Mere Mortals Promo Image- work in progress

Figured I would chart process that goes behind the development of a Mere Mortals promo image. First one I've done for the comic and I Figured I should as Saturday's release date is looming. When coming up with the sketch I was stuck trying to decide on the pose. At first I was going to do a homage cover of Amazing Fantasy #15, but decided not to do that one just yet. So instead I went with a more original route and done a set of poses in which the characters show their fandom. Here is the first sketch-

Mere Mortals promo image sketch

Nothing to this one, I'm basically laying out the pose and including the weaponry  for Cliff and Jim to wield. I decided that Jim should carry Thor's Hammer and Captain America's shield. The shield didn't make it to the sketch for the fact I didn't have a circle to trace to get the proper shape. I included the Iron Man movie t-shirt as I wanted to add elements of Iron Man to the sketch to complete Marvel's Big Three. Now for Cliff I had a more difficult time coming up with his weaponry due to DC characters not carrying much, or my mind was blanking, who knows. So I decided to include Cliff wielding eight power rings. I'm thinking Green Lantern, but it could be all eight. I also included Wonder Woman's bracelets, Batman's Utility belt and Superman's Shield to the shirt to give the complete DC Trinity. 

Now the next level

 Mere Mortals promo image phase 2

So I go from the standard copy paper and transfer over to drawing paper. Here I plan to ink the image. Also since I added Cap's massive shield I will add Iron Man's gauntlet to Jim's right arm to make up for the lack of Iron Man in the sketch. Not much different about the sketch other than the shield and slightly re-detailed face of Cliff. I am now playing around with a Masthead/Logo for the comic and you can see the first draft in the corner. I think I like it. Expect this to be ink sometime in the next few days. 

Check back later for the inked image and hopefully the URL for Mere Mortals over at Comic Genesis. The first strip just needs to be inked. I am considering doing lettering by hand or digitally. Not sure there. 

Here's a preview of the final pencils of Mere Mortals strip 001

Mere Mortals Strip #001

Oh first off, you may notice I don't use bristol board or actual massive boards for my comics. The simple explanation is that I don't have a massive (and expensive) A3 scanner to scan boards of that size so I'm forced to use a normal sized pad of paper. Still the size I use is too big for the scanner I own so I have to reduce the amount of space down to 8.5'' x 11" in order to get the full comic in the scan. I hate working on restricted space as it limits the space between characters and limits how I can properly block the sets. I can deal with it though and I'm very pleased with this page. I was able to have stuff in the background and characters in the foreground. Something I like to do as a writer/artist (a wratist, if you will). Now I will scan the comic when I get home and begin the super fun project that is inking (which is something I have yet to master). I ink with traditional media so really the scanning process is to give me some back up of the pencils. Though I do have a pencil of the strip it was too big for the scanner so I had to shrink it down to size.

That's it for now. You can expect Mere Mortals this Saturday (May 1, 2010) over at Comicgensis.com, which I still need to submit to and set up.

Meet the characters of "Mere Mortals"

Here are the two main characters from my new webcomic "Mere Mortals" (to be released this Saturday for Free Comic Book Day). If you aren't familiar with the premise of the webcomic, here is the breakdown:  The two characters (Cliff and James) are two massive comic book fans living in a world of Superheroes. So basically we have two geeks living in a world of original superheroes talking about real life fictional one. It's like Venture Bros in that it's a strip about heroes in a world of heroes. Well here are the two main characters, Cliff and Jim.

First up we have Cliff.

Cliff is a DC nerd tried and true, and he's not afraid to tell you that. He essentially in love with Geoff Johns for what he calls "saving the DC Universe." Cliff basically ignores all other publishers outside of the DC entertainment titles and will not hesitate in insulting you if your fandom doesn't match his. Despite his irrational dislike for other companies and their fans Cliff is fairly nice to people, you know, just as long as you are not a Marvel Zombie. That brings us to Cliff's best friend and roommate Jim.

For some reason Cliff puts up with Jim and his fandom of any company besides DC. In Cliff's mind he views that everyone has to have a foil. That and Jim was his best friend growing up. Cliff likes to tell people the foil excuse though. Now Jim is a Marvel Zombie. If it has Bendis name on it, he'll buy it. Including Spider-woman. Though Jim is a Marvel Zombie, he does buy outside of the company, but not much. Namely the few Image titles that Bendis penned. Jim is a former Valiant Comics fan and misses his favorite universe.

That's the two main characters. Keep checking in to see the supporting cast and remember Mere Mortals debuts Saturday. URL to come later.

Work begins on the comic strip.

