A cave under every table

Captain Billy's quest for a cup of sugar interrupts his current mission, exploring a vast cave (under the kitchen table). I'm hoping to ground all the settings in a realistic environment that's been so modified by Billy's imagination that it's barely recognizable. For the cave, you can just make out table legs and chairs beneath the stalactites and stalagmites. I'll play with scale throughout, but Billy won't always be full size or "Honey, I shrunk the kids" tiny.

How Great is Ladybug Girl?

While working on Bean, I was wistfully reading David Soman and Jacky Davis' Ladybug Girl to my kids. I was working on Bean before we discovered Ladybug Girl so I was almost discouraged to see someone had already covered similar ground—and so much more successfully.

David Soman's Ladybug Girl

With Bean, I was investing so much energy in a subtle sci-fi setting and a princess/construction crossover. But at the end of the day, I was trying to show an empowered little girl who beat boredom. David and Jacky had already done that in such a clean, beautiful way.

I'm still excited by the potential stories in the Bean universe, but Ladybug Girl inspired me to try something with a simpler concept. I was letting myself get bogged down in world-building. I had made so many rules.

With Captain Billy, I'm still working in a sci-fi universe, but it's as imagined by Billy—so there are no rules! And instead of trying to introduce a character and world, I'm now focused on telling a simple story. Regardless of how Billy imagines it, he's still just a boy sent next door for a cup of sugar. The end.

I'm also going to keep my aesthetic approach looser this time around. While Bean relied heavily on clean line and graphic shapes, Captain Billy is going to be more about color and tone. I'll start with pencil again, but will move to watercolor before putting down any ink. And I'll resist the urge to draw and redraw every line over and over until it's overworked and sterile.

Maybe I'll have a few drinks before I begin.

Additional Captain Billy Sketches

For Bean I was focused on getting a proper spread count, but this time around I'm thinking I get in and out quick, knowing how I'd develop more if I ever needed or wanted to. So these five images basically complete the story:

Billy encounters the mysterious basset sphinx.

No one crosses this land without permission from Robin Ben Quick. 

Captain Billy is taken to the secret tree camp of Robin Ben Smith.

The Lady Smith appears to remind Captain Billy of his true purpose.

Billy returns home.

Borrowing a Cup of Sci-fi Sugar Sketches

Some rough sketches for part of the story and locations:

Captain Billy's exploring a vast underground cavern (under a table) when he receives a mission.

Captain Billy surveys the vast plains he must cross (the front yard).

Before Billy can make it out, large acid spewing towers (water sprinklers) begin to spray.

His suit destroyed by acid, Billy braves the dark forest (a border hedge) unprotected.

Billy encounters a platoon of lady bugs in the forest.

A lady bug guides Captain Billy to a massive, nearly impenetrable wall (a picket fence).

Billy scales the wall.