The Future is rapidly approaching...!!!!

Hello Loyal Legionnaires....again sorry for the flagrant lack of posts here, but I have been really busy lately and will give the low down on most projects in a minute.
But first the reason for this post's title.  My future is something that is rushing headlong towards me, and I will have to deal with it sooner than later.   I for one have always hated working for other people, but I was always scared to strike out on my own.....doubting my talent and everything else.  When i had a family there was almost no way to strike out on your own, too many responsibilities and all of keeping everyone feed, clothed, and all the things that go with living.
But now i am coming rapidly up on the age of 'early' retirement.  To early retire, or not to early retire, that is the question!!!  First of all i vowed to myself that i would never be one of those people i had seen in my childhood years that gave all to his company or job, and had no life outside of it.  I have seen people like that work at a job until they dropped dead, or worked until forced to retire and had nothing to do, or didn't know what to do when left alone to themselves.  Oh sure i had a strong work ethic and all that, and did my jobs, and even over and above most of the time, but i always wanted to do my own thing and just couldn't wait to get done with the day so i could at least think about what i wanted to do.
Anyway that all leads me to me being very busy lately.
I have a few projects in the works, and have actually over reached in that department.  But you can never count on all projects going forward.  But with some of these projects, it just might bring in a bit of money to help me reach that 'early' retirement status.   I hope.

So the list goes like this.....

A famous jungle project that might happen.....
A famous planetary romance that might happen....
An famous aviation strip that might happen....
A pitch to a comics company for a rocket powered person you might know.....

and.....to go along with all that......

   i am lettering the Halloween Legion graphic novel written by Martin Powell that will appear later this year, hopefully from Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse.....

   i am working on a tee shirt design for a hot musical group out of Texas.....

Also have some projects floating around the edges like:

Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs adaption......

and above all CAPTAIN SPECTRE!!!!  which is the point of retiring early!!!!!! So i can work on Captain Spectre!!!!

So here are some pieces to fuel your imaginations!!!! enjoy Legionnaires!!!!

 

my how time flies....

Hey all you Loyal Legionnaires....are you still out there in internet land??? Hope so.

Once again apologizing for the lack of updates. Time just flies the older you get. ha.

I have been a little busy with projects, but it seems to be all over the place so this post is going to wander by the nature of the times.

Well seems that old KiGor wide vision  story I did a couple of years ago for Moonstone is finally going to surface.  If you remember it is a prose story with I think five illustrations I did that spread across the double page spread.  Remember, this is the one.  Written by the great Martin Powell, so look for 'War of the Beast-Men' sometime in the future....I will keep you posted...I promise.

Also been working on another proposed KiGor thing, after all I need a few bucks to pay down some of my medical bills that roll in. Believe me it isn't much of a chance at some money, but then again no publisher pays much at all anymore. It is all back end money and promises mostly. Shame the industry has to resort to this kind of treatment of the talent. Anyway, I feel I draw a bit better than a couple of years ago, so went for a slight redesign of the KiGor character last night while watching 'the Spider Returns' serial. 

I was also dealing with a haunting feeling that the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Deep Ones from HP Lovecrafts tales are closely related. So was playing around with that in my daily warm up sketches...and it is thinking toward another little project for bucks I may have going. 

Also I have been playing around with some color, especially for the Number 13 project for Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse.  I consider myself one of the worst color theorists in the business. Plus I seem to agonize over it way too much when I color something, and it just takes so much time hitting the art one more time after inking it. Sometimes after I ink something, I feel done with it. ha. Anyway here is a un-refined color version of the first page of Number 13. 

Also, since I am thinking ahead to doing more conventions next year and the year after, and also wishing and hoping I can take early retirement....so I figured while I had a pay check coming in I thought I would go ahead and get a business card....then I figured I needed two....one kind of serious one, and one spotlighting the cartooning aspect of everything from cartoony to serious illustration type stuff. So here those are.....

So see even tho I don't make it around to posting, and feel I don't have anything new to show, I guess I really do most of the time.....it may not all be finished stuff, or good stuff.....but it is stuff! ha. 

And of course once again I am slowing down due to my health, can't seem to sit at the board for ultra long periods like I used too.  So some days when the day job is long and tough, the evening just isn't very productive.   

So Loyal Legionnaires hope you are still tuning in........and if you are, Thanks for hanging around and waiting on the old man. 

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.

