Irish Comic News Article

Heres a link to an article I wrote a week or two back for the Irish Comics News website. It gives a little more insight to how the book came about, and breaks down how long I spent on each element of production so far.

LINK

Publisher Update

Two weeks ago I sent the PDF of issue 1 and the pitch material to the three most progressive publishers of creator-owned material out there (in my own opinion!). Have heard very positive noises back from the first two, and have yet to hear back from the third, although apparently these guys are known for taking their time due to enormous volume of submissions. So the book is in a good place right now. Everybody who's seen/read it has offered very favourable responses, which is certainly tremendously gratifying after all the hard work so far.

Turns out maybe this thing has legs.

I had a call with the publisher that I'd probably prefer yesterday, and it went really well. So maybe some good news very soon.

More to follow!

Issue 3 Cover Colours

...aaand finally, the colours.

Issue 3 Cover Inks

Inked this up today, pretty happy with it. Colours tomorrow I'd wager.

Incidentally, that's a Deinonychus that John is wrasslin', not the more ubiquitous Velociraptor. They're very similar beasts, being from the same family (dromaeosaurids), but the Deinonychus was a little bigger, with a broader skull and bigger eyes. So there.

Irish Comics Appreciation Week: Competition Prize

The good people over at the Irish Comics News website are running a week of competitions to promote their Irish Comics Awareness Week. This is my contribution to the cause, an upcoming variant cover for one of the issues of the book starring MI6 Agent Elizabeth Huntington-Moss.
If you'd like to win the piece, simply head over here to the site and answer the terribly difficult trivia question, to which I may or may not have just provided the answer in the previous line. The line about Elizabeth Huntington-Moss.

Irish Comics News is an invaluable asset to the burgeoning Irish comics industry, with bang up to date commentary, previews, news and opinion. I visit pretty much every day to keep abreast of the comings and the goings, the haves and the have nots. I'd seriously recommend that anybody reading this with even a passing interest in the Irish scene head over and take a gander.

Issue 3 Cover Pencils

Currently working on the cover for the third issue; pencils above. Trying not to get too nervous/excited about the fact that prospective publishers are running their critical eye over my book.
Struggling to maintain my calm exterior while sweating the proverbial bullets.

Updates as events warrant...

And now we play the waiting game...

So the pitch is finished. All seven (negotiable!) issues are fully written, and the first issue itself is written, pencilled, inked, coloured and lettered (phew!). In all, it's been about seven months work so far. My target was six(I saved ten grand last year to take half a year to myself to have a proper stab at this), so I guess that's just about within acceptable parameters. While I managed to get all of the pages drawn in the projected timeframe (2 months for 26 complete inked pages), I did however get bogged down a little in the colouring process. I'm chalking that up to a steep learning curve though, and as it stands I'm pretty happy with the results. We'll see how long that lasts...
Certainly, the following issues should and will be completed at a much faster clip, since much of the behind the scenes design and preperation work is also put to bed.

Below is the back cover of issue 1, which also contains the blurb for the project, or the 'back of the dvd' which I persist in calling it for some reason. I think it gives a good overall flavour of the high adventure, pulpy feel that I'm shooting for. Massive thanks to fellow Eclectic Mick Nick Roche for that killer tagline, and the whole flavour of the blurb, really.

And so, off to prospective publishers. Well, not quite yet. First I'll send the PDF around to the other Eclectic Micks and a few others for feedback and the inevitable pointing out of glaring errors (step forward Mr. Shalvey.).
After any final edits then it'll be sent to various publishers, with the hope that a few will bite. I have a couple of preferences, but I'll keep my cards close to my chest for the moment, in fear of public and humiliating rejection.

Wish me luck!