the released version. I forgot to put Clark's house on the hill! I fixed it a bit while later.
The last two panels of this comic aren't on this page. The paper I use can only hold the six panels. As such...
...I put extra panels like this on their own page. I like to save and fully use as much paper as I can.
You can see panels from comics #021, #035, and #042 on this page.
#024: Compulsion
I tend to write Gibson as the more relatable of the two, so I take inspiration from my own life and quirks for his comics. I have to check all the faucets before I ever leave my house.
In case you're wondering, Gibson's bathroom is located right next to the kitchen.
#025: Arm Wrestle
This comic always sticks out in my mind for some reason. It starts out with Clark arm wrestling some stranger, only for the camera to pull back to reveal that the giant arm is
actually the guy's head. Super weird. I also like a lot of the angles I used here. Just feels right.
This is also the first appearance of Strength Deck. He was pretty much only included for the sight gag. If you've read his character card, he seems to have quite a big family.
Maybe we'll see more of his brothers one day...
#032: Shogi's New Home
Best part about rough drafts is that you can see how the comic is laid out, and if you don't like it, you can change it! The left and right columns of panels in the final comic here got swapped.
I just felt like it flowed better.
The sunset panel came out really nice. I had fun making those slanted shadows.
This comic has a few secrets as well. The fourth panel (or third in the release) has the flower painting Gibson made in comic #003. I guess Shogi isn't a fan of it either.
The panel with Gibson at night also has a secret, but I don't want to say anymore.
#036: In The Fold
I like this comic for solely for Shogi's expressions. Especially in the second panel.
[Important Statement Here], yeah, I really do put exact dialogue on the backburner.
#051: Loans
Probably one of my favorite individual comics. I know my comics aren't gut-busting hilarious most of the time, but I thought Erland's childish demeanor and his odd management
of money was humorous enough.
Speaking of which, this is also Erland's first appearance. Unlike Strength, expect to see Erland more in the future. I like this character too much.
#052: Final Battle?
I mentioned this a site post, but this comic was meant to be comic #050, but Halloween was that week and wanted to do the Halloween comic instead. I pushed this back to #052 since
there are 52 weeks in a year, it's a weekly comic, a year's worth, etc. You get it. It's also part of the reason I labelled this comic as #5052 (50 and 52).
The idea behind this comic was to convey the feeling of seeing the latest entry of a long-running piece of media that you haven't caught up with in
a long time. Where are we? Why do the characters look like that? Who are these new people? WHAT'S HAPPENING!?
The designs for Clark and Gibson here came from a really early idea where the main duo would meet their future selves from a dystopian timeline. In fact, Clark looks like his fantasy self
in comic #011, so this idea comes from even before that.
Closing
I hope you guys enjoy this little behind-the-scenes special. I had a lot of fun making it myself. I don't know how many people have been reading this comic for how long, but
for those who have taken the time to read it, I appreciate it. This has been a hobby of mine for the past two years and I'm grateful for those who have been following along. Hopefully
I will get to continue to do this for more years to come (or at least whenever I get to a proper ending).
Only about 20 more comics until #100! Not sure what I'll do yet, but I'll think of something. Until then, thanks for reading!
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