Sunday Afternoon Concept Art scribble WIP, for something writer Chris Sequeira and I and working on in 2014. Went a bit 1980's on it. Though I'm blowing off vital Thesis work time, I really needed to pick up a pencil and pen. It was driving me crazy. I find the majority of stuff I throw online is met with silence, so I guess it's just an exercise in exorcising some demons, really. I'm attempting inks, albeit, mainly cheapo markers, but I'm somewhat enjoying it. Though I find I lose my way when I'm tired. Especially in the next attempted image I'm posting. Started midnight-ish, was probably a stupid idea, and haven't drawn Soldier in a very long time. Two mistakes. Anyway, March on.

Soldier Legacy/Human Fly comic images in 'Shadow of a Mouse' Art Exhibition

Beginning next week (and opening night on Thursday 24th October if you're in the area):

'Shadow of a Mouse' Art Exhibition at  the Royal Queensland Art Society Petrie Terrace Gallery.

As well as illustrations and sculpture from some very talented Animation/Film School post grad/lecturers, I'll have prints on display at A1 size- using original Comic illustrations featuring 'The Soldier Legacy', pages from 'The New Adventures of the Human Fly', and perhaps 1 or 2 concept art images from 'The Maleficus Seven'...depending on the room ;P

These will be 1 of only 1 A1 sized poster prints that I do plan to sell if anyone is actually interested. Will take photos and post online during the exhibition.

Gotta run. Cheers All.

Gone to the publishers! Soldier Legacy's Strange Tales

Available next week at Perth and Adelaide OZ Comic-Con, and April at Melbourne and Gold Coast Supanova, thanks to Black House Comics.

Scripts/Plots by Christopher Sequeira, Illustration/plots by Paul Mason.

Packed with story!
You must not miss this! ;P

'Lazarus Burne's Maleficus Seven' cover for 'Soldier Legacy's Strange Tales.

Lazarus "Larry" Burne and co., created by Chris Sequeira and Paul Mason. Art by Paul Mason.

This is the cover for the back up feature in next month's 'Soldier Legacy's Strange Tales'. It features characters created by writer Chris Sequeira and myself, which has a bit of a slight history that I couldn't be bother talking about in depth now, but basically it was a pitch that Chris presented, and I illustrated the original idea, using a cast of supernatural characters from one of the big guns. They couldn't find a place for it, so we then decided that we could create our own characters and do something ourselves with it.

What you see above is basically the concept ideas we talked about, and I went away and played on the drawing board. A couple of character ideas and details were merged- I'm not sure if it was forgetfulness, lack of sleep or otherwise, but essentially what notes we made in a plotting session last year is what you get. We were going to launch the original 8 page strip in last year's Black House Comic anthology 'Parahuman'. It was fun to plot- basically, the first 3 pages existed for samples for myself, and concept pitch for Chris. That character was removed and ours entered, and the remaining 5 pages was tossed around, and action panels made "Kirby-style"- however I wanted a demon to be "dealt with", I did :P. However, the Parahuman book was cancelled. At the time, I recall being pressed for time with Soldier #4, The Soldier graphic novel, the 6 page back up story in 'Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes', and pencil layouts for the artist, that were all due at the same month. I was upset we lost a cool title that Parahuman was going to be, and the page rate and 50 copies of the issue was for all intents and purposes, the best thing going in any independent publisher I've seen on our comic scene in recent years. So it did boggle the mind that creators didn't jump on board. I'm getting off topic.

Anyways, the pages for our story were penciled and feature in my 2012 folio issue for last year's LA trip (colouring was shelved 2 pages in, but pencils were the aim of the game anyway), and got great response from industry folk. We decided we should finish the strip based on that positive response. When issue 5 of the Soldier was complete late last year, I restarting colouring, and finished it last month, where Mr Sequeira worked his scripting magic for me to letter, and here we are, ready to insert into our appropriately titled "Strange Tales" one-shot. We'll see what you readers think, yeah?

