WANTED page 2

I've been hosting Aussies in LA and my blogging has gone to the dogs. My buddy, Jason and I have been revelling in the gay overtext of ARMY OF TWO to the chagrin of our girlfriends. For those who want the funniest review of Army of Two which will explain exactly what I'm talking about, click HERE for the brilliant Zero Punctuation. When you're finished being distracted there, don't forget to come on back and read this post.

I'm writing this now as a warm-up to drawing. I'm not quite ready to get started. I'm sure you know what I mean. The cogs need a bit of time to get oiled and I'm sure a blog post is the perfect antidote.

This page was one huge cheat. What I can't figure out is why I repeated the same picture of Thompson! I drew an original picture of Thompson Jr on page 1 and blurred the hell out of it so no one ever saw it. I could/should have used it here instead of recycling the one picture of him three times from the first page. As they say, "E's lovely, but e's not very bwight."

This may seem like such a cop out, but I think it got the job done. I actually drew the Micah separately and just pasted and resized him into the panels. The beauty of this page was that it allowed me to spend more time on other stuff.

If time is my budget, I found I was able to save a lot to spend it elsewhere. I think you got your money's worth... especially given it's free!

Alexandre in one of his recent comments mentioned my guns and how I try to depict them accurately. Several people have asked about this. My secret is the lax gun laws in LA. Not the gun laws in LAX. The relaxed gun laws in LA. We all the same page yet?

In Australia NO ONE has a gun. If there's a shooting it's in every paper even if the shooting occurred in another state! You can't even get paintball guns in most places and toy guys don't resemble anything like real guns. But LA... In my first few months here I went down to the awesome army disposal story on Hollywood and grabbed myself a bunch of pellet firing replica hand guns. They've got a little orange nib on the end of the barrel so you know they're fake. But they look, feel and weigh like a real gun. When I give these props to a model, the performance I get is phenomenal. There's a real feel of respect for the weapon, and then they just get an evil grin (no matter how pacifistic they are) and just go for the performance with real gusto.

So there you go, another secret exposed!

Ollie just asked me if I wanted to do the 8 page finale of REBELLION written by James Martin esq. Of course I said, "Hell yes."

My 22 page script is being looked over by the kind folks at SUMAJIN. It's a covert action thriller that puts the characters in some very interesting places. Ollie Grigsby and Alex Hammond gave me such great feedback. They really helped me crank it up a heck of a lot. Man, I learn so much working with writers I really admire. It seems that the company funding the idea is very happy with it so far. I'm just waiting on final approval. Then I can start on layouts and character sketches. It's gonna be tight but fun!

I also finished my four issue mini-series of an unannounced project. At least you know it will released on time, right? Or if it doesn't, it's totally not my fault. I will word you up when it hits the mean streets of your local comic shop.

APPEARANCE: I'm doing a panel for Digital LA on digital comics being held by MELTDOWN COMICS on July 9th. I will be there from 7pm.

Here's the link:

http://digitalla.net/

There's also a Facebook page and you can join the other 235 people and sign up for:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=91736912490

The panel will go for an hour and a half starting at 8pm. I will bring along my silver pens to sign graphic novels, but I apologise, I won't be able to do any sketches. Sorry! Hit me up at San Diego for the sketching action.

WANTED page 1

You can find the free download of the comic I'm talking about here:

http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/novels/index.shtml?novel=140

Man, oh man has this last stint of HEROES been fun and tough.

I'm sure Harrison Wilcox, writer-extraordinaire, all-round nice guy and scourge of the undead would agree that the spoiler for the big twist on the thumbnail was a huge downer. Sure we reveal that Thompson Jr is the shooter three panels in... but really? Couldn't we have picked something else? When I'm drawing I'm always wondering who writes the preview text and picks the images. I'm always wondering which panel I would use to preview it. Personally, I would have used a cropped version of Micah tied up on page 5 or page 4 panel 2 or even page 1 panel 3 without Thompson in it. It just spoiled the cool reveal and let us know too much about the story before reading it. Ah well.

I was specifically asked to come back for this story by Ollie Grigsby and Frank my editor because I'd drawn the last installment where Thompson, Donna, Fallon and Sabine had turned up. That was called INTO THE WILD (check links on the right) and it was written by Timm Keppler (who has unfortunately left the HEROES stable) and Jim Martin. It was great to come back to these characters, but I will go into that some more when I get to page 3. All things in time, my friend.

As you can see from the actual line art, I wasted the time drawing an actual Thompson for panel 2. I think I was going to re-use it for page 2, but ended up repeating the image from panel 4 instead. I don't know what sort of stroke of sub-brilliance inspired that, but I wasted time and recycled images that had already been seen. Not my finest moment.

But here it is for those who care. Yeah, that's you in the back row. Thanks. Takes a bow to the one person clapping.

Man, that background on panel 3 took some time. I don't know if you noticed the reflection of the water on the ground, but that took like, no time at all and looked far better than I expected. Is anyone else getting the impression that I kind of just flail around and sometimes stuff seems to work out really well?

