Howdy folks, glad to see ya all again. Sorry I didn’t post last week but I got busy with some goodies that I wanted to touch up before I posted them. First is the motion graphic! In thinking more about a web comic or little bridge animation, I thought a title sequence would be perfect. Here are a few images before the final render. Should be ready in a couple of weeks and I’ll post a link to Vimeo
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This obviously owes a ton to the Spaghetti Western Trilogy, in particular A Fistful of Dollars and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Though it really did come from listening to the soundtrack of the former which were all scored by Enniio Morricone. I had never knew his mane until a few months ago when I heard some pod cast talking about the great scores of various westerns. So this is kind of my homage to that style. I see a common style in the title cards and the work of Saul Bass, particularly the funky type.
Again, using Muybridge and his locomotion to rotoscope NPRS onto horseback made for a perfect little transition device between adversaries. I also used a shooting gallery POV for some of the scenes because I was always a fan of Hogans Alley.
We had a blast in our hometown a few weeks ago, thanks for all who made it out. We are going to be featured on Geekbotcherys Podcast later in June so we will keep you all posted. If your wondering where Danny is, well, someone had to take the picture. What you cannot see is my sever level of food poisoning which forced me to spend about half of the con in the shit house—YAY!
We should have issue 6 done by the end of the month. We have the script and thumbnails done for issue 7 already and we are looking at a 28 page issue. Till then…
Comic book day just happened to align with us seeing Captain America Civil War. I did not think the day could get any better until I saw my poster blown up really big at Toad Hall
Here’s the latest on our side of the fence. FC3 is next weekend and I hope you all can make it. We have two other cons this year but this one should be fun because it’s in our hometown.
Issue 6 should be done by the end of the month. We ran over schedule by about a month but that tends to happen when your making a hard 32.
Issue 7 has been written and features a guest writer, our friend and accomplished storyteller Jason “Jaycat” Parada. The issue is really great and I can’t wait to get started paneling it out.
Lastly, here is the poster we will be selling at the shows. Members of the fan club will be receiving a 5×7 glossy postcard of the same image when they mail in their coupon.
Looks like it’s going to be a busy summer so keep checking in for more updates
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” – Mahatma Gandi
This is certainly true when it comes to comic covers. This is the first time you get a chance to WOW your fans and passerby’s. I feel like none of the covers so far have really had a huge impact on the reader. That is until now
So for those of you that have asked or are digging the process updates, here is a comprehensive documentation of how this new cover came to be.
It’s no secret that we are big Alan Moore fans. Issues 6-10 are patterned after the second Swamp Thing arc, the run with all of the gothic horror. Moores take on the vampires is still nightmare worthy but the actual inspiration goes back much further adn like some episodes in life, connects in mysterious manners.
Swamp Thing 3: Cover by Tom Yeates 1982
Moore is referencing the vampires from Saga of Swamp Thing from the 80’s. These were re- released to coincide with the Wes Craven movie about the character. I had this issue growing up and was always influenced by Yeates composition. Thinking about it now, there is also the little girl, Casey, who is Swamp Things ward. This obligation to protection shows up in our stories in issue 1 and 4. I even sketched this out not too long ago to submit to Covered but lost interest at some point. Needless to say, this image has immediate influence on our composition.
Notice how I made Swamp Thing with a tentacle arm? Foreshadowing?
Fast forward a few years and I somehow got a couple of issues of Moore’s run before I even knew who he was, I was probably around 10. WAY too young to have Moore’s creatures giving me night terrors.
I still have trouble reading this part, this is the sequence that terrified me as a child
Spoiler Alert – It does not end well for the mom.
So Moore being the genius that he is actually referenced characters from a previous regime and made them way more creepy and relevant. And it was the same punk style vampires that I was so receptive to years earlier. Our vampires are hopefully as memorable as his.
Here are a couple of the initial sketches. Yes, I have to do a ton of thumbs sometimes to get the LOA right.
Once the idea was solid I drafted up a more confident graphite version:
Once the idea is there, I printed off a low opacity version and tweaked the vampires some.
After the inks set, it was a matter of scanning, halftone and laying in type.
Not to get to far ahead of ourselves, these two roughnecks will be showing up in issue 9. Bradley Cahill was nice enough to stand in for one of the brothers.