Anyway, think 'The Dirty Harry of Exorcists' (hence the homage to the original 'Dirty Harry' film poster and Clint Eastwood-ism in the main character). The names of the rest of the 'Seven', include (from left to right, front to back) 'Johnny Incubo', 'Ju Ju Heart', (then in white) 'Sister Strigoi', Sinquisitor, Grotesque, (and at the back) Deadriver.  

Oh right, the cover. A pinup for the book, and most likely a back cover for the issue. 

Like all my colouring, it's "man, this isn't working, what the hell am I doing?", until it gets completed, and it does work. Kind of. *sigh.

If I saved a screen shot or jpeg of every colour variation for the foreground figure, and the background figures, there would be about 200 images in this post, particularly when flicking through colour blend types, or overlays to lighten/knock back/bring forward the characters. Craziness. The main things I aim for are a clear focal point, value control, temperature control, and making sure the characters seem like they're in the environment- I feel if you manage to maintain the character's colour scheme in an image, you've failed. I feel you need to include the colours and "lighting" of the environment on your characters, otherwise the image comes across as "gawdy", with elements fighting for attention. Anyway, my 2 cents; I could be wrong. I prefer pencilling- I colour out of necessity.

The top of the post in the final image, and the process is below (roughs, clean up, flats, black and white value checking (an early one- still has "muddy" grey bits undefined), the almost finished colours: the pre-colour line holds and extra fiddly "on-top-of-the-lines" colours and highlights that the completed image has (in my poor man's attempt to get a "Dean White" feel to it). Unfortunately I lack the skill, patience, and bravery to be able to pull off the work he does in this colouring, and my little bamboo tablet is no match for the hand/eye control a Cintiq would allow to even properly pull off those fine white line details that lift his coloured characters off the page. One day perhaps, when I don't have multiple day jobs and actually make enough money to be comfortable enough to invest in toys....*to dream. Anyways, I make do with what I have, and a lack of equipment, or inspiration or any other thing you can think of, is no excuse when it comes to producing something. That's the beauty of the comic medium- worlds can be created with a pencil and paper.

 All characters featured here in this post are copyright © 2013 Christopher Sequeira and Paul Mason. Illustrations copyright © 2013 Paul Mason.

The Soldier Legacy's Strange Tales #1 cover progress. a.k.a: Confessions of an Obsessive, Compulsive and Paranoid Comic Illustrator

Basically, this is it. The final cover for next month's new release at OZ Comic-Con Perth, Adelaide and beyond: 'The Soldier Legacy's Strange Tales'. Back cover will feature characters from the back up feature: Lazarus Burne's Maleficent Seven'.

As mentioned previous, this book reprints the first two parts of the Dr Nikola /Soldier Legacy story from 'Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes' (with touch ups), and will newly publish the conclusion of this story being penciled and coloured now, and due to be released in 'Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes #9' out soon. This 3 part story and the 'Larry Burne' tale were plotted by my writer buddy Chris Sequeira (DD: Sherlock Holmes, X-Men vs Vampires, upcoming 'The Avenger' story for Moonstone etc.) and I, and then scripted by Chris once I flooded his inbox with the pages. I'm currently lettering LB on the other screen, and waiting on Chris to give me the proverbial slap upside the head with the corrections and tweaks before I can finally leave that story alone. 

The guys on the Whatcha podcast recently touched on the Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes series, mentioning the Dr Nikola back up feature kindly, and I'm stoked to finally be able to complete it and assemble it into this one-shot book. And, to see LB finally completed as intended a while back, I'm pleased to include this in the Black House Comics Soldier Legacy family.

http://whatchapodcast.podomatic.com/entry/2013-01-26T15_50_15-08_00

(about 1hr 08 mins in)

Anyways, enough of the official nonsense. Let's crack open my head a little and spill some OCD-related imagery and madness, with a spattering of indecisiveness ;P

Progress on the covers: it was basically a question of trying to make the colours of the back ground vs images vs the logo work within the concept of "weird"/"strange", while at the same time not confusing the eye with a muddled mess- I wanted the primary image to stand out as well at the title header. 