Dec 4 update

Again sorry for a late update, but if I have nothing finished or even a good sketch I don't like bothering everyone with nothing. So anyway I have a couple of things more finished. First up is more coloring on the Number 13 cover art.

There are still a few things I want to refine in this coloring, but I do think it is finally getting there.

Also today was a pretty good day. Freezing outside and all the rain I got Saturday is all frozen in the ground or on top of it. Also got a dusting of snow pebbles on top of most everything. So saturday working on the story for 'Pre-flight' a little more. Pre-flight is the working title of the first Captain Spectre comic. As you remember the other stories I was in development on were turning into more novella's or graphic novel length. And I wanted to get something a bit shorter and cheaper out there first to get people looking at the material. So Pre-flight is the first story. I don't want to reveal alot of the story points yet. But today I banged out the first page of pencils. Enjoy Loyal Legionnaires.

Legionnaire Express update

Well things are starting to shake loose and move forward again, even I have to exclaim, 'it's about time'!
Here are the inks to Virginia Maxon splashing in the water, as her new future friend 'number one' looks on. A true stalker before the term was used.

This piece was done with a bit of a new process, no the brush was still pulled across the bristol board and all that labor and sweat still prevails in the piece. But I did incorporate a bit of technology as I sketched it out until I was fairly happy with the drawing, then printed the pencil drawing in light blue on the bristol board, then inked that board. This was done with the help of a new printer. I haven't had a printer at home for about six years and sometimes it has been a real pain. So I finally sprung for a large format printer that can handle bristol board and most papers up to and including 13x19, for some reason but I have never seen 13x19 paper sized anywhere. Anyway it will print an 11x17 borderless and that is what I wanted. I hope it improves me drawing speed a bit since I can now sketch out panels for a page concentrating on just the panel image, then scan them all and composite them in photoshop to get the sizes and panel flow just right. I then print them out in a light blue or very light grey and I can ink them. It kind of skips the full blown pencils stage, but with me inking my own work full blown pencils are destroyed in the process anyway as after i ink them i erase all the pencils. So anyway experimenting with it all to get the best results with consideration of upping my production rate, which is very slow.

Also another 'concept' cover to Number 13. This one goes for the creepy got to grab the reader at the newstand kind of marketing. Plus I had fun doing it and like it alot. It is done totally in photoshop, so no original to sell. Alas the curse of a digital world.

Also I know I have neglected Captain Spectre a lot lately. With all my problems and jobs and things going on he never leaves my mind. I am planning several things which I will reveal in the future. But for now a little taste of some good ole' Captain Spectre. 

Also this is one of those pieces that just screams 'finish me'! So expect to see some finished pencils and inks sometime very soon. 

Yet another long overdue report!

I am truly sorry for the lateness of this progress report, such as it is. More than a week ago I woke up with a leg that was throbbing with pain. It felt like that nano second when you get a super cramp. The problems were that it covered my entire leg, not just one muscle or muscle group. It went from my hip socket to my toes. It had that sharp cramping feeling, but the cramp never came, just the pain. And it lingered for a couple of days. I was still under the assumption that I had some form of cramp. I have had alot of cramps in my legs since I was a kid, but this was something new. So I gave it a day or too. Nothing changed so I got worried. Again thinking it was something to do with the fibromyalgia, which it did turn out to be. But before the doctor would own to that, I was checked for other things like blood clots and all that. Especially since all I do is sit. I drive to sit, then get up to drive to sit some more. I am a professional sitter, ha. Anyway I was scanned, poked, drained and prodded and it seems more nerve things are going on. Oh boy. I am still kind of down and out because of this. Even tho I am sitting 99.9 percent of the time, the pain is kind of distracting for sure. Anyway add that to the arthritis and the rest of the fibromyalgia I have and it makes for a great combo of pain and stiffness in the joints and muscles. So needless to say things have been moving slowly here at Lightning Legion secret HQ.

Here is another concept piece for Number 13, enjoy the pencils because I am gonna slop some ink on it soon.....

Also when I was in a late night pissed off at all the pain I started a impro kind of life strip that I will try to work on when the pain is too much to do any kind of quality work...ha.

I actually did two strips of this before the pain got too bad and my mind was traveling elsewhere with the doctor appointments and pain and tests and all....so enjoy both as the plot heats up....ha

And once again I will try harder to keep you loyal Legionnaires updated as much as possible. Just sometimes I haven't made much progress, and even I get tired of myself complaining about the pain....

thanks Legionnaires for baring with me.

the many Captains...