Well, it's not an inaccurate impression.

I'm generally a big fan of Comicraft who do the lettering for all the HEROES graphic novels. I like their fonts and their sense of design. I wasn't a big fan of what they did on this page with panels 1 and 2. It works, but it's just a personal thing that I don't like balloons breaking over the panel edge. I don't like anything breaking outside of my panel borders. It's a personal and stylistic thing, but I like to keep my comics very simple and draw you into the action within the panel. I find that if you cross things outside the panel you suddenly become aware that you're reading a comic and pop outside the story. But that's just my call.

You can see on my layouts on the left how I indicated it. And that's pretty much from Harrison's directions in the script. Perhaps it was a stylistic choice on Comicraft's part, perhaps they thought it was just quicker. Perhaps both?

FRIDAY: Page 2. Colour palettes and repetition is the mother of saved deadlines.

LEFT BEHIND page 6

Thanks for the fantastic reception to Graphic Novel 140. All your comments mean so much to me. I will chat about it tomorrow though.

Today, the briefest wrap up of LEFT BEHIND. I have to run off soon and won't get any more opportunities to blog today.

I really like the colouring on this page. I really feel that I have out doors nailed down, but I'm still working on indoors. I found it tough to colour the Human Resources room without it looking muddy. But hey, I'm getting there!

Panel 1 is fun. It's got a widescreen feel that just really attracts me visually. It was one of the earliest panels I conceptualised. I especially like the design of the trees on the left to help our intrepid heroes pop visually making them easier to find on the panel. I also spent a ridiculous amount of time drawing windows. I recall listening to Dennis Leary's "Why We Suck" as I drew them. I at first disliked Leary because he spent the early part of his career ripping off the inestimable Bill Hicks (whom, if you haven't heard his stuff, prepare to be as equally enlightened as you are offended). But Leary has really grown into his own, and his show RESCUE ME (which I've only seen the first two seasons of) is ridiculously good. His book is fantastic. It has an incredibly offensive level headedness that I really enjoy.

But yes. A lot of windows.

I also like the trees. Yes, the trees. Sorry to bore your non-botanical butts (with alteration and the admiring of my foliage).

But most of all, I love how the colour of the final story feeds so naturally into the sniper scope on the very last panel. It just had a nice synchronicty that I'd like to take credit for making happen even if I didn't premeditate it. Hey, sometimes accidents happen for a good reason.

But you all seem very pleased that Micah was actually shot, and it was Ollie's and my intention to give you that impression. It was funny reading the extraordinarily cynical predictions of how Micah would avoid being shot.

Anyone, time out. I'm off for sushi! You all have fun and be good, and if you don't make sure you name it after me.

LEFT BEHIND page 5

I just finished the final part of REBELLION that I'm involved with last night. I'm really excited to see the future installments and see where the guys take it. It was a late finish at 5am (as usual) but I like to cram as much into it as possible. The basic formula is:

EFFORT X TIME = TIRED JAS

Overall, I think the artwork is the best I've done. I think it's a step above this installment. On the downside, I don't think the colouring is quite as detailed as I would have liked. But as I'm reading in Stephen King's seventh and final book of THE DARK TOWER, "Wish in one hand, sh!t in the other and see which one fills up first."

But let's come back and wrap up LEFT BEHIND up before the next installment goes live tomorrow morning.

It became more and apparent as I drew everyone that I really wanted to draw some superheroes. These characters were no longer portraits of my friends but superheroic effigies of them. Many people noticed and commented on the visual similarities of this story to mainstream superhero comics. Some people love it, some people didn't, some people were indifferent. Some people wished the show was this big, some people found that it didn't fit with the show. The show is a "big" show, but I guess it's no Michael Bay extravaganza (speaking of which, I want to find an IMAX so big that I have to launch myself into geosynchronous orbit to fully capture the hugeness that's gonna be Transformers 2.)

The tight costumes and the team as well as the widescreen feel made it all feel larger than the show. What's funny is looking at the comments how aware people are of the limitations of television as a media. That primary limitation is budget. I see a great amount of wish fulfillment dreaming of a budget to be able to have a show of this visual extravagance on the air. The awareness of the audience stunned me. Do we sit down to watch television expecting a lower budget than we do of a movie? I know that when I sit down to watch Battlestar Galactica I don't have that expectation at all. And before you start with the BSG comments I *STILL* haven't watched the final season. I'm starting again and working my way through it again to give it full context. So just hold your god damn horses for me, ok? Some of us have been busy trying to entertain you. Cut me some slack. I'm still churning through TORCHWOOD season 2 and LOST season 5.

It's funny I bumped into some fans saying that the episode COLD SNAP was their favourite because they loved how Tracy froze everything. It just goes to show that any part of a show can be exceptional enough to capture people's imagination: direction, acting, writing, costumes, production, paintings or a cg sequence.

