My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 10 WIP part 2

Quick progress post! Working away on that last panel. Also need to do a pass on Mur's face on panel 4, the damage is missing. Maybe I can clock in a few more hours tonight. Okay gotta feed my baby!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 10

Gah. Slowly working my way through the 10th page.

..very slowly... gotta get back up to pace!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 9 lettering pass

Lettering is done! I'm onto page 10 finally!

My Comic Book: Page 9 sketch and ink phase

I got the ol' ball rollin' again for my comic book and got page 9 inked up and ready for lettering.

I have all sorts of jumbled up thumbnails in my sketchbook,
trying to figure out the panel flow and dialogue, like this page.

Once I'm a little comfortable with the panel
layouts, I blow up the thumbnails from my sketchbook
and generate a rough layout for page 9 as a guide.

Then I go in and tighten up the details with
the digital inks. Panel 4's 'wall lines look a little wonky
still, but the word balloon placement might hide it. We'll see!

And that's it for today! What little free time I have, have been taken up by games lately. So it was a good feeling for me to try to power through this page. I already have some decent layouts for pages 10-12 in my sketchbook with some rough dialogue and a really rough thumbnail for page 13. After that I can cut loose with some fun fight sequences to take me towards the end.

I had originally planned the arc to be 5 issues, but now I'm wondering if I can wrap it up in 4. I'd like to get the first arc in the can and start to finally feel comfortable trying to shop it around to a publisher as a limited series. I'll still be self publishing of course, but I feel like I need to get this done and finish up the story I wanted to tell. It has been a loooong time!

When I started it, I was following mainstream comics' write-for-the-trade way of doing monthly comics. That is, 4-5 issue runs that tell one story. Since then, I've started to enjoy my old comics that can tell a story within one issue. So I'd like to do that for the Bomb Squad after I wrap up this arc.

God Bless you as He has me (more!) and... The Neverending battle continues!

Lamb attack!

I have a little update on those lamb illustrations I did for the baby's room awhile ago. Here it is: I've finally put them up!

It only took me a year to do so! I tell you time becomes such a scarce commodity once you have a child.

My wife and I picked out some nice white frames to go with my drawings. They're smaller in size than what I had planned, but they look kinda neat smaller.

First panel. Sunny morning!

Second panel. Warm sunset.

Third panel. Together with Mama and Dada lamb in the evening!

The whole panel sequence above my baby's changing area.

The concept was tied to something that would help her sleep and lambs. The lamb theme was what my wife wanted for the room (though admittedly that theme has gone by the wayside!). What better way to help the baby sleep than by counting sheep jumping over fences right?

 Anyhow, here's a link to the first post of that series if you guys want to see what they look like in their original digital form.

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 8 Final inks and Page 7 corrections

Got Page 8 done and lettered! However I had to change page 7 a little bit to accomodate a little bit of story telling.

Final inks and letters

To clarify that the character was opening a door of some sort, I decided to extend the 'creeking' sound effect from page seven's last two panels to the first panel of page eight. Page seven, initially has the whole "creek" sound effect beginning and ending on it.

 So to connect the sound effect to page eight's, I tweaked the "creek" to just a "Creeeee". Also I extended the "eeee" letters to bleed off the page hopefully to show that it connects to the "eeeek" letters that bleed into the scene on page 8. I'm also continuing the arc of the letters from one page to the other to further emphasize that connection.

a few tweaks from the above panels
to re-enforce the storytelling a little bit.

And that's all for that page! Good night and God Bless! The Neverending Battle continues...

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 8 WIP part 2

Ugh. I stayed up way too late to do this... My daughter's going to be up in less than 5 hours... I am definitely gonna pay for it tomorrow.

The Neverending Battle... is sleepy!

My Comic Book: Issue 3 Page 8 WIP

Got page 8 started off, finally! Not really a lot to show, but I'm pushing to get a few hours in a day to work on it.

I'm sleeppppyyyy...

(belated) Happy Birthday Ramon!