If you follow me through twitter or check out my various websites, you know I have been working on a comic project for ages. Well in reality I have been working on several ideas over the years that eventually became one massive universe. Well I wasn't sure how to present this universe. I didn't want to go straight in with a team book and explain everything as I went. As for a webcomic that can be boring. So I decided to try to develop a comic strip that would focus on a few characters that while minor in the big picture, would give audiences something to relate to and would work as an introduction to this massive universe of super humans. Now what is this strip comic about?

Well it's about these two comic book geeks living in a world of super heroes. It's a simple idea and most likely been covered before, I know, but I think it's just simple enough to work. It also allows me to have fun drawing random things and exploring the world I've created through the eyes and minds of two normal Joes instead of  a gang of heroes. I will be back later to introduce you to the cast of the comic but till then here is a preview of the first strip.

Click to enlarge

Not much is spoiled about the comic, I kept out the dialog. But as you can tell from the strip it will be presented in a Sundays comic format and that the first arc revolves around Free Comic Book Day. Expect this strip next Saturday.

Now to go finish penciling strip 002 and name this comic series.

Comic Coalition Project Part 04: Thor, Lyra the Savage She-Hulk, and Machine Man

This is the final batch of sketches from the Comic Coalition Project. This week I tackled the Norse God of Thunder, Lyra the Savage She-hulk, and, everyone's favorite robot, Machine Man.

Thor and Frog Thor

The story behind this sketch is that my friend wanted a Thor sketch. No problem. But I wanted to do something unique so I added everyone's favorite Deity possessed Frog to the sketch and split them with a simple lighting bolt. The hardest part of the sketch had to be the placement of the circles on Thor's chest, or maybe Frog Thor's face. Nevertheless I enjoyed working on this sketch. Never pass up a chance to work on Thor. 

More after the Jump

Comic Coalition Project Part 03: Superman, Iron Man, Rocket Raccoon, Spawn, Nighthawk, and Darkseid

This is an extra double sized edition of the Comic Coalition Project. This time I take one two of DC's biggest characters, Marvel's new poster boy, a raccoon, and the 90's creation, Spawn.

Clark Kent changing into Superman

This is a classic pose of Superman that I've been wanting to try for some time but never got around to it. Well now I did and I'm pleased with how well this turned out. The picture doesn't to this justice. The amazing thing with this sketch is that, despite being a new pose and a character I am not too familiar with, it took only a few minutes to do. 

Iron Man, in flight. 

This Iron Man sketch was not the first draft. I did an entirely different pose for Mr. Stark before I did this piece. The problem with that pose was that it was stiff. Everything about the sketch was nice, but it just looked stiff and too much like my Green Lantern sketch. Well after watching Iron Man with my girlfriend the other night, I came up with this in flight pose of Iron Man and I like it more. Though the butt still looks odd, but then again I'm no Ed Benes. Also the choice for this classic armor comes from the fact I own a small Iron Man toy with this armor and it helped with the perspective. That and I like the pointy face-plate. 

Read more after the Jump

Comic Coalition Project part 02: MODOK, Green Lantern, Booster Gold, and Spider-man

In continuation of the Comic Coalition project here is a batch of new sketches. This time I drew M.O.D.O.K, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Booster Gold, and Spider-man. 

M.O.D.O.K

This one was one of the more interesting sketches as I've never drawn MODOK before nor any character like him. Getting things right was a challenge and while I'm not fully satisfied with the final product, the recipient enjoyed it. That's all that matters to me.-

Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

Ah, Green Lantern. One of the more difficult poses of this batch. I always have trouble with limb placement with characters in flight. This one I must've erased several times in order to get right, never really did, but this still one of the better Hal Jordan Sketches I've done. I need to scan it in because for some reason my phone doesn't want to take a clean picture of the sketch.

See more after the jump

The Comic Coalition Project Part 01- Silver Surfer, Batman, Doop, and Wolverine

This project came about this morning while playing around in my sketch book. I was fiddling around with the Kirby Krackle effect and I figured the best character to demonstrate the Kirby Krackle would be the Silver Surfer. The Surfer just so happened to be the favorite character of a friend from Twitter, Primewax. From there the idea sprouted that I would sketch the favorite character of each Comics Coalition member, for free. Now who/what is the Comic Coalition? Simply it's a lose connection of comic fans on Twitter that discuss comic book related topics on a near daily basis. Pretty cool gang for a bunch of comic nerds, if I say so myself.

With that out of the way here is the first batch of Comic Coalition sketches:

Silver Surfer 

More sketches after the jump