The Adventurers Comic in colour!

Here is a selection of finished The Adventurers Comic pages coming soon to Bolt Comics Presents! What a journey it has been to get to this point and a lot of it has been recorded in this blog but it's time to change things up a bit and let the art do the talking now.

If you want to keep up to date with work in progress, all things Adventurers and Bolt Comics I'll be posting a regular newsletter. You can subscribe here.

Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to join me for the next stage of the journey.- Andrew Tribe

Side by Side 4

The original Bolt page 4.

The Electrifying Bolt - Page 6

The Electrifying Bolt- Page 7

What a hectic year 2016 was! Hence a big gap between these instalments of side by side or "Why am I showing you this?' 

Once again the new version is a little extended with poor Bolt getting another whack for his "witty" remarks. In the original 4B2 (as he was then known) mysteriously spins the Bolt's energy "thingos" into energy balls. I went with a bit more hi-tech approach for the remake. Not sure that it was the right choice.

New improved dialogue provided by Michael Stoneburner. His version of Bolt has a lot more confidence than the original ... or is that overconfidence? Tune in next time to find out!

Side By Side 3

Original Bolt page 3

Bolt page 4

Bolt page 5

The villains original name was 4B2, inspired by the way a certain family member would say 4 by 2. unfortunately in the UK and America it's 2 by 4. So we went with Timberr instead. I still love the ridiculousness of a wooden suit wearing villain.

Layouts are very similar, yet spread out over 2 pages instead of the one. The original page has a myriad of styles vying for attention even a "smashed glass effect". Very cutting edge! The original panel 2 pose is used in the next few pages of the new Bolt story. These new pages also are some of my first ever use of motion blurring.

Changes to 4B2's/Timberr's costume include more barrel styled pants over the paling skirt and a more tree trunk inspired helmet. I sort of miss the bent nail, but figured a good woodworker wouldn't have that.

New improved script provided by Michael Stoneburner.

Side by side 2

original Bolt page 2

Bolt page 2

Bolt page 3

As you can see some scenes were extended in the retelling of this Bolt story. It was inevitable considering the original was only 6 pages long. This page introduces Wendy Walters, Edensburgh's resident ace reporter. The original story has a reporter sort of tacked on at the end and hints that the Bolt is a real pain to her. The plan was to have Wendy as a recurring character reporting on The Bolt's "heroics".

Once again new improved script brought to you by Micheal Stoneburner, who incidentally, really disliked the bangs I gave Wendy for her hair style. He also came up with the TV stations name of "
WZZN TV 10". There is a reason behind it but I'm not sure I can reveal it at this time.

I've spoken before about Mike Perry and his great help in teaching me colour. The bolt pressed up against the glass is also inspired by the way he has drawn that in his comics.

Fun fact: I did my best to make the trucks number plate spell "roadkill".

The Electrifying Bolt gets a recharge.

As I mentioned in the last post the urge to draw a new Bolt comic was not going to go away. Of course the first thing to do was test the character's design. Here is the original in all it's 90's over-rendered-cross-hatched glory:

Here are some redesigns I considered. I was toying with the idea of goggles to emphasize the humorous aspect of the hero. When I showed my brother Dan he said it's too Golden age and that he liked the original design. I agreed and in hindsight the design was a little too much like the original Blue Beetle costume.

                   


And here is how the Bolt appears in the Bolt Comics Presents #1. So it's basically the original costume design sans the pointy shoulder things.

Yes, I guess I am sentimental as the first panel is a homage to the original comic. More on  page by page comparisons in another post.

The Adventurers Comic Page 22

The Adventurers Comic page 22 Chapter 1: The Dragon.

Well there it is. The cliff hanger for issue one. Funny story*: the first editions have a typo on this page. Instead of saying "you're" Rocbadger said "your", It was a great example for me to use in class on editing and checking your work properly. I'm pretty sure that year 5 class learnt the difference between "your and "you're" better than any class I had previously. Also, on a side note, the first time you have to draw your characters getting hurt is not easy!


*Funny not guaranteed.

Adventurers Comic page 3

The Adventurers Chapter 1  page 3: The Dragon.

This page was also completely redrawn. One reason was because as previously mentioned, the characters were quite off model (trust me, they are much cuter in this version). The other reason was so Burnie could make arm gestures. In the original he was in close up.

Digital Adventures

It's been quite a while since my last post. There are two reasons; one is that it is hard to put up many images from The Adventurers issue 4 as I don't want to run the risk of spoiling any surprises. The other is I admit I have been a little distracted by what was originally meant to be a side project.

