01 – City of Northbrook
I should apologize right now for this page, since it looks so nice it would easily deceive you into thinking the rest of the comic looks so awesome. Sorry, but my artwork is poor.
I should say something about the drawing classes I’ve taken: they are for technical drawing, more commonly known as drafting.
Do I have training on how to properly produce a human figure? No. Do I have training on how to properly produce a two-point perspective? Yes. Do I have manuals that explain how to accurately drape clothes over human figures? No sir I have not. But do I have a 950-page textbook that explains the proper internal framing and structure of a house? You better believe it.
And yes, that roof bends right where the gaps in the trusses are.
When Chris Hastings writes Dr. McNinja, he has his adventures take place in a real city in the real world. I wish I had the huevos to do that with my comic, because it just makes the story so much more awesome.
But alas, the only real-world city I would use for my comic is one that is several hundred miles away from where I live now, and I’m the kind of guy who would drive around the city scouting locations and drawing off of real references, picking exact and specific spots to use for my story. And that is a luxury I cannot afford.
So I have decided to have this take place in a fictitious city, the city of Northbrook. And while the city itself is made up, it is in truth based upon the two real-world cities that I have lived in the most in my life. An amalgamation of two very different areas. I’ll let you see what this amalgamation is like as the story progresses.
And where is this city? I don’t really know. Maybe I will in the future, but right now all I can say is: 1) It’s not California; I know this because one of the characters moved to Northbrook from California, so logically Northbrook isn’t in California. 2) They have Carl’s Jr and not Hardees. It’s not that I have anything against that side of our country, but you gotta write what you know, and I would just look like a fool if I declared that they lived on the East Coast yet the local establishments, manner of speech, and all other small details stand in opposition to this fact.