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Sunday, June 24, 2012

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 1 WIP

... And it's started! 

I've done my first page for Issue 3 of the Bomb Squad! You could technically say I already started on Issue 3 when I finished the cover, but mentally, for me, that's not REALLY the book. It really doesn't look like I did much drawing, but it took me awhile to rev up my engines to get going on this. I've started both issues one and two with a closeup and a slow zoom out per panel to reveal the scene. I don't think I wanted to do the same thing for this issue.
Page 1 done. Onward!
Instead, I'm just showing closeups of various things going on in the scene, and I wanted it to be chaotic and confusing. There are no word bubbles or sound FX text, but I'm hoping doing it like this will make the reader create their own loud sounds in their heads as they piece these separate images together. I'm hoping as I add  color later on, this will also add 'sound' to this page. 

This is the first page of the book, so once this is flipped, the reveal on the next page will be what's actually going on in this scene. I MIGHT do a two page splash that takes up the top two-thirds of the page, and a wider shot of the scene. I'm hoping the contrast of that grander panel will suck the reader into it because of the contrast of the smaller, zoomed in panels from page one. At least that's the plan!

Here's hoping the rest of the 23 pages will be smooth sailing (riiight....)! 

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Father's Day!

Happy Father's day! This is my first one I get to participate in! I'm starting to get a better picture, and better appreciation for all the fathers out there as my own baby gets ready to join my wife and I outside of the womb soon!

So for this post, it's a mix of comic book geeking-out as well as some Bomb Squad sketches I've been digging up as I try to put together the sketchbook version of issue 2. I've got a ton of stuff in the home office. It's a mix of piles of paper from sketches, old collage artwork and of course my comic book collection. So when I start tidying up the place, I can't help but get lost in nostalgia when I'm putting things away (and most times I get trapped and lose all track of time!).

Issue 3 of the Bomb Squad is a spotlight on the robot of the group, Mur. I took out the initial character design sheet I did for her in the beginning, and realized her shape has really changed when I got to draw her in the comic. I think I might try to conform to the initial design more in the third issue, since I liked that more, but we'll see. I dug up the old Character sheets I did for Kid Hotshot and the Chief too.

Mur, The Chief and Kid Hotshot
I found myself flipping through some books from my shelf just for kicks and I grabbed Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli, The Art of Nick Cardy and lastly, because Comixology has a 99c sale this father's day weekend, my early issues of Starman.


I don't think I ever grew up reading any of Nick Cardy's books, I just remember reading about him. I stumbled onto his art book in a used bookstore, and I really liked his stuff. I like the way he drew his women's faces and flipping through it recently I noticed my wife's features look like a Cardy girl! I showed it to her and told her she looked like Aquaman's wife. I don't think she found it quite as amusing as I did! Anyhow, I married a Cardy girl!

Nick Cardy is awesome.
I took advantage of Comixology's father's day sale this weekend and bought some early back issues of Starman to round out my 'collection'. I ate up Starman as it was being published back in the mid-nineties. I really dug Tony Harris' art and James Robinson's writing could do no wrong for me. It's gotten released in hardcover format recently, and I've been tempted to buy it, but honestly I have no space! I was missing a few issues in the beginning of the series so it was really nice to pick them up at 99c a pop and fill in the holes. So, I've be reading those gaps and flipping through my issues back and forth and it's been such a delight to be transported back to that time. What a great series. It has such a distinct flavor of modernizing an old franchise and yet holds onto it's roots and appreciates it and honors it at the same time. I love the series so much I actually drew a pin-up for it, as my entry for "favorite superhero" when Wizard had a contest back in the day.

Some of Tony Harris' early Starman work.
I don't really know what I was expecting when I picked up Asterios Polyp when I first saw it, but it's a good book. Definitely very different from your traditional superhero type book and even your indie type comic honestly. It challenges what traditional conventions you see in sequential storytelling from it's colors, style, layout and down to it's lettering. I don't think that it would be for everyone, and my brain still gets a workout as I read it, but it's always engaged me whenever I read it. And that's always a plus in my book.

I liked this splash page in Asterios Polyp
I also picked it up because I had David Mazzucchelli as a teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design when he taught a sequential storytelling class there, so I wanted to see his latest stuff. I really doubt he'd remember me, but I had a good experience in that class, even though honestly, in hindsight, I really shouldn't have! I liked doing the assignments but I was never the best draftsman there. So my stuff had some moments but for the most part, it didn't look so hot. In fact one of the comments from David at the end of class was: "Learn how to draw". You'd think I would've sworn off drawing from then on or at least be forever angry at him, but strangely enough I didn't flinch when I read that. I was like "Okay, awesome! David Mazzucchelli just told me, ME! To learn how to draw! Yes!" Haha, yeah I guess I was starstruck!

