All Ages, Deadly Tales and workshops OH MY!

Hey there toon type folks! I've been hard at work on both September 23rd Studios' new project as well as a new all ages comic debuting for 215ink at the New York Comic Con (see the previous post on the project here). Recently the writer who I've been collaborating with, Adam Wilson, sent me the cover for the new book based on my character designs and produced by up-and-coming artist Matt Lynch. Here it is for the first time anywhere:

Also, I thought I'd share some thumbnails for the pages I've been feverishly working on so we can hit our deadline and actually premier on time. Here are a few rough page breakdowns:

Mark's and my submission to the Deadly Tales anthology benefiting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (previous post) has been accepted and will be appearing in the InvestComics compendium! Details on the release, promotion, etc. to follow...
One last thing: Next Saturday, October 1st, Mark and I will be conducting a workshop on creating independent comics at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. If you've never been to the show it is an amazing collection of independent, small press and self publishers with comics, magazines, toys and works running the gamut from horror to all-ages. C'mon out, see some awesome artists and watch Mark and I corrupt aspiring creators! Here's the info (click on APE banner):

Whew! Ok, that's about all for now...come back soon for new art!

Deadly Tales

As of today, my longtime creative partner Mark Peaslee and I submitted a piece for consideration to be included in an anthology to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. As I scanned the page at each stage of completion (which I rarely, if ever, do) I thought it might be fun to give y'all a glimpse of my artistic creative process.

I first begin with a thumbnail breakdown (not shown) which is then translated on to the actual comic page using non-photo blue pencils (shown above). I adopted using these pencils several years ago when I learned that it is a common practice for animators to eliminate the time it takes to erase pencil lines. With my scanner being only legal size I have to scan the 11 x 17 original art in 2 separate pieces...hence the "dirty" middle line.

I then add inks over the non-photo blue pencil (shown above). Typically I use a combonation of brush and pen to give the art an organic, "alive" feel. However, as this piece centers around a man dying I used a pen-only approach to depict a static, lifeless surrounding/point of view.

The final stage happens once I've scanned in the inked linework to Photoshop. After a bit of clean-up I add spot blacks, dialogue, a title if necessary and on occasion grey tones and values. Above you can see the final piece submitted for the anthology!

Hope you've enjoyed this glimpse in to my process and please let me know if you have any questions or would like to see more of these types of posts in the future. As always, thanks for reading and I'll be back soon with more art and some very cool news!!