Holy COW! The submission pack is finished! Yes, I will be submitting my comic for publishing now....The only question now, is what publisher to use. I've been thinking of going with 'Image,' but I have no clue if that's actually a good idea. All publishers apparently like to keep their pay-rates under their ridiculous looking top-hats.
Anyway, I need to submit this thing NOW, so I'd better get to making my decision.

Well either way The submission pack is all wrapped up. I've decided to go with a new Sepia-esque format.
I've really had a heck of a time with the coloring. -No surprise there, every one of my art teachers has told me that I have absolutely no grasp on color theory.

The additional advantage to going this rout is that my turn around time has been accelerated from a few days per page, to one page per day. -Pour THAT in your carb. and burn it!!

I'd like to post all five pages, and my cover up on the blog here, eventually, but in the meantime, please enjoy this image from the submission pack.

For the record, this file is titled "BR5Final3Balt3" That's "page 5 Final, the third version, variation B, 3rd alternative......I'm an indecisive perfectionist.

So, think y'all can get on board with this style?

Ranting and Rambling!

Alright, here we are The wedding's over, the Honeymoon's over, The Reception's over, and the Mrs. and I are 'ALMOST' moved in to the new diggs. So, where does that leave things now that the dust is starting to settle?

I'm under-employed at my job with SpyderWise, newly married, making no cash working on the comic, and fixing my father-in-law's truck, off-and-on for spare money.

I'm working on a new Career path, it starts with the comic, but I'm planning on it blowing up into something MUCH bigger, but in the meantime, I need to make cash to get by.

So, until the new Career comes in, I'm keeping my ear to the ground for any art jobs; Illustration, Character design, Environments, (comic work, obviously) storyboarding, graphic design, infographics, I even do pinstriping and pinups, .............pretty much anything, really.

Thanks again, Everybody!

Momentum

Alright...sorry for all the downtime, I got Married! After that, I went on my Honeymoon, moved in to my (our) new house, and have been trying to get into the routine and balance of this new married life, and all the crazy ceremonial stuff (we still have yet to have our reception).....I'm having a rocky time getting back into the swing of things with so much distraction, and without being able to commit as much time as I used to to work.....I'll get back into it, I've been trying. Trust me, This comic is CRAZY-Important to me, and I've been doing my best to keep my momentum even with all that's been going on.

In the meantime, have a page from the Comic!

(Disregard the poor quality, and watermark.)

Thanks for stickin' with me Y'all. Have a Happy Independence Day!!

I write things!

One hurdle down. I have officially finished the script for Book One!
Yes, It's polished and finished. I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but the way I'm writing is FAR different than how most comics are written. There is far less first person dialogue, and more 3rd person narration. I also have fewer panels than most other comics.
Writing the script for the first book has taken up over 7 full pages, typed, in font size 10, That is actually A LOT of Dialogue for a 32 page comic. -The writing in the 'Cat woman' I bought earlier today probably would have filled about 3 or 4.
-not to say anything bad about Cat woman, mind you, just illustrating why I am relieved to have my first issue finished up and polished.
Of course, I am a realist, I know that over the coarse of however-long it takes me to draw this book, I will undoubtedly get altered and improved slightly; but I can say confidently, that I am satisfied with the script as it sits now.

In unrelated news, I finally managed to get my filthy hands on a copy of Nonplayer (2nd printing-Darn it) and it is BEAUTIFUL, and Very interesting. I'm crazy excited to read more.

Thanks again to it's creator, Nate Simpson, for the information regarding sizing for submiting to Image.

Pack it up, Start over!

As I've mentioned PLENTY of times already, I'm COMPLETELY new to the world of comics, and as such, I'm really learning everything as I go along. It's been a little bumpy, to be honest.
I've found it very hard to get really nessicary information, For example, finding any solid info in regards to what DPI I should be working, and what scale, to get myself published. It seems that diferent publishers >Might< have different requirements, but it's hard to actually tell, since most of what I've found was hearsay on forums and things.