My sister showed my nephews the Superman drawing I did a while ago, and one of my nephews asked if I had a Green Lantern drawing as well. Surprisingly, I did not! His birthday was coming up, and how could I say no to drawing superheroes for my nephew, right?

And, as always, I thought I'd have time to do it and be able to send it right on schedule... silly me! Sadly the birthday present became a belated birthday present because of my current drawing speed... but, better late than never! Here's the process:

Started off with a rough sketch to try to
figure out what I was going to do. I even have
blocked in his oath floating around him.

After that, I went to inks and just free styled the letters.
But that proved to limit the space for me to write what I wanted
to say, so I had to re-organize it a bit.

 

...And there's the final piece.

My nephew's on the opposite side of the world from me (Manila, Philippines), but thank goodness for the interwebs! Happy Birthday, Ramon! Sorry it's late and we couldn't make it!

Superman's 75th: Digital Comics and other things!

First off, happy fourth of July!

Drawn by one of my favorite artists.
I got this image from a facebook fansite.
 https://www.facebook.com/JoseLuisGarciaLopezFans

So my Superman celebration month is wrapped up, though I have to admit my Superman shopping spree doesn't seem to really be slowing down this year! There's quite a few good Superman related things that are coming out later on the year that I don't think I can pass up. Namely, some good digital comic books that have been taking from my wallet every week! However, there are other Superman tie-ins that also require my attention!

For one thing, Zack Snyder is partnering up with Bruce Timm to produce a superman animated short that will be premiering at San Diego con this month! You know I'll be ordering that the minute it's available!

Next up in cue is the Injustice fighting game that I'll be picking up on the Wii U. Yeah, I know, I know, I'm a total fan boy! I'm actually not a fan of any Mortal Kombat game, but Injustice is totally awesome DC fan service! I played the demo and it was surprisingly not too bad! So once I can get some money saved up, I'll be picking that game up! And while it's not a Superman game per se, you know I'll be trying to use Superman as my main from day one!

And more video game goodness after that! Scribblenauts Unmasked was announced a while back, and I'll be picking that up on the WiiU as well!

Okay! Now let's talk about the digital comics I've been binging on lately! The first one is called The Adventures of Superman. It comes out every Monday (something to look forward to on those dreaded Mondays!) and costs just 99 cents for an issue. For the most part the first few stories are self-contained and written and drawn by a variety of people. Some writers and artists aren't usually associated with Superman so it's always interesting to see other people's take on Superman. There have been some multi-part stories but the most I've read is only up to 3 digital issues (one issue if you try to pick it up in print). It also isn't tied to the recent continuity, so new readers can jump in easier.

Chris Samnee's Art from AOS Digital #1. I love Samnee's work.

Another few panels from AOS Digital #1.
Stop hitting yourself Superman!

Jeff Parker and Chris Samnee's first issue was a lot of fun. However for a self contained first issue, as a Superman fan it ended a little flat to me. Here comes a spoiler: Superman doesn't really win at the end. So for me as a first issue that felt odd. But Parker and Samnee's execution of the story is fun.

The Second issue by Jeff Lemire however, remedy's that. His story is from the vantage point of boys playing as Superman. However, I'm not a fan of Lemire's artwork and his rendition of Superman gives me the hibbie jeebies. The story is a little long for the kind of punchline he was setting up, but he 'fixes' what I thought felt odd about the first issue. So he wins me over with that.

Nope, that's not Bizzaro. From AOS Digital #2

 But speaking of Bizarro, the third issue by Justin Jordan and Riley Rossmo features a Superman story with everybody's favorite backwards villain/hero. I always have liked the comic bookyness of a character like Bizzaro. It's a fairly competent Bizarro tale, but I'm not a fan of Rossmo's art. Maybe just an average Bizarro story.

AOS Digital #3. Art by Riley Rossmo

Sidebar: This Bizarro story however is awesome!

