Work in Progress: The Carnival #2 page 12

Working hard on finishing the second issue of The Carnival, titled Den of Thieves. It will be come apparent when you read the damn thing. Finally, finally when you can read the damn thing. Its been a long time coming, this I know.

Just to share a little bit of work in progress, here is the top half of page 12, while it was still in pencil form, about to be lettered.

Yes, I'm hand lettering these on the pages. After looking at original comic artwork for so many years, I've begun to realize how much the panels need the word balloons on the page. What moves the piece of artwork from being simply illustration and into comics, is the fusion of words and text together to form a cohesive artistic whole. Besides, their position also effects the negative/positive of the artwork, adding white into black and visa versa. so expect fully hand lettered balloons and captions on this one.

The Carnival You Didn't Read - "The Hotel Disaster"

Found this piece in the archives, and had forgotten about it completely. This was the title page to an unfinished story called "The Hotel Disaster" that i had started to write only to find that i didn't have nearly the skill to bring it off. There are also a few things about this piece that bug the heck out of me now.

Take a look and then move on, that's what i say.

Working away, can't wait til APE 2014 at Fort M
ason in San Francisco.

The Carnival #2 - A Panel In Process & APE SF

Working away on getting The Carnival #2 to press for APE in San Francisco on October 3rd & 4th! Wanted to document the creation of a panel early on in the process, in case there is some idea that comics are easy and simple. Perhaps for some, but not for me...

Thumbnail stage - here is where i write most of the story, on these stupid little sheets of printer paper and some thin Copic SP markers. rough little squiggles aren't they?












Then I sketch the page out full size on tracing paper in very rough, quick form. I'm trying to capture some of the energy of the initial sketch and at the same time, capture the angle that i see in my head, not always an easy thing to do.

A second piece of tracing paper over to make the work more concrete, add guide lines for the anatomy on the face, draw through the figures. From here, if i can see the drawing in my head, I'll pencil this on the final page.

















In this case, the lighting was important to get right, so i pulled out the trusty copic Multiliner pen, and a thicker marker to work the shadows until i got the right. I'd prefer to waste a few more square inches of the tracing paper than have to rework the thing on Bristol in the supposedly final stages.

The second issue of The Carnival! coming to APE in 2014! Alex Sheikman and I will be at booth 724. I will be there on Sunday only (owing to them scheduling the Con on Yom Kippur), but Alex will be there selling Dark Crystal work and his sketchbooks both days!

Below is the rough for the second cover...

Sneak Peek: Wraparound Cover for The Carnival #2

Finished the new cover for what will be the second Carnival story, and wanted everyone to get a peak at it without trade dress and tones... just pure black and white! A wraparound cover to make things interesting.

The Carnival: New Cover Pencils

Working hard to have part 1 of my new book ready for APE 2013 in San Francisco. If you're going, please be sure to stop by table 824 and say "Hullo!" to Alex Sheikman and myself.

Here are cover pencils to the new book, and, as you can see, I started to ink before I remembered that i hadn't done the scan, so a few errant inked lines are already on the page. Let me know what you think!

Thumbnails from The Carnival #2

Thumbnails on a two page sequence from the second issue of The Carnival: One Last Note Before I Go. I had changed this from a single page where i thought that the story had become too compressed. I was worried that I needed to keep pressing more information into the reader, and i realized that there needed to be a little... more space. Because my dialogue is so brilliant that it needed more pages. I love the way the action sets up, now we'll see how it looks full size...

The Human Hourglass Color Cover

Just wanted to send out an image of the color cover of The Carnival: the Human Hourglass that will be on sale at APE in two weeks or so. I've not had any work in color for a while, so this is fun to see.

This version of The Human Hourglass will have a full color cover, black and white interiors and sketches in the back.

Alex Sheikman and I will be at table 740, so come by and say hello. Buy comics, have fun!

A new panel, coming into focus...

Panel 3, prior to inks. Taking shape, however.

The Carnival: One Last Note, Before I Go Preview Edition should be available at APE in San Francisco October 13th and 14th. I'll also have The Carnival: The Human Hourglass for sale, and my friend Alex will have lots of good stuff as well.

Sneak Peek: The Carnival - One Last Note, Before I Go

Yes, bad blogger, no question. I'll try to get better. But in the meantime, I've hard at work at the next Carnival story, trying to get it done in time for this year's APE in San Francisco. Just wanted to put up a small peek at the front cover, sans color. You'll see the small thumbnail, worked out with marker, as well as the finished art. comments appreciated of course.

I'll try to post more art this week!

In Experiment: Santiago in Color

Another experiment in colors - using Photoshop and modifying the opacity among other things. Whoever came up with "multiply" in the menus was a genius.

I typically think of Photoshop as the ocean. Depending on where you use it, you can get really good at 1% or maybe 3%, but its so deep and so wide and the potential applications of it so vast that no one, not even the programmers, will know it all. Learn to do what you want with it and move on.