The main thing here was as as much as I dug the Red/orange and yellow versions, they looked too "warm" in respect to the whole "strange" vibe I wanted. And though I really liked the original green colour for the 'Strange Tales' title, it was too close to the value of the background (as well as green on green). Loooking back at some of the 'Strange Tales' covers from the early 60's I really liked the yellow and red combination on the headers (white would have been good, had it not been for the white "page tear" in the bg.) Thankfully, red and green compliment each other, so once that combination was hit, the colour balance of the page seemed to fall into place, and I could start to finalise the other elemnts with the paranoia that all the different bits clashed with each other/didn't suit the overall "theme".

It was just a question of getting another round of feedback from the publisher Baden Kiragn, and writer collaborator on these tales, Chris Sequeira, before making my final decision. Will probably re-align one or two things but essentially, the top image of the post is the final version. Phew! Perdantic, much? 

Below are examples of the original 'Captain America's Weird Tales' (the original kernel that started this concept,) from 1949/1950, and the 1960's 'Strange Tales' title.

       

          

 

Thanks, folks! More to come soon. 

Sneak peek: The one-shot title

If you're a regular reader of my Soldier Legacy related blog, I sincerely apologise ;P

If you're still here, you may have read recent posts related to the Chris Sequeira/Paul Mason collaboration one-shot issue, which will feature the full 'Dr. Nikola vs The Victorian era Soldier Legacy' story featuring in the back of that last 2 and upcoming Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes comic books from Black House. The one-shot will also feature the debut teaser story of 'Lazarus "Larry" Burne' and his Maleficent Seven (think "Dirty Harry" of Exorcists and you're halfway there ;P). These stories are both slightly "left of field" for me and the continuity being laid out in the regular 'Soldier Legacy' series, but they were fun to do, and I wondered if there was future potential to be able to play with the character/characters outside of the stories set in WW2. Here's a look at the title:

From the thesis point of view, it was fun to experiment in the true "Marvel Method" collaboration. We drilled these plots out over a number of sessions before we had something fun, I would sweat over the image chores, and in the process of finishing up the last chapter for Mr Sequeira to script in the dialogue to my pics. I can read about it in books, or I can have a crack myself with a writer. It was very cool. This was also a nod to Lee and Kirby's Strange tales, with the "first" appearance of Captain America in the "modern" 1960's Marvel (ok, so the Human Torch battles a robot; but it was the litmus test for the Official appearance in 'Avengers #4 - Comic nerd Paul), and the 1949 'Captain America's Weird Tales. I did originally plan on perhaps "Weird Tales", or 'Strange Stories", but 'Strange Tales' had a nice ring to it, (and cheers for the input, John Retallick ;D)
Anyways, I'm fading fast from a full day's work and no meal, so I hope you'll dig what we're throwing at interested readers in March.
And, as always, if you're here reading this, and you give a damn, I thank you.
We soldier on.

Lazarus Burne, Best of show, & Bits and Pieces from the Week

• Another unexpected very kind appearance on The Jack Kirby Museum website; thanks to Andrez Bergen and his upcoming novel 'Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?' I'm very pleased he liked the image. http://kirbymuseum.org/blogs/kirby-vision/2013/01/09/great-capes/

• Tonight at 9:30pm Queensland (or 10:30pm daylight savings time), the Late Nite show have kindly including my interview from November in their 'Best of' episode. Watch online by going to http://www.qctv.com.au/ and click on the WATCH LIVE banner. "Get to da Choppaarh!"

