[Edit: For all my complaining about doing it in color every time I looked at the b/w version I cringed. I just really didn’t like it. So I did a fairly quick color version. On the bright side it only took about an hour and a half to color and I like it much better. Maybe if I can keep getting the time down it’ll be practical to do 3 days a week.]

I’ve finally reached two hundred updates! Not quite all are comics but most of them are. So that’s a pretty cool landmark. Once again it’s in black and white, and a very simple toning at that. I just couldn’t deal with coloring it today. I really want to do a black and white comic. Color is pretty, but it just takes too long, and frankly when comics that use stick figures are getting tens of thousands of hits, why am I spending all my time painting. I should be spending that time updating more and telling the best story I can. I’ve been planning another strip, but I’m torn between reworking Far Reaches so that it’s the strip I want it to be, or starting fresh. Not that I’d stop Far Reaches. I love the characters, but I’m spending some time making them more real and that you can care about, especially Gilrec. But that’s the point of this story line.

I really like this page. I love the tentacle agent. He’s so not what you’d expect. And the first shot of Bentley has got to be my favorite pose of him I’ve done so far. I really like how it came out. It’s so heroic. We also get a glimpse of Bentley’s past. You’ll have to keep tuning in to find out more.

For those who are kind of new, the hologram in Bentley’s hand is the ancient artifact that everyone is after. You can learn more here and here and here.

Share This

Well I’ve made it to 200 updates! That’s pretty awesome. Still, I should be up to three hundred. That’s how slow the progress on the story has been, and a big part of that is that the pages simply take too long to do. I love the look of the color pages, but they just take too long. I’m not totally happy with pg 200’s shading, but it was quick and I really wasn’t up to a lot of labor. I just wanted to post it. I think next time I’ll try to find a happy medium. As I said in the comic post I’ve been in the midst of researching and planning a second strip. I’ve been wanting to do it for a while, but I’ve been putting more work into it lately. The Far Reaches just isn’t what it should be. If a comic is really good, if it strikes a chord, it will automatically start gaining readers. It can’t be stopped. But Far Reaches just won’t grow. That tells me I either need to rework it so that it is the comic I want it to be, or start from scratch. Ultimately, I’d like to do both. But I can’t do Far Reaches in color three times a week. It’s just too much. But I could to it in black and white. Also, I don’t want to give up on FR because I really like a lot about it. I love the characters, but they just need some refining so that people can really care about them. And that’s a writing thing. That means more updates.

I’ve often called FR epic, and in my head it is because I know the whole story. And it really does get epic. But right now it’s kind of small. So my goal is to transform FR into the kind of comic and universe that I want it to be. If you have any thoughts about what you’d like to see improved about FR, feel free to chime in. I always appreciate everyone’s input.

Share This

I’ve made a new version of the Dark Lord of the Sheep wallpaper and am thinking of making signed prints to offer at Baltimore Comic Con. They’ll be 8.5×11 in size and will probably sell for $3 or so. But in the mean time, here’s a new wallpaper. Just click on the thumbnail.

Share This

It’s a funny thing living in Las Vegas. Never in my life would I ever imagine the following scenario. I walk outside and say, “wow it’s kind of nice and cool and balmy today!” and then look and it’s 99 degrees! When did 99 degrees become refreshingly cool and balmy?! I guess when you’re so used to 105-112, then 99 is like a nice break. Weird. The one nice thing about this blot of a town is that once summer is over, it’s going to be beautiful weather for nine months.

In other news, I really didn’t think that this was going to happen, but it did. I actually got an artists alley table for Baltimore Comic Con. This will be my second con ever, and the first where I will actually have a table. So it’s a little daunting, but I’m really excited about it. I’m hopefully going to have limited edition black and white print copies of Far Reaches vol 1 and am giving out free sketches with every book. There’s not a lot of them so if you’re going to be at the con, come by and check it out. I’ll also have a new super cool poster (hopefully) of the hot rod starship, Calantha, docked in my favorite CG scene that I’ve done (the one in pg 158). And I will be selling original art. I’ll be focusing on drawing super-cool robots, cyborgs, and fun stuff like that, although I’ll take requests too. (If you want a pic of the Dark Lords of the Sheep I’ll do that too!) So if you’ll be there come on down and say hi! It’s going to be awesome fun.

Share This

Well, I’m back and getting into the swing of things here. There’s so much to catch up on. I’m about ready to ink the next comic and it should be done by Tuesday afternoon. Things have been rather crazy but it’s all coming out in the end. Comic-Con was a blast. I picked up a bunch of comics for…research…yeah, research. So they ought to be tax deductible, right? :)  To bad I didn’t get receipts. Rats. Oh, well. I got to meet the artists behind all the books and they mostly all did a free little sketch in them. That was pretty cool. I had never really read Melon Pool, but I got to meet Steve Troop and check out his latest comic, CryptoZooey. It’s extremely cute. I haven’t had much chance to look through anything else I got yet, as I’ve been so busy catching up. You may or may not know that Wowio has been bought out by Platinum Entertainment, which immediately set off the warning bells, especially as there’s a new addendum to the contract. But I had a chance to talk to a Wowio Rep at comic-con, who has at least 30 books on Wowio himself, and he was still pretty positive about it. And now that I’ve had a chance to actually read the addendum I didn’t really see anything all that bad about it. Not generous in it’s terms per se, but there’s nothing about ownership of IP or any sort of exclusiveness about it. I can still sell my books on Drivethrucomics, and once Wowio is back up you should be able to get the remixed issues for free like before. Hopefully, it’ll all work out.

I’m currently trying to get into Baltimore Comic Con with an artist’s alley table. So hopefully you’ll see me there if you’re going. I’ve heard there’s a lot of competition for tables so let’s hope I get one. I’ll have more on that as it happens.

Share This

Well I’ve had my two days at the biggest comic convention in the US. It was huge. There are muscles I didn’t even know I had screaming out from all the walking and standing, but it was just so much fun that it just doesn’t matter. I got to show my comic to a number of publishers and a whole bunch of artists. You can find the photos here. I just wish I had taken more. There were so many creative cosplayers. The cylon warrior got my award for the coolest, although there were some great ones. Although some people shouldn’t wear spandex body suits.

As mentioned, I got to meet a ton of great artists and got a couple commissioned sketches that looked awesome. I got to talk to the Halfpixel guys who do Webcomics Weekly Podcast and go to their live panel, which was hilarious. If you want to know how to get started in Webcomics, listen to the podcast (just google it) and get their book: Making Webcomics published by Image. Dave Kellett (Sheldon), Kris Staub (Starslip Crisis), and Brad Guigar (Evil, Inc.) were fun to talk to and always available to pick their brain and get some feedback. I also met Scott Sava who does Dreamland Chronicles. Scott Sava has got to be one of the nicest guys in comics and I had a lot of fun talking to him. Universally, every artist and publisher I showed my comic to was impressed and loved the art. That was pretty great. And it’s always fun to talk shop with other artists. Well, I drive back tomorrow morning. But I wanted to share some pictures. Hopefully, I’ll be at the Baltimore Comic Con in September.

Share This