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....)! 

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!

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!

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!

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...

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.

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!

My Comic Book: Issue 4 Cover WIP part 4

Yep. I'm still messing with this. It didn't really take that much time for the tweaks, but I've been distracted watching 'Fringe' while I'm working!

I might still mess around with the contrast of the Logo with the background when I put it to print.

Confessions of a Comic Book-aholic

I haven't been working too much on my comic book recently, so no new artwork posts. 

I have been rummaging through my old comic book collection and getting ready to get rid of stuff. And while it's sad to part with some of these, I think it's high time I purged myself of some of these books (again). And it's probably a good idea to do this on a yearly (maybe even twice yearly) basis.

I have too much.

I'm getting rid of stuff that I'm pretty sure I won't read again and some things I already have trades or hardcovers of. There are also quite a few that I really don't like. Unfortunately I still have a ton that I still love for the art or still dig the storylines. I have 11 shortboxes and  2 longboxes worth or comic books. And those are just the floppies. I have 2 bookshelves chock full of graphic novels and a half bookself's worth of manga.

Yeah. I'm a comic book hoarder.

Even though I don't REALLY care much about selling these guys, I can't help but look at online comic book price guides while I'm sorting through them all. The over-ridding factor though, is that I don't really have the time to sell these things nor do I want to sell them to collectors like me. No e-bay posts for my stuff.

I might try the local bookstore and get some credit for some of my manga, but otherwise I'll just donate them to the goodwill nearby. I figure maybe I can let some other non-collector-y, non-comic book reading type people enjoy these comics. Maybe I can spread the joy of comics!

Well, that's my rose-tinted idea anyway. These might also just sit in Goodwill forever.

Here's what I've weeded out of my collection so far:

It's around one longbox full of stuff. Eventually, I'd like to have just 2 longboxes worth of the floppies, but that'll take some time and letting go. Also, collecting manga is really amazingly space-consuming. Where do the japanese otaku keep all this stuff?

My Comic Book: More test prints

So the prints I had ordered from Ka-Blam are back. I noticed their paper stock had changed from the first issue, so I sent in an order for the first issue to test that out along with my second issue.

The first issue's print with the new paper stock is okay. The printer seems to have a problem with pinks/magentas and blues. My sky blue color is more of an aqua-ish (closer to blue) hue, but the new printing seems to just drop the green and prints out a blue.

My magenta/pink colors become more of a red and are really printing bright.

Can you tell which print is which?

So in the picture above, The first print is on the left and the second print is on the right. On the cover, the colors are less saturated than the first print and is not too bad. Over all I think it's acceptable. However, I'm going to try to re-process it a little with this new stock in mind and re-layout where the Ka-Blam ad goes. I forgot that I can shave off a few cents if I place the Ka-Blam ad on the outside back cover instead of the interiors. I can then pass the savings onto the reader.

Onto the second issue's 2nd test print.

Too Blue.

The blues I used on the cover got pushed too far into the Cyan range. The blue of this cover was planned to be lighter and closer to a baby-blue range. The light shadow's on the character's faces got printed pretty dark, almost as dark as the outline that surrounds them. The lighter colors are pushed to far to the white range. Contrast withing the blues is too much. And on top of that I'm not to crazy about the color of blue it's in.

The interior changes I did are looking okay. Some are more successful than others, some light colors are still to bright, but over all it's looking good in there.

Okay, so back to the coloring board! Almost there! Good morning and God Bless!

My Comic Book: Issue 4 Cover WIP part 3

...added some background elements to it. I think I'm getting somewhere with it, but it's not quite there...

I'll try to add the issue number and my name on it (like the other covers) and see how I feel about it then.

My Comic Book: Issue 4 Cover (WIP) part 2

Just had a few hours messing around with some elements for the cover. I'm hoping to do it just in black and white and some grays, but we'll see what I end up with. Not quite that easy without color to fall back on...

My Comic Book: Issue 4 Cover (?!?) WIP

For those of you that read my blog, you're reading it right. This is a work in progress cover for issue 4. How can that be you ask? Especially since I haven't even started working on Issue 3??

Since I sent off my test print for issue 2, I've just been taking it easy. I decided to just draw for fun and started drawing the Squad's Chief.

And what do you know? I kinda liked it enough that I' thinking of using it as the cover for Issue 4. It still needs quite a few elements, but it's nice to work on it so early on. I usually work on my covers at the end of the sequential pages, but I always freak out when I get to them.

I get so caught up on trying to make it look great, and by the time the sequentials are done, I'm usually burnt out by then. So this was a refreshing change.

Still, who knows, I'll probably look back at it later and hate it. That's it for tonight!

Comic Book Ramblings!

While Issue two of The Bomb Squad seems to have taken over this blog (and my life), a loong long time ago I actually started this blog to gab about comics! So let me gab  real quick.