Things have kind of been crazy lately, but here is some progress made on another page of Captain Spectre's 'Solo Flight'.  I have changed the layout for this page several times, in an effort to try and get as much story as I can in these pages. So there are some fast scene changes, and some compressed story telling, which is sore point in new comics to me, is the decompression to the fact sometimes in an issue of a new comic.... nothing happens!. Anyway hope you enjoy, since it has been a bit tough. My pain problems have been an issue the last week or so. 

Here is some great progress made on the secret Captain Spectre six inch action figure!....Wow is about the only word I can get out of my mouth as I look at each new picture of the work of Jonathan at PackRat Studios. He is doing some great stuff, and even casting the head. Man this is gonna be cool. Once finished it will have a great display base and in one of those glass domes for display at the con table when I start returning to those. Hopefully next year he and me will be making the rounds. Of course when not at a show, I will be playing with the figure......hey, we here at the Lightning Legion test all our products....that is the fun of it all. 

So get over to Jonathan's site and check out the progress shots of Captain Spectre, and all the other cool stuff he does....amazing. 

Ok, you win, I am officially eating my hat....as I said I would. I actually liked the Captain America movie. Oh sure there were parts I didn't like....but I thought the spirit of the character made it into the movie. The origin was the best parts of the movie. And Chris Evans pulled off the character nicely. It was sure nice to see a hero on the screen that wasn't wallowing in his own self pity. 

During the war I admit Steve Rogers didn't have too many demons he wore on his sleeve. And many people gripe that Rogers is a flat character. I on the other hand don't think he is. He can be written as a good character without having demons hanging on his shoulder all the time, which is what people want it seems. But in the end Cap has one of the largest demons of any hero .....EVER (Superman has the same problems). He wakes up to find his whole world gone....not just his parents, or something. He has lost a world, a way of life and all he ever knew. And Chris Evans nails the last line of the movie showing this. 

Going into the movie I hated the way Bucky and Steve's relationship was changed. But actually in the movie not much of that comes thru. And actually to me the Bucky character wasn't much at all. I just pretended he was a regular friend and member of the team, and it didn't phase me much at all. Even his death was toned down. The Bucky I know and like is the one from the rebirth stories in Tales of Suspense and the early Avengers. Bucky on the buzz bomb yelling to Cap that he sees the fuse and can stop the bomb, as Steve falls down into the water. The bomb blows up as Bucky is trying to save people's lives. Over the years writers have changed this alot. Hell even when they show it on the new Avengers cartoon show they change it too Bucky telling Cap to dive off the buzz bomb as Bucky's foot is stuck on the bomb. Not that he is trying to save people, just that he is stuck and can't get off so decides Steve is more important and needs to leave him behind.   Sometimes Hollywood or modern writers forget what a hero is. 

Then of course is the costume. I still don't like it, but I guess by the end of the movie it was growing on me. Actually it changes so much thru the film and even into the Avengers movie that it is kind of interesting to watch it's evolution. 

Also just like an old comic, we figure Red Skull is in Asgard or one of the nine realms, and of course we didn't see Bucky go splat, so both can come back at a later date. I hope not, but they may. 

Anyway it was an enjoyable movie, sure it had it's problems, like the lack of any story other than the origin. It also had it's good parts, and again the origin is the best part, that is who Steve Rogers is. 

Still chewing on my hat, as I will buy the DVD....kind of wish I had seen Thor now. But will get the DVD's of them all. Actually looking forward to having a Tales of Suspense movie night.....Iron Man, then Captain America viewings in one night. 

Solo Flight progress

Well, Loyal Legionnaires, I have been down and out for some days with my medical problems, and pretty much confined to the house because of the heat wave here. But even being confined to the recliner with my swollen feet and all I have managed to finish some layouts or thumbnails for upcoming pages of 'solo flight'.