A lot of people loved West's "Mario" comment that the Princess is in another castle. I played a bit of Mario Brothers when I was a kid and did my time with sidescrolling platform games (yes, I know it's evolved a bit since then) so I don't know if it's a direct quote. Me? I thought it was more a thinly veiled code for any sort of fairy tale sequence. I guess we tap into what resonates with us. I guess someone who doesn't have a penchance for online rpgs is going to have to tell me if it's a direct quote. Or... I could just ask Ollie. But I think he's more of a LEFT 4 DEAD dude than a MARIO dude. And if you think his fiance Abby is collecting gold coins and riding cute green dinosaurs you're totally wrong. She's dual wielding M1911 pistols and carving holes the size of dinner plates into the craniums of the undead right next to him.

<- left you can see more of Paul Caggegi's awesome 3d modeling work on my layouts. I just slapped them in and drew over them so Ollie could see what I was doing.

TOMORROW: I was supposed to post on Friday, but drawing my ass off and getting free tix for Heather and I to go see the totally ghetto LA Erotica convention distracted me. Without any desire to purchase hardcore porn, a penile enhancement or a vibrator I found myself vaguely unentertained. It was like someone had built a convention out of my spam inbox and populated it with a bunch of guys who still live in their mother's basements. Ker-eepy.

But anyway, I will post the final page of LEFT BEHIND tomorrow, as the next part goes live tomorrow also. I wanna start covering the new stuff on Wednesday. God, I actually have time to blog now that I'm outside of the crushing (but incredibly fun) weight of HEROES.

LEFT BEHIND page 4

If you've been eating your carrots and Wheaties you might notice that the layouts overlap perfectly with the finished art. This occurs for two reasons. One is that I've started doing layouts on Photoshop. I sit down, do all my research (guns, buildings, clothing - or lack of it, etc.) and then figure out what shots I can do based on what research I've done. It seems much smarter to do this "cart after the horse action".

You might think it limits my storytelling, but it does just the opposite. It seems my brain has very limited camera angles and ways that it can perceive a sequential scenario. This doesn't mean that I can't perceive a scene from multiple angles, I can. I can draw it through the plastic mesh of a shopping basket discarded in a corner, I can perch above a chandelier with the crystals creating a glittering frame. That's not the problem. The problem for me is moving around the scene in a way that is dynamic, highlights the main action and moves in a way that the geography and action makes sense to the reader.

While some people perceive comics as a seamless stream of action, it is far from the truth. In fact, nothing is seamless. Movies have cuts. Hell, even your eyes blink cutting your perception 10 times per minute! That momentary darkness is compensated for in an unconscious immediate way. I know there's a term for it that I learned in my psychology course in college (university for everyone else on the globe), but I just can't remember it. Spot the person who's suddenly regretting their college debt. Anyway, comics are jagged, frozen moments of time held together by dialogue, captions but hopefully (and mostly), good visual storytelling. A good storyteller will lead the reader around the scene in a manner that makes the action seem seamless. If you at any point ever go, "What the hell? Where am I?" when the storyteller hasn't intended you to feel that way, then the storyteller hasn't done a great job.

So by finding the research first, I tend to use these shots as anchors, or to belabor an animation metaphor - keys (coming from the term, "key frame" which is a frame drawn by a senior animator to indicate a key, or important frame of movement). I then tween around these shots (short for "in between - shots that are less important in animation than the "key frame"). I find it incredibly challenging and exhilarating when I'm able to tie it all together in a manner which is both readable and exciting. But I always try and lean towards readable before exciting. I'd rather be boring and clear, than exciting and impenetrable.

Having Paul do the backgrounds for the Human Resources room allowed me to shoot everything exactly as I wanted. We're now experimenting with software that enables him to give me the model and for me to just set up my cameras and light it just the way I want it. It's less time on his part and we don't have to keep going back and forth with me saying, "can you lower it about 10 inches and tilt it up 15 degrees."

Doing this back and forth on email sometimes feels like the joke of two blind men both groping at different ends of an elephant. If you haven't heard it, you can Google it or something.

The second reason the layouts are so close to the final artwork (you thought I'd forgotten that I'd mentioned two right? Well I remembered without even having to do a reread! Go coffee!) is that Frank uses my layouts to do lettering when I haven't finished drawing in time. Which is pretty much every time. Because I follow these layouts exactly, he can have the lettering done before I've finished the art. The letterer then just has to lay the artwork underneath. A 2 minute job for each page. Speaking of which... Frank needs me to double check the layouts and send them through for lettering right now.

In good news, my character outlines for my story have been approved. I'm so excited. I'd been coming up with concept stuff and action scenes. Then I found myself totally bored as I realised I was just writing about ciphers. Faceless killers. So I wrote a quick 100 word background on both of the characters, and discovered that there needed to be a third - a love interest. I added each character's theme and submitted it. Bingo! Approved! Suddenly I'm writing about people and the situations just start to write themselves.