Passing Judgement

Script by Dan Pollard, all art and lettering by Bren.

The brief from Frission Comics was for a 6 page black and white Dark Fantasy comic. Dan wrote a script and we collaborated on bringing his story to life through my art.

Published by Frission comics.

A black and white comic book page, "Passing Judgement". A man is chased out of a village called Judgement, as a third large muscular man approaches from a forest. The smaller running man gets beaten by the man chasing him, but the larger muscular man rescues him

A black and white comic page. Two men walk into a villa and come to a tavern. The smaller man is refused service while the larger man is given a beer. The mayor of the village enters the scene and tells the larger man he's not welcome here.

Interior artwork

Black and white comic page. An untidy man in tattered clothes sit inside the mayors office, his feet on the table. A large muscular man stands in the background

Black and white comic page. Villagers are painting stockade fences while a large muscular man stands watching, his hands on his hips

Logo design

We needed a title for the comic as it was part of an anthology. I wanted to create a logo that fitted the theme of the story and the anthology, which signposted this is a new story with it's own identity. I also wanted to make sure credit for Dan and me as the creative team was clear.

I used some bold muscular looking fonts with small spiky serifs, to fit the Dark Fantasy theme. The flames were added to foreshadow the end of the story and suggest violence and brutality, while creating a clear border for the logo to sit on, seperating it from the artwork.

Rough thumbnail layouts

This was a collaborative project and Dan and I hadn't worked together before. We were also working remotely, so I wanted to ensure my thumbnail layouts were really clear and expressed my intentions for Dan's script. I also lettered my thumbs, so I could see how well the dialogue fit in each panel. I wanted to ensure Dan could see my approach to lettering, and also give myself a better idea of how much room I need to for the lettering in my final artwork

Dan and I had already been collaborating very closely on the character designs by this point, and had a lot of back and forth with some great constructive feedback. Fostering a good working relationship and beingf transparent about my creative process made working on the thumbnails with Dan really easy. Thanks Dan!

Rough thumbnail layout for passing judgement

Character designs

Most of my work to date has involved only one or two characters, and previously character and concept design has been a weakness for me. Whilst being mindful that we had a clear deadline for delivering this project, I put in a lot of effort up front into doing research and coming up with character designs for this project.

Dan had a clear vision for the characters of this project, and gave me clear and concise briefs which left a lot of room for creative license. Once I had come up with some initial designs for each character I was happy with I presented them to Dan for feedback and refinement. Dan was great to work with and very open to suggestions, which keeping the designs aligned to his vision.

Bladebroker character designs for Passing Judgement

Completing this work upfront was a real benefit, and made producing final artwork a lot easier and more efficient. It was easier to keep my characters consistent, which is essential for sequential storytelling. We had artwork finalised well before the deadline for Frission Comics.

Villager character designs for Passing Judgement