It was getting pretty frustrating, so finally I decided to take a leap, and just wrote to Nate Simpson, of Nonplayer fame(BUY IT; It's beautiful!) He was Very Aces, and kind enough to write back. Turns out this entire time, I've been working a little too small. So, what does this mean? Well originally I figured it meant I'd just have to redo my line work and lettering, and with luck my colors would be just fine. Turns out instead that I've had to start the entire process over. It's a lot of work to be sure, but this little hiccup has actually proven to be quite a blessing. See, once I started redoing the drawings, I started making some small adjustments, these turned into marked improvements, which have finally evolved into complete redesigns of the ENTIRE pages. I was happy with the layouts before, but I honestly think the redesigns are far better than the old layouts.

Now if I can only get it all done and shipped before my self imposed deadline, THAT'S when I'm going to really be happy.

What's your favorite comic Flick?

I watched Road to Perdition, for the first time in a long while. -What a beautiful film, What an incredible story.
It deals with many of the same themes as my own tale (Revenge, redemption, Irish and Italian crime etc.)
It was a little intimidating, to watch to be honest, but at the same time, incredibly Encouraging; It really inspired me to work even harder to make my story better than it already is.

On a somewhat related note:
I've mentioned already that at the time I started this project, I hadn't bought a Comic in over a decade (that has changed) However, I own a lot of films based on a Graphic Novels/Comic books.

Some of the titles in my collection are: Hellboy 1-2, sin City, 300, Road to perdition, The Spirit, V for Vendetta, X men 1-2 (but never 3) Spiderman 1-2-3, and Iron man1 (but never 2) Of course, I've seen plenty of others, I just never took the time, nor spent the money to buy them.

There are dozens, possibly hundreds of movies based on Comic Books, spanning all sorts of Genre's, there's everything from The Dark Knight to Wrist cutters, Watchmen to Tank Girl.

So I'm curious: what's your Favorite Comic/Graphic novel Movie?

Hybrid Moments

Now that I've recovered from my surgery (Yes, I heal like Wolverine) I've been getting back into the swing of production, and a reality has begun to set in: Comics aren't easy.

I'm learning as I go here, and I keep finding complications at every turn in this project. Not that I mean to complain, I'm having a wonderful time, and completely enjoying this new endeavour. I'm just venting frustration with my own inadequacies here.
Despite crediting myself as an English major (note my impeccable spelling, and proper use of punctuation) I'm finding that writing in a format of both self narrated dialogue, and spoken conversation, in a graphic form, which REQUIRES me to meet certain page counts, and fit it all into a certain number of issues has been troublesome to plan. Especially with my 'never satisfied, ever changing' approach to writing.....It's a problem.

Beyond that, is the subject of artwork. I am a Character artist. It's what I went to school for, It's to what I've dedicated the last 9 years of my life, IT'S WHAT I DO. what I am terrible at, is Background. I HATE IT! I hate creating environments SO MUCH; but what I hate even more, is creating backgrounds, then redrawing them from different angles, ESPECIALLY with how rigidly realistic I'm keeping this comic.
Now, it took a while, but I finally dialed in a look with which I am REALLY happy, but it caused a problem. It's a broad, and large page layout, offering, on average, 2 panel-type-images (it's hard to explain without just showing them) and requiring a substantial amount of Background!
-Despite my satisfaction with the look of the layout, I may have to tighten things up in the coming pages.

Well, that's it for this rant. rest assured, I've been hard at work trying to get the submission packet ready for, well, submission, and I think I'm doing a good job, I'd just like to ramp up the pace a little bit, but then I would just have to stop being so critical of my own work, and just submit it already...oh, and also quit doing paying work.

Remember May 7th is Free Comic Book Day, so go get a free comic, and support your local Comic shop while you're there, Also, Remember to tell your friends about Black Rows, and be sure to have them credit you, if you want some -FREE ARTWORK-