AOS Digital #4 written by J.M.Dematteis drawn by Guiseppe Camuncoli and inked by Sal Buscema has a good celebratory Superman feel to it. If you're an old time reader, I would liken it to an Elliot S. Maggin story. It's a very good Superman-birthday-esque style story. I'm not too crazy about the artwork, but they tell the story well and I'm not lost at any point in the story. Overall though, this is one of my favorties from the series.

In AOS Digital #5 Joshua Hale Fialkov and Joelle Jones serve up a fun Lois and Clark story that centers around what the two reporters decide to do on a slow news day. Joelle Jones' art references an old school aesthetic and fits very well in the Superman universe. I have to say though I think I like Jones' rendition of Clark more than her Superman. Very sharp looking issue, fun, light story from Fialkov.

Retro stylish Lois and Clark: always awesome fun.

Brian Glass and Michael Oeming serve up a Kirby-cosmic Superman tale full of cosmic fighting and epicness. Probably the opposite of the last issue since that was a somewhat more 'down to earth' story. I'm not too much a fan of Michael Oeming's work, but I do like seeing different people try their hand at Supes, so I didn't mind so much. Plus he pulls a lot of heavy Kirby-isms and that is alway awesome when you plug Superman into an epic story.

Michael Oeming's art form AOS Digital #6.

Next is a story by Matt Kindt and Steven Sergovia. I was interested in reading some of Matt Kindt's work since he's one of the 'new indie hotness' writer/artists I keep hearing about (along with Jeff Lemire). However I just couldn't get past the way his art looks on Mind Mgmt, so I was looking forward to this issue. It's the first multi-part story in AOS and it has 3 issues (totals up to one full actual print comic book). And it was a fun read, but I couldn't help but feel the way he paced it was built more for a print book than a digital issue, so the cuts between 2 stories running at the same time (one Superman focused, the other Lois focused) wasn't working that smoothly in digital format.

His story was fine, but I felt it ran a little too long for the simplicity of it to span 3 issues. Kind of how I felt with how Lemire's story ran too. A simple concept that stretched a little too long for me. Steven Serovia's Lois lane looks great and he's got some fun action packed panels.

Steven Sergovia's Art from AOS Digital #8.

The latest one I've read is by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning with art by Wes Craig and Craig Yeung. I think this is also one of my favorites from the series. It centers around the day in the life of Lex Luthor. The writing of Lex is great and much like the previous story this also has another story running at the same time Lex's story is going, but it doesn't feel as disorienting as the previous one. Maybe because the main story is Lex's and is split up into little snippets of his day rather than a continous one, and Superman's is pretty straightforward robot smashing action?

The art and colors have a nice simplicity to the read (even though it's detailed like below), so the storytelllng is smooth but also good to look at.

Up up and away!

The other digital title I've been reading is Injustice: Gods among us. This is a 'prequel' to the video game and basically tells the story of how the heroes have come to the point where the world fears them and why the heroes like to beat each other up.

It's written by Tom Taylor and even though the artwork is handled by quite a few people throughout one story, it hasn't dipped in quality. It comes out on a weekly basis (every tuesday), digitally for 99 cents as well.

And I know it sounds like your typical throwaway game story tie-in but I have to admit I was hooked since the first issue (I've bought all 25 issues so far!). It's really a "what if" story, but Tom Taylor crafts it so well it's a very compelling read. The main story's really centered on Superman and is the catalyst for this 'alternate' timeline. The thing is, Taylor writes the characters as if they still are exactly the DC characters we've come to know and love, and then throws them into some scary scenarios.

So say if a character makes decisions that you'd think they would never do in the DC universe proper, he sets up instances that make you think... "MAYBE they would, if it played out like that"... and it's usually a good enough reason for the reader roll with it until the next crazy situation rolls along and he does it again. 

And Taylor chips away at the story at a slow pace, but I absolutely don't mind. I mean, we KNOW Superheroes are gonna be bad and beat on each other in the end. Reading about their motivations for doing so unfold is a very interesting read. Actually I might even go so far as this book being my favorite book this year. The fact that it rolls in every week, costs 99 cents and is a great read with some solid artwork (Kevin Maguire even has an issue!) and great character studies, makes it hard for me to pass it up!

