Hey low,
One of the books I’ve been working on got solicited last week.
I’ve been working on an Empowered one shot written by comic book hero Adam Warren.(Due out on March 26, 2014)
It’s been a huge deal to me to be able to work with an artists whose work I’ve been a fan of for so many years.
I was looking at old Kung fu posters for ideas on the cover. I love those orange tentacles on the far left. I also too some of that one for the logo style. I eat posters and steal their power.
and my roughs:
And some pages
I don’t like working off of text scripts so I asked Adam to do layouts for me. Here’s his layout of the above page:
along with typed out text so I can letter everything right.
I had to get a new pen to do the bolding in the lettering. That is a new and alien thing to me.
Warren’s layouts for page 6
and my (almost) finished take on the page:
One of the things I was having fun doing in the first couple pages was drawing background characters based off of Adam’s first Dirty pair issue.
Like sooo
I like pulling from the work I saw of Warren’s for his newest work.
And that new Empowered came out this week. It is a realllly good one.
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Here’s some sketchbook stuff:
and my Mom wrote a new book that I did a cover for: (my mom writes books)
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I read some comics this week:
I really liked Connor Willumsen’s Treasure Island. It’s online to read ( here) but I really liked how well the printed version of it works.
It starts with 3 two page spreads showing how each of it’s 3 main characters spend their days.
I like how well these give you a visual map of the kind of people who they are, especially in relation to each other.
I like how he shows this Skype call, a later a movie the characters are watching in small distant boxes. With the panel becoming the dimensions of the screen it’s on.
and the same when he shows email conversations. The whole book has such an impressive use of space. It reads like something taken from experience.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my own work lately, and how past having an agenda to tell a certain kind of stories or to come up with things that I find fun –I feel like it’s important to me to leave work that captures the feeling of moments of real real life. I think this Treasure island book does that well. It makes me the best kind of jealous. The kind of book that makes me want to try harder.
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Also I got a newer color version of Buichi Terasawa’s Cobra! ( that was serialized in Super Jump in 1995 )
I find the colors on this stuff really interesting in that it tries to look like animation.With cell shaded characters in front of more rendered backgrounds. It’d be cool to see more western books attempt that
This book has some fun ideas in it.
There’s these arm missiles with their own guidance systems .
Guns with faces.
A lazer hammer:
This creepy harem guard that’s just a head on a flying saucer:
This castle with legs on wheels:
and (drumroll..) glass tits with fish inside of them.
good night!
Hoi Brandon, always fun to check out your posts. I dig comic books and it’s funny to see how great minds like same things 🙂 Just grabbed Walrus for some creative reading. Hope you come to Finland at some point, I’ll treat you for a beer!
“It’d be cool to see more western books attempt that” – fuckin do it
Clicking on the link to your mom’s book, I see your grandfather was a pin-up artist (Bill Randall). What kind of influence was that?
Love that cover! You never stop amazing me man!
File under ‘just curious’: why the shift from Warren’s off-kilter layout for page 6 to the grid in your almost-finished take? Warren’s feels more manic, but of course it’s just a sketch. A matter of intuition?
That was my copy of Cobra I gave to Rx! Glad you enjoy it!
shiiiit never heard of Buichi Terasawa! looks like crazy fun stuff.
Thanks for sharing all this cool stuff, you must have a really cool comic collection!
The Empowered comic looks like so much fun. Getting a real live peek at it was such an honour! I really can’t wait.
hi brandon!
wow i love & admire your comics and art sooo much im gettin so excited just by writing to you! please keep on doing that and ill keep happily eyeing everything you write n draw!! (:
i wanted to to ask you if theres any place online where i can get t shirts and other stuff with your drawings (especially king city! <3) and buy em all!! (?)
hope you reply and have a happy and creative new year!
This is the most excellent bit of news and the comic news that got me truly excited after a long while – I love your work and Adam’s work in general (and Emp in particular) and both have been long-standing favourites that I’ve followed almost religiously since I first came into contact with them.
To see you guys work together… oh I think a bucket list dream item just came true! Thank you!
It’s always a blast dropping in to see your posts and this one keeps that going, love discovering new and intriguing stuff and this comic with the fish-bowl boobies definitely jumps in strong in the to-read list! Thanks for that.
Look forward to seeing this when it sees the light of day and in the meantime I’m going to enjoy the new Empowered and catch up on my pending reading of your most excellent Prophet in the holiday ahead. 🙂
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU AND ALL THE BEST IN THE YEAR AHEAD!
CHEERS!
P.S: Will we ever get more King City? I know you’ve got lots on your plate and no creative person necessarily wants to stick with one thing only, but I fell in love with that book and would love to see more.
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