Earlier this week I wrapped up summer school and felt a wave of relief after hitting the 'submit' button on my last assignment; now I have two weeks until the fall semester starts--just enough time to catch my breath. I'll be focusing on two comic book projects before I have to tackle academic-related work. The good news is that my Thesis Proposal was completely approved, so now I'll have to start planning my full-length stage play (fun times all around). More on that later, let's get back to comics talk:
MAKING PROGRESS
Since I have multiple projects in the works, and I hope that they will be come something one day (i.e. published or shared en masse), I'll be referring to them by their genre moving forward. Here's a progress report on my projects:
Bryce Oquaye is drawing my action comedy, and I approved his second round of thumbnails. The level of detail he captured in the thumbnails was amazing, and now he's moving forward with the official artwork. Right now this story is only a 5-page pitch, but I'm rethinking my plans for it and it's likely to become longer.
Next week I'm meeting with Justin Stewart to discuss our horror western three-issue mini-series. I've written the first 6 pages, but I want to finish the first full issue by next Monday, that way we can get a sense of what happens in that first issue and where the story will go.
Recently I received a character sketch from Taylor Sterry, the artist of my fantasy comic for kids. This is new territory for me, as I've never tackled the fantasy genre before, but thankfully her art is (and will be) making the story so much better with her style and skill.
SNEAK PREVIEW
I have something to share this week! Below is the character design for Princess Harper, the main character of my fantasy comic for kids. Taylor really blew me away with her vision for this character. I'm still in awe of the talent I've been fortunate to work with; I only give a few physical descriptions, but they are specific, and what I get in return is absolute magic.
I'm writing this story for my daughter--in fact, she came up with some of the details--and her interest in comics has grown over time. Every Wednesday when I pick up my pulls, she'll browse the racks and find one or two things she wants to read. She's inspired me to work on this project; right now we're treating it as a one-shot, but I'm definitely leaving it open for Princess Harper to have many more adventures...
WHAT I'VE BEEN READING LATELY
Luckily I've been able to catch up on some comic reading as of late, and while I've picked up many, many good books, here are some highlights I wanted to share:
M.O.D.O.K. Head Games #1-4 - This mini-series served as the inspiration/source material for the M.O.D.O.K. series on Hulu by the same creative team of Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt. I watched the show before reading this, and while I expected it to be chock-full of humor (like the show), I found it to be more tragic. This wasn't a bad thing (just a surprise) and it works well to set up the events of the show (I recommend reading the series before watching the show).
Elvira Meets Vincent Price #1 - I had NO idea Dynamite was dropping a new Elvira series until I arrived at my LCS yesterday for my weekly pulls (they know my wife and I are big Elvira fans). David Avallone is the writer, and the story in this first issue is not only funny, but relevant to those of us who consume mass media. This is not the first Elvira series he's written, so be sure to check out the 2018 Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and Elvira: The Shape of Elvira series from Dynamite Comics.
The Me You Love in the Dark #1 - Once I heard that Skottie Young and Jorge Corona were teaming up for another book after Middlewest, I knew I had to add this title to my pulls, and the first issue does not disappoint. What struck me most about this book is how clearly the story progresses without any dialogue/captions/voiceovers--the art tells the story. This is a skill I hope to learn and use, instead of relying on dialogue in every panel to advance the story. Needless to say, I'm excited for #2.
Now it's time to get back to writing and dive into my horror western and action comedy stories.
Until next time!
-WG