Prisoners

Story by John Outsider, art and lettering by Bren

Prisoners was my second comic and my first collaboration with a writer. John is a highly prolific writer, and this was his first comics project. I'm very grateful to John for giving me the oppurtunity to work with him and learn from him so early on in my comics career.

This project was self-published and distributed successfully by both John and me. It's now on it's second printing.

Prisoners, written by John Outsider, art by Bren

A black and white comic pahe showing a man sitting in a prison cell with his head in his hands

Before drawing comics I very much spent a lot of time hanging around in fine art circles and doing a lot of life drawing. Charcoal is a medium I love working in, and I was doing a lot of charcoal drawing at the time. I decided to take a risk with Prisoners and draw the cover in charcoal. This was very well received at conventions and when selling in person.

Interior artwork

A black and white comic page showing a prisoner confront a guard

A guard walks down a prisoner corridor, holding a baton

A black and white comic page, three panels showing a guard in a prison corridor having second thoughts about something

Thumbnails

Working on a comic was a new experience for both John and myself. Working on rough layouts collaboratively was key. John had some very clear ideas and visual images he wanted in the comic, which were core to the concept of the story. It was important to get these right, and sometimes they presented storytelling challenges for me.

Clear and open communication was key to making this comic a success for both of us, and we worked iteratively to make sure we ended up with a story we could both be proud of.

I learned a lot during this process and have taken these learnings into all of my new projects. John is a great writer with a very clear vision, and I learned a lot from working with him.