As you can see a bit on this page I wanted to keep the good Captain still somewhat mysterious to the police, so I only show him in pieces and bits, or from the back or in long shots. I am also planning on adding the advent of sound effects in this story. I don't know if anyone noticed but in the close to 100 pages or strips on the site there have not been any on screen sound effects. I am not very good at making up good sound effects or even using them. I feel sometimes they are overused in comics or underused. But I do plan to use them in 'solo flight' along with the thought balloon.  Something I feel is missing in comics are the actual interworkings of the character. I find anymore in new comics they try to let the art tell all. Well it just can't do it all. I look at some comics and don't feel a connection to the character shown, or sometimes the art doesn't 'cut it' and I just don't know what is happening, or more precisely just what the hell I am supposed to get out of it. Maybe it is my age, maybe I am trying to get too much out of it, or maybe I am trying to make it too complex, but I just don't get it. I have always been the kind of guy that if I don't like a books art I don't buy it. Especially now a days with the high prices. But the words and connection to the characters have to be there too. I see so many comics now that have pages of six or seven panels that have a character doing something and maybe only one word balloon on it. I see alot of wasted storytelling time. I know some of the major companies have banned the evil thought balloon, but I think something is missing.
Also there is the 'new' reader problem. I want to get my books into hands of people that don't read comics on a normal basis. And I see and hear of so many adults that don't know how to read a comic. The thought blocks are confusing to people, they don't know who is talking, and I want my book clear and too the point and easy for lapsed readers or new readers to get into, just as much as I do regular comic readers. So get ready for sound effects and thought balloons in 'solo flight' when it gets finished.

Science comic.

Well this update will be short and not very sweet. At least not sweet to me. You see in receiving a salary, sometimes when the deadline falls you must obey! So this weekend I am putting the finishing touches on this science comic for work. Big Sigh! I should be doing another commission that I have to go, and working on some stuff for the upcoming Number 13, and most of all working on Captain Spectre!
But alas, I am here working on the last two panels of this science comic. I know there will be a couple more additions and changes so not going to get too worked up.
One thing to notice here is the richer colors of these pages. They are for digital release and not for print. So I thought richer colors would be better. Also these are just dark pencils and not inks. The powers that be discovered Arkham Asylum and wanted something like that.
I should also mow today as it has been awhile. So if it doesn't rain later today then that will be on the daily plan.

Sorry for the odd update. Hopefully this will be the last time for stuff like this.

ERB's Number One

Well here is a stab at the most drawn scene from Edgar Rice Burroughs 'the Monster Men'. Bill Stout, Mark Schultz, Frank Frazetta, St. John have all done this scene. So I figured I would give it a try. I didn't even know Mark had done a version until this wednesday when I finally got a copy of his great sketchbook Vol. 5. I got it home and opened it up and bang there was a drawing of Number 13 and Number 1 fighting, which was something not done yet with it. Then a commission piece of this scene. I had previously drawn a version but when I saw Mark's I just tore mine up and threw it away. The pose was almost exactly the same. 

So anyway here are the pencils. I am pretty sure it won't be the cover but it might be a splash page or something if I am lucky.

Here are the inks as they stand Sunday evening.....it is a very slow process right now. My hand is giving me fits lately. So anyway enjoy Loyal Legionnaires, and I promise more Captain Spectre very soon. I still have a couple of commissions to knock out from my friends fund drive I was working on. But Captain Spectre pages are boiling on my workbench to be done. And in my mind. Thanks for tuning in.

Oh, I also added a blog roll over on the right side, down a bit....blogs I follow as they update will be at the top. As I installed this gadget there were 128 blogs I follow on my list...sheesh. But as they post they will drift up. So enjoy that small addition too. It's all about the links and traffic, Legionnaires.

Tarzan, and Memorial Day...

One of the small projects I acquired at the DumDum last year was to do a small Tarzan image for a stamp cancellation postcard for when the Edgar Rice Burroughs stamp comes out. They are hoping, the Burroughs Society that is, that a ERB stamp will be done for the 100th anniversary of Tarzan coming up very soon. So the other day I started with some ideas of what to do for it. They seemed to like the one with Nkima, more than the one of the Tarzan yell. So I went with the Nkima one and started playing around with the design of it.

Next I pencilled and inked one. At the time I kind of liked it, but then started to sketch some more and decided I didn't like it very much. So I pencilled out another arrangement of the same subject.

I liked this one alot better. I focused a bit more on Tarzan by hiding Nkima behind him and brought his hand up with his knife in it. So I decided to ink it. I like inking, just sometimes the finished inks don't have the power or emotion of the pencilled piece. But I did the best I could.

I kind of think it held it's own with the finished inks. So I can consider this side project finished. I think it survived my inks.

Anyway Happy Memorial Day to all my Loyal Legionnaires. But that seems an odd thing to say a happy memorial day just doesn't seem right. So anyway just enjoy the day off if you have one coming. I know I will enjoy any day off I have from the day job. But tonight I am working on Captain Spectre, and hopefully tomorrow too, inbetween mowing and other duties around the secret HQ.