Okay and lastly, I posted this up on the WiiU Youtube chat room a few months ago when I first saw the trailers for Man of Steel:

Yeah totally nerdy.

But I couldn't resist! And that's it for this Superman month! I have been itching to watch Man of Steel again, but to appease my need, I've instead been listening to the soundtrack and the trailers on a playlist I made on youtube. If you're as cheap as me, for the moment, and haven't bought the sound track and want to see some spoiler-y fight sequences feel free to use it!

And that's all I got! WHEW! I'm going to attempt to raise myself up from all my Superman swag and go back to drawing my comic again for the next post. Until then... Up, up and away!

Superman's 75th: Batman\Superman #1 and My (cheapskate) Xbox Avatar

I picked up Batman\Superman #1 by Greg Pak and Jae Lee (with some SUPERB colors from June Chung) this past week.

I have to confess, I read this book in little chunks at a time, so I actually got lost a bit throughout the story. It was a combination of the writing actually making you thing and fill in the blanks and the storytelling wasn't quite that solid. 

I was confused about quite a few things, like why did Batman go to Metropolis, who the guy Catwoman was terrorizing, what the crazy robots were in the said guys house, why does the bad guys' color scheme change completely on the last panel... etc. etc.

So my first read through I was a little lukewarm/ready to drop it. It wasn't until I read a websites review about it that I was able to piece together what was going on. So with a clearer head I read it a second time, but straight through. It made better sense the second time through, but there's definitely something lacking in the visual storytelling of it all. Nothing so horribly bad per se, but enough that I had to try harder on my second read.

Jae Lee just has a knack to make black silhouettes look so interesting!

Cool double page spread of our favorite heroes!

Not to say that Jae Lee's art wasn't fantastic mind you! All his panels were great. The man definitely knows how to make some interesting visuals! It's a great looking book, and Jae Lee was certainly the draw for me after his Ozymandias run. And June Chung makes his stuff simply SING.

One page pin ups and double page spreads? Yes please!

I know everybody's not a big fan of splash pages and double page spreads nowadays, but I love them, honestly. I know it's a gimmick that might not necessarily serve the story, but I love the whole spectacle of it. And when I think of Superman, I want spectacles and wows! And wow wow WOW does Jae Lee deliver the goods!

I knew it was too good to be true to have Jae Lee deliver the whole book, but Ben Oliver does a good job of covering the last seven pages of the book. And the story even makes up an excuse (story-wise) for a different artist to come in. There's some great looking pin-ups in the back, my favorite is Guillem March's version , and the black and white version of issue 2's over.

After my second read through, I definitely enjoyed and understood it better and am in for the ride. There's a good 'hook' at the end too that is an interesting plot point but hopefully will also shine more light on Supes' background (according to the new 52). Good book, good fun, looks AMAZING. I'd recommend it. And highly recommend it if you're a Jae Lee fan!

While I am going on a Superman related shopping spree this month, I still am on a budget! I spotted the Man of Steel Avatar clothes on Xbox live the other day and was planning to pick it up:

Gasp! 5 Bucks? I guess I'm not hardcore enough...

...Until I found out it would cost me five dollars! At which point, I tried it on my avatar, took a picture and cancelled the sale. I couldn't get over the price tag... That five dollars could go to five issues of Superman digital comics (which I'll cover next post!)... I may be hardcore... but I guess not that hardcore...

Okay, that's it for tonight! Up, up and away!

Superman's 75th: Man of Steel spoiler-less-ish impressions and a bunch of Superman stuff!

My Superman month-long celebration is about to wrap up but boy oh boy what a great final leg it has been!

The wife and I were able to catch a 10:15 show this past Friday night for Man of Steel at a nearby theater. We are very thankful for my sister-in-law being able to babysit for us that night. And what a night it was!

I won't spoil anything in the Man of Steel movie for anyone, but I really, really enjoyed it! Please do not let any horrible metacritic or rotten tomatoes scores dissuade you from watching this movie! Go in watch it for yourself and judge then.

