Yaoi Art: “A Shot in the Dark” Inks (Age: 18+)
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Here are the finished inks for the first comic in our upcoming book of yaoi short stories: Yaoi 911™. It’s called “A Shot in the Dark” and was penciled by Karla Diaz C. and inked by Winona Nelson. In its 16 comic book pages, a Junior Apprentice must save his now helpless boyfriend, a Senior Apprentice, from a tremendously powerful and crafty demon after a summoning goes terribly wrong.
If you’d like to follow along with the script, you can download a copy here. And if you are interested in learning how these pages were made, click here.
Please note that some of these pictures are not safe for work and are not for children. If you are under 18 years of age, please do not click to read the complete article or read any further.
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So those are the final inks — keep tuning in to Yaoi 911™ to see this story come together before your very eyes as these pages get colored, lettered and finally transformed into a PDF comic with no watermarking — tailor-made for your downloading pleasure. 
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Learn More!
- Curious about what the art from one of our other stories looks like? See for yourself at Yaoi Art: “Artifice” Pencils! (Age 18 and over, please!)!
- Want to learn how to write a script for a graphic novel? Check out How to Write a Full Comic Book Script!
- How about finding an artist so you can turn that script into great art? Start with How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!
- Interested in seeing how these inks were made? Take a look at Yaoi Art: From Pencils to Inks!
- Just looking for a good book to curl up with? Then click on over to our Yaoi Reviews!
Filed Under: "A Shot in the Dark" • Art • Featured • Yaoi 911
About the Author: Filmmaker by day, yaoi creator by night, Alex has dedicated himself to helping cute guys fight evil and find love.
Alex Woolfson
Mayuhito
Jade Merciful
(And if by...
Dee
artdjmaster
It looks really good, though with the line quality it looks more like shonen manga.That’s not a bad thing ^_^ since shonen manga is really popular so hopefully that’ll=$$$
Hey Nara
Yeah, I thought long and hard about the art style of this book and whether folks might say it “didn’t look yaoi enough.” Let’s face it, I’m a gay man creating a book in a genre whose creators are almost exclusively women — fans might very well look for ways my work “didn’t measure up.” But in the end, I decided to be open to blending a variety of styles: shonen/shojo, Eastern/Western — whatever felt best for the story.
As I’ve written elsewhere, I’m looking to create a fun book that will appeal to a yaoi audience, rather than slavishly follow any particular manga convention. “A Shot in the Dark” is an action-romance story — if it evokes a “shonen” feel in its readers, that seems completely appropriate to me.
Now, I wish I could say that making this choice meant an easier path to the “$$$”
— or that this book has a good chance of making any $$$ at all — but the truth is, I will be lucky to break even. (Um, very lucky, actually…) My goal has to be to make the yaoi book I’ve always wanted to read — and it’s my hope that a whole lot of cool yaoi fans will enjoy reading it, too. I’d like to think that they will — and I’ll do my best to make that happen — but only time will tell.
But good to hear from you again — and thank you very much for the props.
I’m not sure why the work wouldn’t measure up, since lots of females read/watch shonen (and then slash it) Quality-wise this is some of the nicest western yaoi I’ve seen… Japanese yaoi doesn’t really have one look.There’s wispy, minimilism, cute, general ,realistic,mature…prob more I can’t think of now
Most of the translated stuff follows more of a cute style, but there’s untranslated ones that could have fallen right out of shonen/seinen magazine.I wasn’t trying to give you a hard time, I was just thinking that this would fit right in with Shonen Beat :except for the smexin^_-:
Not to worry - I wasn’t thinking you were trying to give me a hard time.
And as I said, I think a “shonen” style is appropriate for this story, so I actually feel good that you see it that way. There have just been a few people who have written me in private correspondence concerned that the art wasn’t “manga-ish” enough, so I’ve had to do some thinking about what’s really important to me about the art styles we choose. Not everyone is going to be as open-minded as you are and it’s important for me to know why I’ve made the choices I’ve made.
I’m really glad you’re liking the art — I feel very lucky to be working with Karla and Winona and I can’t wait to show you the colored pages.
i am a straight yaoi fan girl who absolutely loves your comic! The action was great and the romance sweet. I look forward to seeing more.
I also read your articles on yaoi and how it excludes gay guys. I always wondered why I could never find yaoi made by actual gay men. I’m sad that we live in such a sexist world. I hope this issue will be raised in the yaoi community. Sexism is inherent in our society, and so people must be consciously aware of it in order to overcome it.
pawapawapo,
Thank you so much for your kind words.
I’m very glad to hear you are liking what you’re seeing. Please keep coming back — I’ll be putting up the colored pages for “A Shot in the Dark” soon and we are hard at work on the other comics for this book (which also combine action with the sweetness.)