Let's start off with this: I'm a DC fan. So my slant is always going to be to DC and more superhero-y comics (kinda). So I've jumped on board like a maniac when the New 52 came out. 8 months in and I've dropped a few books, but there are still a few titles that tickle my fancy. And for the record, I believe DC's doing a good thing with this reboot. Not everything works, but they're trying new things. Unlike Marvel nowadays, which just does the same thing, but more of it. But later on that.

My Must Reads

• Aquaman - Good, solid, fun Superhero action. I think this is Geoff John's better title currently (though I must admit I bailed out of Green Lantern after the first issue) and some solid artwork from Ivan Reis. Some good characterizations by Johns that some might feel slow, but I rather like it. Aquaman's one of the few new 52 rebooted characters that I feel I actually am getting to know and connect to better than the rest.

• Batman and Batman and Robin - I promised not to buy Batman books with the reboot, because it SEEMS like the typical book to get, but these are some good stories. Scott Snyder knows how to execute a good story and Capullo's doing some good work and story telling (I was never a fan of his art). Snyder is now my favorite writer (It used to be Geoff Johns). I skipped Batman and Robin in the beginning, but would always flip through it at the store. I finally broke down and caught up to the series. Peter J Tomasi has great characterizations for Bruce, Damian and Alfred and the art by Patrick Gleason is solid; bold and brash when it needs to be and economical so he can maintain a deadline (It seems, at least, he hasn't missed an issue yet, when practically every new 52 artist already has, save for Capullo).

• Saga - Brian K. Vaughn's back in his element with his latest 'road trip' stories. I think these are the stories he writes the best, with Swamp Thing and Y the Last Man being good examples. He builds a great cast of characters and a pretty fascinating sci-fi world. The artwork by Fiona Staples looks fantastic. A definite treat in both writing and art. Not for the kiddies though.

• Swamp Thing - This is the better half of 'The Rot' storyline that is also being presented in Animal Man. The art by Yanick Paquette is pretty fantastic. Very illustrative work that reflects the old Swamp Thing titles that definitely ups the creepy-ness factor. Like a few of the books I've been enjoying, there's a good amount of character work that's going on in the stories. Yeah, Scott Snyder's my hero.

• Wonder Woman - Definitely not for the kiddies and not your dad's Wonder Woman. There have been a lot of controversy with what Azzarello's been writing. But I must admit I've been enjoying it. Well put together, great redefinition of the Gods and solid art from Cliff Chiang (he kisks it up and extra notch in issue 8 it seems). A few people won't like what's being changed, but I say why not? This truly feels like an earnest effort on Azzarello's part to take DC's reboot seriously and keep readers interested.

The Promising Titles

• Saucer County - A good mix of political intrigue and sci-fi. This has a pretty Ex-Machina flavor, and while I liked that series, I feel I like the characters a little bit better in Saucer County. This is the first time I've been exposed to Ryan Kelly's art and I've been enjoying it. A lot of talking heads, but pretty interesting so far...

• The New Deadwardians - Cool alternate history England/vampires/zombie universe. Good writing and an art style that's a good match for it. I like that Vampires and Zombies aren't named 'vampire' or 'zombie', and really serves to disconnect me from my preconceived notions about them (Which is good since I'm sick of them!). Also it's played out more like a crime/detective story that just HAPPENS to occur in this alternate world. Looking forward to future issues.

• Justice League - When Justice League first started I was really excited about it. But at the end of the first arc I was pretty disappointed. I didn't feel that Johns really gave the individual 'leaguers' a good voice, and so far this team hasn't really been gelling well (which I THINK is the point). I think I was expecting something else from the first arc. When I read it again, I understand now that this book is supposed to be the big summer blockbuster type title. Pretty splash pages and double page spreads galore. The past two issues (7 and 8) have been a little more promising, with Johns being able to flesh out characters a little bit better. Strangely enough it's NOT the actual team members but rather the supporting cast (Steve Trevor and Green Arrow). The Shazam backup is also looking promising, so I'll be back for the next issue. Still, if Johns fails me on the next arc, I might drop this title.

Getting dropped (but no hard feelings)

• Animal Man - I really wanted to like something that Jeff Lemire wrote since everybody's raving about Sweet Tooth. But while his Frankenstein started out cool, I dropped that early. I felt that I kinda got what he was trying to do there and didn't really feel like following it anymore. With Animal Man, I feel his execution in defining the characters isn't that fleshed out, and it's already been eight issues. It's not a bad book, but I feel like it's really dragging lately and just waiting to catch up to the rot crossover with Swamp Thing. So I'll probably flip through it in the stores but probably won't be back.

