The Adventurers Comic page 29

The Adventurers comic page 29.

Well that brings us to the last annotated page of The Adventurers issue 1. These little back cover designs were fun (but added to the work load!) to think of a little scene that related to the story each issue. Once again, beautifully coloured by Cara.  We edited in the sleeping slug when my friend Joel suggested doing so in a conversation. I do hope to retain some of the interaction with the animal world in future stories. It makes sense that Ellie could talk to humans and animals, as she sort of walks between the two worlds. It would be nice to see some slugs again. I hope you enjoyed The Adventurers issue 1!

If you'd like to read more, you might like to take advantage of the first ever Bolt Comics Christmas sale here.

Adventurers Comic Page 6

The Adventurers Chapter 1 page 6: The Dragon.

At the base of Ellie's rock you'll notice one of my favourite Australian native plants, a (straggly) Maiden Hair fern. The story never explicitly states that the setting is Australia but I have based the Havens off of Australian landscape. Personally, I think Australia's remote warm regions would be the perfect choice for large reptiles to make their home :).

Adventurers Comic page 4

The Adventurers Chapter 1 page 4: The Dragon

Who can keep on a rant when there a butterflies to chase? I was much happier with the redrawn characters and Burnie's improved design. I'd probably be really hesitant to leave the first 4 panel backgrounds blank these days but I think those panels work better without back ground in hindsight. The butterfly is a Monarch Butterfly. It's flight path is my attempt at a Herge like squiggle that signifies the track of the character is not a straight one.

Adventurers Sketch cards: The last few.

Here is the last batch of sketch cards I've drawn in advance for Sydney Oz Comic Con 2014 as I won't be able to attend this year. You need to get to table 65 by 12.00 if you want yours! Worried you may miss out? Never fear Amazing Adventurers cover colourist and very talented artist in her own right Cara will be there drawing sketches. You won't be disappointed if you get one drawn by her! 

Hope everyone has a great time at Oz Comic Con especially the Bolt Comics Crew!

More Adventurers Sketches.

Some more sketches for Sydney Oz Comic Con this weekend, including my favourite sketch of Ellie so far. Remember, if you want one of these free sketches with your Adventurers comic, get to the Bolt Comics Table (table 65) before 12.00 pm!

DCM8OR

Big Smoke

Ellie

Cindy

Booster

Rocbadger

Ellie

A sneak peek from Issue 4 of The Adventurers Comic.

Here is some work in progress shots from a few panels for issue 4 of The Adventurers.

Issue 4 has been the most artistically challenging issue yet. For one thing, the backgrounds have been quite demanding. I have been pushing myself a bit more with some sequential ideas. Also, it is set at night so I need to include heavier shadows. 

 I love shadows, especially in black and white as it creates much more of an impact, however it is a very tricky business getting it right. You can see I pencilled in the blacks before "spotting" them just to be sure!

The Adventurers process sneak peak.

I decided to share some process/progress pictures of a panel from the upcoming issue 4 of The Adventurers to prove it is progressing, if a little slowly. This page called for a big panel as it's a special moment.

Ellie overlooking the city.

 Buildings have been sketched in and perspective lines ruled. It's always tricky trying to get some different building designs that also look like they belong in the same city.

Refining the buildings.

I have changed some of the buildings in a effort to give it a more art deco feel. Also to give room for more buildings in the background to help show more of the city.

Initial inking

Initial inks have been applied and I've blacked the shadows. The scene is set at night and I want to make it look like the light source is the streets below.

Almost finished.

Shadows have been added to the characters. Gradient lines to the buildings. It still isn't complete. The next step is to make some adjustments digitally. I will tweak the buildings in the very back ground in order to create the illusion of more distance. I will also experiment with more shadows in the foreground. Digital is wonderful because of the "undo" function. I can try something and if it doesn't work, I can just undo it.

There you have it. A progress page from The Adventurers Issue 4.

The Adventurers attend their second Supanova!

Well it's only a few days away! Supanova Sydney.

This year I will have another two issues of The Adventurers available. I will also be tabling with my Brother Dan at the Bolt Comics table A092. He, along with my sister, helped me table last year and it's great to see his comic, A Brigand's Tale ready and being enjoyed by so many people. We have both been doing this comic thing for most of our lives. We would talk and plan about the day we published our own comic.Years later we are doing just that! Better late than never right?

This year to add to the excitement we are trying our hand at artist sketches! The early bird customers who buy one of our books will receive a free character sketch! Looking forward to meeting lots of people, selling comics, drawing sketches and generally having fun at Supanova this year!

In all the excitement getting ready for Comic Gong and Supanova I haven't forgotten about issue 4! Here's a progress pic.

Page 9 pencils for The Adventurers issue 4

Three issues of The Adventurers Comic in print!

This Saturday May the 17th launches the release of The Adventurers issue 3! Missed out on issue 1? Don't worry it's been freshly printed for the event and there are copies of issue 2 as well. A great chance to read the first three issues right after each other!

3 issues of The Adventurers in print!

Also A Brigand's Tale Issue 1 is launching this weekend at Comic Gong! You can see a small preview of it here.

The Adventurers Issue 3 Launching at Comic Gong!

 
Issue 3 arrived a few weeks ago and looks great! Looking forward to having Issues 1, 2 and 3 to sell at Comic Gong on the 17th. It will be the first time Issue 3 is available for sale!

Issue 3 of The Adventurers.

I played with having multiple covers and was able to extend the size of my robot army! Mwahaha-- I mean-- how cool is that? Once again this Adventurers cover was beautifully coloured by my sister Cara. She'll also be at Comic Gong so be sure to tell her what a great job she is doing!

