Jungle River

Wow... I have been getting sloppy. No posts in about 6 months... I've even been slacking on my webcomic. Time to change that then

Here's a little piece that I've been working on for my comic. I was so pleased with how it turned out I think it deserves to stand out on its own.

Episode 4 of the DAMbots is almost over and honestly I wasn't happy with it - it was long and a little bit dull. I was pleased with the art but the story wasn't there. It was like one overlong montage with nothing really happening - bah! Hence me slowly slipping into obscurity on the interwebs and getting distracted by other things, of which I shall make mention of very soon.

So yesterday I got my act together and wrote the synopsis for Episode 5 and was surprised by how well it all fitted together. If I don't get distracted again it will both look awesome and be a fun story. It's hard to believe that about 2 years ago I came up with the overall story arc for the DAMbots and episode 5 was actually originally going to be the first episode. Let's hope I don't get distracted again!...

comic now on sale

I finally got my act together and issue 1 of Deadly Alien Microbots is printed and now on sale for just 3 dollars, with all the profits I make going to a Leukemia charity instead of my pockets for every copy sold! That works out at little over 1 dollar per copy, but this way you can do some good and read a comic at the same time!

If you're feeling charitable (which I hope you are since it's a New Year and time for all those resolutions) or you simply fancing reading it then check it out here.

The comic looks really great all printed up and here are some photos I took of the thing in my hands. (You'll have to excuse my awful photgraphic skills!):






And for those that have been following my blog, you'll notice the slight change I made from the last final version of the cover. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sneak peek # 2

Here's a sneak peek of a panel from the first colour issue of Deadly Alien Microbots, which will be posted onto the website early in the new year. It was hard to choose a panel to show without giving away much of the story.

Anyway, I hope you like as it took ages and ages to paint - well, the whole page anyway. I can tell that this idea I had of doing the comic in colour is going to end in tears...

So, is my radical departure from black and white a good thing? A bad thing? Meh??

The colour of charity.

I've been toying with the idea of doing my, up till now completely black-and-white, comic in full colour. Here is a test I did for the cover of chapter 4. Yes, I can't believe that I've survived this long but chapter 3 is a third of the way through and number 4 is looming scarily closer. Anyway, regular readers will recognise some familiarity in the image but may also be miffed over why it looks so different to the DAMbots. You'll need to read the comic to find out...

In related news, I'm finally getting around to printing the comic. I've ordered my proof of Issue 1 of DAM, collecting chapter 1 and the Blood and Gorebot mini-episode in lovely hi-definition, and made the decision that I'll not make a single penny (or cent now that I'm in Canada) from the sales. Not only will it be at a super low price but I'll be donating all profits I make from it to a Leukemia charity, which hopefully should come to about 70c per copy. If this proves successful then I'll do the same for all future issues of DAM.

I'll let you folks now about it further down the line, but as always any feedback on the art or my unusual benevolence, or even just to say 'hi' is always welcome.

No need for paper

As I'm leaving the country I'm not going to have access to a scanner for a while so I decided to do a quick test of ArtRage as an alternative for drawing my comic. This picture shows the results, drawn entirely on the laptop, and I think it does a pretty good job of it.

Long story short, no need for me to stop drawing my comic. Everyone rejoice!

New Website!!!

This last month I've been hard at work designing the website for my Deadly Alien Microbots comic and it's finally up and running. Woohoo! It's been a steep learning curve but I'm pretty pleased with the results, so make sure you check it out and tell all your friends about it :)

http://dambots.com/

And here's a snapshot for those with clickaphobia, though you're missing out as I've put some cool things on it...
Ok, there's only one page up there at the moment. I'm going to put a page a day up over this week, most of which you saw posted on here before, and then I'll move to 2 comic pages a week, which I should be able to keep up with.

On another note, I've not had any time to do any drawing or blog posting, hence yet another month of silence. So, it's about time I got back up to speed and started the ball rolling again. See you soon...

Black, white and red all over.

So, it's a new year both in my calendar and in the Chinese one. Well, thanks for all the comments and sorry for the huuuuuge delay between posts but as you can see I've been a bit busy...

The pic on the left, which I managed to somehow pull together this evening, I'm going to use as a banner-type thing on my comic when I plaster the finished thing up on the interweb. So I can paint in colour after all!

As well as that I (think I) finished the cover, which is a lot simpler as I really want to go for a pulpy minimalist look for the issue one print. For those friends who helped me out in my previous post, thanks for all the comments and I did take them on board. You can see I took the second idea and jazzed it up slightly. I'd love to do something more colourful, like the banner, but I'm still not too confident with colours and I'd be a bit worried it'd betray the black and white of the comic book inside. This stays truer to the contents. Hope you agree! It probably still needs the odd tweak here and there, but I'd say it's 95% done now.

What say you all to these 2 pieces of graphic design?

I've also already started doing the pages for chapter 2!! My plan is to get a website set up and start posting chapter 1 asap. My other plan is to try and post some more non-comic stuff on here again as I'm sure you're all getting bored of this... I really should have drawn a timely picture of an ox now that I think about it.

Happy New Year(s) to everyone! I'm really excited about this one, even if it is the last full year I ever have in my twenties!

Fubar - cover sketch

Firstly, happy Boxing Day everybody! Hope Christmas was loads of fun.

I finally finished all the pages of the first issue of Deadly Alien Microbots. Woohoo! Fully inked, scanned and cleaned up until I decide they need more work.

