The document outlines the process Mara Aum took to develop the world, characters, and story for her steampunk comic book series Chronicles of Genius (C.o.G.). It describes how she began with concept creation, drawing inspiration from various Victorian-era people, works, and inventions. She then designed logos, characters, technologies, locations, vehicles, weapons, and covers to fully flesh out the C.o.G. world. Finally, Mara wrote scripts and drew sequential pages to produce the first issue of the comic book series. The document provides examples from each stage of development.

2. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistIntroduction
The Chronile of C.o.G.
The following shows the progression in creating the world of C.o.G. (Chronicles of Genius), a steampunk adventure
comic book series. You will see the development of the world, characters and objects of C.o.G., followed by the
sequential story creation.
If you wish to view my professional portfolio, you can do so at:
www.maraaum.com

3. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistConceptCreation
Inspirations
• Victorian-esque
• Alphonse Mucha
• Art Nouveau
• Classic Traveling Circuses
• Darwin
• Dracula
• Evelyn Nesbit
• Frankenstein
• Gibson Girls
• Hellboy / B.P.R.D.
• The Hellfire Club
• H.G. Wells
• Houdini
• The Invisible Man
• Jack the Ripper
• Jane Austin
• Jekyll & Hyde
• League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
• Lewis Carroll (Alice & Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass)
• Lord Byron
• The Mummy
• Nikola Tesla Vs. Thomas Edison
• Oscar Wilde (The Portrait of Dorian Grey)
• Perpetual Motion Machine
• Peter Pan
• Phantom of the Opera
• Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
• Psychic Phenomenon / Séances
• Ruse
• Sarah Bernhardt
• Sherlock Holmes
• Sleepy Hallow
• Steamboy
• Tarot Cards
• Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn
• Toulouse-Lautrec
• Van Helsing
• Waterhouse
• Wild Wild West
The first step I took in creating
this property was to decide on a
concept. In this case, I chose to
do a ‘steampunk’ (or victorian
science fiction) story. I only had
a vague idea for a hero to start.
To clarify I made a long list of all
things Victorian that I enjoyed (be
it a modern interpretation or an
authentic one). You can see the list
to the immediate right. This allowed
me to mentally conceptualize the
work I wanted to portray. In short
order the germination of a story
appeared.
Once I had a basic concept I
began to iron out my cast. I drew
various head shots, discarding
some and using others until I had
a definitive facial look for my
characters. These can be seen
on the far right. All of these were
drawn by hand and they scanned
and colored on the computer with
Adobe Photoshop. At this stage
of the process I kept the coloring
purposefully very flat and basic.

4. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistLogoDesign
After I had a basic roster of my cast,
I chose to create the logo for my
project. The logo didn’t have to be
realized at this point, but I thought
it would help me define the look I
wanted for the comic and allow me
to further develop the visuals of the
story.
In this case, I initially set about
designing the “Empyrean Industries”
logo (seen in black & white), which
is the name I have chosen for the
main character’s company. This was
done using predominantly vector
tools in both Adobe Photoshop and
Adobe Illustrator.
Satisfied with the line art, I took it
and expanded it with more gears to
incorporate the final title Initials (also
in vectors).

5. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistCharacterDesign
I started the task
of creating the
overall look of the
characters for
the story. I chose
to go for a more
historically based
fashion sense with
elements of the
present day to give
it an original flair that
would suit a comic
book audience.
On the right you can
see the progression
form sketch, to inked,
to colors and lastly final art.
The initial line art was done by hand
on smooth paper with pencil and later
pen and ink. Colors were applied with
Adobe Photoshop. The stripe pattern on
the dress was done digitally using a black
and transparent stripe pattern image which
was manipulated for each section of the dress as
required.
As you can see on the far right, I chose to create an
official illustration featuring the concept design with
the logo. This was done by laying various textures
and patterns and manipulating them to get the over
all desired look.

6. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistCharacterDevelopment
After standard designed were completed, less
realized sketches were done of additional clothing
and hairstyles that might be required throughout
the initial series. You can see a selection of those
here. These were used as reference for the various
stages of the project, including the cover designs
and the interior sequential art.

7. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistConceptDesign
The next step was to design some of the more technical aspects
of my world. Being a steampunk story it was important that the
technology received as much attention as the character designs.
In some cases this process overlapped with the character designs,
such as the main character’s accessories like his folding spectacles.
Using initial hand drawn sketches as a base, these were completed
using vector tool in Photoshop & Illustrator (in the same way the
Logo was done). There is very little actual mechanical basis for any
of these designs. I was going for more of an aesthetic look than any
feats in engineering.

8. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistConceptDesign
As this is an adventure story with dashing heroes and
dastardly villains, weapons are an important factor to
the story. Almost all the cast has some kind of blade,
projectile or device they could use in combat. Like the
previous concept designs, I used hand drawn sketches
as a base, completed the images using vector tool
in Photoshop & Illustrator. For all concept designs
coloring was purposefully basic.

9. Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistConceptDesign
Since my inventor’s claim to fame would be transport,
such as the airship, it was imperative that I design and
populate my environment with a multitude of vehicles.
Featured here are two of the many schematics created
for this purpose. Doing the turnarounds for all concept
designs provided vital references for the sequential art
process later. The airship, the Aeolus, features significantly
in the story, so it was one of the earlier designs.

10. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistConceptDesign
Not wanting to use an actual location for the residence of my
hero, I chose to instead to design my own. Using basic blueprints
of many of Scotland’s historic castles, I created a floor plan with
multiple levels. A portion of the plans are seen on this page. The
structure has 6 levels total and was done with vector tools.

11. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistConceptDesign
I sought to make a rough scale model of one
of the rooms that feature prominently in the
comic: My hero’s bedroom and workshop.
The idea was the castle was a crumbling
ruin when Myles (my leading man) chose to
build on the ancient foundations and turn
it into his home (The Fortress). Myles took
the original great hall and turned it into his
personal area where he would sleep and
devise his inventions. Thus, this room had to
be a hodgepodge of old and new and have
an unusual layout. This could make plotting
out perspective tricky and having a model
would be an extremely useful tool to help me
accurately portray the environment. Using
a camera and installing removable walls
in the model, I was able to take reference
shots that would aid me to produce more
accurate perspective in the desired scenes in
my sequential art. This was built using foam-
core board, cardboard, masking tape, glue
and a large transparency.

12. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistConceptDesign
Next, using Google Sketch-Up, I created a
scale 3D model of the entire outside structure
of the Fortress. This too allowed me to angle
the image to get whatever desired angle for
the sequential art process. No ornamentation
was put on the model because I chose to
develop that at the time of drawing.

13. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistFinalOutcome
This it the final result of the Fortress with all
stone work conceptualized. Also seen is the
airship, the Aeolus. This is just one example of
how the various reference preparations were
used in the final comic book art.
This was drawing by hand with pencil, pen
and Ink and colored in Photoshop.

14. Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistCoverIllustration
Normally, covers are done last in the comic book industry, but I chose to do mine first as
a means to warm up and to develop the look of the work.
Featured on this page is an example of the process in creating the cover designs for
the comic. From left to right (not to scale here), I start with a loose sketch of the idea.
I drew these on mini to-scale templates created by myself. This way I know I am using
the space properly. Next is the penciling process (the next blue image). I use non-photo
repo-blue because when I physical apply ink to the paper (the black and white image)
and scan it, there is less chance of the pencils being picked up by the software. Lastly, I
color the image using Adobe Photoshop and add the logo created earlier.
It is important to note I hand tea stained the
paper texture seen throughout the colored
images of this project (both interior and
exterior). They were scanned and applied
digitally when need for the best effect.

15. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistSequentialArt
Developing this work in this way, I
have had time to really understand
what my story was about. It is time to
draw the comic.
Firstly, I wrote a script. The format,
as you see to the immediate right, is
similar, but not the same, as a movie
script. You start out indicating what
page is being drawing and then
describe the first panel. Below that
you give the dialogue, indicating
who says what. Then you repeat the
panel process until you are satisfied
with the number of panels on the
page. After that I start another page
and do it again until the story is
complete.
Once the script is finish, I draw a
thumbnail image directly beside the
text. This will shows how the panels
will visually be broken up on the
page. I then scan it and stretch it to
my scale mini-template. Having the
panels where they should be, I then
draw within the boxes so that I have
the most accurate placement of the
characters. I might even put mock
word balloons digitally later to make
sure that the spacing is correct.

16. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistSequentialArt
Once I have the layout sketches the way I want them, I again scan and stretch them
to drawing size and I use them as a guide for the actual penciling process of the
sequential pages. Again, I use blue pencil for this. As you can see the result to the
immediate right, my pencil page showcases the bleed, trim and live area lines for the
work. The bleed being the portion of the page that will be cut off to make the edge
of the comic book, the trim
being the area in danger of
being cut (depending on
the printer) and then the
inner part as the live area,
which is safe from the cutting
process.
Once the pencils are
complete the inking begins.
Applying it directly on the
pencil page, the image
becomes ready to scan.
The materials used to ink can,
and do, vary. In this case, I
used rapidograph technical
pens and some brush.
Once that is done I adjust the
brightness and contrast in
Adobe Photoshop to
obliterate any remaining
pencil lines and crate the
results you see on the
far right.

17. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistSequentialArt
Now that the inked page is prepared for coloring, I
shrink the image to print size. In Adobe Photoshop,
I apply flat color to all the characters and
backgrounds followed by adding highlights and
shadows. I also apply textures to various outfits and
items to add extra dimension. Lastly in the coloring
process, I put a tea stained texture over the entire
image with a unifying color (in this case orange) to
complete the image.
The word balloons and sound effects are crated
in the vector based software Adobe Illustrator
and then put together and placed in Adobe
InDesign. Also in InDesign the text is added and
then exported into any format needed for screen
viewing or print.
With that you have a comic book page.

18. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistSequentialArt
The creation of a page is made from
a very long list of references and in a
“world building” setting like C.o.G. it
is at least doubled.
Using a different page, I show here
the various references used. This is
only a small portion complied for
this particular page. This includes
previously designed images, like
the winged apparatus, seen in the
upper right conner, to historical
fashion plates. I also took my own
photographic reference as seen in
the lower left corner.
This typifies the sheer amount of
work and research that goes into a
single page.

19. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistSequentialArt
Finally, I am going to show you a succession
of completed sequential pages as
they would appear in the comic book.
Incidentally, this is the last four pages of
the first issue from C.o.G. (Chronicles of
Genius). In this, I intend to show you not
only the finished product but the storytelling
progression in sequential art.

20. Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistSequentialArt

21. Mara Aum
Educator | Illustrator | Comic Book ArtistSequentialArt
With this final full page illustration (or ‘Splash’
page) we end not only the comic but this
portfolio. This is just a small portion of various
techniques and processes that are integral
to creating a comic book.
I hope you enjoyed our little lesson!
Thank you.