Hello you little bastards.
A whole 15 minutes before the oath becomes worth less than the pinky it’s printed on.
The first part of “issue” 2
As you can see Chris and I are trying something new this time around.
Let me know if you think it works.
-Dan

ONE WAY TICKET :: by Chris Arrant and Daniel Warner

Start At The Beginning

Skype: Daniel_Warner
Email: dan@danielwarner.net

This hurts.

1 Way Ticket will be delayed for one more week, but Dan and I pinky-swear that Chapter Four will begin next Wednesday, March 14th, 2007. We’ve been hemming and hawing over format, serialization and Van Halen for several weeks trying to come up with a new way to do this thing called webcomics. We think we’ve got it. Come back next week and tell us what you think!

Meanwhile, check out this trailer, Maiden of Death, which was made for SXSW film festival’s Grindhouse trailer competition. I’ve watched it about two dozen times , and acts as a good ancillary work to what me and Dan are aiming for with 1 Way Ticket.

1 Way Ticket chapter four is coming …. just not this week. Dan and I are working on a new way of presenting the comics starting with this chapter to make them better readable for this webcomics format and make them more enjoyable for you — our readers. We’ve got some big things planned for this series, and we appreciate you sticking with us for the 22 pages so far and the pages yet to come.

Come back next week and we’ll have something to warm your comics-reading souls.

Come back next week as we begin chapter 4 of 1 Way Ticket.

As we take a brief two week intermission between chapters three and four, I’d like to show you what as the first images of 1 Way Ticket. After a barrage of emails back and forth, Dan came back with two PDF sketchbooks of ideas, inspiration and imagination. Here is the first sketchbook, totalling 6 pages.

..and a special thanks go out to Steven G. Saunders, the new writer for the All The Rage column at SilverBulletComicBooks.com. In this week’s edition, he mentioned Dan and I’s webcomic, calling it “fresh” and “interesting”.

And we leave you with a link to another great comic available free on the web: BFX2. Done by Takashi Miyazawa (Spider-man Loves Mary Jane) and Arthur Dela Cruz (Kissing Chaos), it’s been a valuable inspiration for me during the the lean times. I feel bad for all those who haven’t read it.

NEXT WEEK: More sketches. NEXT NEXT WEEK: 1 Way Ticket Chapter Four begins.

Read from the Beginning.

Where’s the new page? ‘Fraid so, but your regularly scheduled installment of 1 Way Ticket this week has been delayed. Dan’s been burning the midnight oil as of late, and a last-minute paid gig came up that he couldn’t say no to. With our humblest apologies, we offer a sketch by Dan and some interesting tidbits on the comic.

There’s a meme going around with people listing their favorite webcomics, and our own 1 Way Ticket had been lucky enough to land on two lists from discerning comiclovers.

Cartoonist Dean Trippe (Butterfly) says:

I met Chris through the magic of the Newsarama boards and we’ve been pals ever since. I think his writing is dead-on, and is here complemented by Daniel’s expressive/fun drawing style and WICKED colors.

Adam Cadwell says:

I love the artwork on this comic by Daniel Warner. There’s only one word I can think of to describe it; fluid. Everything about it flows and fits perfectly, the swift linework, the offbeat compositions, the colour choices, the character design, everything. Even when its jagged and spiky its because it should be, there’s plenty of ingenious touches but they never dominate your attention. The pages where Sully leaps on stage with his new magical guitar and wows the audience are purely stunning and stand strong on their own. Warner’s device of how to represent singing and music is genius and I’m sure will be imitated by many. All of which can distract from the subtle pacing and mood creating by Arrant’s writing.

Thanks guys! And thank you for being patient with us — look forward to a new page in the 1 Way Ticket saga next Wednesday.

It’s 9:30pm but it’s still damn Wednesday.

Hi; Chris Arrant here, writer for 1 Way Ticket here at The Chemistry Set. By now you’re probably asking — where’s the new page? What happens next? Why am I reading comics in my underwear? I can answer that first question, but the rest you’re on your own.

The artist of 1WT, Dan Warner, had to step back into the real world to tackle some late-breaking deadlines of the paying sort so we’re going to have to hold off on any new pages until next week….

AUDIENCE: AWWWWW

…but in an effort to appease our fanbase and prevent riots in the streets of the Internets, I thought it’d be interesting to tell you how this all came to be. No, Dan and I aren’t joined at the hip. In fact, we’ve never met. Far from a Lady & The Tramp love story, this all started a couple years back with him as a comics creator and me as a nubile fan… (cue dream music)

I first came across Dan Warner’s work in his miniseries for Slave Labor Graphics, Cocopiazo. To this day it remains uncollected and underappreciated, but I remember coming back to the book again and again to soak up the artwork and the vibe the reverberated through it.