Anyhow, as I get older, I come to understand that there's quite the distinct possibilty that I would never be that awesome at drawing. But I will never give up on trying. Another teacher I had at RISD (Tony Janello) has said something  about how there are like thousands of horrible drawings in every artist. And a few good ones too. But to get to the good drawings we have to draw those thousands of bad one first. So maybe I have more than a few thousand bad ones in me, but who cares? I really do enjoy drawing and specifically doing sequential art, that I think even if everybody hated it I would still be drawing.

I don't really have a choice, I find it very fulfilling when I draw and I think I become more balanced when I do it. When I don't? Just ask my wife, I get real crabby when I don't get any creative time in! Anyway, that's it for the ramble. Thanks for lasting this long! A Happy Father's day to every father out there. I have joined your ranks and am slowly understanding just the kind of hard work it takes to be one. And I really do appreciate, now more so, what my Father did for me. The neverending battle continues!

Friday, June 08, 2012

The Bomb Squad #1 goes digital!

Woo! IndyPlanet Digital now has the first issue of The Bomb Squad up for 99 cents! Yay! I'm joining Digital Publishing! I just sent in the graphic for my banner ad, so I get more visibility on their store.

Goin' Digital!
I hope they pick it and put it up on their site. It might take some time to surface, even if they did! Still, I am very grateful to Ka-Blam and the service they provide. I've been looking into figuring out how to get my comic book on digital 'shelves' lately. As much I love the printed medium, digital just seems like the cheaper route to go for independent publishers. And I can take the risk and sell it for much cheaper than print. 

Gah, Ka-Blam's given me all the outlets I'd need to publish my stuff, now I gotta start figuring out how to market this thing...!

Anyhow, I'm very excited to be in the digital space! My mind is blazing with how to create comics that are tailor made to that format now! I'll be updating the 'store' tab soon with the digital option. But for now... 

Ehehem:

If you want to buy the digital copy of The Bomb Squad #1 click HERE!

I really gotta work on Issue 3 now!

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Cover Final

I did more color adjustments to the saturation and contrast on the shadows and added some finishing touches. I still have a few things I probably need to fix, but for now, I'm leaving this one alone.


Onto the interiors!

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Cover WIP part 3

I'm onto the coloring stage now, and I'm starting to bring out certain elements better on the cover. I'm not so sold on the way my name looks on it or that area around Mur's feet, but we'll see. 


I think I'm getting a little too detailed with the feathering on the shadow color on her fingers, but we'll see how I feel about it when I come back later. Towards the bottom of the cover I feel like... I'm missing 'stuff'. Not sure how I feel about that either...

But otherwise, I think I'm heading in the right direction with this. I've been slow in getting back onto the sequentials of issue 3, so switching to doing these covers is helping me build back up to it. They're fun and at least I'm still making progress even though I'm being lazy!

What I've found interesting as I'm doing these covers, is that I think in the back of my mind I'm not really creating them for visibility on the shelves. Or at least not in the traditional Marvel/DC way. Logos are usually at the top of comic books and number information is normally at some consistent area and there's usually some room given to the barcode box (maybe not as much anymore). Also as a graphic design rule, Logos shouldn't be messed with as much as I've been distorting mine on the covers! When I step back from these covers and take a look at them with that in mind... they fail pretty miserably!

I think since I'm publishing with selling it through a digital store in mind or even at a booth at a comic book convention, I'm not concerned with those factors, or maybe I'm just lazy. I dunno, just an observation...




Monday, June 04, 2012

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Cover WIP part 2

I added a few terrorists/hijackers into the cover. I've been trying to put a lot of action and adventure sequences into these issues, but I think issue 3 will be chock full of the rock-em-sock-em variety. This issue is a spotlight on Mur (the robot on the cover), and she's more of that type of character.


I'm losing a lot of the kinectic energy on the cover as I tighten it up (naturally!), so I'm hoping to get it back when I go into the coloring stage.

Saturday, June 02, 2012

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Cover WIP part1

I decided to try and see if I could make the cover for issue 3 first like I did with issue 4. It's okay so far, but I'm going to need to do a lot of tweaking to get it to a good state. We'll see where this drawing goes!


Continue on Never-ending Battle!
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