Welcome to Trollwind.com

by Matthew  |  Jan 24, 2012

While I'm working on the script of the introduction to my next project, I've been doing a little research and sketching to keep myself in the habit of drawing. I think one of the problems with the art on Trollborn was that I did not do enough pre-work - getting comfortable drawing the characters and props before I actually put them in the comic. The backgrounds I think I had down by the last strips, but I also spent more time getting comfortable drawing the trees and rocks and water.

I have to give thanks to Chris Oatley of chrisoatley.com and paperwingspodcast.com for pointing out the importance of knowing your subject and spending the time getting comfortable drawing it. He has several podcasts and articles that talk about it, plus tons of extra tips for improving your art and storytelling.

Here are some concept sketches of winter soldiers (unfortunately not the Ed Brubaker version). I referenced photographs of British soldiers in the Crimean War and have been slowly reworking them in my own style.

More sketches to come as I tighten up the uniforms and rifles and move on to other characters in the story.

by Matthew  |  Jan 17, 2012

I've been doing a lot of thinking since the coming of the New Year in those moments between work and sleep. The Trollborn comic simply is not working for me.

It has been fine for learning how to draw and sequential storytelling and I have learned a ton over the last year (particularly what not to do). Yet, as I want to move forward into telling some real stories, I've found it is extremely limiting – or more truthfully – I've built up some mental blocks that have stifled my creativity.

The biggest issue is that I've been working with these characters and settings in some form or other for fifteen plus years. I've built them up and crafted such intricate mythologies for the world (or nine worlds) that they've become my sacred cows. This has lead to creative paralysis.

I'm afraid to introduce certain characters because my art style is not polished enough. I'm afraid to tell certain Scandinavian myths because I don't want to contradict myself later or forget vital changes. I'm afraid to tell compelling stories with characters I do use, as I don't want to lead them away from the storylines I set down for them years ago. I'm even afraid to truly describe the premise of the comic and the world it looks into. So I'm left with treading water in comic form until one day, I am suddenly good enough and the entire history of Midgardh flows out of me in one exquisite stream of consciousness.

I'm too old to wait for that day to come.

A couple of comparatively minor issues have also contributed to Trollborn not taking flight:

First is the world itself. Trollborn takes place in a pre-Viking world before written language and without the existence of Rome. Unfortunately, this has lead to limited and uninspired characters, costumes, and buildings (most of which have never made it to the comic or blog). Instead of building neat things that had the right tone of the world, I was more focused on being subtractive and not including elements that weren't historically accurate or seemed too fanciful. Midgardh became a world of wooden huts and identically dressed peasants.

Second was my process. I tried to take on too much, too soon. Instead of hammering out a complete and coherent story in black and white, I decided I needed color on the strip (likely to make up for a lack of compelling tales and action). While I could write, draw and ink a strip in about 3-4 hours, it took approximately double that time to color it. So instead of completing a couple of strips a week, I burned through my cushion and spent most of my weekends coloring.

I'm sure I'd eventually get faster at coloring, but it's not what I want to spend the majority of my time on. I want to tell stories first and foremost… and that's the one thing I'm not doing.

So what happens now?

Trollborn is going away for a while. I will be working on a completely different comic. It's set in a Victorian era where old gods and shadows are waking from their slumber. I imagine a combination of the ghost stories of Poe, Stoker and M.R. James mixed with Lovecraftian terrors, and just a splash of Indiana Jones.

I'm just now in the plotting and research phase of my first story. In the next few weeks, I'll start on concept art and character sketches that I'll post on Trollwind. While I won't be keeping myself to a posting schedule for this, I will be sharing goodies on a regular basis as I make progress. Look for the first bits to start flowing out at the end of the month.

I sincerely apologize for stopping Trollborn so abruptly and not living up to my part of the bargain, but I honestly think a fresh start is what is needed and probably what I should have done last year. The experience has been invaluable and I do not regret any of the time I have spent working on this comic.

This isn't the last you'll hear of Trollborn. It's just slumbering like the giant Ymir, waiting for the right moment to rise and take on the world.

I'm really looking forward to this year and sharing some fun stories with everyone. I hope you stick around to see what's coming.

Thank you,
Matt

by Matthew  |  Jan 02, 2012

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2011 has been quite a year.

