Frequently Asked Questions

How do you make the comics?

• Well for starters I think of a decent little idea in my head. Maybe a little peice of dialogue or an image.
• Then, I draw out a simple rough draft on any sheet of paper likc object (printing paper, postit note, napkin, even a box once).
• After I get the general layout of what I want, I begin to sketch out the comic. I use regular 8.5in x 11in printing paper and a 0.3mm mechanical pencil (in case you wanted to know). After the general sketch is finished, I then darken my lines with the pencil to frame out what I've done.
• Now to inking! Inking takes much time and I use multiple pens to do it. I use the Copic Multiliner set B-2 which ranges from .03-1.0 and then BS and BM brushes. I go around the character with the .3 pen (only the outside, not the inside yet). After I get around them, I then use a .1 pen on the inside. Any objects or extras in the panel, I'll use either a .05 or a .5 pen depending on the importance.
• I then clean up all of my lines and erase the pencil lines and redo some inked lines since they tend to become washed out from the eraser.
• Afterwards, I scan the image to my MacBook or PC (if I'm going out for the weekend, it goes to Mac, I'f I'm home and doing nothing, it's PC).
• I pull the file into Photoshop and darken the lines. This makes it easier to work with in the next step.
• I then export the comic to Illustrator where I use the LiveTrace feature to make my lines all nice and smooth!
• After that is all done and accounted for, it's right back to Photoshop.
• From there I separate and label my layers (line-art, framing, text, color, and possibly flats).
• I add in my flats to an panel and begin to color and shade. I work one panel at a time, helps me focus on actually finishing up the comic rather than just say "Yup, the flats are enough for now, I'll post this!".
• Once coloring and shading is done, I add in the text, then save the .PSD file and save it as a .JPG format.
• When thats all done and dandy, it's off to upload to the server, and that's where you see it! Thats it!

I'll post pictures to correspond with this later.

What is your update schedule?

Well...I'm supposed to update at least every Monday. Unfortunately school gets in the way, along with other projects besides OTM that require certain attention. I tend to do a lot of updating on the site and try new things, and since this is the first year OTM has officially been online, I figure I should focus on getting things nice and pretty and functioning before actually promoting myself.

Can you link my site?

Lucky for you, it is a possibility. I figure since OTM is a small and up-and-coming webcomic, why should I judge others and act as though I am "holier than thou"? If you send me a link through an e-mail and I enjoy the comic, I will definitely link. Now I'm gonna have to go with the same idea as Scott from VGcats here, if you send me a sprite comic, I will most likely pass it up unless I feel it is truely genuine.

How did One Too Many start?

OTM started when I was in my sophmore year of high school. Some friends of mine and myself decided to make a comic as a group and launch it online. Unfortunately nobody did much and I was left with the artwork. That summer I posted on a free comic hosing site, SmackJeeves. It was 4 panels, crudely drawn, and was influenced by MegaTokyo. That didn't last long since I lost interest. Later on that year, in my Junior year that is, I took a web design class. There I learned a lot of HTML and built a little fun site just using the name OTM on Geocities. I was heavily into Ctrl+Alt+Del at the time, and made a comic that was influenced by that artwork. It was also 4 panels, but this time it had a subtle humor to the comics and was eventually going to go somewhere. I lost interest in this comic cause I wanted to do more with it rather than just a little free based internet site. The summer of my High School Gradution, I bought my first domain name and hosting and it is what you see in front of you now. It started off very basic, nothing special in design and I had no knowledge in web design (hardly html, no CSS backround either). I got ahold of a friend of mine, Mark Adams (linked in the footer) and he helped me redesign th e page a little bit. Him and I sat down and tried to figure out what OTM needed. At the time, I was only updating comics when I did something special to the site. Later we discovered that we would need a hosting that supported PHP, MySQL, and had other services for the site. The PHP and MySQL are needed for the Forums, the Content Management System(what posts the comics and automatically updates), and the Blog. I began to practic CSS and redid Marks original design (sticking to the same style, but cleaning it up a bit). Now we have the current design for OTM, which the artwork is influenced by AppleGeeks. The artwork by Hawk (artist for AppleGeeks) honestly inspired me to do more, so now I work everyday on drawing and designing. OTM is based on ideas from friends and life experiences, along with random thoughts and jokes that I would like to share. Please keep reading because im positive you will enjoy more and more as we move on in the future.

What's this relationship with Simple X Unlocked that is constantly mentioned?

Simple X Unlocked is a webcomic done by one of my closest friends, Jason "Zeig" Kidrowski. We have known each other since grade school and have been friends ever since. Jay got interested in doing a webcomic after I introduced him to the idea back when I was doing the first OTM on SmackJeeves. We help each out whenever possible and tend to trade ideas and secrets. When it comes to anything web, art, or social related, we are always together. Basically OTM and SXU are sister comics (or since brother comics, you choose the phrase). Jay and I push each other to get our work done and excel in our development.

In your freetime, what do you do?

Freetime? Well if I get freetime, I would usually do something productive. I like to work out, draw with different approaches and techniques, read, practice with Adobe programs, design, possibly write, work with the websites, do a comic, play some games, hang out with friends. Most of my time is taken up by school or work though, sadly. When I freetime at school though, I mostly work on the sites, finish some homework, or nap :) lol.