Creator Interviews: Hexapus Ink of BounD

Our Creator Interviews series is back for the month of May. Today we're featuring Hexapus Ink, a team of creators responsible for BounD. The series was our #1 on GlobalComix for all of 2021. We are very excited that they've offered to take the time to explain their process and thoughts on starting a comic or manga!

UnBounD – A Brief History and the Process of Making BounD

By Matt Forsyth - Edited by Therese Lewis

When I was asked if we wanted to make a post for GlobalComix, I thought it might be a good time to give people a look behind the curtain. This is an abridged history of BounD and the steps that Therese Lewis and I take to create each issue/chapter.

My hope is that we can inspire someone to take a chance on their own ideas, or at least think something like, “If they can do it, so can I, and it won't take nearly as long.”

So, how did we get started in comics?

I've been drawing for as far back as I can remember, and I've wanted to make my own comics since I was about 12. By my teens, I'd become infatuated with anime and picked up any manga I could find at the local comic shops. As I got older I was intent on creating something other than the American style “superhero” comics.

Therese has been telling stories since before she could read. She wrote her own comic strip when she was in the 4th grade, and has been writing ever since.

But, how did BounD come about?

Many years ago, my friend Kevin Lill and I came up with the basic idea that would grow into what would be BounD. Kevin had a character that was a demon, Seth. I had a character that had some kind of ESP, Natalia Kane. We thought they fit well together.

After we agreed to give a comic a shot, Kevin would write a few pages and I would attempt to draw what he wrote. We would spitball ideas and try to make it all work, but it never really came together. My art was rough, the story was vague, but I had this blind faith that it was something special.

Kevin decided not to continue on this path as our lives would take us in different directions, but there was always something in me that said, “Try again.” I felt compelled to bring Natalia's story to life. This “BounD” idea had hit me like a bolt of lightning. I had to get it down on paper. The early failed attempts would be the priceless seeds that grew into what is now the ever expanding tree that is BounD.



After a chance meeting with aspiring Sci-Fi writer, Therese Lewis, she agreed to write a script for the first issue. I made sure to get Kevin's consent to continue on with the characters we had created years prior. A few details and even a few sentences from Kevin's writing made it into the first issue.

There's a lot I'm leaving out – various day jobs, events, and setbacks that I'll just call “life”. It would be years between printed BounD #1 and fully inked and printed BounD #2 and over a decade to get BounD going with any kind of consistency, at regular scheduled releases.

Which brings me to the process of making BounD.

We work contrary to the normal industry standard where a writer hands a finished script over to various artists with assigned tasks. That's not how the two of us work.

Our process is this:

• Therese and I write a rough outline. The outline is very simple and things tend to change drastically as we move on to the next steps.
• I write a more detailed outline with descriptions of each page and some dialogue.
• I create quick thumbnail sketches of each page (seriously, they look awful).
• I draw rough “non photo blue” layouts for each page (slightly less awful).
• I ink over the rough drawings.
• Therese takes the mostly complete pages and goes to work on the script.
• I clean up or redraw panels or even entire pages as needed.
• Next I add grey tone.
• After the script is mostly done, I add sound effects and word balloons.
• I draw/paint the cover.
• I put it all into Affinity Publisher and put words on pages from Therese's finished script.
• I format it and send it to the printer and hope the proof comes back okay.

     


Therese handles the business side of things and makes sure comic/anime conventions go well when we work them.

I draw it and Therese writes it after it's been drawn. We are aware that this is kind of an odd, if not backwards, approach but, it's how we work, and we work well together. Throughout the process, we'll go back and forth, writing and rewriting until it's right. Therese will tell me if something looks off, as honest feedback is important.

It's a truly collaborative effort, and Therese has given our characters and the story far more depth than I could have on my own.

These days, BounD is 100% digital, drawn with Clip Studio Paint. When we started, it was about 80% traditionally drawn. Non-photo blue pencil, graphite, and ink on bristol board. I would scan the pages and alter them digitally, adding way too much tone at first. Those crude pages are still online if you know where to look.



There are a lot of things that would be too much for this post, like our influences, what tools/settings I use, how we work conventions, all the unexpected problems we run into, and how the story comes to me. Ideas are mysterious and metaphysical, and I’m not sure that I could describe it accurately.

For that I would refer you to David Lynch (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks), I highly recommend you check out the interviews he has done on the subject of finding ideas.

So, that's a brief peek into our world. It's mostly solitary work. It's not very glamorous or exciting, but we love it.

Therese and I put our hearts into every page of BounD and, we hope it shows.

 

Thank you so much Therese and Matt for taking time to share your process with us! It truly is unusual that you seem to work the opposite way, but it clearly works as you've maintained a top-ranking spot over the last year since the new year began.



 BounD, 163 pages - Published by Hexapus Ink, (cc/ @Hexapus Ink)

When Seth appears to Natalia, he reveals a part of the universe that is unraveling and threatens what is left of mankind. - Natalia will have to accept the dark realities around her before she can save herself.

Story and Art by Hexapus Ink