SUM QUOD SUM - wrap up party

I think my absence is best typified by Noo's lymerick on my Facebook wall:

There once was a dude called Badower,
Who once used to blog by the hour,
But he stopped a while back
And now we've lost track,
Which has caused more than one fan to glower...

Thank you to everyone who wrote in with emails wondering if I was ok. Let's just say I've been kidnapped into "girl land" and blogging kinda fell by the wayside.

Alright! Tomorrow my story written by Jim Martin and coloured by Annette Kwok goes up. It's a prequel piece to the next online series they're doing and it was a bunch of fun. I got to draw ANOTHER shower scene (for god's sake... I'm going to get a reputation) and some cast members.

But let's wrap up SQS. I don't have space to post all of Annette's beautiful colour work, but if you'd like to see it in all its glory go HERE. I'm just going to post the pages where I have something to say.

PAGE 1

PANEL 1: Again I was smashing out the backgrounds as hard as I could. I'm so happy with not only the composition of the top panel but also the way Trafalgar square looks here. Annette did a great job of helping the tiny figures pop on the final page.

PANEL 2: The reference photo for panel 2 was funny. I think I played Claude and Abby and Ollie played themselves. On today's episode of Heroes, Claude Rains will be played by Jason Badower (cries of Boo! And hiss!)

PANEL 3: One of my favourite pics of Claude that I did. It's totally solid. Annette did such a great job of making him look wet from the rain.

PANEL 4: I'm very happy with this panel. I think is has nice performance and lighting. And it makes Ollie look like a superhero for carrying Elle.


PAGE 2

PANEL 2: You can finally see the undistorted line art. Annette has real issues obscuring my art, but I insisted. She's one of the most respectful artists I've ever worked with.

PANEL 3: I do like the performance here. I think that Lee's hand around Abby's back foreshadows the dramatic choice they make later.

PANEL 4: It kinda looks like her, but it kinda doesn't. I'm not sure what happened here. As a side note, I generally used reference from Veronica Mars rather than Heroes as I prefer VM's lighting as it's closer to my style.

PANEL 5: I like both these likenesses, and I think Ollie captured Claude perfectly in this entire comic.

PAGE 3

PANEL 1: Was it necessary to draw all these people outside the Globe Theater? Hell no. Did I enjoy it? Not really. But I just felt it needed to be done to add some "budget" to the scene. I felt I drew Claude the best on this page. I was so inspired by Ollie's dialogue. It just perfectly captured Claude. I could "hear" Christopher Eccleston saying every line. His lines really informed my performance and portrayal of the character.

PANEL 2: Annette noted that I drew over 200 people here. While I did a bit of copy, paste and subtle changing, she still coloured them all!

PANEL 3: If you've never been to St Paul's Cathedral in London, you simply HAVE to go. I was awestruck for about 3 hours as I wandered around what is one of the most magificent building I've ever been in. The Whispering Gallery is amazing. I do regret drawing a skirt on Elle here. I don't think she's ever work a skirt. No idea what came over me.

PANEL 4: Rob Beck mentioned to me that he thought the pickle was a distinctive London landmark, so I tried to squeeze it in here. Man, that background took some time. It's a great Claude again, but a mediocre Kristen. She's so hard to draw!

PAGE 4

PANEL 1: I remember Ollie commenting to me that I must have enjoyed myself a fair bit drawing a bikini fight. I said I might have enjoyed it more if one of the girls wasn't his fiance. It made it a bit weird.

PANEL 2: But seriously, I actually try and shy away from the cheesecake. I think there's enough guys out there doing that. Someone should bat for the other side. I like to try and hope that the beautiful women I draw make the scene attractive enough without them poking their asses out or lavishing cleavage everywhere. I'm a little upset with Elle's pose here. It looks a bit awkward. But I drew and redrew it and I just couldn't get it to work. Eventually I just had to move on. As you can see, the Annette Kwok special effects house was in over-drive. She basically did EVERYTHING.

PANEL 3: I love her pose here. When I was working with my model, I asked her to imagine that her hands were covered in oil and that she was checking on a friend who had fallen over.

PANEL 4: Oh man, could you actually imagine falling like this? You'd break both your wrists.

PANEL 5: Ollie and I worked on Root and Branch together (see the navigation links on the side). And in one bit there's a bunch of bullets flying at this woman just missing her. I made a bad call and instead of drawing the wall being hit by bullets I drew it all in shadow. To some people it looked like the woman was being protected by a forcefield. I mentioned to people that when I draw a forcefield you will know about it. In his infinite creativity, Ollie managed to give me the opportunity to draw a forcefield. But as you can see from comparing the black and white art to the coloured artwork, it's all the Annette Kwok Magic Show. I did nothing!

PAGE 5

PANEL 1: I'm including the coloured version of this page so you can see the Annette magic at full work. I basically just showed her what space the forcefield should occupy and she did the rest.

PANEL 2: This is one of my favourite pics of Elle. And if you scroll down you can see the awesome forcefield that Annette designed up close. Look at my art, then look at how much more it would hurt with Annette's colours! If you look carefully you can see the wedding ring on Abby. This further deepens Abby and Lee's relationship and helps explain his dramatic choice in panel 4; he has to side with his wife/fiance.



PANEL 3: I remember actually watching and studying Forgetting Sarah Marshall just so I could draw Kristen Bell's body as accurately as I could. Yeah, it's a tough, tough job.

PANEl 4: I love this shot of Abby and Ollie. What I found hilarious was the 5 o'clock shadow that Annette gave Ollie. In reality, he's like me... a bit of a baby face.

PANEL 5: I love everything about this shot. It had to sum up the emotional weight of her loss as well as their intimacy and Abby's hurt. I also love the way Ollie scripted the sequence with Abby protecting Lee. I think it's a great scene.





PAGE 6

PANEL 1: If the panel has Claude in it, chances are I really enjoyed drawing it. He's just so easy and distinctive to draw. I really felt I couldn't do wrong with him after a while.

PANEL 2: I like this pic of Elle here.

PANEL 3: The money shot. I was going to have her looking at us, but somehow I liked the distanced look more. Ollie and I went over and over this sequence. Initially Lyle opens the door in this panel and Elle shocks him in the second panel. Then when we saw the footage, Lyle is lying around the corner from the door. Unless he bounced off a wall or something there's no way he could be lying there if he came from the door. So instead we came up with this sequence. No need to explain how or why, she's just there and he's already unconscious.

PANEL 4: I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to draw a great Lyle. As it is, he turned out pretty well. So we added the family photograph on the left side so there should be no doubt in your mind as to where we are. This is easily one of the best pics I've drawn of Claire and Noah. I will post it separately sometime.

I was a bit disapointed that they released this after the airing of Eris Quod Sum, as I felt these events were a prequel to what happened. If you did read this before seeing the show, then I think you probably got more out of it. When Claire and Sandra come home, you already know what's going on, which (I think) creates more tension. It's like knowing that the serial killer is in the house in a horror film.

Alright, from now on, I'm posting Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays unless I mention otherwise. That's the schedule and I'm sticking to it!

Again, thank you to everyone who wrote in to either kick my ass or just check that I wasn't chopped up in someone's refridgerator somewhere.

INTERVIEW: Part 2 of my interview with House Petrelli can be found HERE.

COMPETITION: I will sorting out who did and didn't get their prizes this week. If you were a winner, keep your eyes on your inbox. If you're not sure if you sent me an email or not (ie. I didn't reply) please send it again!

NEXT: Jim Martin, Annette Kwok and Jason Badower. Don't forget to watch HEROES tonight!