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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.