The long way so far...
2018
When I had the idea for Sunny Side Down back in 2018, I couldn’t have predicted how long the two characters would stay with me. In those past years, I not only moved from Bavaria to Hamburg (unexpectedly mirroring Sunny and Pit’s journey from the South to the North of Germany), I also met my now fiancée, who has been more supportive than I could have ever hoped for.
The original idea that I pitched to Florian was for a short film (which, at the time, was to be called ‘Sunny Grey Days’) – but it quickly developed into a full-length feature film screenplay, with comic art style elements. After two years of working on the story, we were ready to look for a producer.
2020
We shot a proof-of-concept trailer in 2020, with Rufus Beck, whom I have dreamed of working with since childhood, as Pit.
Then, as you might have guessed from the year, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a few obstacles our way… While several producers showed interest in the project, the whole industry was put on hold, and, with the quarantine and the restrictions in place, the original momentum seemed to have started to slowly fizzle out.
2022
So, in 2022, I decided to take the realization of the story into my own hands in a way that would be manageable by a small team. And the idea for a Sunny Side Down comic was born.
I commissioned the artist Jasmin (Oench), who had already created the comic art style elements for the screenplay, to create the initial character designs. Because of other projects, however, Jasmin could not commit to the whole project.
2023
So I went on a search for the artist whose graphic style would complement the story and who could help me bring Sunny Side Down to the comic pages. About 50 artists responded to the call in September 2023. Out of all those different art styles, Amy’s hand-inked pages stood out to me, and I knew that they would fit the story perfectly.
Our first milestone was 20 pages (most of the second chapter), inked by Amy and colored by me. Achieving this initial goal within our time frame showed us that the project was a realistic endeavor for our team. So, we continued on, and, to finish up the pages, I found Buddy to join our team and do the lettering.
Where are we now?
The entire story (approximately 175 pages) already exists as sketches. The first two chapters (around 60 pages) have also already been inked, colored, and lettered.
At the moment, we are about a third of the way through the whole story.
We are planning to start releasing the first pages at the end of the summer and are devoting the next couple of months to getting as much of the story ready as possible!