City of Cards C3.13-15: START HERE!

Three pages this month and I'm reasonably happy with how they turned out. I'm glad I took the extra time to work on them, but I'm mostly just happy to start uploading pages again.

We did another Joy Reflex podcast talking about character development this past weekend, so if you're curious you can check it out here:

I also had some time to sketch a picture of my friend Kari's character Loraine. I'd been planning on doing it before she sent me that sweet piece of fanart last week, but it definitely motivated me even more:

I hope to color this in the future. Kari's comic Bird Seed is done with such great colors that it would be only fitting. I grew up loving the Oz books and that's what Loraine makes me think of.

I'm starting to get deep into planning my 2013 convention schedule. My hope is to travel to a bunch of conventions all over the states to prepare for an end of the year (2013) print goal for the first part of City of Cards. I'm pretty psyched about this. I have a lot of ideas for extra content and I can't wait to get started working on all sorts of fun projects.

New comic pages go up next week, this week I talk a little bit about San Diego Comic Con and go over my progress thus far.

But FIRST I got this awesome piece of fanart by the amazing Kari, artist of the comic Bird Seed:

Ace by Kari

She understands the importance of empty beer bottles when defining Ace's personality. If there is beer around, he will consume it. And yes, this totally made my day.

I had the benefit this year of a professional pass so I decided to go down to SDCC for one day on Saturday. SDCC isn't something I usually get excited about. I don't follow a lot of big entertainment news, I don't have a lot of expendable income, and right now I have to spend a lot of my free time working on my art. That said, knowing some good friends of mine would be there, ones that I rarely get a chance to see, was more than enough of an excuse to head down.

It's been years since I'd been to the convention. I'd heard the even described a bit like a pride parade, to which my friend added "Yeah it's like, whooooo! fly your freak flags, my bretheren! But also AAAH MOM HELP MY BRETHEREN IS TERRIFYING!" add in all the scantily clad costumers and the Bible protesters and I think we're not too far off. Except, in my opinion it's a bit more like a pride parade at Disneyland where either pick one or two rides to go one, wait in long lines to see them, and spend a lot of cash doing so. OR you just go on a bunch of less popular rides and spend a lot of cash.

I'm not trying to be too negative here. Hell, I think the experience can be a lot of fun. I actually like going to Disneyland and SDCC has the benefit of gathering a lot of really smart and skilled people within a large range of pop culture industries. I don't plan to table there any time soon, at least not until I've really established myself. As far as comic book conventions go, SDCC is an entertainment convention. That fact, though, shouldn't be news to anyone.

I did pick up some books I'd been wanting to get, though. Three volumes of Wandering Son, the fourth volume of RASL, the latest issue of Papercutter, and a mini by MK called Bull that you can check out here.

Other than that, I posted up a comparison picture of the old C1.18.1 and the new version:

You know, it's a good to remind yourself that if you work on something long enough you'll improve and to not let yourself get too caught up in self doubt all the time. I look forward to seeing where I'm at in two more years.

Pre-SDCC 2012 Post

Not going to lie, I'm going to be SO happy when SDCC is over. I'll only be there for part of the day on Saturday to check in with a couple of friends but it's really not a convention I'm really looking forward to. I much prefer smaller conventions like SPX that are really about getting to meet fellow artists and not about being a big Hollywood event. I'm happy for those that enjoy it, really, but even the thought of going for a partial day already has me exhausted.

Also, I think working at a comic book company and prepping for the show might have to do with why I'm so worn out. *laughs*

But anyway, Joy Reflex hosted another podcast this past weekend where we started a discussion on character development. We'll continue the discussion next weekend with two different cast members. Two watch/listen to the most recent cast go here:

And for those interested, here are the first two episodes in mp3 format:

http://www.cityofcards.com/podcasts/JoyReflex_00.mp3

http://www.cityofcards.com/podcasts/JoyReflex_01.mp3

Also, for the heck of it, here are a couple of sketches of Ace and Trump:

I do love these two. They definitely have their own personalities. It'll be interesting when/if I get to write them actually meeting.

Oh, and I think I'm addicted to Swedish pop music. I fully admit, when I draw I like to listen to pretty questionable music, but the beat really helps build up a kind of zen pace when working.

Joy Reflex Podcast and More Art

First week of no new comic? Well, I'm still being productive so don't worry about that. There will be new pages soon. I took the time to redraw what was going to be page 13 and I think it's much better. There will definitely be new pages on the 28th.

My new schedule has also allowed me more time to sketch (having today off also helped). I've got the third card in my set with Candy:

And a sketch I hope to turn into some kind of a print or at least as a cover photo for the podcast I've been doing:

Speaking of the podcast, there's a few ways you can listen to it. The pilot episode of Joy Reflex launched this past Saturday and we started off talking a bit about our world building process. The next episode will be this Saturday and I'll link it here afterwards as well. If you want the full visual experience you can check it out here:

Or if you just want the audio experience you can go here:

I also have an mp3 version made and eventually I'll set up a site to host that so people can download and listen to the podcast on the go. Also, we've got a G+ page setup so you can updates through there as well.