My Comic Book: Page 23 final colors (cheat page!)

Creating comic books is such a giant mental challenge. Locking yourself away to write, draw, ink, letter and color takes it's toll after awhile. It's so easy to procrastinate or make excuses after a tiring day at work.

When I work, I find that if I do little countdowns for myself on how many pages I have left to finish, it helps push me on. I usually have a couple pages in the Bomb Squad that I know should be easy for me to color. I usually color those last, like a mental ace-in-the-hole that I bust out when I'm starting to get fatigued. Does that make any sense?

Anyhow, this is one of those pages...

Fortunately, this page works with the simple monochromatic color scheme to signal a flashback much like in the first issue. And that's it for tonight. And that brings me to...

2!

more!

pages!

left!

God Bless you guys and good night... er, morning!

My Comic Book: Page 21 Final colors

All done. 3 more pages! Woot!

My Comic Book: Page 21 WIP

Blocked out a few colors in this pass. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this tomorrow. I'm so CLOSE to wrapping up the second issue... I'm actually getting excited! maybe a month or so from now, I'll be ready for the final print! Good night and God Bless! Onward, Battle that never ends..!

My Comic Book: Page 20 final colors

4 more pages to go!

The Neverending Battle continues!

My Comic Book: Page 20 Colors (Work in Progress)

Swimming, swimming, just keep swimming...

My Comic Book: Page 19 final colors

Colored in Page 19 after the break. Not sure if these crazy colors are going to look okay in print, but I gotta keep moving! 5 more pages to go!

Francisco V. Coching

My Dad bought me a book I was searching for yesterday. It's a book called "The life and art of Francisco Coching". Here's a cover shot that I got from an article Gerry Alanguilan wrote up:

My dad read a few of those komiks from back in a day when he was growing up and he remembers some of Coching's titles and a few others of his contemporaries (with Virgilio and Nestor Rendondo as his favorites). It's sad, because Filipino Komiks didn't seem to survive very well at all. Add to that a few of the amazing talent left the county  to work in the states (and they seemed to disappear there even though they kicked SO much butt). Anyhow, it seems this book does a great job of showcasing a lot of Coching's work in that era (that I unfortunately missed).

So, have a gander at some of the pictures I took from the book and join me in enjoying his artwork.

The 'banjo' playing girl is my fave of this batch.

I like that tiny figure of the woman on the middle on the left side.

Love this cover.

I like the dress drapery here.

I see some Hal Foster in there, Great use of the graphic blacks.

Awesome.

What's crazy too is that he was able to draw and write 3 different projects with a bi-weekly schedule! Hope you guys enjoyed this stuff as much as I did! Hangang sa susunod na kabanata!

McFarlane + Alcala

No drawing updates today.

I'm on vacation and spending time with my parents, siblings and many assorted nephews and nieces for the Holidays in the Philippines. My wife and I have been staying in a room where my old comic books are still in.

Quite a few have gotten dinged up, tore up, misplaced or simply given/taken away. Everything else that's still there is ravaged by the heat and humidity.

I was tidying them up and deciding which ones to bring back to the states with me, and of course I can't help but flip through most of them and relive my childhood.

I found a few of the american comics I got actually have a few filipino artists in them doing pencil or inks. Which is an extra treat for me: I always feel like I never got influenced by the awesome filipino comic book artists when I was growing up, and I'm craving their stuff more and more as I get older.

Check these panels from Batman Year two, with Todd McFarlane penciling and Alfredo Alcala inking:

Great looking Alcala inking, giving a very solid, gritty feel to McFarlane's pencils

Check out the awesome hatchwork that's a nice contrast to the graphic looking Batman in panel 1

 When I was young and stumbled onto this book, I had already seen McFarlane's Spider-man run before it. I remember not liking Alcala's inks because I was an Image zombie. Now that I'm older I realize I was a total idiot. Haha! I like how 'crime-booky' Alcala's inks did to the pencils and it fits the story pretty well. And hey, Alfredo Alcala is always awesome.

Switching gears, check out this awesome panel I stumbled onto, flipping through The Vision and Scarlet Witch #8:

That could be the best comic book sound effect ever. Gonna have to steal it!

That sound effect elicited a loud chuckle from me when I saw it! The title is also very Powerman appropriate! That's it for tonight in the PI! God Bless and a belated Happy New Year and hope you guys had a, as Powerman would say: 'Sweet Christmas'!