Later, when I was putting 1 Way Ticket together (under the name Guitarmageddon), I made a short list of artists who I’d love to do the series with. I must have eaten my wheaties that day, because I made a seperate list of artists I probably couldn’t get to do it but that I should ask anyway. Dan was on that list; here’s the cold-call email I sent him:

Daniel,

You probably don’t know me from Adam, but my name is Chris Arrant and I’m one of your LJ friends (chrisarrant). Vito Delsante and I are organizing a comics group similar to Act-i-vate, but with the theme of collaboration. Instead of a sole cartoonist, it’s a writer and an artist teaming up to hopefully create something more potent than what they would individually.

As you have probably surmised by now, I am a writer in search of an artist. I’ve always admired your work on LJ and in your SLG comic, and wanted to inquire if you’d be interested in talking further about possibly collaborating on something for this.

If not, no harm no foul… I just figured if I didn’t ask, I’d kick myself.

Thanks,

Chris Arrant

Wow. It’s like looking at embarassing baby pictures.

Anyway, I sent it off around 2am in the morning — you know that time, where you can’t sleep and you can’t tape together any coherent thought but you want to do something. That’s what I did. I emailed him and then made a note to take my expectations down a notch and post an ad on DigitalWebbing.com for an artist.

Then, the next day — Dan responded. He was interested. And he sent me his portfolio. I mentioned Dan’s name to another Dan, Dan Goldman (Shooting War, Kelly), and he said “Yeah! Dan Warner’s great. I always meant to get up with him to do a book together, but I haven’t had a chance yet!” So now, in my mind, I’m competing with Goldman, a published cartoonist and rockstar artist in his own right. FUCK.

So I sent Dan Warner a pitch on a hope and a prayer. I’ll show you what I sent him, with some parts XXed out as to not ruin the story.

ONE WAY TICKET
While on a visit to a dusty pawn shop, a young boy named Sully runs head-long into fate and discovers the guitar of his dreams… or is it his nightmares? With this mystical guitar in hand, he XXXXX.

That’s the high gloss movie pitch. The story itself will be serious but also raucous, brash and hedonistic. The feel is like the movie BUCKAROO BANZAI, or the comic NEXTWAVE or SHARKNIFE. It will be serious moments played for laughs and drama. What you’d be drawing is bands playing, magical guitars exerting telekinesis over objects, lightning bolts, demons, over-the-top zany moments like a manga, and some quiet moments between Sully and his family. It’d call for a kinetic and upbeat style.

How unprofessional of me. But Warner responded:

Hi Chris,

As you know, the subject matter of One Way TIcket isn’t really the direction I am pushing my work.

Oh shit. Just like high school romance let-downs.

BUT I let the idea incubate for a day, and the more I thought about what a Rock and Roll comic book could be the more pumped up I got.

Wha-?!

I put on some music and tried to visualize it. Bear with me for a moment as I try to verbalize… I can see it as bold, highly energetic drawings that incorporate classic comic book visual elements like thought bubbles and dot screens. Poppy and fresh but not campy. My influences tend to come more from manga than classic comic books and right now I’m thinking along the lines of Raymond Pettibon, FLCL, pushead, tattoos, CD Covers, Warhol, Atsushi Keneko’s ‘Bambi,’ Van Gogh and this playlist:

1. Boxcar - Jawbreaker
2. The Longest Line - NOFX
3. I am a Rock - Me First and The Gimme Gimmees
4. Cheap Wine and Cigarettes - Darkbuster
5. She is Beautiful - Andrew W K
6. Hash Pipe - Weezer
7. Close to Me - Get Up Kids
8. True Dreams of Wichita (live) - Mike Doughty
9. Why Can’t This Be Love - Van Halen
10. Every Rose Has It’s Thorn - Poison
11. Jump - Simple Plan
12. The Rock Show - Blink 182

ME: …. he likes it?

After that it was a flurry of emails with playlists, artwork, photos, lyrics and it ended up into the 1 Way Ticket you’ve read each Wednesday. Check back here in 7 days for page 21 — meanwhile, take a chance to go back and re-read the story so far; look to the right sidebar for links to the archives.

As dubious a proposition as it may seem for a 32 year old man to have a MySpace page… I’ve gone and done it.

I just started it so I’m 100% freindless. It’s pretty pathetic. I would like to see pictures of you being awesome so friend me.