Finally

Universal plans film adaptation of 'Villains' comic

My publisher, Co-Creator and Writer Adam and myself have been working on this for at least 18 months. Several things delayed the process but I'm glad it's finally happening. I'm very proud of the work Adam, Russ and I did on the book. An option by no means guarantees a movie, btu you can't have one without the other, so it's the first step.

Vote!

If you are a registered voter I urge you to vote. Not because I honestly believe in the system, or the fact that the electoral college is completely dated and useless, but because I want to believe my vote makes a difference. I really do. The first problem we have is that in today's day and age, a majority vote count is possible and would be more effective. Electoral votes, superdelegates, etc., all that crap could be done away with. The second problem is the way we vote, different states have different machines, in Arizona we have this ridiculous make a line form that seems could easily be loaded into a machine that is calibrated wrong and therefore ending up reading the vote wrong.



The electoral process needs a makeover in the worst way, it's painfully obvious. However, we must deal with the system in place so we do it. Go vote. Vote for who you honestly believe will do the best job. I'm not going to say who I voted for, but most people who know me will know who it is, and I'm proud of my candidate and my vote, even if I'm not sure I think it will really make a difference.

I love Zip-a-tone

Here is a low-res sample of how the final 24-hr book will look.

24 Hour Comics Day - Video

Shawn at Spazdog put together this little video, we have some more footage that may be put together into something else at some point as well.

24 Hour Comics Day - Recap

I woke up, just about noon cuz I knew that I had to be at Spazdog soon......
Something like that. After dropping my boys off with their grandparents, I headed to Spazdog comics where the event was happening. You can do a 24hr comics day anywhere, but it's much more fun and enjoyable with others around. I've done several events with Shawn at Spazdog, so I pretty much knew I was going to be treated excellently while there. I got in with about 10 minutes to spare and found out I was only the second one there so I started to worry that most people would not show up, but thankfully they were all running just a tad late. My friend Daniel was the last to arrive and had to set up his G5 as he does all his work digitally, so we officially started with I think 7 or 8 people at about 12:20 or so.

I felt really good the whole time and started out pretty strong realizing I could keep the quality I wanted and still finish the pages in under an hour. That pace was good as it let me have time to stretch my legs and snack, etc. I was penciling, inking and lettering even though I knew I would re-letter the pages digitally later. Freehand lettering and typography are 2 of my weakest points. I had a breakdown of "beats" in which I knew where story transitions needed to go, but I did not have a script or firm story planned outside of the first 2 pages.

The group we were with was pretty good, and at times became very sociable, unfortunately, because I knew I wanted to finish the project I often did not engage or seem sociable to everyone. Even when I was interacting I often did with my face buried in a page, so I apologize if I seemed rude in any way. Over the course of the night we lost most people as they packed it in and left, so by sun up, there were 3 of us remaining and Shawn asleep on his couch.

Glenn is a computer programmer from Tucson who created a pretty popular computer game in the early 80's called Rouge. He was the only other person to finish the full 24 pages. His story was very funny and reminded me of an early 80's children's book. We both finished early, a little after 10 am.
Daniel Davis rocks the world with his Steamcrow site and his goal was to pad his Monster Commute webcomic with future strips. He also proved to be both entertainment and mentor to many of the artists in attendance. He never fails to impress me with his infinite patience and generosity with his time when it comes to helping others and spreading his knowledge. He also helped keep the mood jovial throughout the night, he's a class act and a real grapple in his own right.

For my part, I accomplished exactly what I set out to do, finish a 23 page comic + cover in 24 hours and keep the quality to where I think I could publish it. I did both, and the story actually flowed together pretty well too. The no-sleeping part really wasn't all that bad, I never had a hard time focusing or staying awake, but I do think there are stronger pages and weaker ones, and maybe that has something to do with the time of night I did them. The hardest part was actually trying not to re-use too many standard shots (which I did alot of) and managing the aches in my hand from inking. I'll be posting the line-art pages over at the Sketchjam over the next few weeks but here is the cover + page 1. I will be adding grey-tones to these and re-lettering them prior to publication, which should be under my Super75Press banner in time for the Phoenix Comic-Con.

This was actually the last page drawn, I need to re-draw the girl since her angle is all wrong and the logo will be re-done of course.


Here is an example of how the final panels will look.

I made it

For those of you who do not follow my Twitter posts, I just wanted to follow up that I made it through 24-Hour-Comics day pretty painlessly and had a great time. I'll post a report, with some art, tomorrow. You can read a bit about it on the Spazdog blog as well.

24 Hour Comics Day

So tomorrow I am taking part in 24 Hour Comics day. The name says it all, from noon Saturday until noon Sunday I (along with hundreds, thousands?) of others all over the country (world? Egads!) will be attempting to complete a full 24 page comic in 24 hours. I have wanted to do this for a while, and so I thought this year I would take the plunge. I'm participating at my friend Shawn's comic shop, Spazdog comics, in north Phoenix. Shawn's store gives off a wonderful, laid back atmosphere (I refuse to write "vibe") and it's always a joy to do events there. I think they are expecting 12 or so people total so it will be a great environment. My friend Daniel, the great Steamcrow himself, may be documenting the event and we thought we might put together something for the Phoenix Cactus Comic-Con in January. What's better that trying to draw comics all night? Having me in your face asking you about it! I've got my character picked out, my template pages printed out and I'm ready to go. I cheated a bit and did a page breakdown today, so I have a general idea of what I want.

For example; Pages 1-5 intro, Pages 6-9 establish situation, Pages 10-20 FIGHT!, Pages 20-23 Wrap-up, Page 24 - Cover

So I'll be pencilling, inking and lettering a 24 page book in 24 hours. I know how fast I work, so I don't think the 1-page 1-hour deadline will be hard. Staying awake will be hard. So wish me luck, stop by the shop if you are in the area, and I'll post a report on Monday.

The Dark Knight

I've always loved the darker aspect of Batman, the meaner, grittier Batman. The ass-kicking detective, Miller's Batman. That was until I read Vol.1 of All-Star Batman and Robin last night.This was absolutely terrible, not one likable character in the book other than Alfred the butler. I think, as do other people judging by what I have read, that Miller is writing this book as a joke. Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture here, maybe I'm not smart enough to "get it", but not even Jim Lee can save this for me. After reading it I got nostalgic for the original Dark Knight, so I sketched this. Colors and digital zip-a-tone done in Photoshop.

Page Evolution 2

Here are a few screenshots of how I worked on a page from last year. Ideally I would use this process for every project, but I don't have a large format printer, and I'm not keen on paying money to have the bristol printed out. Anyone wants to donate a 11x17 printer, let me know.

Hurricane Kids blog.

On the The Hurricane Kids blog I've posted about how the creation of page 1 came about, including showing all 3 versions and the reasons I made the changes. It's a good read I think, so please check it out and feel free to leave some comments.

New Sketches

Here is a Punisher sketch I did last night.



Here is a sketch of a character I'm planning on doing a 24-Hour Comic Day book about. The rules of 24HCD say that you should go in with no preconceived ideas or characters, but I think that's crazy, in my case at least, where I focus more on superhero and adventure comics. I'm pretty excited about doing it though and I hope it all works out.