Pin Your Colours To The Mast

...Something had to give. More and more recently it's been dawning on me that there's no way that I can continue to produce the book at the pace I've set myself if I don't find a way to compromise somewhere along the production line. And since the entire series is already written, and there's no way I'd let anybody else actually draw any of the thing, it comes down to colours. The colouring process, while thoroughly enjoyable, has been really slowing me down. As mentioned in a different post, sometimes it's ending up taking me longer than the pencils and inks on a given page combined. Which is nutty.

So long story short: I panicked. Then I asked good friend and ridiculously-talented pro colourist Jordie Bellaire if she'd have any interest in coming aboard. Jordie had long assured me all throughout the first 8 months on HPD that if I needed any help with the colouring that she'd be there to bail me out. But I was always (A) utterly determined to do the whole thing myself, and (B) afraid that she was simply too busy to take on another project. Jordie's colouring skills are in massive demand at the minute throughout the entire American comics industry, having worked over the past 18 months for the five largest US comic labels; Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, IDW and Image.

They all want her, and I've got her.

As of the second issue, Jordie will be clambering  aboard the good ship HPD to apply her mad skillz to the colours. She's aiming to take what I did with the colours on issue 1, and give them her own twist (read: improve them no end) in issue 2, while maintaining consistency of mood and palette with  the colour direction I've already established for the project as a whole. The tone and feel of the story are right up Jordie's alley, and she seems delighted to be a part of it. Jordie loves all (well, most!) of the same movies and comics that inspired this series as I do, and we're certainly more than simpatico on the page.

This is undoubtedly a good thing for the book. Simply put, Jordie's one of the best.