Toonsville - a map to appear in a comic book! (FINISHED)

[Caenwyr]

For his new comic book series, Mandril, P.I., author Christopher Brimmage needed a map to showcase the city where the adventures of his protagonist take place. Here's a short description of the place by the author himself:

Toonsville is a 1950s-style noir metropolis teeming with cartoon creatures of every imaginable species whose lives and traditions are governed by cartoon tropes.

The center of the city is a dilapidated, black-and-white neighborhood named The Grays that was created before color entered the world. Neighborhoods grew outward from there as new cartoons were created and new characters/species were invented. With few exceptions (Manny being one), species of toons tend to live in the neighborhoods created for them (e.g. The Rabbit Hole for rabbits, The Turtle Shell for turtles, Man-Hattan for humans).

This is the map itself (the legend will appear on the next page):



You can find the WIP thread here.

And here's the link to the Kickstarter!

[Diamond]

Oh sweet! You finished it! Turned out really good; I think the only nitpick I have is the building shadows are very dark and make it hard to tell what's in some of the areas in shadow. It could just be my work monitor though.

[Arimel]

This looks really good! I love the level of detail. Have you been working on this a long time? Man you have been working on this for a long time. I thought it was just my memory giving out for a second before I went and double checked the dates on the WIP thread! It was worth the wait though.

[Brendo]

That's great!!!

[Caenwyr]

Oh sweet! You finished it! Turned out really good; I think the only nitpick I have is the building shadows are very dark and make it hard to tell what's in some of the areas in shadow. It could just be my work monitor though.

You're entirely right. Some of the shadows are indeed near-black. The idea was not to showcase every pixel-sized little detail but give as good as possible a perception of depth. There are skyscrapers in this map that are incredibly high, and since this was a purely top-down map, I had only the dropshadows (and their dark cores) to suggest that height. But you're right, sometimes these dropshadows do hide details that could otherwise have been interesting for the reader. Luckily the writer will do an excellent job explaining what they're missing in the map ;-).

This looks really good! I love the level of detail. Have you been working on this a long time? Man you have been working on this for a long time. I thought it was just my memory giving out for a second before I went and double checked the dates on the WIP thread! It was worth the wait though.

Oh yes, it took me over a year. Not continuously of course, but on and off I worked on it for well over 150 hours. Glad you like the result!

That's great!!!

Thanks Brendo! I'm always a bit giddy when people tell me they like my work!

[rdanhenry]

Congratulations on completing this exceptionally tricky urban map. It has come out looking amazing! And if some of the shadows are quite dark, it leaves one wondering what might be hiding in them.

[Caenwyr]

Congratulations on completing this exceptionally tricky urban map. It has come out looking amazing! And if some of the shadows are quite dark, it leaves one wondering what might be hiding in them.

Thanks! The darkness creates a sense of mystery! Maybe I will post an all-black map next, and leave the details to the viewers' imagination