"Off Panel!" group show for Denver Comic Artists at Wazee Union

I have prints from BARBARIC Issue 1's cover and page 1 at Wazee Union in Denver.
Thanks to Daniel Crosier, there's a great group show featuring local comic book talents.
Check out their front door - it's got cool stickers! (The show is up for one more week!)

Denver Comic Con 2013!

It's hard to believe that it's already been almost 2 months since DCC. It was a great time. Here's my booth and banner! Next time around, I think I'll cool it on the "Parental Advisory" signs. My book has violence and sexual content and I was trying to warn-off the kiddies and concerned parents. But really it's meant for teens and up... (and parental advisory warnings like this are usually used for books with extra gnarly content).

Printed Preview Book!

Tom (Rasch) and I picked up our printed editions for Denver Comic Con. Mine was a exclusive preview edition featuring just-shy-of half of the 1st issue and several sketch pages, project history, thumbnails, etc...

Tom's is the first full issue of his comic Black Alpha. We've been friends for twenty years and this was a really great night to share. (picking these up together and having them in our hands was really fantastic.)

[This is a crappy photo, unfortunately]

Pre DCC Panel Peeks

Here's a peek at a couple of (non-sequential) panels from the preview book I currently have brewing for Denver Comic Con.

IN 3 WEEKS!!! Denver Comic Con 2013

It's that time of year again! The 2nd Annual DENVER COMIC CON 2013! Last year blew everybody's minds with such a huge attendance - it was a massive success and this year is looking to be an even bigger one! We local creators are in such a large debt to Illya Kowalchuk, Charlie La Greca, Frank Romero, Christina Angel and Bruce MacIntosh.

Once again, I'll be in Artist Alley (or Valley?) promoting Barbaric! I'll be selling a preview book and doing sketches at Booth A3. I hope to see you there! Friday May 31st through Sunday June 2nd. 

http://www.denvercomiccon.com/

A week ago

Well, about a week ago, this issue of ImagineFX (APRIL2013, #94) was sadly taken off the shelves at Barnes & Noble to be replaced by the May issue. I was so incredibly thrilled to have a 2-page spread featuring a step-by-step of how I've gone about creating BARBARIC as a part of that magazine. I never dreamed that I'd share page space with the likes of Syd Mead and John Watkiss (among many others).

If you have an interest in learning digital art techniques, I highly recommend this zine. It's invaluably filled with tips by working professionals sharing their ways. You can get a subscription here (and order back issues as well, like last April's, wink-wink) at www.imsnews.com/imaginefx-f007 or call TOLL FREE 1-800-428-3003.

Pages 1 & 2

Issue 1 - Page 1

Issue 1 - Page 2

Issue 1 Cover

BARBARIC will be in the APRIL issue (#94) of ImagineFX Magazine!!!

BARBARIC will be featured in the step-by-step two page spread called "Development Sheet" in an upcoming issue of my favorite sci-fi & fantasy art magazine: ImagineFX!!! I seriously couldn't be more excited about it!

Just verified with the editor - April Issue #94. Available March 1st!

Step 1 - Thumbnails

Step 2 - Pencils

Step 3 - Combine

Step 4 - Color

Step 5 - Finish

Pencil & gray tone to final color.

Here's a pencil and grey-tone combo sample panel from issue one. The book will be in color, so this is the second to last phase of the final art. The stage between this and coloring is a quick pass of digital painting to tighten, alter and clean as needed.

Some Initial thumbnails.

Here are some enlarged views of a few panels worth of thumbnails. The top one is from issue 1 and the bottom is from issue 2. I'll probably post several of these, but I don't want to show enough to give the story away (so, no full-page versions or anything like that.).

Process Test

I'm doing my thumbnails digitally in grey tones, but I want the book to have some loose line and a nice textural quality. These things can also technically be done digitally, but I wanted to get some traditional materials involved as well. Plus, one of the downsides of using the digital medium exclusively is the dark magic of the ZOOM! If you're not careful, you can spend time on details that end up being insignificant in print-size, so it's always nice to go traditional on a life-size (or enlarged) page.

These were done back in '09 as well. I was experimenting with how I wanted the finals to come together. What is seen here is A.) Enlarged digital thumbnail. B.) Graphite pencil on 11X17 bristol. C.) Charcoal rub on newsprint. D.) Bringing all the elements together in Photoshop. Detailing and coloring digitally.

I've since moved away from doing the graphite and charcoal separately. Instead, I'm drawing my line with a combination of Prismacolors (all black) on vellum. The Col-Erase, The Verithin, and the (straight-up) colored pencil, adding texture with the Nupastel and a Webril pad. You get varying shades of darkness and detailing quality with each and they do better together than if you were to use any of them by themselves.

The end results are basically identical to my initial experiments anyway and I've gained the advantage of drawing all on one piece of material while also achieving a more immediate saturation result with the Prismacolors versus the graphite.

Setting!

The story takes place in the early 10th century in an area that is now the southeastern edge of the Austrian Alps. Here's a shot of the mountainside where most of the story is set (on or around).

Initial Character Sketches

So these are the initial sketches of the main character Burlyn ("Burly") done back in '09. I've been steadily moving forward on this book since then. I'll be getting most of the book finished before pitching it to publishers (hence the "slow-leak" exposure of materials on this development blog). 'Coward' was the working-title back then, but that's a great comic by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips so I obviously had to change the name.

Denver Comic Con 2012!

Thanks to everyone that stopped by the booth, grabbed a flyer and expressed their interest in the book. I'm really looking forward to getting it out there for everyone to read. DCC was a great success - it was so cool to see Denver's comic culture out in full force! Attendance was massive and we're all already seriously looking forward to next year. Thanks especially to everyone involved in putting the Con on and volunteering their time. It was huge.

W E L C O M E !!!

Hi! This the Dev Blog for my comic BARBARIC. I'm premiering the project at this weekend's 1st Annual Denver Comic Con with the grey-tone version of the 1st issue's cover. (which I'll post in the next day or so)

Barbaric is a 4 issue mini-series about a barbarian named Burlyn (nicknamed 'Burly'). I'll probably be posting the 'elevator pitch' jist of the story soon. (I know this is a dev blog, but this stuff still all needs to be presented in a way that doesn't totally pull the curtains open, right?)

The series is completely written and thumb-nailed and I'm now in the process of completing the final art. I anticipate being 'launch-ready' this winter.

I'll be posting peeks at the preliminary art here and the occasional final panel. I hope you enjoy!
Mike