31 Days of HIGH MOON: Werewolves & Winter Guard

Chris Arrant of Robot 6 and David Pepose of Newsarama took some time to talk to David Gallaher about the writing process, writing High Moon, and experimenting with digital comics in a pair of interviews:

David Gallaher talks with Robot 6
David Gallaher talks with Newsarama

HIGH MOON: Pinkerton and Lincoln

On your left, Allan Pinkerton standing next to Abe Lincoln. If you've read this week's installment of HIGH MOON, it might make a little more sense.

Deleted Scenes

I've always been interested in deleted scenes - the material from your favorite film that never makes into the final cut of a movie. You know the stuff that just sits on the cutting room floor, until the DVD is eventual released.

When I wrote the outline for HIGH MOON, I tried to pack as much action and excitement into 60 screens as possible - but there are one or two bits (not even full scenes) that are in my original outline that never made it to the final cut of the series.

Why did I leave out this material?

Well ...

Although it was an action beat, the first sequence I had written did nothing to advance the plot and revealed nothing to the readers that they didn't already know. The sequence was just filler without consequence - and honestly - I don't want to waste our reader's time giving them something incidental to read. Readers invest their time into the strip - and I want to give them a good return on that invenstment.

The second sequence I deleted from the final screens was also a action bit. Steve and I went back and forth as to whether or not we'd include it. Sure, it might look really awesome - and be a really fun sequence to write - and it'd be a sequence with a whole lot of consequences - but as time went on, we both felt that it revealed too much information, way too soon. We are crafting a mystery/horror piece - and with any good horror piece - you need to leave some of it to the readers' imaginations.

I don't regret taking these bits out of the strip, and I think the story is stronger for it, but if you ever wanted to know about some of the stuff that hits our cutting room floor, now you know.

HIGH MOON: Spoilers

If you haven't read the latest installment of HIGH MOON, please do so now, because what follows are the thumbnails (and spoilers) for Pages 17-20.

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
I think that's a suitable amount of SPOILER SPACE ... so here goes.

Before I write the scripts that get sent off to Steve and the Zuda team, I spend several hours composing several doodles and tons of thumbnails. Usually, my thumbnails are just glorified stick figures with sample dialogue floating around their heads. These thumbnails have become an important tool it making sure I hit all my essential plot points, while giving Steve a very vague idea of how I think the page should look.

So, without further ado, the thumbnails for Pages 17, 18, 19, 20.

HIGH MOON: My First Notebook

What you see here is my very first HIGH MOON notebook from way back in 2004. This is one of three notebooks, that details the origins of HIGH MOON. It's filled with a whole lot of really bad sketches, some of which I've posted previously.


And, these are some of my original scribbled notes from HIGH MOON. As you can see, a whole lot of what is in these notes never made it to the printed page the web. I did 'white out' one little bit - but there is no way I'm telling you what that was.

So, there you go .. just a very tiny taste of what might have been.

HIGH MOON: Q&A - Bring Out Your Questions

So, this evening, I was totally going to scan some more notes from my original HIGH MOON concept, but my scanner seems to be on the fritz, and since I know there actually quite a few of you out there reading this blog, I figured I'd open the floor to some HIGH MOON questions and answers.

From now until Friday, I'll be taking questions in this post about anything related to HIGH MOON, westerns, inspirations, or what have you. Friday night, I'll post the answers to you queries - and maybe even drop a couple of hints or two.

So, there you go - comments are open!

World Building: Blest, Texas

In creating HIGH MOON, I had to do some world building to get the setting just so. Here were some of my pitch notes about the setting of our werewolf western:

BLEST, TEXAS

Blest, Texas is located in Menard County, about 250 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. Its sudden growth and expansion was a direct result of the legend of the San Saba Silver Mine, which is along a small rocky offshoot of Edwards Plateau, near the San Saba River. With roughly 200 residents during the 1890’s, the town is located within 15 miles of recently closed Fort McKavett. The drought has forced many of the area ranches to close. The town itself is composed of a mixture of Americans, Irish, Mexicans, Germans, English and Wendish, with Americans comprising a 50% majority. The town has a heavy Wendish/Sorbian flavor to it. A few ‘buffalo soldiers,’ members of the 9th and 10th United States Calvary also make their home here.

Original Character Notes for HIGH MOON

When I finally decided to type out the original HIGH MOON pitch, this what I wrote for our central character:

MATTHEW MACGREGOR

An ancestor of Scottish Outlaw, Robert ‘RobRoy’ Macgregor, our protagonist is a stubborn and grumbly retired bounty hunter. Underneath the rough exterior, is a cultured, well-educated, literate man.

Clad completely in black, with his six-gun strapped low on his thigh, he rides of in search of people that need protecting. He considers himself the shepherd of the flock of townspeople. The wound to his left arm remains unhealed and he keeps it wrapped. He stands about 6’2”. His eyes are deep green, his hair is a reddish brown. He’s got a medium build.

As with many, many other things in the original pitch, quite a bit of this changed - for instance - Mac, as you'll read in HIGH MOON, is not a bounty hunter, but rather a former Pinkerton.

Still, I always loved the bit about 'RobRoy.'

The First Character Worksheet

This is the first of many character worksheets I developed for the central protagonist of High Moon, Macgregor.

Most of these details changed dramatically as the story, plot, and setting began to develop - but it was important to me that I start with the central character and build the story around him and his motivations first.

We need to care about the character before we care about his conflicts.

This worksheet, as loose as it is, was the first step.

Second Sketch: The Edited For Your Protection

Above, is another reason why I wrote HIGH MOON, but didn't decide to draw it.

What you are looking at here is the second sketch from my first High Moon notebook way back from 2004. I've cut out things that while not currently plot points, at one time, were initial ideas.
A few things stayed, most of them changed.

HIGH MOON: The Back Cover of My Notebook Sketch

I developed High Moon back in 2004. The main character, Macgregor, was loosely inspired by the lawmen of such old-time radio serials as Gun Smoke and Have Gun, Will Travel. Above is one of the first sketches I did of the Macgregor, in the back of my noteboook, with a series of ballpoint pens.

You can all see how much the look and feel has evolved since then.