I still prefer real paper, with real ink and then scanning and moving on to the final version. There is a pressure/texture feeling that the tablets can't mimic, and i think of it as the ultimate level of "undo". Should all else fail, harddrive wise, there is still the original art!

New Artwork & "Enter The Dark" by Todd Miro

Two new panels from The Human Hourglass from page 18. Nothing crazy here, but I like these two in sequence.

Enter The Dark. Scary film. 18 minutes long, already going to be making it's premier at the Chicago Horror Fest and then showing at Thriller! Chiller! film fest in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Its funny and scary and messed up, as all good horror films are.

My good friend Todd Miro wrote and directed and its pretty cool. I'm one of the two lead actors and while I cringe every time that i open my mouth on screen, for exactly the same reason that we all hate hearing our own voices on answering machines, I don't think that we do a half bad job.

Some reviews:

- Brutal as Hell review:

… a fun little fright flick that effectively showcases Miro’s filmmaking and editing abilities.

- HorrorNews.net review:
Enter the Dark is a clever, scary, fun piece that delivers with a punch and a cool ending.

- All Things Horror review:

… Enter the Dark proves once again a good ghost story simply needs to put emphasis on the story and not flashy effects or big budgets in order to provide some fun and scares.

Todd and I will be attending the Chicago premier so if you're not doing anything on the 26th, come by and check out the film. We're playing right before the feature presentation at 9:15 or so, which may be like having your band open for Van Halen once. We'll see.

Check out the bad ass trailer here. Enjoy.

Work In Progress: The Human Hourglass Page 18 part two

This panel is coming along nicely. page 18 is almost done and, as always, art surprises you. panels that i thought were somewhat boring are turning into far more interesting bits and pieces.

A few more pages to go...

New Work: The Carnival - The Human Hourglass page 17

a new page posted at Yocomics.net as I get closer to the finale of the first Carnival story. Of course you can click the link and go straight to it, or you can do what my friend Sam is doing, which is simply wait til i finish the damn thing, then go read it all at once.

But then you miss a bit of the voyage doing that. I suppose.

The Human Hourglass has been running around my head for a number of years, but i lacked a few of the pieces to pull it all together. Odd how life works, it finally came together on a plane, far from anything even resembling noir. More like small inedible dinners served on biodegradable plastic. Inspiration comes from weird places. Being a mere 5 pages from the finish is rather invigorating.

Also, the first issue of Radical Publishing's TimeBomb is out on the stands as off last week, so go take a look. I ink the first 21 pages of Paul Gulacy, and you'd have thought it was 1999 and we were working on Batman: Outlaws. Except this time with a really cool story and killer coloring. Take a look and let me know what you think. Been ten years since i've had anything out on the stands.

Not in San Diego part 2

So i'm celebrating not being in San Diego (see prior whining post) by... creating comics. Sitting down at the board and getting back to work. A quick new scan of panel 3 page 17 to the left.

My Wife and Sister-In-Law also have a new blog, that I've added to the blogroll on the right. Surrogate Cities is the name and while i doubt that comics will ever, ever appear in that blog, the writing is great, so go take a look.

back to work. After all, if all of the comics creators in north America are in southern California, who is creating all the stuff that we want to read?

New Work: The Human Hourglass!

...up and ready to be clicked on! Only here and at Yo Comics.net

More Human Hourglass!

The next page is up!

Hell, if I'd known that it was going to go this fast i'd have ditched the tones a while ago.

No, seriously, I just really wanted everyone to actually read the thing.

New Pages Up at YoComics.net

Here is reality: there are only some many hours in the day, and while i've been concentrating on making art, i've been not doing some of the things that i need to be doing in the real world. I'll be posting the rest of the pages as they exist up to the point that i have to stop production, just to get them out there. Just in black and white, no tones. That way you all can at least see how far it went. Hopefully i'll get to finish things later. http://www.yocomics.net/thh/page9.html

sadly, the real world with a terrible economy is calling right now.

Work In Progess: Page 14 of The Human Hourglass

Just about done here, except for the background work. Can't wait to tone this one so that i can really direct the lighting the way that i see it in my head.

Mostly brush, #1 sable Rafael 8404, #4 sable for big areas, Koh-i-noor .35 technical pens.

Work In Progess: sketches for The Carnival

Not having a good time trying to make this figure work. Not sure why, I "saw" the body language in my head, but when I tried to draw it, the figure simply didn't work, making me wonder if I had perhaps exaggerated the movement in my head... resulting in a stilted and unnatural figure on the paper. The second scan if a more finished version of what i went with.

Anyone else ever have this trouble?

Figure Study: The Carnival page 14

A marker and pencil study for a panel of The Carnival: The Human Hourglass page 14. If you've not gone over and read the story, click here and submerge yourself for a bit in some future nior.

Let me say it right here and now: the regression on the head for this shot is incredibly difficult to do. Gil Kane made it look way too easy.

Gil Kane was a badass.