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Description

This is an illustration for a fanfic I wrote. (It's a moment from Chapter 2 ) I did a limited selection of scenes from the fic as comic pages in order to test out different methods and styles of making comic pages. This is not and will never be a full comic adaptation of the fic! There are just a few one-off pages that don't directly connect! (also some miscellaneous illustrations) I know there are a lot of full fic-to-comic projects on dA and this is not one of them. I do not have the patience, frankly, and I admire those who do.

The main thing I was testing here was combining a traditional background (it's alcohol marker, off-brand copic-likes) with digitally colored foreground characters. The lineart is done with a thin Micron pen. (I was also experimenting with doing process videos, so there's one here: youtu.be/a2FtpkyGe2A )

Why is Bilbo here?

In this fic, Bilbo Baggins is ping-ponging around post-war of the ring through power of authorial fiat. He rushed to Gondor ahead of the main Rivendell party as soon as everything was over, in order to see Frodo. Fortunately, the fic is filtered through Gollum's point of view, and he never thinks to ask about timelines or Bilbo's transportation logistics, so I didn't have to explain that part. (maybe a wizard did it )

Honestly I feel like the whole point of doing a fanfiction at all (especially one like this that's founded on a 'just go with it' premise like this one) is to play with ideas and characters that you can't recreate and that won't ever be explored in the same way by the IP owners. If that means things don't make sense, cool! Sadly, this approach has probably taught me bad habits for if I ever want to try to create something that stands on its own, but oh well.

When exploring what could happen if Gollum were made able to interact with people in a more level-headed way without the Ring interfering (either through overriding all of his other concerns, or generally making him crazy), I thought one of the most interesting things that could happen would be for him to get another chance to talk to Bilbo. Therefore, it was put into the story. Also it felt unfair to let Gollum survive and be OK if Bilbo, the infinitely better person, cannot remain awake long enough for a chat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I steered clear of even trying to give an in-story explanation for it because it's one of those things that's not even really intended to make sense. In the back of my mind I hazily thought
a) maybe the valar agreed with me that it would be unfair to let gollum live but not bilbo so they made bilbo be okay

b) maybe gollum had the ring so long that there's a chunk of its magic still in him somehow, enough to keep him alive and also bilbo, because bilbo was the next person to have it and took it directly from gollum and etc. this has other logistical issues of course, because we really want the ring to be gone completely for all sorts of reasons.

my brain just wants it to somehow be the result of bilbo being rewarded for being merciful by getting a little extra time in middle-earth with his nephew. and also, for frodo to have a consolation prize for having to tolerate gollum's presence a little longer

OK whatever, why is Bilbo here?

Since turning up here, Bilbo has been hanging out with Frodo, who has clearly been harmed by his experiences. Bilbo can't do much to help him, and probably blames himself even though it's not his fault, so he would be feeling anxious, guilty, and helpless over things, and then he finds out Gollum is around somewhere. (!) A lot of what happened is Gollum's fault, whether intentionally or not, and it's quite reasonable really to shift blame onto him. And (especially if Sam's dark mutterings are to be believed) the old villain could use a good scolding! Bilbo's not above a certain amount of witty social revenge for his own grievances, either.

Of course Bilbo is no fool and would have been advised not to go poking the frog. I believe he would initially resist the urge to go yell at Gollum, but- on this day in the story, a few hours before this incident, Gollum had a conversation with Merry and Pippin. Bilbo, in this scene, has just heard about that and found it alarming. He has decided that if Gollum can go around bothering innocent hobbits, he can very well hear what Bilbo has to say!

So, Bilbo goes and finds the room, and then he lingers outside- possibly re-thinking his options, and even more possibly on the verge of deciding he had better not do this after all, but before he can leave Gollum senses someone is there and wakes up and calls out to him.

Like many imaginative people with grievances, Bilbo has probably mentally rehearsed how this confrontation might go and what he wants to say, but his mental script did not start with Gollum pathetically calling 'who's there'. So Bilbo improvises a clunky opening line that I wish I had crafted better but I make a policy of not revising things after they're posted because if I got started I could revise forever.

Gollum instantly recognizes Bilbo's voice but can't make himself believe that Bilbo would really be here right now. Gollum definitely had plans for what to do if he saw Bilbo again. He can't put any of those plans together right now because he's too weak to strangle anyone, and also things have changed a whole lot since then, so instead of launching into his own script he chooses a cautious, neutral 'hey don't call me by my monster name' approach (it worked really well with Merry and Pippin earlier).

Bilbo hears this, decides that Gollum is lucid, and starts in on the huffy comments. The conversation awkwardly tumbles along from there until Gandalf comes in to call them both idiots and presumably haul Bilbo away by the ear.