Unfortunately, now I need to start thinking about a cover (Urngghh!) so here is a sketchy first attempt with Fooba's looming tendrills approaching the hapless trio of microscopic robots. I really don't know much about comic book cover design so I tried to get all the elements of the comic in without revealing too much (i.e. what Fooba looks like). I imagine the whole thing to be mostly silhouette-esque black and white with the red of the blood providing a nice backdrop. I might make the heroes' stances a bit stronger, especially Ballistik.

So, is this any good? It's DAM hard (pun intended, hehe!) to come up with something eye-catching for all the peeps who have no idea what they'll be letting themselves in for if they ever pick up a copy. Being such a noob, I've got my work cut out...

-- UPDATE --

I've considered saving the window opening into a view of blood cells for a later issue's cover (yes, I am planning on this being a long running thing, if people choose to buy it, of course!), so I hastily drew some alternative ideas with some colour. This is all very rough, I might add!

I'm favouring the last one with all the characters in white, though I'll probably make the robots nice and metallic looking. But the first one with the bloodied background does seem to give off the unintentional image of a Western, which is also quite cool. Decisions, decisions...

Please let me know what you all think. Which one catches your eye the most?
Which would make you part with your pennies/dollars/euros...? :)

Fubar page 6

Page 6 of Fubar and the Deadly Alien Microbots are reunited with an old acquaintance.


I've been real busy recently and have got the pencils for this comic all the way up to page 20! Just another 5 to go, followed by inking it all, and chapter 1 of this epic is finished. Can't wait!

Fubar page 5

Page 5 of Fubar.
I wouldn't want to be the Deadly Alien Microbots right now.

Fubar page 4 + TAGGED!!!

Page 4 of Fubar and something's lurking behind the big bad door. Nothing like a little fear to bring the Deadly Alien Microbots back together!

Oh yes, almost forgot... I've apparently been tagged... twice. Once by Kenneth Anderson and secondly by Robi Pena. Thanks guys, I'll cut the acceptance speech short, though, as I'll only cry! Now, I'm not sure how the rules go for 2 tags but since I'm combining this in one post I'm assuming it counts as one tag. (And nobody better say otherwise or you'll be sorry!) So on with the game...

Here is the game rule:
1. You must link to the individual who tagged you and post the rules of TAG (which you are currently reading).
2. Post 7 random facts about yourself
3. Tag 7 friends and link to them and
4. Let them know that they have been tagged by leaving a nice little message on their blog.

My 7 facts are:
1. I love Italian food, especially ice cream!
2. I sing along to the radio on my way to work.
3. I'm half Maltese. Or is that a quarter Maltese?
4. I often get bored of projects I come up with half way through. My ambitions far outway my enthusiasm...
5. Despite all that I did write a full novel recently. It wasn't very good and didn't get published but the dream's still there!
6. I'm 28 years old... getting older... by... the... second :(
7. I've got my name on the credits of 3 great video games -- Damn, almost broke my "no shameless plugging" rule, there (Don't tell anyone!)

Really sorry to have to do this to you peeps but rules is rules, so here are my tag victims (mwah ha ha):

1. Chris Phillips
2. Mirella
3. Silvano
4. Jeremy Melton
5. Bógar Chancay
6. Andrew
7. Aleta Vidal

Well, that's the lot. Till the next time...

Fubar page 3

Page 3 of Fubar and it looks like the Deadly Alien Microbots are at each others' throats while they hide out from the ominous slimy looking thing lurking behind the big door.

Enjoy!

Fubar page 2

Page 2 of Fubar and the Deadly Alien Microbots are hiding out from some mysterious slimy thing that's torn apart their already torn apart ship and damaged the most powerful, yet strangely inept looking, security robot . Oh well, at least they have each other for company...

Fubar page 1

And here's page 1 of Fubar. It probably doesn't make much sense right now, but it will soon... hopefully! I've got another 10 pages or so lined up to show you all full of black n white goodness.

Fubar page 0

Well, it has been a while, hasn't it? I noticed I hadn't posted anything for exactly a month and I was starting to slack with my artwork so what better than to clear my backlog.

Here's the title page of the new Deadly Alien Microbots saga called Fubar. This one's a lot longer than Blood and Gorebot was and has more of a story.

Enjoy!

Oh, and thanks for all the positive feedback on my last comic.

Blood and Gorebot Page 4

Another page up for you to enjoy. There are only 2 more remaining for this mini story, but have no fear as I have already drawn 9 pages of the big epic saga, which will involve more blood, more gore but not nearly as much of Doktor Von Gorebot as I'd like.

Blood And Gorebot page 3

As if by magic, page 3 appears.
Please enjoy and calm my fears.

Blood And Gorebot Page 2

So here's Page 2 of the DAM mini comic.

Enjoy!

Blood And Gorebot Page 1

It finally begins!

Here's page 1 of a 6 page short involving the deadliest of Deadly Alien Microbots, Doktor Von Gorebot. He's really quite twisted... hope you love him.

Let me know what you think as this particular episode was very experimental. I've got 5 more pages lined up to show you and I'm already at work on the awesome mega series involving the regular microbots, which explains the immense delay between this and my previous post.

So click the pic and enjoy!

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek of the comic I'm doing, showing my favourite anti-hero robot, Doctor Von Gorebot.

I'm not intending to do the comic in colour but thought I'd give it some just as an experiment and to make a change from all the black n whites I've been posting here. It looks much better in black n white is all I'm saying!

Till the next time...