Over the last year I have slowly developed more skill with digital drawing. In order to improve and hopefully speed up my process as a result, I decided to revive an old character and redraw an old story I did while in my late teens. The idea is to see if I can complete a comic completely digitally.

The character is known as The Electrifying Bolt and here is the first completed, colour picture of The Bolt in many years (or possibly ever). He is a really fun character to draw. I know Mike Stoneburner finds him fun to write as well. He helped me tweak some gags from the original story and Mike and I have shared many laughs just throwing around ideas for origin/future adventures of The Bolt over the phone. Hopefully you'll be laughing out loud at his (mis)adventures soon as well.

The Electrifying Bolt flies again and yes... that background character is wearing a suit made entirely of wood.

The Mask-ed Wonder

     

Brigand: Triumphant.

This picture is to celebrate the launch of  a new Aussie comic this weekend in which this character appears. He is called Brigand, a gladiatorial fighter who is known by the adoring masses as The Masked 

(pronounced Mask-ed) Wonder. He is one of two stories that appear in the comic called, coincidentally enough, Stories.  It is an anthropomorphic action, adventure and humour story written and drawn by my brother Dan Tribe. 

Brigand: Bring it.

This is the first time I have ever done some successful pictures of Brigand. I'm so excited for this to see print that I woke up last weekend with some inspiration and these two pictures are the result. For the second one I envisioned the Platypii Posse reflected in his gauntlet but that's not how it turned out. Dan said he had a similar idea so I look forward to seeing that pic!

Here is Dan's version of Brigand.

These guys also make a fun appearance in issue #1. Two members of the Platypii Posse! 

Dan and I grew up making comics together. To see this in print is the realisation of a dream for the both of us. Back then I used to write the stories for Dan to draw. The best thing I ever did was stop writing for him as his stories are much more entertaining! 

Heroes and Villains Convention 2012

I know it is a month after the fact but I think it would be remiss of me not to write something about the inaugural Heroes and Villains Convention; the first pop culture/comic convention to be held in my hometown of Penrith.

Firstly, I had no idea it was on until Brian Bucellato (writer and colourist of The Flash) tweeted he was coming to the event. I immediately assumed it was a typo. I clicked the link in order to inform him that he meant to type Perth or somewhere else, but instead found it was true! This had never been a possibility. A comic event in Penrith?  I never could have imagined it when I was growing up.  Now a geek culture event was going to be held 5 minutes from my house. The link also mentioned Tom Taylor, writer of 'The Deep' would be a guest as well. The Deep is one of the best Australian produced comics (graphic novel) I have ever read.

I got there early on Sunday morning with my little sister Cara. By little I mean younger than me. She is about to finish year 12 and a great artist in her own right. I made sure to take my copy of  'Flash # 1' and 'the Deep', 'The Example' and 'Rocketeer #2' to be Signed by Tom Taylor. We had a wander around before we went to the comic book panel. I found it really enjoyable. All the artists and writers were intelligent and had a good sense of  humour. They shared lots of interesting thoughts and insights into making, producing comics and recounted how they entered the comics industry. Tom summed up the way I ( and I'm sure many others) feel about the comic art form nicely:

 "Comics are the greatest story telling medium in the world!"

 Society may slowly be waking up to this fact. I actually went to a teachers in-service yesterday which was focused on using graphic novels in the classroom. Finest examples of comics were on display including Bone, Yusagi Yojimbo and Maus. The presenter quoted Will Eisner and Scott Mcloud's works about reading/making comics. On a personal note it was gratifying to see the comic art form receive some validation.

After the panel I had my books signed and got to have a little chat with Tom and Brain. They were both very friendly and gracious. Hopefully I didn't geek out too much when speaking to them! I also had a few quick chats with some of the independent artists who were there including Silver Fox comics and James Gilarte. I looked at the convention with a dual perspective. I was enjoying it as an attendee but one day I could be at a table talking to people about my own independent comic. Who knows? Perhaps next year that may indeed be the case.

We caught up with our friend when he arrived and enjoyed the convention some more. We left in the afternoon and traveled back to my house to make comics! Isn't that what this is all about? Celebrating and participating in the things we enjoy with others who also enjoy the same things?

Batgirl - Gotham Adventures by night.

Batman the animated series inspired Batgirl and Gotham skyline. Originally drawn with pen then grey washed with paint. The spunky attitude of the Batman:TAS series Batgirl really helped make her my favourite female super hero. That and Batgirl Adventures special #1 featuring Batgirl in her new black suit. It was written by Paul Dini and Drawn by Rick Burchett in his clean crisp animated style. Coupled with a nifty Bruce Timm cover. It's one of my favourite comics.

Emerging from the shadows.

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

The original black and white drawing.