As for the issue of sexism, the truth is, my experience of yaoi fans is that they have been overwhelmingly supportive and positive. (Shout out to all the cool gals I met at YaoiCon!) Of course, not everyone has been (or is going to be), but knowing that there are yaoi fans out there who might enjoy these stories makes all the hard work worth it to me.
It’s true that we do live in a sexist, racist and gay hating world. It is my hope that, as time goes on, people focus more on building bridges than creating moats and walls. And it is my belief that it will be thoughtful people like yourself who will make that a reality.
Thanks for commenting,
Alex
Hi there. I just wanted to say I found this to be wonderful. It’s not often I see a male making yaoi books, but I am very happy with what I see.
Your style is very clean and bold, which I really like. And the idea to have no speaking in the comic was pretty original, and I think it really does play a huge role in this story. I really enjoyed it, and look forward to checking out other information on your book.
Pharaoh,
I’m very pleased that you enjoyed the comic and that you like what you see — but, believe it or not, there actually are lines of dialogue in this comic, these are just the inked pages, pre-lettering. If you’re curious what this story would be like with words, you can actually get a download link to the finished comic by filling in the form on our Free Comic page.
That said, it was definitely an important goal of ours to have the storytelling work on a visual level, so I’m glad to hear that it worked for you without any spoken lines of dialogue.
(And in an ironic twist, we actually are working on a story with no words — or very few words anyway — about two guys who don’t speak the same language yet still fall in love, but that won’t be ready for a little bit…)
I’m glad you stopped by. Thank you for your comments and the encouragement!
ya. no where near yaoi. at first i was like “wat da” and then like “ooo”. it was just not to the point *wink, you know what i mean. but it’s a great start.
Fair enough, Vince. Hopefully the next one will be more to your liking.
I am a total yaoi fan girl, and i’ll pretty much read what ever yaoi is out there. I go back and forth between the written yaoi novels and the manga so i like a twist every now and then.
I agree with pawapawapo we do live in a very sexist world. I mean if u love what you’re doing, who cares what other people think. (I said that because i know a few guys that are ashamed to be gay, which i don’t get at all.) I’m really happy that i got to read this comic, its very original. Most of the time the main characters are child hood friends or they met in elementary school and have known eachother since, but this it totally diferent and i love it. I’m actually very happy that there are men out there that write yaoi comics. I mean, who better to get the idea from than a man himself. (I’m sorry if i offended you!)
@nicknames-are-troublesome -
In no ways did you offend me, nicknames, and I very much appreciate the props! (It sounds like you already downloaded the complete, colored and lettered version of this comic, but just in case you haven’t, be sure to get that link by filling out the form at the Free Comic page!)
And yeah, I am trying to create yaoi stories that are a little different — that focus on the kinds of worlds and characters I’ve always wanted to read about. I do have a soft spot for “pretty High School BL” — as one commenter called it — but placing my romances in an action context — particularly with fantasy or sci-fi genre elements, just adds to the fun for me…
Thank you.
Man, woman, three-headed alien — as individuals with our own unique life experiences, I think we all have something new to contribute to romantic stories.
For me, I think the biggest factor is how in love you are… with love. Some of the best male-male romances are written by women — and I’m not talking yaoi here, I’m talking explicit gay fiction meant for a gay male audience. And hey, want to know what my favorite romance comic of all time is? It’s True Story, Swear to God by Tom Beland — a full-on heterosexual romance! But it’s so sweet, so well written. with such warmth and humor, it doesn’t matter that it’s a straight guy’s experience written by a very straight guy — what matters to me is the love.
So, while I wouldn’t say that men are any “better” at yaoi ideas than women — (and I know that’s not what you meant, just making a point here
) — I’d like to think that I have something unique to offer, something that will appeal to cool yaoi fans like yourself.
If you’d like to support this work, please tell all your friends about us and the comics we’re creating — obscurity is our biggest challenge. And please keep coming back and checking in — I always love to hear from cool people like yourself.
Thanks for letting me know what you thought of our work!
Alex
Wow, this is pretty good. It’s actually a lot better than I expected, since this is probably the first western yaoi that I’ve read. It kinda shows what lenghts people would go to to protect the people close to them. Kudos to the artist, this is great!
@Kemono -
Thank you very much! I will let the artist know that you liked her work!
(And I’m not sure if you’ve already done this, but if you’re interested in seeing these pages in color — with words even! — we’re sending out this comic as a free PDF download to subscribers of the Yaoi 911 News and Downloads mailing list. You can sign up for that on our Free Comics page.)
Thanks again for commenting!
Alex