Comic Poll

Hey.

AndreZero has delivered Act 1 of issue 4 and work has begun. My question to you, loyal readers, is would you like this to be serialized, or would you like to wait until the entire thing is done (placated by regular process work scans)?

Let me know.

To start the placation, here's a page I did before I got the finished script, so It doesn't really fit. It was really just an excuse to test a new pen and it will give you an idea of the inking style. I'm going for basic clean-line style in full-color with local-color shading.



Listening to while posting: "Metropolis" by Tomoyasu Hotei

Did Cap just say what I thought he said?

I don't know, maybe it's just me. For a comic from the '70s, talking about getting rocks off is just a little risque. Plus that's a little coarse for Cap. Even if the guy was out to give America back to Britain.

From Captain America 200 Aug 1976

teaser redux

I re-worked the cover for Obscure Tales 4. I decided to stick with what I know and save the experimenting for the... um... experiments. The lineart has also chagned to a stronger drawing and composition.

AndreZero is nearly done with the script and I've started production design. Woo!

teaser

logic: If all mountain bikers are masochists and Arkonbey is a mountain biker, then Arkonbey is a masochist.

It has been rain-free all week and my favorite trail was open. I called friends today and nobody was available, so I decided to hit the trail and do a training ride (ride the whole course at race-pace) rather than a tooling-around day. I was about 3/4 of the way through the loop, about a half-hour in when I met a fellow member of the Fellowship of the Wheel . Having only built trails with him, never having ridden with him, I asked if I could tag along. I hate riding alone and he said he was going to take it easy (I was already a leetle bit tired).

Over two hours, three long climbs, many short climbs, many fast descents ( and one super-fast descent (where I scared myself I was going so fast) later, I was beat. I was hydrated, but bonking (A breakfast consisting only of of four slices of peanut butter toast and two cups of good, strong free-trade coffee may have aided in the bonking.)and my skinny little backside hurt so much that I couldn't sit on the saddle. All tolled, it was over two and a half hours with 30 minutes of it at race pace.

I came home and ate for a half hour. Not fast, just steady. One (homemade!) hummus/cheese sandwich, 1/2 cheese sandwich. many tortilla chips and hummus, two local-made chocolate bon-bon things, one slice of cheap and tasty grocery store chocolate coffee cake and one Wolaver's organic whit bier later, I showered, then slept for an hour.

It has been so wet and the afternoon was cloudy I decided that I needed to pack in as much riding today as possible for two reasons: it's been so long and it might rain tomorrow. Ah, happy idiocy.

Ah, the teaser. I did a color study for the Obscure Tales Issue Four. It sort of sucks, but I'm posting it anyway. Bolstered by an early success with watercolors on an art trade with Becca , I thought I do the cover fully hand-done (save type, of course).

Man! Watercolor is hard. So, it's, literally, back to the drawing board.

listening to while posting: "Ronnie's Racing School" by Glitter Mini 9 (not on speakers, but in my HEAD! It won't leave!)

FINISHED!

Well. Obscure Tales #3 is finished. It's neat to have this finally done. I mean, it's been four years since I had the dream.

As far as the comic goes, I learned a HELL of a lot doing this. The last six pages, in fact, were the hardest. Pages sixteen and seventeen were very hard. Showing that motion I wanted to show proved to be almost impossible given my current skill set. I hope it was effective; at least enough so I don't have to post a video of me and some Matchbox cars. I hope you guys like this. Quick question: did the two comic pages per webpage work?

The next issue is still being written, but the cover is done and maybe I'll post some process work for the issue.

In other news, The step-mom-in-law's family was, as usual, fun and accommodating. The camp, was gorgeous and relaxing (with a capital LAX). The weather, was perfect. I mean it. It was sunny for the drive down on Friday. The water when we arrived at 5pm was still warm. Saturday proved warm and sunny. Sunday was cool in the morning, but we were treated to a foggy cove which was nice. The sun came out until about one pm as we were packing up and the first drops hit as we were walking to the cars to leave! It then only rained for an hour and the rest of the drive back was sunny with a beautiful sunset over the Adirondaks.

So. How was your weekend?

Well. Since it's Sweet Enemy's and my first wedding anniversary, I'm gong to make a few Cosmopolitans and we're going to watch "In Bruges".

Listening to while posting: "Hang on to yourself" by David Bowie

preview

Hey! It's been a while. LOTS of stuff has been happening, but don't to ruin it (or bore you) with a long post.

I've been wicked depressed the past month or so. 'give-Sweet-Enemy-the-keys-to-the-gun-case' depressed. Mostly about the world in general. I'm over-informed and it was getting to me. So, I've been cutting back on stupid conservative tricks (that's why I've been avoiding the Dean's site. Sorry).

Anyway. SE and I decided to take a road trip to my folks house on the 24th for a (my side of the)family reunion.

Took the long way down through the still very rural sections of VT. Ahhhh. Hit my folks house and had, as pe my request, Papa Gino's pizza. I hate chains, but for some reason, I really like PG's pizza (they don't have it in VT, so maybe it's the specialness).

The next day was the reunion. Pretty fun. Good food. Went on a really nice three hour ride beforehand (met some guys just starting out. They stopped ten meters into the trail to burn one. After, I could see, but before? as cheesy as it sounds, riding is my drug).

The next day was Sweet Enemy's day. She is doing a series of underwater paintings and is totally fascinated by the sea, so we hit the New England Aquarium. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go. I was still very down and didnt' want to ruin her day, but we decided I should go. We took the train from near my parent's house and it was a strangely painless trip. Boston is a remarkably walkable city.

The aquarium was pretty cool. I hadn't been since the early 80's, but darn if I didn't have more fun now! One of the best parts was seeing teens and twenty somethings who looked like the should be in a mall really getting into the exibits. What wasn't so nice was one family coming in and the little girl running to see the penguins and the parents calling her back; they had an itinerary. That was bogus. It should have been HER day.

Anyway. The train ride back was really nice. Sweet Enemy made twenty bucks! We thought she was only going to make five, but she made the guy really happy. That's all I'll say. It's her story and she should tell it. Some day. Maybe

Then a night of Chinese food and the next day entertaining (and being entertained by) my nearly-two niece. Cute kid. I can't wait till she comes up to our house in the woods. The drive back was not so nice because I was nursing a dang stye. Stupid eyelid zit!

This past weekend was pretty good. Relaxing. SE and I just hung around making art and stacking wood.

Well. I'm better. I'm not quite in blissful ignorance, but I'm not so anxious that I can't function.

What's this preview you might ask? Well, Obscure Tales 3 is almost done. Because of the nature of the climax, I decided to post the last six pages all at once. All six are inked and three are scanned. Now onto post-production and 'coloring'. I'd like to have them done by the weekend, but we're going to my step-mother-in-law's family cabin on Brandt Lake in Upstate NY. So, to keep placate you, here's the very rough sketch of the cover for Obscure Tales issue 4. It's called 'The Suns of Charybdis' and will be written by AndreZero:



AndreZero's already got a first draft done, but now that I've done posted this cover, he can't back out!

Listening to while posting: Nothing. Wait. Let me hit iTunes. ah. "Aquaman's Lament" by Mark Aaron James.