Kevin And The Light Of Destiny

I love, love love a good treasure hunter story. I love it! Two of my favorite movies of late have been the new National Treasure films and the always dependable Indiana Jones series. And now I am in love with the Uncharted game series. Recently a buddy of mine, Josh Ulrich, started up his own treasure hunter series called Jacki Rose. It's great fun and I highly recommend checking it out. But around a year ago I began writing and drawing a story called Kevin and The Golden Temple. It was a short story in the same vein as an Indiana Jones series but with a young twist and a dash more fantasy. At the time it was intended to be a short story, about 60 pages in total. As I kind of worked through the details of what the story was I saw a much better and more complex story I could tell. Unfortunately, or fortunately I guess, the project fell apart and I was left with this short, badly paced story (I had to compress the whole thing down to like 20 pages). I really fell in love with the adventure and characters I was creating and actually this was the idea I was going to turn into my next online project. Then The King's Game happened and I started working on the pitch for that project. And if you have been following me in the past you know that my previous agent left the firm I am signed on with and that left me to transition to another agent. Through much conversation with her, she basically answered what I had been feeling all along: I just need to actually finish a project and then we can go submit to publishers. Basically, I'm not at a point where pitching a book makes a lot of sense. I have no finished works to my credit, I only have pitches and ultimately very little presence in the bigger comics world. So, how can I expect a publisher to get on board with me?

This took a bit of time to swallow, though I knew it was true. She asked that I work some more on The King's Game, but ultimately started debating whether that was the best project for my new found devotion to completing projects. Thus the Kevin story reared its head again.

This story about Kevin is a blast of a tale. Adventure, fantasy, humor and other worlds await our little treasure hunter and I felt that this project most speaks to the audience I want to right now and because of the story structure I can actually finish chunk of it faster and have completed material to show to everyone. Basically the book will divided into three installments at about 100 pages each. Targeted at a younger audience and I will be looking to put out one volume a year. I am planning on issuing this online as a webcomic so, that will be coming up online by the end of this current month.

Sorry if anyone out there was jonesin for some King's Game. I am very much excited about that book, but the tone, length and spirit of the material is just not something I feel ready to tell yet. It will be on the docket for the next go round. But for now, as Josh and I say all of the time now, make books son!

So, I will be updating later about the exciting adventure of Kevin and the Light of Destiny. Here's an old image from the short story version:

Project Round Up!

Things are kind of in a lull at the moment, so I thought it would be a good time to recap the status of my projects.

The biggest news is Kazu Kibuishi's "Amulet: The Stonekeepers Curse" is coming out in just a couple of weeks! I was able to be a part of the production on this outstanding book by being a part of the color flatting process. I'm pretty stinkin excited that my first published credit for comics work is going to be on this great series. So be sure to pick up a copy on September 1st! Kazu has also agreed to do an interview sometime soon, so I look forward to sharing that here whenever we can get that done.
I decided pretty recently to take my "Kevin and the Golden Temple" story out of the workings for the anthology project it was originally slated for. No offense to the anthology really, I'm still going to try and put something together for them. I just didn't feel I was doing the story much justice in the way I had to kind pace it and all. I'm still developing this world and I really think the story is something that will be fun and exciting for kids!
From Death Til Now is still continuing on at a steady pace. I've started focusing more on the computer and toning end of things which has been nice. My brain was a bit in overload on the drawing/thumbnailing side of things. I plan to resume regular updates on this book online in the month of September. Hopefully speeding up to a completion of book 1 in the early part of 2010. Looking at Josh Ulrich's color sample makes think volume 2 may almost certainly be in color!

Other than that, I'm busy working on a new portrait commission which looks to be really special. Also, because I can barely contain myself any longer, I started writing the treatment for "The Unknowns" book 2.I still need the series to sell , but I had to get my ideas for how the story would continue down on paper before they slipped away into oblivion!

The next couple of weeks look to be a bit slow, which is alright because my birthday is around the corner and then From Death Til Now will be back to spreading the mystery. For now, its time to do some doodling.

Kevin And The Golden Temple

I finally finished my first pass at my serialized short story called "Kevin and the Golden Temple." It's pretty exciting to see it locked and the realization of a simple story idea I had years ago come into something pretty fun and exciting. I'm still workingin one possible page to help flesh out a few ideas.

Other than that From Death Til Now is continuing its clip to the end. There's only maybe ten pages left to draw and then begins the process of doing all of the computer shading. Again, if any of you artists out there have time and want to help, please let me know. I am looking for some volunteers.

The Unknowns is still on the burner for now, but I've been rereading my script and thinking a lot work can still be done (surprise right?). I mainly think the ideas could be fleshed out a bit more when it comes to the characters themselves. It feels like it could have a few more quiet moments in it. As it stands it feels a bit like a roller coaster, which is good I suppose. I suspect many changes will still come to mind. Eventually though you got to lock things down and believe you've written the best thing you could. Well, more work ahead I guess. :-)

Progress of Late

Things have been moving along a bit slower the last couple of weeks. My wife mandated a no comics week last week for me as I had nearly burned myself out writing and drawing eight pages of From Death Til Now a week. It was just sort of time to put my mind on other things. So I spent one morning out a park with my bible, a book and a journal. It was time well spent. I really calmed my spirit down on things. By Saturday I was champing at the bit to get back to work. I was able to get some work done on Kevin and the Golden Temple and do some mapping out of the final two scenes in From Death Til Now book 1.

Lesson I learned from the last few weeks/year. We can all have goals and ambitions. But when those goals get in the way of us enjoying those around us, our health and/or our enjoyment of the very field we're creating in... well we've probably gone too far. The real trick is using time wisely. Taking the moments most spending idling away the day to really get productive. You have to stay driven and motivated, but it needs a balance.

So far this week I've finished the painting on the Kevin story. I've also completed one of the major reveal spreads in From Death Til Now and knocked out one standard page as well. It feels good to be back in the saddle again. Work is getting done, but more importantly I'm approaching the work from a simpler heart and that's really making a difference in my day. Here's an art moment for you today. It's a panel from page 137 of FDTN. Who's behind that mask? I dunno! guesses?

Enjoy!