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!

Ending Earlier Than Expected

Well, after quite a bit of thinking and tinkering with the final chapter of FDTN. I ultimately decided the firt book would be better served if I ended it in about fifteen pages. Thematically the original ending of the book just felt off when you saw it withink the context of the rest of it. This feels much more mysterious and appropriate for a book 1 ender.

This is exciting for me though, because I will be finishing my first graphic novel, line art wise, in about a month! Then it will be the rigorous process of grayshading all of the new pages (about 50) and cleaning up older pages. It's exciting though and has me REALLY excited for book 2, since so much content is being shifted!

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FDTN The Special Edition

As a part of finishing up book 1 of FDTN I felt pretty adamant that the original four pages needed to be updated to match the quality of the current pages. Much of the early stuff still holds up, but that scene feels so off compared to the later work. Like the characters don't even look like their current incarnations. So I've spent the last week redoing those pages, while working on the structure for what may be the last chapter of book 1. It also fits well to redo these pages as chapter 4 starts where the beginning of the book ended. It makes me both proud and embarassed to look at the comparison. See for yourself!

Original Page:

Updated Linework:

Comics - Marvel Team Up Style

Inspired by my experience working on Amulet 2 and the great fun I had getting to know the other artists, and the same experience my friend Josh Ulrich has had working with Dave Riddick on Legend of Bill: We've decided to join forces for one super comics creating monster.

Because of my work schedule and availability, doing the computer side of comics production is just not as easy or accessible for me. I spend my down time during my day inking comics the old school way. Josh on the other hand is much more comfortable and available to create comics on the computer. We decided we'd give something a go. I will be inking his comic "Newman" for him and he'll be lending a hand to the flatting and toning of "From Death Til Now." We've experimented a bit on a few pages and the results have been nice!


Jumping into the inking process on Newman was pretty seemless I think. I already had a pretty solid feel for what Josh likes in his inks and it great fun playing around in his universe. A much nicer place to be than the trembling drama of my own book, lol.

Josh wanted to give coloring FDTN a try and I wholeheartedly encouraged it. I was really really excited about the prospect of seeing the book in color an he gave some great reasons for me to want to go that way. See the above example. But ultimately I decided to keep trucking in grayscale for volume one. There's just too much to go back and do. Though looking at the above image gets me pumped!

But the best thing has been just working with a close friend and sharing our talents on each others books. We're gonna give it a go, and with any luck we'll be done with FDTN vol 1 and Newman book 1 by the end of the year. Its exciting to try and build a type of studio collaborative environment and share the load. It lets me chillax a bit more! And keep chugging on the penciling and inking! Now back to work.

Jeremy Mullins

I just heard the terrible news today that Professor Jeremy Mullins of SCAD's sequential art program passed away this weekend. I am a big fan of the Seqalab podcast and losing him moves me deeply. I never went to SCAD, but it is the school I always wanted to attend. He seemed like the kind of teacher I wouldn't be able to keep myself from hanging out around. My prayers and thoughts go out to all of his friends, family and students as they mourn. I will miss him greatly, waiting for me each Tuesday and Thursday on my iPod.