Now for a bit of news. I have accepted a project that will help things out. Let me explain a bit. The project will take me away from some time on Captain Spectre. Which isn't a good thing for me because I want this first issue out. But this new project is created by Sequential Pulp comics to be published by Dark Horse comics. So for one thing that means it is a high profile project published by a powerful comics company. It will be a full graphic novel, done in one type of story. So it will be alot of work for me as I will be handling all the art, letters and colors. But I hope with the added exposure from this project that will bring more attention to me and too Captain Spectre. The story is an Edgar Rice Burroughs one shot novel called 'the Monster Men'. The original title to the story was 'Number 13'. It has a bit of everything. It is kind of a frankenstein story mixed with pirates, a bit of jungle adventure, and some monsters....all with a burroughs twist. The official release hasn't been posted yet but should very soon. So it is going to be a tough year coming up for me trying to work on it and Captain Spectre. But I am hoping the combination of high profile and a great story will help out my other work. So I hope all you Loyal Legionnaires understand that I am trying to help out each project as best I can. So stay tuned to this blog for all the action and updates coming on both projects, as always.

New Captain Spectre page!

Well Loyal Legionnaires, here is another page from 'Solo Flight' - my first comic novella in the works. This page follows the last one posted as I am working thru the story on a linear basis. I am too narrow focused of a person to try and do it any other way. And once again I hope posting this progress isn't going to affect the millions of sales I plan on having.......hahaha. Just joking you 'all.  But you can see one of the bad guys going for a bit of a ride via Captain Spectre airlines, but oops that poor gal seems to be having a bit of trouble in the back of the truck. Maybe it's just a 1939 version of a bad hair day.
As before it takes me quite a while to plan out a page and get it all down. If you notice the pencils are somewhat less refined on this page. I started figuring since I was going to ink them, I didn't need to spend too much time worrying about totally finished pencils. I like doing tight pencils so I am trying to loosen up some on that area to help speed things up a little.

And speaking of speeding things up, I have actually agreed to do a project for a fresh starting company to be published thru Dark Horse Comics....and will have more news as it is released by the company. But I will throw out a tease for now......

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!

A tough one....

As the title says, a tough one...this panel gave me a ton of trouble as far as the layout is concerned and also it proved my arthritis is getting to me more than I thought. This is the top panel of a page. And I just tried and tried but couldn't get the layout started right. So other than wearing out a piece of board, or comic paper, I drew the pieces one at a time, then lightboxed them together onto a new page. I discovered I don't have any control over my hand movements, well limited control when my arm is extended to the top of a page. In other words the more I reach the less control I have. This is making things tougher to work. But there are work arounds like the lightbox and other things. Getting old is not fun kids. Ha. 

Also I hope viewers of any of the Commando Cody/Rocketman films don't think I am just ripping off one of the cool scenes in the movies. As most of you know I am heavily influenced by those great Republic cliffhangers. This scene is a tip of the hat to the first serial with Tris Coffin as Rocketman. But after alot of thought, there truly isn't alot of ways to land on a moving truck with your jetpack. So it actually helped using the lightbox. I drew the truck and all, then drew Captain Spectre at this angle, then lightboxed the truck and then placed Captain Spectre and lightboxed him. (The lightbox is a small box with frosted plexiglass as a drawing surface with a light source underneath. That way you can place a drawing on it and transfer, or trace the drawing onto a clean piece of paper.) 

Isn't the internet a wonder. A place of unlimited reference for artists. I can't count how many times I use it to look up what something looks like. Especially like drawing the Captain Spectre strip. If I need a 1936 police cruiser, then I just type it in and wham there it is. Amazing to this day. And it sure saves alot of time in research and reference. It also yields great gems, like this photo of Kong on the mountain. Being a poor man's collector, I don't have many film books or things like that. I mostly buy comic collection books and things like artist collections, so I had never seen this photo before. And being a King Kong film fan, as I still consider it the greatest adventure movie made, when I saw this photo I just had to reach for the DVD and view it again. I can honestly say that I don't know how many times I have viewed this film. Hundreds for sure. It never fails to make me feel like a kid again. 