This time last year, I was drawing up the first sketches for Trollborn, and questioning if I could ever do this. Even though the site's only been up for 5 months, so much has changed in that time. I've steadily revamped my drawing style, learned new processes and techniques, and gone from black and white to color.

Trollborn started out as a public forum while I learned drawing and sequential story-telling. While I'm going to continue to revise the art, once the Stained Wood arc is finished in February, my focus will move over to writing and telling a good tale.

I'm looking forward to the new year and getting Trollborn rolling. Thanks for tagging along, and I hope to provide some entertaining stories in the coming months.

by Matthew  |  Dec 12, 2011

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Durinn is finally seeing some action and is kicking some walking-dead (aptrganger) butt.

I'm slowly recovering from bronchitis that has laid me low for a couple of weeks. It hasn't impacted the release of the comic too drastically, but it did reduce the amount of time I had to work on Durinn's character model. They're not nearly as noticeable when I'm working in pencil, but like when I was first drawing Svithri, the rust shows when I ink the panels. I figure I'll have Durinn down in a couple of weeks and can start worrying about other new characters as they come along.

On the other hand, it is nice to draw some action scenes and even better drawing that damn boat beind smashed so I'll never have to draw it again. It's the little things in life.

by Matthew  |  Dec 05, 2011

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Durinn finally wakes, but is it too late?

Still sick and functioning at half-speed, but still posting. If I start feeling a little better this week, I'll post some new process shots.

by Matthew  |  Nov 28, 2011

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I sincerely apologize for the lateness of this one. I try to post my strips Monday morning, but I've been bed-ridden since Thanksgiving with a nasty cold or some sort of plague. At least I'm posting on the same day, I guess. It's much more difficult than I thought to do fine motor skill work like drawing and coloring with a clouded head. Maybe I should think about working ahead...

by Matthew  |  Nov 21, 2011

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Like the nidhing pole, the blood eagle is another trope of the Icelandic sagas. It is a method of torture/execution/sacrifice that was popularized in modern culture by The Silence of the Lambs and Thomas Harris's book Hannibal.

Next week Svithri and Durinn face off against the undead warriors of King Sokni.

by Matthew  |  Nov 14, 2011

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Wooden shields exposed to swamp waters for hundreds of winters, don't hold up too well to pounding with an axe, even if it's not the blade.

I'm trying to figure out how what to say during action scenes like this one and in upcoming weeks. Svithri is not a wise-cracking super hero like Spider-Man or Wolverine who is so used to facing death that he can carry on conversations while fighting for his life. He's a terrified teen, discovering that undead actually exist and are coming after him. Also, zombies and other undead are not known for being chatty. Last week's strip looks almost unfinished with the lack of dialogue. On the other hand, I didn't want to have Svithri shrieking in every panel.

Over the next few weeks, I'll need to find a good balance and at the same time work on my visual storytelling so there won't be as much need for speech.

by Matthew  |  Nov 07, 2011

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Draugr (Draugar pl.) is a specific type of undead in Scandinavian folklore. I believe the original meaning for the word is ghost, though I cannot find verification in my library. According to Viktor Rydberg's Teutonic Mythology, draugr was not always an evil spirit, but could also include ancestral ghosts to be honored.

In the sagas, draugr tend to have flash uncorrupted by rot, but their skin turned black or blue (the colors were often considered the same), and they have bloated to a much larger size, weighing many times more than they did in life.

The undead fella attacking Svithri and Durinn doesn't really fit the word draugr, as he's modeled more off our modern concept of zombies (though I've tried to color the flesh to match the leathery flesh of some of the bog-bodies such Lindow Man and Trollund Man) and would better be called an aptrganger, 'after-walker' or the walking dead.

by Matthew  |  Oct 31, 2011

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Svithri is not having a good day. I tried to stay away from the traditional zombie look for the draugr, but it still came out that way. Not a whole lot you can do with the mindless dead.

The Nidhstang (pronouned NITH-STAYNG with a voiced th as in 'this'), or nidhing-pole, was featured in a number of Icelandic sagas to lay a curse upon a criminal or someone who is cowardly or dishonorable. A horse is slain and the head placed upon a pole facing the direction of the victim's home or hiding spot. Runes were carved on the pole describing the curse which could include frightening off all of the land wights causing crops to fail and the earth to become barren.

Pretty much all around bad juju. Or galdr (magic) in this case.