I have no idea why the hate for this movie is so strong, because it was AWESOME in my opinion. I'm a DC guy so I'm pretty biased, but I enjoyed it much more than Iron Man 3 or the Avengers (yep, I said it!). I may have to rank it up there as one of my top superhero movies and it could go toe-to-toe with the Chris Reeve Supermans (gasp)! But it's a VERY different movie from that one, so the Donner movies will always be up there too!

The movie was EPIC through and through. Everything was so grand, so awesome and so SUPER! The wife enjoyed it too... having Henry Cavill  play the man of Steel certainly didn't hurt her opinion! All the supporting actors worked well, with Ma and Pa Kent being solid believable characters, Lois Lane by Amy Adams was great, and Russel Crowe as Jor-El was good too! The soundtrack was great too by the way!

This next paragraph MIGHT be a spoiler (you'd have to really do some digging to figure out what I'm saying) so skip it and come back to it after you've watched the movie! There's this 'controversy' surrounding a plot point in the movie, that seems to be a BIG reason why people poo poo on it. And apparently big time Superman fans are weighing and really hating on it. I would like to think I'm a relatively large Superman fan myself, but I didn't have an issue with it like others. For one thin, I've actually read a story that dealt with the same controversy in the comics, so I suppose I was ready to 'accept' it? But my rebuttal to the controversy is: Go watch Superman 2 with Christopher Reeve. It has the same controversy everyone is hung up on, and it's handled a whole lot more unnervingly there. That's all I'll have to say about that!

There's complaints that there's no joy or comedy in the movie... maybe not in the same vein as the Donner movies that really went for the old school comic book comedy (which is awesome), but there's humor and joy in the movie for sure. The wife and I found ourselves chuckling at certain moments of the film, but the delivery is more subtle that the Donner films. Different films, different tone.

And lastly, people actually complain that there's too much action in the movie. Too much action in a Superman movie? Didn't superman debut in a comic called ACTION comics #1?? Whatever, people. I loved the action scenes in the movie!

Okay, enough gushing about Man of Steel, let's gush about other things Superman related! I got Superman Unchained #1 by Scott Snyder and Jim Lee. The book has a 'gimmick" fold out poster page included that is actually part of the narrative. I have to say I actually kinda like the gimmick! My teenaged self would have absolutely gone gaga over it. After watching Man of Steel's epic fight scenes, for better or for gimmicky- worse, I absolutely appreciated Jim Lee trying to capture that grandness in Unchained.

My collector-nerd tendencies came out again as
I was trying to pry the glue off of this thing!

 Jim Lee's able to show just how gigantic a task Superman is doing; making the scene grander than a two page spread. And for a Superman comic? I think that's pretty appropriate. It costs you an extra dollar, but I don't think I minded, so long as it's not a regular occurance! It was a good way to start the series off with a bang. Scott Snyder's writing is great too. He gives us a solid Clark internal monologue where he's trying to describe to you what it feels like being superman but in very human terms.

Snyder has a nice 2 page epilogue with Dustin Nguyen providing the art. It's written well, that even though it's only two pages, he's able to give us nice backstory on Perry White and the current plot at the same time without it feeling bogged down.

Next up, I got my Blu-ray edition of Superman Unbound (must be some 'Un' theme going on for supes)in the mail. I enjoyed this movie even though I had some intitial hangups with it. It was nice to have a physical copy in my nerd-hands! I have my impressions of it in a previous post here.

Along with that, I also got my copy of the Jose Luis Garcia Lopez Adventures of Superman collection. I heard a complaint that it wasn't quite Garcia Lopez's best stuff, but flipping through it, there's some good art in this collection! I mean Garcia Lopez on an off day is still good looking stuff! I'm jazzed to read through this book.

There's a pretty fantastic looking Supes vs. wonder woman fight in here.

Lovely work as always from mr. Garcia Lopez.

And that's all for today! The Neverending Battle continues to celebrate Superman's birthday with copius amount of shopping! See you next post and go watch Man of Steel already!