Archive for ‘Blog’
16 items.
Tears of the Dragon is on a short a short hiatus, but rest assured, Koko, Miguel and I are hard at at work on the next Volume. (What? You want proof? Okay, fine.)
Covers sell books. There’s no question about it. Though you all know the story is serialized on this site for free, I also sell TOTD digitally through Graphic.ly, DriveThruComics, and MyDigitalComics in single issue form for readers who want to own a copy to read anywhere. So, during this hiatus, I made sure to ask Koko for a few cover images first, before he digs into the next batch of story pages.
So, let’s chart the cover creation process of what will be the cover to TOTD Book 4.
My initial cover notes to Koko
“Koko, let’s try to do a pin-up capturing an important moment from this next chapter. We’re in the King’s bedchamber. The ASSASSIN is in the foreground, but has been knocked down on the ground, and is looking up to the pointed sword of Yordania, age 19. It’s night-time, the assassin snuck in to try to kill the king, but was interrupted when Yordania came in and knocked him down. The Assassin has his signature cruel dagger in one of his hands (something that looks like this, perhaps.) Yordania has a look of rage on her face, as if she’s going to run him through. She’s also in her night clothing, not a warrior outfit. Behind her, in the background, is the old King, looking on, weary. Again, we’re in the king’s bedchamber at night, there might be some candle-light and such, and maybe a piece of broken furniture or two, to suggest there was a struggle before the Princess got the upper hand.”
Koko’s 1st Layout
As he often does, Koko knocked this one out of the park on the first try. In fact, I only had one note for him:
“Remember, this next chapter, we’re jumping into the future a bit. The years are tough on King Torvuld, his hair goes white, he’s older, and wearier. And his beard has grown long and white, like you had him drawn in image attached. Otherwise, looks good!”
Koko’s Loose Pencils
Now, here’s where Koko had an interesting proposition for me. See, he’s trying to expand his artistic repertoire, as it were, and is interested in doing some fully painted Tears of the Dragon art. Cool, right? The only thing is, I have little to no experience with fully painted covers, and am not sure if I’ll be able to use them for the comic itself. (But boy am I looking forward to seeing how it comes out.)
So, as a compromise, I asked Koko to give this cover a shot, but told him I also wanted to do a traditionally inked and digitally covered version as well. But, I had the idea that yours truly would do the inking on this piece, leaving Koko to do the paints. (Mostly, I was just excited to ink over Mr. Amboro.)
Koko, great guy that he is, decided to do me a solid, and do more finished pencils for me to ink.
Koko’s Finished Pencils
Damn, that boy’s good!
Tyler’s Inks
With Koko’s delicious pencils in my inbox, I simply brought them into Photoshop, through a blue line filter over them, and printed them out on my wide format printer. On a personal note, I moved residences last week. Inking this was my first official piece in my new studio!
Miguel’s Colors
Finally, I sent the inked page to super color artist Miguel Marques to perform his magic. My notes for Miguel were pretty sparse:
- In this picture, the assassin is wearing a grey outfit, not white in the other one.
- That’s Yordania in the background, Red hair.
- The King in the background has grayish white hair now.
- It’s night time, so this cover should be appropriately dark.
Now, what floored me was the turn-around time. I sent this to Miguel Sunday morning, and he had it back to me Sunday night. Impressive. However, what I didn’t mention was that this was the SECOND of two covers Miguel finished in one day. (I’ll share the other one with you guys another day.) The guy is fast, and good. A great combination in a color artist.
So there you have it! A cover from concept to finish, and for the first time ever, I got to ink over Koko!
I’m especially stoked to see how Koko’s painted version comes out.
Hope you dug this look into the creative process!
Comment
For a new way to experience Tears of the Dragon, check it out on Graphic.ly. Panel to panel transition mode is really cool!
One of the critiques of the first two chapters of Tears of the Dragon was that the action in the book was relegated to a short number of pages. In truth, there was a LOT of exposition and table setting in the first 53 pages of my story. But now that the table is set, the fun begins. And as you can see from a few layouts for pages in the upcoming chapter, the action picks up in Chapter III.
Regular TOTD updates will resume again October 24, 2011. My apologies for the short hiatus, but I’ve been forced to put time into preparing for the New York Comic Con next week. If you’re attending the show, definitely stop by the ComixTribe Booth #2537, where I’ll be signing copies of Tears of the Dragon and other books.
Want A Preview?
ComixTribe Takes Manhattan features an extended first look at EPIC #1. Written by ComixTribe publisher Tyler James and drawn by Matt Zolman, EPIC is the story of a teenager who gains incredible super powers, only to learn he has but one weakness…beautiful girls.
Also featured in this release are first looks at:
SCAM #1 by Joe Mulvey, a book about superpowered grifters who believe it’s better to die as a conman than live as a mark.
THE RED TEN #1 by Tyler James and Cesar Feliciano, a superhero murder mystery that’s Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None” meets “The Justice League,” and features a NYCC exclusive cover by CP Wilson, III (Stuff of Legend).
The STANDARD #1 & #2 by John Lees and Jonathon Rector, the first two issues of the award-nominated story of an elderly superhero who comes out of retirement to avenge the death of his former sidekick.
RUNNERS # 1 by Steve Forbes and Mac Radwanski, a horror book that asks, “In a world over-run by zombies, with humanity on the brink of destruction, what the #$%! are vampires supposed to eat?”
ComixTribe can be found at Booth #2537 in the small press section.
Download a free PDF version of COMIXTRIBE TAKES MANHATTAN here!
Or read it online right here: http://bit.ly/CT_NYCC_O
Thanks for reading, let us know what you think, and if you like the book please share!
Hey everyone! Sorry for the long hiatus.
No excuses. Just life and other things popping up. Koko got an incredible project he couldn’t pass up, and I’ve been busy working on other projects. (See below.)
But rest assured, more TOTD is in the works. I’m way ahead on scripts and Koko is returning to pages now. I hope to announce the return of regularly scheduled updates soon, but want to make sure you get a nice chunk of uninterrupted story before I do.
In the meantime, here’s a preview of SCAM #1, a book I edited and am publishing, by the super talented Joe Mulvey. COMPLETELY different than Tears of the Dragon, but just as fun.
