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Rate My Inks!

In my quest to make the awesomenest comic book that I can, I have been purchasing and testing a number of black inks. One of the laments of modern day comic inkers is that “they don’t make them like they used to,” i.e.: dark.

Here are my test results, I hope they are useful to you in some way.

***** Comic Ink by some company out of Asia possibly called Memory. Good luck finding this if you don’t live near Rath Art Supplies in East Vancouver. (totally rocks)
**** 1/2 Pro Art India Ink
**** Speedball Calligraphy Ink
*** Koh-i-noor Drawing Ink
*** Rapidograph Ultra Draw 3085
**1/2 Royal India Ink
** Winsor & Newton India 951
* Pelikan Tusche A Drawink Ink
* Higgins Waterproof Black India (totally sucks)

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The Rhinosferatu Show

As soon as I got off work today I biked off to my studio and RX Comics. People from The Express on Shaw TV were coming to interview Jeff about the Cloudscape Comic Collective, of which I am part. We’re publishing a comic anthology, and that’s what the Rhinosferatu origin story is for. After the interview everyone went to The Grind where they continued to film us all working on our comics. I’m told that it airs Monday at 6pm, 8pm, 8:30pm, and 10:30pm, and it will probably be about a 2 minute segment.

Here’s some roughs:

and also some studies from the various comics I bought at Sunday’s Comicon.


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My Trip To Vancouver Comicon

My cunning plan worked almost perfectly, with one fatal flaw – the comic convention closed at 5pm! When I woke up this morning I had a bold idea. I would take a sketchbook to the comic convention and get the artists to sketch Rhinosferatu. Not just out of the goodness of their hearts, though there was that, but also if they wanted me to post it on my blog with a link back to their site, I would happily do so! But I didn’t get to the convention until about 2 and I woefully underestimated how much time the artists would spend on their rhino vampire masterpieces. I sadly didn’t even get to the out of town artists like Francis Manapul who draws Legion of Super-Heroes. But I got some good stuff which I will post. But first, here’s my reference which I provided as an optional springboard to the artists:

I’ll post the results of the grand experiment in installments.

I also got killer deals on Justice League #s 1-7 for which I’ve been hunting forever!

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Rhinosferatu at the VAG?

Cloudscape is a sort of comics collective. They’ve put out issue number one and now are working on number two. I’ve submitted to get some pages in it and that’s what I’m currently working on. For the second issue the organizers decided that it needed a theme so I have been putting my mind to coming up with a story of “history” that doesn’t have to do with Spaceship Zero or the other comic that I actually have finished pages for.

So, World Wildlife Federation of Justice.

In Tudor times a family of rhinos goes to a castle inhabited by a bat. Spending the night, the husband wakes up to find his family gone so searches the castle. I won’t spoil any more except that this is the origin story of Rhinosferatu. I’m only planning two, maybe three pages so it can’t be too complicated.

In the meantime I’m also working on the other comic and hope to have lots more work done before Comix & Stories, the annual comic convention that this year is being held at the VAG as part of the KRAZY! exhibit. Mark Sunday Aug 24 on your calendar because that’s the day you’re going to come and visit me at my table at the VAG. It’s gonna be cooooooooool.

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Adventures in Darkness

Not my best work, as I was (and still am) trying to figure out comic book inking, but here’s the cover to…well, you can figure that out. PS – Colouring not by me; I haven’t even opened that can of worms yet.

What If Lovecraft Wrote Comic Books?
Somewhere, somewhen, he did. In this sourcebook, for the first time ever, Kenneth Hite gives H.P. Lovecraft’s comics writing the loving RPG adaptation it deserves.

Adventures Into Darkness includes:

* A complete historical overview of H.P. Lovecraft’s comics career, and How It Came To Be.
* Plus! Full Mutants & Masterminds 2e statistics for seventeen of Lovecraft’s Nedor Comics heroes, from the Fighting Yank to Nodens, and from “Doc” Strange to Randolph Carter, Dream Master!
* Plus! Eleven sinister villains, including the alluring Asenath the Body-Snatcher, the fiendish Nazi sorcerer Baron von Junzt, the eldritch Yellow Lama, and the horrific demi-god Dagon himself!
* Plus! Monster stats for ghouls, nightgaunts, Frog-Men, Outer Ones, Tcho-Tchos, and the terrifying Dark Haunter.
* An up-to-date Price Guide to tell you how much your own rare Lovecraft comics will bring today!
* Full “how-to” treatment for blending the Golden Age of Comics with the madness of H.P. Lovecraft, tuned to chilling horror or wild imagination.
* Super Sanity rules!

Not a dream! Not a hoax! Not an imaginary story!* Join H.P. Lovecraft and the timeless Nedor superheroes for …
Adventures Into Darkness!
* May in fact be both a hoax and an imaginary story.

I guess you’d better go buy it! http://www.roninarts.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=508

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Comics by Candlelight

The power was out here for several hours so I had a chance to catch up on my comic book reading by candlelight. I finished reading Captain Carrot and the Final Ark and was left cold and empty inside.

On Friday Kolja, Barbara and I went down to Wizards of the Coast in Seattle to pitch our comic. It was a good meeting, though no decisions have yet been made, and Chris P treated us to a delightful Thai lunch. Of all the terrifying secrets of D&D that I harbor I can only tell you that the minis department’s Christmas gift to the rest of the company was a limited edition beholder painted ‘snowball’ white. How’s that for a cool collectors item?

On the way back we stopped at Thriftway and picked up some American cereal like Cookie Crisp and Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries. Good times!

Here’s a sample from page four.

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Blaming My Tools

Here’s a preview of what I’ve been working on.

preview.png

I’m trying to ink this in the traditional comic book style – with a brush (but not nibs, not yet). I’m not used to it, and I’m getting really frustrated with my inexperience, my tools and most of all my work area. I need more flat areas and though my table (graciously built by Mr Woods) is great for 90% of what I do, inking is not not of those things. It may be time to invest in a new table.