Arriving today at your local comic shop – The Legends of the Dark Knight 100 Page Spectacular with my Harley Quinn VS Batman story drawn by Neil Googe and Pathfinder #12, wrapping up the second story arc of the series with a big dragon battle drawn by Sean Izaakse and Ivan Anaya!
Click on the covers above to check out previews from either one.
I’m on the hunt for a colorist for a creator-owned comic project I’m looking to release in 2014. I posted about this position earlier today on Facebook/Twitter and the response has been strong. I’m hopeful I’ll find the right person for the job. Yay, internet!
Anyway, here’s the quick skinny-
In addition to that Want-Ad style brief, I’ve been sending more extensive style notes out to the colorists who got in touch and have work in their portfolio that looks compatible with what I’m looking for.
I realized it might be helpful for other people to see those notes as well. Every project has different requirements, but you may find it helpful to see what I’m looking for and why.
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Stylistically, I’m looking for the following on this comic project:
• Color palettes that help sell the mood of the scene instead of just blue sky/green grass/blue water kind of obvious local color choices.
• Clean cut light and shadow reminiscent of animation. This will require a solid understanding of light direction, cast shadows, and volume even though the coloring ‘cuts’ may look deceptively simple.
• Light effects created by coloring the line art itself and using solid highlights instead of a lot of airbrush/gradients over top of the line art. I’m not looking for a soft/fuzzy/rounded rendering style for this project.
It’s a great example of what I’m looking for. I don’t mean Bill’s specific color palette choices but the way he uses hard cut areas of light and shadow to create mood, show depth, draw attention to characters, and instantly identify a change of scene or location. It’s not about detail as much as it’s about strong staging choices and powerful color palettes.
If you can deliver that kind of clean cut moody coloring, then you’d be a perfect fit for this project.
I have three sample pages completed by the penciler so far. I’ve sent them off for flatting, but should be getting those back by end of the week. Once I have those flats I’ll send over a layered-flatted page file along with color ref for the characters and the sample script. If you could color up one page as a test, that’ll help me compare coloring approaches and make a decision on the creative team.
Over on the 13th Dimension comic site they’re posting up Christmas comic memories by professionals working in the business. Mine is up now, a little story about tracking down Bone Vol. 3 in hardcover during a winter storm.
Arvid Nelson (who writes the Warlord of Mars series for Dynamite Comics) interviewed me on Bleeding Cool and we cover a pretty good range of things including the secret of my motivation to hit work deadlines.
Comic writer Ron Marz is doing his annual ‘Toys For Tots’ Christmas charity fundraiser and I sent him four items that are now up on ebay as part of it. If you want to get a unique gift and to support a great cause at the same time, please consider bidding:
Samurai Jack Sketch Cover – Aku
The printed version of the Wonder Momo webcomic I’ve been writing for Bandai-Namco Japan arrives in April, but it’s available for pre-order now.
If you haven’t read through the story, or have fallen behind, now’s a perfect time to get caught up.
| Momoko was a typical Japanese teenager with dreams of becoming a famous pop idol, until an alien powersuit transformed her into the spectacular Wonder Momo! This cosmic hero punches, kicks, and hula hoops her way through monsters, henchmen, robots, and her most dangerous foe… the dreaded paparazzi! |
PRE-ORDER! Amazon.com Barnes & Noble Book Depository Chapters-Indigo Midtown Comics |
Andy Suriano is at it again, posting up teasers from the issue he’s currently drawing. Here are 3 panel tidbits from Samurai Jack #4:
The Pathfinder Special arrived in stores on Wednesday. What did critics think of it? Read on and find out…
• Newsarama:8/10 “This was a fun comic that should readily appeal to any fan of the fantasy genre as it strikes a balance between adventure, humor, and character development.”
• Fellowship of the Geeks: “It’s really cool to see Zub handle the characters like this, in a way that he couldn’t get away with in the main title.”
• Unleash the Fanboy:5/5 “It isn’t easy to draw fast scenes with everything that is going on but Kevin Strokes does an awesome job of making sure that you understand the pace and excitement behind the scenes.”
Samurai Jack #2 arrived on Wednesday and, after our strong debut, what did critics think of our latest story? Read on and find out…
• IGN:9.5/10 “Zub, Suriano, Burcham, and Lee have truly created a comic book that any Samurai Jack fan — and Genndy Tartakovsky himself — would be proud of.”
• Big Comic Page: 8/10 “It’s uncanny how spot-on Zub has gotten Jack’s voice – you can hear Phil Lamarr’s voice reading the word balloons aloud in your head. Every one of his lines reads like exactly what Jack would say in that given situation.”
• Comic Bastards:5/5 “Despite a big name to live up to IDW’s Samurai Jack team does great work again, establishing all the things that made this series such a good time in the first place and adding their own, welcome spin on everything.”
• Comic Book Bin:9.5/10 “I love this comic book. It’s one of the best new series of the year.”
• Comic Book Therapy:4/5 “Samurai Jack is a great new series. Everyone is firing on all cylinders and presenting a story that is worthy of what came before it.”
• Comic Vine: 5/5 “Did you love the first issue? If so, it’s safe to say you’re going to love this one, too. Jim Zub fills the book with action and compliments the chaos with such playful dialogue – it basically feels like a cartoon, and that’s absolutely a good thing.”
• Eat Your Comics: “The art by Andy Suriano is fantastic, the story written by Jim Zub is a tight Samurai Jack episode tied into 22 pages and the expectations we are left with increase by the last page.”
• eXPress News & Reviews:6/7 “Only two issues in this series shows more promise than most licenses ever get. A mesh of minimalism and ephemeral line scratch Samurai Jack is fun to read while leaving the somber and serious depth the character deserves.”
• Herotaku:5/5 “If you’re a fan of the original animated series, Samurai Jack is a must-read. Everything is there from the action, humor, unique characters, and even the openings narrated by Aku from the original series.”
• Moar Powah: 5/5 “I am honestly in awe at this comic. Writer Jim Zub has done a great job with the two issues so far. They have felt like such an amazing representation of the animated series, capturing its essence and tone perfectly.”
• Nerdlocker: 4/5 “This was very enjoyable. I’m really looking forward to more.”
• Nerds on the Rocks: 6/7 “I really enjoyed the overall feel and focus of the story – it was clear and precise and put you directly into Samurai Jack’s shoes.”
• Pop Culture Maven: “Thankfully the first issue was no fluke and I am very happy to say that the quality of the second issue is just a great as the first issue.”
• Razorfine:4/5 “Once again the art by Andy Suriano and dialogue from writer Jim Zub capture the feel of the original cartoon while continuing their adventure.”
• Sean Network: “The writing and art feel exactly like the series and I feel like I’m having the voice actors doing a reading of the storyboard of an episode.”
• Shadowhawk’s Shade: 9.5/10 “IDW has a history of putting out such tie-ins and in Jim and Andy’s Samurai Jack, they have another big success on their hands, that’s for sure.”
• The Outhousers: “Andy Suriano, brings strong, solid line work to Samurai Jack #2, which gives a sound foundation for Josh Burcham’s colors.”
Bleeding Cool has posted up an interview with the creative teams working on Dynamite’s Li’l Kids Comics Event happening in January, including the Li’l Sonja one-shot comic I’m working on with artist Joel Carroll. Click on through to give it a read.
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