Then of course the big news, and this is what I think one of the better cartoons of the event. Most had political sides taken but this one was more American so I liked it better. Of course it is copyright by the artist, I am just reposting because I liked it. As some of you know I have a personal stake. One of my sons served in the War on Terror in Iraq for almost two years, and made it back home from the frontlines.

Also some things stay the same as in enemies can only hide so long, either from Seal Team Six or Captain Spectre. As shown in one of the first Captain Spectre shirt designs I did when the strip started.

I wanted to get this update posted as I will be spending some time with the northern branch of the Floyd family today. They are coming out to the secret HQ for a cookout. So happy Mothers day to all the mothers out there. And to my mom, long gone, Thanks Mom.

Throttles at full....!

Well as before, I don't know how much I want to show of the Captain Spectre novella, but since that is the main thing I am working on in all my spare time it is all I have to show. So Loyal Legionnaires, here is another full page of pencils, page 5, showing a bit of the set up and Captain Spectre ready to go into high flying action! At least the words aren't included, so that will be the surprize when you read the full issue. This thing is going to clock in about 48+ pages so that is why I am calling it a 'novella'. It is a complete story also, no continued stuff here. Enjoy...

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.

the process.....the warm ups

I thought I would post a bit about 'the process' as it were. I had some people ask here and also email me about this little known part of the drawing process.

The first thing when I sit down to draw is the 'warm up'. I guess like most things involving controlled parts of the body, ha, like a baseball pitcher or something is the 'warm up'. Same in drawing. The 'warm up' gets the arm moving so you can work on control, movement, and just generally working the kinks out. And of course the older you get the more kinks you have to work out. I find it also gets some of the images out of your brain you may have stored while watching tv or reading or whatever from the night before. It also serves as kind of an 'idea factory' for poses and other stuff.

Also after doing this I usually scan them with my 11x17 scanner and save most of them. I usually scan all my work. Even pencilled pages before inking. Sketches I like, finished work and all. My scanner is one of my most important pieces on my computer table. I paid a ton for it, but it has been worth every penny. I used to have a small scanner, and when I started doing Captain Spectre I had to scan each half of a page and put them back together in photoshop. What a pain that was week after week. Or whenever I got a page done. Now I can scan a full size comic page, they are draw bigger than the print size, if you don't know. The drawing field on a full size comic page is about 10 x 15.25 inches.

Anyway you can see the simple sketch of the Captain Spectre drawing I posted last week, in the lower right corner of the top page of sketches. That is where it started, and I thought it was a cool pose so I finished it up on the bigger paper of a comic page.

warm up drawing goes crazy!

Usually as a warm up drawing I try to do poses for Captain Spectre flying or fighting. Mainly because they are more fluid and have some energy, and for warm up drawings that is kind of what you want to either get into, or out of your system. Also lately because of my hands I have been using large paper so I can kind of get all the joints and things going in the same direction. Well this morning started with a couple of very quick roughs sketches then this one just struck a cord. My arm felt ok, and things were going good so I just stuck with it. Also must of the time if I do a pin-up type thing it is or can be used for a couple of different things. I figure this could be a splash page sometime, or a cover, or poster or banner or something. Anyway now I have something nice to ink and warm up my inking someday, maybe tomorrow....we shall see. Sometimes a drawing gets under your skin and you just have to finish it - strike while the iron is hot kind of thing.

'Solo Flight' update - I don't have any more finished pencilled pages yet, I went back to working out some problems I saw on my thumbnails and layouts. Fight scenes are not as easy as they look to do the choreography for. And especially to make some sense out of. I don't like those fight scenes that don't move right. Anyway hope I can make them all work.

On the medical front, it seems that I had a couple of pains that just won't fade at all with all the different meds I have been taking. So my local doc tried something different, and it seems to be working some....it is a nerve med that attacks the way your pain receptors receive signals from your nerves. So it is a combo of neuralgia and arthritis...so more meds and more time to sort things out. But more on all that as it develops.

Again thanks to all who tune in....I do appreciate it more than you know. thanks.

A quick update

Legionnaires....sorry once again for a long pause between updates. I will explain as things develop on that, with good news hopefully.

But until then here is the pencils for page 2 of the 'who are they' part of the intro to 'Solo Flight' -the first full length Captain Spectre comic!

I finished these off last night, after having a couple of bad nights with my arm and hands. So I guess you could say, 'equipment failure' was the reason for the long pause between page 1 pencils and this page 2.

thanks for understanding Loyal Legionnaires.....I do appreciate it alot.