The Adventurers: Gothic Guardians.

The Adventurers: Watching over the city.

Late last year (2013) I started this drawing of The Adventurers. It is an idea I have had for many years, that of The Adventurers perched like gargoyles on a church (not terribly original as Batman has been doing that for a long time). I drew a biro sketch in one of my Uni books many years back which is the basis of this picture. It no longer exists today. 
I'm quite happy with how this picture turned out. I was wary of applying the strong shadows but I think it paid off. I look forward to the day it is a coloured cover of an issue of The Adventurers comic!

Teaser Art for issue 2 of The Adventurers Comic.

This art is also a bonus pin-up that will appear in The Adventurers issue 2. It marks the first time a picture of mine has been completely finished digitally. I scanned in a rough sketch and went from there. It was done using Manga Studio 5. I'm not too familiar with all it's tools so it took quite a while to complete. It will be some time before most of The Adventurers art is drawn digitally!

Development of The Adventurers Comic Characters. Part 4: The Adventurers!

The first inked sketch of all The Adventurers together.

The above sketch page of The Adventurers is significant for two reasons. It is the first inked picture of (what was at the time) the final design of the characters together. But it also holds the key to the final design element of The Adventurers.
My friend Steve Clark was over and I showed him the sketch.  He is the one who drew the anime style girl in the corner. He had a good eye for design, suggested more anime style eyes and was showing me how to draw them in that sketch.

 

More Rocbadger designs but with a more anime influenced eye style. There is even a version with the smaller jaw.


So the final stage was to design the turn a rounds. Ellies reference never stayed quite close to the original design.

                                                             
                                                                            Turns arounds for Ellie with some expression studies. These show Ellie with more attitude than what we see in the comic. there is also a wing shape studies.

                        
Rocbadger turn arounds and studies showing the many faces of Rocbadger, now with rounded ears rather than pointy ones.



                                   
Boosters turn arounds. Showing emotion through his eye-brows and his swivel fins. Note his eyes have pupils. In these designs I imagined they were like digital read outs that could change shape with Boosters mood.



These turn aorunds were menat a guide to help me draw the characters consistently in The Adventurers comic. As the comic progressed I referred to these and previous panels that had been drawn in order to keep the looks and feel as consistent as possible. I still refer to these when drawing           The Adventurers even though the characters have evolved a little, even from these "final' designs.

Development of the Adventurers Comic characters. Part 1: Ellie.

She used to be an alien you know. Oh and she used to be a 'he'. In one form or another Ellie has been around, bouncing off the insides of my head and making her way onto scraps of paper and finally into The Adventurers comic.

I love heroes and heroes have side kicks. I had the idea of a hero whose sidekick was actually a mentor. It was originally an alien, named Barnabus, teaching a young man how to be a hero. However, I got over aliens and changed the alien to a dragon.

'Barnabus' with wing study.

But I also like robots. Perhaps the sidekick character should be a robot? Then there is this little furry guy in a blue and red suit (another alien at that time) wouldn't he be a good sidekick? Ok I'll go with the dragon 'cos dragons are cool but... what if the other two were better? I mean they're all as good as each other.

So the hero was put to the side, and the side kicks all took centre stage together. They would be the heroes. The hero story became the back story for The Adventurers.

It, of course, took a very long time to come to this arrangement. Years. So I'd made the decision to make  The Adventurers comic about 4 half-ling high heroes. Getting the dragon design was very tricky. It had to have a "dragony" feel but still (sort of) pass for a human. I went through the whole gamete of head types before basically sticking with the original and changing the fin.

More head designs. Can you find the various influences? You can also see some robot designs for  the  robots they would be fighting in The Adventurers story.

The Adventurers at one stage almost became a sword epic as I was reading Lord of the Rings. That idea 

didn't last too long.

                      

Sword and sorcery inspired clothing.

So I had three characters, The Dragon, the Rocbadger and the robot. I thought I needed a fourth. A female character. However no matter how much I tried I could not come up with a suitable "creature" for the fourth to be. I decided if I made the Dragon a female that would solve the problem. All I had to do was add eyelashes! The dragon character was ************* (whoops almost put a small spoiler for issue 3!) A friend suggested the name Ellie **********( It will make sense after you read issue 3! :) ). So she finally had a name.

Closer to the final design.

I wanted to give her some more angular dynamic features. Below you can see some fin design ideas. And the final fin design. You can also see the design of her feet. Her eyes were still black at this stage. However this was the final design until one last change. The Adventurers were getting designed and redesigned at the same time. Ellie wasn't quite finalised until... but more on that later.

Almost there. Still with cheek scales and black eyes.

Next: Rocbadger.

Guest Art - Dave Clarke

I was very happy to receive this picture of Ellie in the e-mail a few weeks ago from all round nice guy Dave Clarke. I'm honoured that he would take the time to do this. I love the picture and I think it captures Ellie's personality well. Thanks for the picture and the encouragement Dave! 

Dream team up

Dream team up: A picture of the Adventurers with DC's Batgirl. My favourite incarnation is the Batman TAS Batgirl. I know it is only a theoretical team up but it is less of a stretch for the animated BG  fit in with The Adventurers... and .... anyway we'll make it work people! The pic was also a Valentine's day gift for my wife.

Emerging from the shadows.

The very first 'group shot' of  The Adventurers, (L-R) Booster, Ellie and Rocbadger

The original black and white drawing. 

Issue 1 cover

The Adventure starts here! A picture of what will hopefully become the cover to Issue 1. Colours by my sister Cara.