Monday 30 May 2011

Chapter 7 Now Online

Chapter 7 of Code Name:Pearl - Red Star Conspiracy is now online. You can see how it all turned out or read the entire story so far here.

Saturday 28 May 2011

Raccoon sketches

This is something I'm working on for the kids. This was done using a Wacom tablet and I plan to finish everything digitally. Will update as it comes along.

Wednesday 25 May 2011

Character Sketches

These are some character designs for a short story I want to get to work on when I finish the Code Name:Pearl story.

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Page 56 Finished Inks

Here's the page 56, inked. I usually use three different markers. Fine, Medium and a Medium Brush. They are versatile tools and I can take them anywhere. Just have to color it now and bring it into InDesign and it's done.

Saturday 21 May 2011

Page 56 rough

One of may favorite things about storytelling is doing the "roughs". At this stage I'm not so much interested in getting things right as I am about getting the feel or emotion of a scene. This rough is for the final panel of Chapter Seven of "Red Star Conspiracy" where I'm trying to catch a perfect "To Be Continued" moment. I'll update how it's coming along soon.

Thursday 19 May 2011

The First Car?

 
I have always been fascinated by older machinery. This is a sketch of what is considered the first self-propelled road vehicle, dating all they way back to 1769. Powered by steam and having three wheels it was commissioned by the French military and built by Nicolas Cugnot and while not really a car, trials were run on the streets of Paris. The experiment came to an end though when it also became the first self-propelled vehicle to get into an accident, crashing into a wall. (it was later re-sold through Auto Trader by a curb-sider who claimed to only use it on weekends).

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Happy Birthday Dave Sim

Birthday wishes go out to Dave Sim today, born back in 1956 in Hamilton, Ontario. He's best known for his long running self-published comic "Cerebus The Aardvark" that ran for 300 issues but I highly recommend picking up his new venture "Glamourpuss". I've always enjoyed stories about the creative process and Dave doesn't disappoint with his take on the evolution of the comics strip medium through the hands of Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff and Stan Drake to name but a few. It's a mixture of fact and conjecture and he even goes as far as recreating their art instead of printing bad copies of the original work. No small feat. While the other half of the book doesn't always grab me (the world of fashion being an easy target having descended into self-parody long ago) it's still funny stuff.
And since this is my blog, the page above is from "Ali-Baba: Scourge of the Desert". It featured seven pages that Dave initially did the layouts for in 1976, and then with finished pencils by me in 1985 and published by Caliber in 1993. It was written by James Waley who was born on the 14th by the way, so belated birthday wishes go out to Jim as well.

Saturday 14 May 2011

Finished page 55

Here's the finished page 55. One more to go and chapter 7 will be complete. Will let you know when it's online.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

"Honey" 48 page Graphic Novel

Honey is a drama set in the Hong Kong film world and looks at the dangerous side of obsession. She has everything she always dreamed of; money, wealth and fame but Honey finds the price may be too high to pay. With a crumbling marriage and a mysterious stalker complicating her perfect life what can she do? To read the story go here.

Code Name:Pearl pg55

Chapter 7 is coming along. Here are the pencils for page 55 which features the return of Pearl's GEM Squad pals, Emerald, Ruby and Garnet. Will post the finished page soon.

Sunday 8 May 2011

Happy Birthday Moebius

Joyeux anniversaire! Jean Giraud (Moebius). Born on this day in 1938, Jean first came to prominence in his native France drawing the western adventures of Lieutenant Blueberry, written by Jean-Michel Charlier for the magazine Pilote. In the 70s though his fame spread worldwide with his alternative, surreal visions using the name Moebius in the magazine he co-created, Metal Hurlant. Above is a sketch I have in my collection that he did on a visit to Toronto in 1987.

Friday 6 May 2011

Hogtown Jaz





Hogtown Jaz: The Perfect Fall Guy was the first graphic novel I put online. It was not actually done in a traditional comic book format but rather designed to look like a wide screen movie with copy placed beneath the panel. My original inspiration was Steranko's "Chandler" graphic novel "Red Tide" but this story was set in the present.

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Code Name:Pearl pg 54

Here's the final version of page 54. After inking I scanned in the page and added the color in Photoshop. The word balloons and sound effects were added in Indesign.

Monday 2 May 2011

Illustration

I recently finished illustrating a project for the American Wire Rope Fabricators under the direction of Unirope president Knut Buschman, a wonderful guy and pleasure to work with. Most of the drawings were done to show the proper procedures when testing cables used in the construction industry but Knut asked for a final "goodbye" illustration as well.