overdue post

 Here are some of the things I have been slowly working on. These are a couple of additional pages for 'Pre-flight' - the stand alone Captain Spectre adventure I am currently working on. I don't want to give it all away as I want some surprizes left in the book. But I do like getting reactions to the storytelling and art from everyone so I will post as much as I can. Alot of it will be process stuff, from pencils to inks into the color process. I am trying to keep this story short and simple and that is tough to do as I want to pack all kinds of things into it. But I have to try and keep it manageable so I will finally finish one book at a time. ha. I want it to be action packed so keeping the speeches down is tough to get some ideas across. After all it's about the action for Captain Spectre.

Also a character piece for 'Number 13'. Here we have Virginia manning the Maxium machine gun mounted on the foredeck of the yacht, with the chinese cook bringing ammo to her as they strike back at the pirates.

And again apologies to all the loyal Legionnaires for the lack of posts. I have been having a very hard time with my physical and mental states lately. But I will leave all that up to my biographer when they write my pitiful life story.....ha.

finished pencils for page 6 of Solo Flight

That panel from last week was just the top of this page. Here are the finished pencils for the whole page. On this page we see some of the fates of two criminals in our story. 'Solo Flight' is kind of a story about what happens to different breeds of criminals. Again I don't like giving away too much of a spoiler, but again I will say this book is pretty much all I am working on lately - other than the day job stuff, and that isn't any fun. 

I wanted to make sure I got this post up and running, even if it is a bit early on the weekend. I have a few outside chores to tackle and with a chance of rain tomorrow I figured I better finish this up this morning and post it. Then after chores hopefully I will have time for some more pencils. 

This is kind of an in and out page....Captain Spectre rockets into the page in the first panel and flies out in the last panel, of course with an added payload. And I am sure all you Loyal Legionnaires can tell what is going to happen to the passenger in the last panel. He is going for a bit of a high altitude sight-seeing tour. 

Enjoy all you Loyal Legionnaires!

Captain Spectre preview, and yes another film rant

Well I guess I will have to post more product than I had thought I would. Mainly because it is all I am working on lately, of course except the product I slap out for the day job, and this blog isn't about that stuff.  Anyway, here is the opening page to the actual story of the book. This will be page 4 since the intro I posted is three pages long. I wanted this page to end up on the left of the spread so that it is facing page 5. Since I seem to spend quite a bit of time on the actual visual design of the story, and panels and pages. I hope it will show in this book. I am still trying to put my best foot forward as the saying goes. 

Again sorry for the long time between updates lately....I am still dealing with these new meds for my neuralgia and my production time is more limited lately. I hope soon my production time will speed back up.

I also wanted to go ahead and post something because of this new type editor and stuff on the blog's backend. Also you might notice a couple of subtle tweeks here and there on this site. I thought it would be neat to add that globe thing showing where all you Loyal Legionnaires are from. If it creeps you out let me know and I can take it down, but I thought it was swell. 

Ok, here I go again with ranting about the new Marvel movies. Altho I am liking the Captain America film more lately, except for the costume, and the whole Bucky story being changed. I told a friend the other day I will just pretend his real costume is in for repair or something, and will just think the film Bucky is another Howler and not actually Bucky.
But this rant is a short one about the Thor movie. One is those 'people' with Thor - the two girls or women or whatever are really annoying for sure to me, especially that youngest one - the one that Tasers Thor. And there we have the main point of the rant. I have seen two clips from this movie, in one the God of Thunder and Lightning gets Tased and he goes down for the count. Am I the only one that finds that wrong? And in the second clip just released the other day, Thor is fighting the emergency room people and someone sticks a needle in him and he instantly goes down. I find this so wrong too. Think about it here....a medical person with a knock out hypo seeing a big guy would administer a dose for a 'big guy', not a dose for a Norse god.
So in two clips so far we have the God of Lightning knocked out by weak electricity and then knocked out by a human dose of some knock out drug.
That isn't my vision of Thor, the Norse god of Thunder!!

Another sneak preview page.

I planned on posting this the other night, just didn't get to it, and actually just noticed I need to change one thing. In that bottom split panel young Chris is holding a biplane toy. Ha, I need to erase that and either replace it or just will probably leave his hand empty. As with Chris being born at the turn of the century I don't think at this age there would be bi-plane models or toys yet. I guess I was just trying too hard to get the symbol of flying or him wishing to fly over too much. Oh well.

Anyway I am posting this as a full page preview, it is the end of the 'intro' piece at the front of the comic. Remember I had mentioned this intro to get people who know nothing of the character or time or place into the comic. To make the story more accessible to a wider audience if you will.

So in other words the sneaks from now on will be panels or sketches, so as to not spoil anything for you. Also as a bit of torture too. ha. Not really. Well there may be parts I could post as things move along. We will see.

Anyway this proves I am still working at it. Again just a very slow process.

...and so it begins.

Believe me I have said it all to myself....about damn time, time to get to work, get off my butt and do some work, just do it, and most anything else you can think of to get me going.

Sure I have to tighten up the script, iron a few more things out along the way, but the good news is....it has begun.

What you see here is the first pencilled page of a very short intro to the world of Captain Spectre. I decided to add this to the first of the book for people who aren't used to the story, or even comics in general.

I recently listed to a couple of podcasts about comics from part time or non-comics readers. One of the more interesting things about it all are a couple of questions us regular comic readers take for standard practice. Like the big question, who are all these people I am seeing and where did all the stuff come from?

As comics, I feel, need to spread out since we don't seem to be getting new readers just mainly comic readers trying something different. I thought I would add a intro bit for people who haven't see the on line strip, I can always point them there with something in the book, or in person if they buy a copy. Also this sets the stage for the era and feeling of the book, rather than people thinking it is a modern day book and helps get them in the mood for what they are about to see and read. At least I hope it is a good idea. I will post all of this intro online as I get the pages done and we can talk about the idea and if it works or not.

It does add some pages, but this first one is gonna be a whooper anyway. I really don't have a official page count yet as I am still working out some layout problems and storytelling things. I want this book to be as clear as possible to readers and non-comic readers alike.

So stick with me Loyal Legionnaires, it is going to be a long slow road getting this book finished, but I am hoping it will be worth it in the long run.

I will post as much as I feel I can to not give away too much, but since this is mostly what I am working on from here on out, after the day job of course, then I feel I have to post somethings.

thanks.......and away we go!!!!!!