Description

This is an illustration for a fanfic I wrote. (It's a moment from Chapter 2 ) I did a limited selection of scenes from the fic as comic pages in order to test out different methods and styles of making comic pages. This is not and will never be a full comic adaptation of the fic! There are just a few one-off pages that don't directly connect! (also some miscellaneous illustrations) I know there are a lot of full fic-to-comic projects on dA and this is not one of them. I do not have the patience, frankly, and I admire those who do.

The main thing I was testing here was combining a traditional background (it's alcohol marker, off-brand copic-likes) with digitally colored foreground characters. The lineart is done with a thin Micron pen. (I was also experimenting with doing process videos, so there's one here: youtu.be/a2FtpkyGe2A )

Why is Bilbo here?

In this fic, Bilbo Baggins is ping-ponging around post-war of the ring through power of authorial fiat. He rushed to Gondor ahead of the main Rivendell party as soon as everything was over, in order to see Frodo. Fortunately, the fic is filtered through Gollum's point of view, and he never thinks to ask about timelines or Bilbo's transportation logistics, so I didn't have to explain that part. (maybe a wizard did it )

Honestly I feel like the whole point of doing a fanfiction at all (especially one like this that's founded on a 'just go with it' premise like this one) is to play with ideas and characters that you can't recreate and that won't ever be explored in the same way by the IP owners. If that means things don't make sense, cool! Sadly, this approach has probably taught me bad habits for if I ever want to try to create something that stands on its own, but oh well.

When exploring what could happen if Gollum were made able to interact with people in a more level-headed way without the Ring interfering (either through overriding all of his other concerns, or generally making him crazy), I thought one of the most interesting things that could happen would be for him to get another chance to talk to Bilbo. Therefore, it was put into the story. Also it felt unfair to let Gollum survive and be OK if Bilbo, the infinitely better person, cannot remain awake long enough for a chat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I steered clear of even trying to give an in-story explanation for it because it's one of those things that's not even really intended to make sense. In the back of my mind I hazily thought
a) maybe the valar agreed with me that it would be unfair to let gollum live but not bilbo so they made bilbo be okay

b) maybe gollum had the ring so long that there's a chunk of its magic still in him somehow, enough to keep him alive and also bilbo, because bilbo was the next person to have it and took it directly from gollum and etc. this has other logistical issues of course, because we really want the ring to be gone completely for all sorts of reasons.

my brain just wants it to somehow be the result of bilbo being rewarded for being merciful by getting a little extra time in middle-earth with his nephew. and also, for frodo to have a consolation prize for having to tolerate gollum's presence a little longer

OK whatever, why is Bilbo here?

Since turning up here, Bilbo has been hanging out with Frodo, who has clearly been harmed by his experiences. Bilbo can't do much to help him, and probably blames himself even though it's not his fault, so he would be feeling anxious, guilty, and helpless over things, and then he finds out Gollum is around somewhere. (!) A lot of what happened is Gollum's fault, whether intentionally or not, and it's quite reasonable really to shift blame onto him. And (especially if Sam's dark mutterings are to be believed) the old villain could use a good scolding! Bilbo's not above a certain amount of witty social revenge for his own grievances, either.

Of course Bilbo is no fool and would have been advised not to go poking the frog. I believe he would initially resist the urge to go yell at Gollum, but- on this day in the story, a few hours before this incident, Gollum had a conversation with Merry and Pippin. Bilbo, in this scene, has just heard about that and found it alarming. He has decided that if Gollum can go around bothering innocent hobbits, he can very well hear what Bilbo has to say!

So, Bilbo goes and finds the room, and then he lingers outside- possibly re-thinking his options, and even more possibly on the verge of deciding he had better not do this after all, but before he can leave Gollum senses someone is there and wakes up and calls out to him.

Like many imaginative people with grievances, Bilbo has probably mentally rehearsed how this confrontation might go and what he wants to say, but his mental script did not start with Gollum pathetically calling 'who's there'. So Bilbo improvises a clunky opening line that I wish I had crafted better but I make a policy of not revising things after they're posted because if I got started I could revise forever.

Gollum instantly recognizes Bilbo's voice but can't make himself believe that Bilbo would really be here right now. Gollum definitely had plans for what to do if he saw Bilbo again. He can't put any of those plans together right now because he's too weak to strangle anyone, and also things have changed a whole lot since then, so instead of launching into his own script he chooses a cautious, neutral 'hey don't call me by my monster name' approach (it worked really well with Merry and Pippin earlier).

Bilbo hears this, decides that Gollum is lucid, and starts in on the huffy comments. The conversation awkwardly tumbles along from there until Gandalf comes in to call them both idiots and presumably haul Bilbo away by the ear.