Seasonal Changes

[ahhvecadoes]

How closely do you keep track of seasonal changes in your story (if there are any)? Heart Hex takes place in Chicago, starting in late summer/early fall, and I'm figuring out now how to show the passage of time via seasonal changes.

Is that something you incorporate, or is it too nitpicky or irrelevant to the story? What are seasons like in your stories that do contain changes?

[Amecha]

I'm currently working on the first chapter of my comic but I actually have a calendar marked with major plot points so I know what sort of weather/seasonal things I should be putting in the story. I include major holidays like Halloween, Christmas, etc. and tie in lots of stuff to those things. It's really easy to weave it into the story and use it as a tool for telling the story. For example, one of the characters comes from an area where it doesn't snow so once it snows in the storyline she's excited. This causes another character to mention how one of their friends they've had for years reacted a similar way when it first snows when they met since he's from the same area and kicks off a bit of backstory/flashbacks that flesh out some of the characters a bit more. Another character has a pretty negative relationship with Christmas and that kicks off major plot developments. I love incorporating stuff like this into my stories, especially when my stories are in a limited area and a loose time frame.

I could totally see it being irrelevant and nitpicky for an adventure story though.

[jordanthelass]

I didn't really pay attention to this last year, since I didn't really know much about color theory. However, I'm going to do my best to incorporate different color palettes for Fall and Winter in Whose World.

I think it's a great idea if you want to experiment and let people know that time is passing in your comic.

[Migue]

Hmmm, this is a very interesting point. Where I live there is no that much of a seasonal change, the weather gets colder or hoter acordding to the season, some birds go, some trees bloom, but I don't pay a lot of atention to the visual differences in each season. Since the landscape of my comic is inspired by the cities I lived and how I see them I don't put a lot of atentiton to the seasons. But now that you mention it,I think it is important to at least compel a sense of passage of time. I think I better start working on this, thanks for bringing it up.

[joannekwan]

For Demon House since there are some seasonally specific episodes (ie. school starting in late August, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.) I keep track of the scenery and wardrobes. Right now my characters started their Thanksgiving break so I'd been gradually moving them towards long-sleeve shirts and sweaters from T-shirts earlier. It's also easier to keep track of because they're in school and school schedules tie-in heavily with the seasons.

For Heavy Horns, the time of year is a lot vaguer but it starts sometime in late spring. Hm … I should probably come up with a time-line for that. ^^;

[punkarsenic]

currently, my comic is set 99% underground, so keeping track of seasonal changes is difficult. i believe it starts midwinter though. because of the pagan setting, i really wanna incorporate seasons and their significance into the story, but havent put much thought into it yet.

[miesmud]

My series Icebreaker is about ice skating, so of course it has to be skating season. My characters wear weather appropriate clothing, there's snow and ice, and they mention weather.

Sadly, I didn't do enough research on when exactly skating season takes place... So the date I put in a phone screen once is wrong... I often tend to forget that trees don't have leafs in November. I usually draw it right when the characters are outside, but when I draw a tree through a window, I always forget about the snow setting
I have also purposefully ignored some things like times of sunsets, because I wanted a sunset for a scene even though it would be dark when it took place.

But yeah, time takes a big role in my story, since they are working towards an event that takes place in January. I am kind of nitpicky, so I even change the time that is on a phonescreen when it appears in multiple panels. I'm pretty sure no one notices this since they don't even say anything about the green trees in the BGs haha.

[indagold]

I've tried thinking about how All Broken Gods works seasonally since plants are growing around but everyone still wears coats. I put it starting in early spring and will end in mid winter. Probably only less than a year passes for the whole comic.

[JimJom]

My comic follows real time. I haven't gotten to use this yet, but i have seperate clothes for characters when it gets into the cold seasons.