Comics / Digital Comics

The German Cousin - Page One

By Hervé St-Louis
July 12, 2009 - 18:59

OK. Years ago, the publisher of The Comic Book Bin storyboarded a comic book after having a brief idea from a dream - don't ask. It was the night of Victoria Day 1994. The next day, because Victoria Day is a holiday, I storyboarded the first 13 pages raw from my dream the previous night. A few months later I completed the comic book's draft. Life got in the way and although I've always wanted to go back to this story and polish it and present it to the world, I never did. Once in a while I would dig up the original pencil pages and read the story. Then, there were some little plotting problems I had with the story and I never figured out how to fix them, until August 2008 where I promised myself I would finally start the story and get it done. OK, so graduate school got in the way this time.

Well, graduate school and work are still in the way, and this is why I rushed this first page, begun a year ago, in one day. Basically, only parts of the last panel are from August 2008. Everything else is from last night and today. So instead of reviewing Spider-Man comics for you, my trusted readers, I spent my time working on this page as quickly as I could, so I can at least make it to the Stampede which ends tonight, in Calgary!

I'll rework parts of the page as needed. I haven't had much time to draw the last few months so I may be a bit rusty. My goal would be to put a new page every week, but that may be pushing too far.

So this is The German Cousin. Le Cousin germain in French. Eventually, I'll put the Web comic on its own site using a proper interface for Web comics. But for now, the guy who has criticized people's work for years humbly opens himself for criticism. This is a complete story - beginning, middle, end. I won't tell you the page count just yet. Fortunately, the original script still holds water and the storyboard's pacing is still effective.

Over the years, many friends looked at the drafted and encouraged me to complete this story. The latest would be fellow Comic Book Bin writer Andy Doan, one of my best friends. He's seen the original yellowed pages and says this story has to be seen by the public. I'm also fortunate to have an ideal place to start displaying this Web comic book. So I'd like to thank my fellow Comic Book Bin writers, past and present, for helping me build a place that is popular enough, that I could cheat and use it to launch something more personal. Most Web comics creators don't have that kind of luxury, if they are unknown as creators.

This thing could be utter crap too. Who knows. This story was "designed" in French. So even if I haven't posted the French version yet, that version will definitely see the light of day once I prepare the standalone Web site for this Web comic.

Cheers and enjoy.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12