• The Manhattan Projects - Pretty interesting book by Jonathan Hickman about a team of geniuses (Including Oppenheimer, Einstein and Feynman) from the World War 2 Manhattan Projects fighting some crazy threats. It's pretty well-put together, though I'm not a fan of Pitarra's art, it looks like he's got a heavy influence from Geoff Darrow, but his characters and anatomy aren't as solid, and his finish is a lot more rough. I feel like it's going to be like an Authority-type book but with WW2 rocket scientists, and granted that should be pretty interesting, but I don't really feel like reading that. I'm probably wrong and Hickman has something else lined up, but I think I'm dropping this. I'll flip through issue 3 at the store and see what happens.

Dropped (with hard feelings)

• Action Comics - Superman is my favorite character. But!  Grant Morrison is not my favorite writer. In fact, he has quickly joined the ranks of Jeph Leob and Brian Michael Bendis as writers that I will always keep away from. I'm tired of working so hard to understand Grant Morrison's writing. I feel he never makes me care for any character in a lot of his writings, so when things happen, I don't care. I don't care about his Clark or Superman, and I feel he dives straight into the crazy Superman stories without grounding him well or even letting us get to know him in the first few issues. The first arc's execution is so disjointed and the tone swings too much. I liked the first 3 issues, but it quickly becomes messy storytelling later on. I think Morrison has some great high concept ideas, but he can't tell a story. So I'm out of this one. Side note: I re-read Final Crisis recently just for kicks and that solidified my decision, I am steering well AWAY from anything Morrison writes.

Not even bothering to pick it up

 

• Avengers Vs. Xmen - Comic Book readers keep complaining how they want something new, how everything's just the same ol' recycled story. DC reboots their whole line, bringing out a few alternative genres of horror, war, western as well as revamps on their superhero titles. Not everything's a hit but hey it's something different. And how do internet sites and fans react? "Oh man, it's not my Superman! What did they do to Wonder Woman? Why are they doing the same old crap from the 90's?!" And while some of the criticism is valid, I think the reboot is a step in the right direction. And Marvel's answer to this? They add more multiples of their EXISTING titles. More X-men books, more Avengers books, more Spider Man books. Their big event is one superhero team fighting another. And guess what? Fans LOOOOOVE it. Marvel's pumping out, LITERALLY the same tired old crap and orders are going through the roof from retailers. Really? Really people? Really?!

The comic book industry is really flushing itself down the tubes because it's simply targeting the same market: old dorks like me. A lot of these titles I mentioned aren't aimed at young readers. They're still aimed at the dudes that grew up reading them in the 80's (or older). Why would a kid pay 2.99 - 3.99 for a book when a cheaper, 99 cent angry birds game will provide hours of more fun?

Meh.

I'm going to end the rant, other, better writers have gripped about this issue already. But when a series like Avengers Vs. X-men gets so many readers (let's face it, these are the same ol' readers not new ones) excited and shelling out their money, it really depresses me about the state of my favorite medium.

Sigh. That's it for tonight. Here's hoping the Neverending Battle never ends. Lemme go read some Will Eisner so I can feel better.

My Comic Book: Cheat Page revisited

I had a couple friends of mine read through the second issue's test print and what came out was that the flashback sequence had a confusing read to it. They didn't understand who was having the flashback, or rather the read of it was confusing.

The old version

Revised version

The easy solution was to replace Bomb Girl's face on the 10th panel with the Kid's.

All the little changes I've wanted to do for this issue are done. There are some that I've just chosen to let go and just get this thing done and move onto issue 3. I still have to flatten the files and it's off to the printers! Good morning and the neverending battle continues! 

My Comic Book: Issue 2 Cover WIP part 7

Neverending battle indeed!

After staring at the cover a little bit more, I wasn't quite digging the shade of blue that it was in. I think the lighter jagged lines I added made the overall shade too light. Anyhow, here's the next iteration with punchier blues added.

The funny part? Those same blues are probably not going to reproduce too well when it's in print! Good morning and God Bless! Easter is coming!

My Comic Book: Issue 2 Cover WIP part 5

All done! Well until I look at it again and change my mind anyways.

My Comic Book: Issue 2 Cover WIP part 4

Just a quick update on the cover progress today...

My Comic Book: Issue 2 Cover WIP part 3

I just got jazzed again this morning to work on the cover (instead of playing video games!). While I did want to get through Vanquish on my XBOX, I am not going to pass up the muse when it beckons!

Where the heck does the logo go?!

Cleaned up some of the lines this morning and went ahead and blocked in some colors. I think I still have some composition and detail issues I want to address, but I think it's coming along. Okay gotta go! I'll be late for work!

My Comic Book: Issue 2 Cover WIP part 2

I'm still trying to push through all my daily distractions and did a little bit of work on the cover.

slowly but surely!

I've been inking the background elements of the cover as well as fixing up the foreground character bit-by-bit. I'm also messing around with the logo placement. It looks like the top left corner of the cover is BEGGING for something to be placed there, but I always pictured the logo to be in the sunglasses...

I'm going to mull it over for a bit... but that's it for tonight, I'm beat! Good night and God bless.