Final Gamble #1 is on Kickstarter!

 Hey everyone! So this has been under my hat for a bit, but there's a book that I'm working that is available for pre-order on Kickstarter! It's called the Final Gamble, and it's about 2 people trying to gamble their way out of a terrifying situation. If you'd like to see the pitch and video and maybe donate to receive your copy, here's the link: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bandofbards/final-gamble-issue-1

TEAM:

Writer: Bobby Singer
Pencils & Inks: Me
Colors: Harry Saxon
Lettering: George Gant
Publisher: Band of Bards

I'll also include the process work for my cover of the first issue. So this one was tricky, so to make it easier on me, I created two separate pages for this cover: one was the characters and all of the money and pokerchips, and the other was just the slot machine background. After I inked them, I combined them in Photoshop and colored them.

The campaign starts today and goes for a month, so hopefully we'll meet our goal! 

This is the final version that you'll get if you preorder the book.

Without the type

Pencils where you can see the overlap of the two images.

American Bug Book Cover Illustration

 Hey everyone! I'm really bad about sharing my freelance work on here but I want to share the cool projects I get to work on! Nick Ulanowski is a journalist and poet and he's approached me to do covers and book design for his short stories and poetry books a few times before, and now I'm working on his newest book, American Bug! It's on Kickstarter now, here's a link so you can read about it and back it to secure your copy!

This was a really fun illustration! I penciled, inked, colored, and designed the type for it, putting that Graphic Design BFA to use. I hope you enjoy it!

Roxy Rewind pages 1-4

 Super late on taking advantage of this when it was online, but last year I worked David Pepose and Jim Campbell on a short story for Project Big Hype,  a comic anthology on Kickstarter! The funding was successful and I hope everyone enjoyed the comic! These pages were shared on Twitter and other places, so I'm sharing the first 4 of our story here! This is a different kind of book than I usually do, but it was a fun change of pace! I've never really drawn superheroes comics before, so this was fun!

These pages were drawn on Deleter B4 manga paper, which I haven't used in years! I used mostly G-pens and the Nihonji pen and used Photoshop to create the digital halftones. I'll include some pencils down below the inks!

 Story & Script: David Pepose https://twitter.com/Peposed

Lettering: Jim Campbell https://twitter.com/CampbellLetters

Pencils

Curse of the Eel Chapter 14

 Today I began posting chapter 14 of Curse of the Eel on Tapastic and Tumblr, and I'll be adding a link to my menu to those pages so people can read them. This chapter was a little hard for me, I was trying to draw it while being having my tank completely on empty. I just had little to no energy to do any real drawing, and anything I did draw didn't look right or just looked less than what I want or expect from my art. It's a sucky thought process, but that poisonous mindset really hobbled me in 2020.

 

Thankfully, new year brings new beginnings, and while I've never been as busy as I am now with projects, new jobs, and new energy, I'm finally feeling a bit like my younger self who just wanted to draw to make people smile or cry with my weird comics. Today Curse of the Eel returns after a short hiatus, and chapter 14 marks the beginning of the end; this comic that I thought would be 2 graphic novels is now half way through book 3, and I'm really proud of it. I've also learned how much these characters mean to people and that is an honor I can't even begin to comprehend, but one that I'm grateful for. If this comic can bring a smile to someone without one, then it was worth every second it took to dream up. I hope this new chapter finds you all well and that you have a great day, and if not, I hope Eel can lift your spirits if even for a bit.

My favorite works from 2020

 Hey all, 2020 was no joke, a complete nightmare. I wasn't really prepared for how much quarantine and the politics of last year would drive my mental health into the ground like a spike. I'm doing better this year, but I'm still finding it hard to make work with everything going on. Either way, I'll share some of my favorite works that I created last year, comics or otherwise.

Here's to a better 2021!

Spencer & Locke 2 is Nominated for a Ringo Award!

 Hey y'all, I hope you're doing well in the quarantine/world being on fire. The state of things has left a lot of people feeling depressed and this summer has been super hard to concentrate on making the comics. There have been a few bright spots, but it's hard to celebrate anything knowing that people are suffering out there. But this post isn't about my depression, it's about spreading some hopefully good vibes? Seriously though, stay safe and keep spreading good, the world needs it!

But yeah, I got the email about this years Ringo Award Nominations, and I must have been exhausted because I didn't even notice Spencer and Locke on it, but we were nominated for Best Single Issue for Volume 2 Issue 1!

I'll include some of my inks for that issue, which was a very different experience than drawing the first issue of volume 1. I decided to try using G-pens and other Japanese art tools because I wanted this issue to have a more scratchy gritty feel since we're essentially jumping into a war story. It was a lot of fun to play with these tools again, having left them aside for brushes at SCAD, but now I use a hybrid of both when I'm making comics. My tools on these are: Deleter G-pens, Zebra brush pens, Raphael watercolor brushes, Yasutomo Sumi Ink, and Pentel Hybrid Technica pens on Stillman & Birn Zeta paper.

Our team on this book is:

David Pepose - Writer

Me - Pencils and Inks

Jasen Smith - Colors

Colin Bell - Letters

Curse of the Eel Volume 2

Hello all, I hope you're all doing well despite the quarantine and all the other craziness going on in the world. Unfortunately a number of the shows I was planning to attend this year have been postponed, which is the safe thing to do of course, it's just a bit of a bummer. However, I did get my restock of Curse of the Eel Volume 1 as well as my brand spanking new Volume 2! This book collects chapters 7-11 of the comic that began as my thesis and has become the flagship title that shows people how I write and draw my own stories!

Curse of the Eel is about a goth girl named Connie whom, in volume 1, accidentally summons an Eldritch creature known as the Eel to earth. In volume 2, things have taken a turn for the worse as the cult responsible for all of the madness in Connie's life is making big strides in their dark plan. The question is, will Connie be able to do anything about it, especially now that it looks like she and the Eel are turning into one being?

You can pick up the volumes from my store HERE! I'll still be shipping despite the quarantine, but I'll only be shipping at the end of each week, just to stay safe myself. Also, because this is a crazy time and I appreciate your support, each order with an Eel book will get a free bonus illustration of Eel eating a different food! I'll include some of the ones I've already done here to show what they look like!

Thank you for reading and take care! I'll have more art to post soon!

Volume 2 Cover!

Chapter 7 that I love!

Chapter 8 page of horror!

Chapter 9 page that I'm quite proud of! Environmental storytelling!!

Chapter 10 page of the cult person showing their power and fury!

Chapter 11 page that summarizes Eel and Connie's relationship

Eel Bonus Art: Dippin' Dots!

Eel Bonus Art: Okonomiyaki!

Eel Bonus Art: Buffalo Wings!