• Still have a handful of 'Soldier Legacy' packs left on the Big cartel store- I have to thank those that are getting on-board with this little offer of mine, and I hope the new readers enjoy the series. All orders, including print orders, have been sent out. Keep an eye on the mail box. http://www.paulmason.bigcartel.com/

• Colouring *finally* complete on the back up story in the upcoming untitled 'Dr.Nikola/Soldier Legacy' one-shot. The story seems to now have a title, thanks to writer and co-plotter Chris Sequeira 'Lazarus Burne's Maleficent Seven'. Awesome :D Think: "The 'Dirty Harry' of Exorcists" and you'll get the idea.

That's it from me. Swamped with work to do, no richer or well off for it, just a misplaced hope that you readers will like this nonsense when I emerge, and not the usual social media silence I'm slowly getting use to. Just goes to show the lovely audience for the Soldier books are a very "face to face" or traditional brick and mortar comic shop type. I dig that :)

Also hoping the long-battling uni thesis actually takes some sort of shape- Frankenstein's monster of sorts, but a shape nevertheless.  Frantically putting together the slides for next week's SLQ comics workshops, and of course stressing about things that are out of my hands, including the suspected injured foot which is preventing my training for the World titles. 

Well, that and the computer/drawing board tag team of course. It would be weird to jog after work at 3am, right? :P Wouldn't even consider the notion. 

Anyways, back to the lonely coal mine.

p.s: Oh, hey! Congratulations to Tristan Jones, Greg Mclean, Gestalt, DiezelPunk and the whole team for 'Sebastian Hawks' getting to their crowd funding goal. All the best :D I believe you still have a day to place orders http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/11289/description/0/0

Work in progress, Pre-Xmas Day nonsense etc.

Here's an image work-in-progress thing for the untitled "Lazarus Burne" strip.

 Thumbnailed the last chapter of the Dr. Nikola vs The 1880's Soldier Legacy for the next issue of Dark Detective: Sherlock Holmes (#9). All previous 8 issues and TPB are avilable via blackboox: http://www.blackboox.net

I just spotted this! http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/11289/updates/0/0#info

My image is included in the Sebastian Hawks Gallery :D

 That's awesome :D Thank you! 

You guys should really check this out, not long to go, and they need your help!
http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/11289/description/0/0

Sebastion Hawks Pozible Campaign from Cameron Oliver on Vimeo.

As soon as my snail-paced funds clear, I'm all over it :D

Soldier Legacy #6 questions are coming in already, no due date as yet, due to juggling these two comics plus the thesis that needs drastic work. I don't want to rush #6 and kill the look of it, plus there's quite a few challenging visuals needed. So at this stage, it might be out in time for Free Comic Book Day (I'll be at Gifts for the Geek in Melbourne), or the aim is Supanova Sydney 21-23rd June. Keep you posted if earlier. Time is going to be a huge factor come 2013- one that I'm not looking forward to. But, we can only do what we can, right?

Oh, if you're after the others, signed and with a original sketch, I'm having a 2 weeks only, limited stock sale:
http://paulmason.bigcartel.com/product/the-soldier-legacy-limited-complete-signed-pack

Had a lovely name drop, and recent image feature on BLEEDING COOL NEWS today, a nice surprise by Andrez Bergen for his upcoming novel "Who is Killing the Great Capes of Heropa?". Thanks Andrez. Merry Christmas. http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/12/23/icing-on-the-cape-who-is-killing-the-great-capes-of-heropa/

Lastly, the great guys at Geek Speak did a Christmas shout out, and nicely, I was included. Thanks again, and all the best for 2013 :D

And again, to each and every one of you, who take time out to read my ramblings here, Merry Christmas, and happy, safe holidays. I hope you continue to march with me and the Soldier in 2013.

Working, working, working...

Overdue in getting this coloured up, a co-plotted concept by Chris Sequeira and I in progress.  Currently driving me nuts, thanks to all those bloody demons causing a mess. Mess that has to be coloured.

Dammit.

And I thought the mud and blood stains from 'The Soldier Legacy' was a problem :P

Much more "supernatural" than Soldier, but #6 plotting is in full swing, with thumbnailing hopeful for next week.

Soldiering on.