Detail of #3 cover

Slight change of style for the cover of issue #3. The eleven year old Thomas Birdwood plays a larger part so I wanted a children's book style illustration. It'll still go through an intensive Photoshop process, but this is the painting for for the central image.

It's much more controlled than my usual slap-dash approach, and so it came as a surprise when I realised I could actually still paint 'properly'...

Survival Stories

As I've previously mentioned, Insomnia Publications (who I'd signed a contract with to publish The Absence) has filed to cease trading. This is unfortunate for two reasons: 1) it means they won't be publishing my damn book, and 2) it seems that because the owner hasn't specifically applied for bankruptcy and has apparently disappeared into thin air (owing many people money - although not me, thankfully) I, and 60 or so other creators, have our contracts currently stuck in 'limbo'.

Good times.

There's currently all manner of legal proceedings currently rumbling away to help us get the rights to our work back, however some of the creators had an anthology work in progress which, luckily, was outside of their contract from Insomnia. They've decided that the graphic novel, 'Survival Stories' will be used to raise funds for the CBA - the Comic Book Alliance - which is an organisation which fights for the rights of comic book creators and are helping with us the ongoing Insomnia problem.

They need to raise $3,600 to get the book printed. All the creators are working for free. You can read about the book, and pledge money (pledge over $15 and you get a copy of the book once it's printed), here:
www.kickstarter.com/projects/910305588/the-sleepless-phoenix-comics-anthology

Thanks!

Photos

As I've previously mentioned, the fact that Insomnia is now defunct is almost a blessing because I can now put each 'chapter' (Insomnia wanted it as book) as individual issues as I'd always intended. I had a grand scheme for the covers but only got to do one, however now I get to follow the idea through! Each cover is a half-and-half - illustration at the top, and a photo montage at the bottom.

This is the first one:


And this is the new one for issue 2:


None of these photos exist as real places – in the second one for example, the hill, the trees, the sky, the fence, and each crane all come from different images which I've composited together. It's Winter's Hill, where Temple is building his house...

Flashback

So, Insomnia Publications is dead, as is my contract with them which is a shame but hey ho: at least it means I get to do The Absence as single issues, as was the original plan. If I can muster the enthusiasm/energy/time maybe I'll start going to some cons and doing this small press thing properly. Or maybe I'll shop The Absence round to other publishers. People seem to like it...

Anyway.

6 pages of issue #3 (as it will be known now - none of this 'chapter' bullshit anymore) is flashback. I've already established a style for the flashbacks, having had a couple of panels in issues #1 and #2. They look like this:

It's black and white art as with the rest of the comic (albeit with a slightly looser line), with a wash of grey over the top. Looks simple but it's a pain in the ass (although weirdly satisfying) to do. Here's the creation of a page I've been working on from #3. First, the line art:

Then I place a piece of tracing paper over the top and paint with black ink the areas I will eventually want grey. Again, I do it roughly and quickly. The flashback sequences are supposed to be fluid and loose (like a memory) - and I have to do it quickly because the tracing paper has a tendency to ruck up when it gets wet. It'll look like this (sorry about the photo - shitty iphone camera):

This is the overlay when separated from the art:

Once the two pieces are scanned in, I place the overlay on top of the art in photoshop and set the opacity to 30%. Can't post that till I get the art scanned but this, at least, is process. And it's a process I need to get used to: almost all of #4 will be a flashback...
And what's Marwood so terrified of? Well you'll have to wait and see...

Spandex

The Absence chapter 3 is rumbling along (took a minor detour to work on a friend's comic story which hopefully I'll post later, along with some #3 pages). In the meantime, here's a pin up I did for Martin Eden's Japandex project which spun out of his hugely successful Spandex comic. Read about it here: http://spandexcomic.wordpress.com/


After the (relatively) real world of The Absence it was nice to paint a traditional superhero with a mask for a change!
Full disclosure and all that – it was based on the cover of Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami.

When Temple met Clay

The first meeting of the two lead protagonists is a significant moment in The Absence, but I played it low key. I wanted Temple to feel he had all the power in the scene, almost patronising the disfigured Clay with his compassion and concern. But Marwood Clay is a dark horse (to say the least) and Temple will soon see his new 'friend' from a different perspective...



With chapter two now finished I'm deep into chapter three. Should have some stuff on here soon but typically it's turning out to be a difficult chapter with a lot of insanely fiddly special FX (flashbacks! snow!) I have to grapple with.

Replacements

I've almost finished chapter 2. It's all drawn - just gotta tidy up the scans and then letter the bastard and then I'll have 60 pages finished. 60!

One of the reasons it's taking me so long is my determination to not allow time to force me to produce substandard work. I'm learning all the time and I'm constantly going back to old pages and worrying them a little on the computer to try and tidy/rework them. Sometimes it even means a complete redraw. The final page of #2 is such an example. In this instance however, it wasn't the drawing that annoyed me, but the story telling. This is something else I'm learning and exploring - ways of telling the story and making it flow cleanly between the panels.

Anyhoo - the upshot of all this is that I end up with a lot of extraneous material. This is a panel with Temple from the afore mentioned last page of chapter 2. I was always quite pleased with this drawing - it captures the energy and looseness I like in my work. So I thought I'd post it here.