Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A Long Overdue Update!

Due to issues with my immediate family, I had to put "Bay Side Blues" on hold starting sometime in early June.  It was a hard decision to make, because we were gaining a lot of momentum, but my family always comes first.

Now that those issues have finally been resolved, I'm thinking of restarting work on "Bay Side Blues" #1, but we'll have to see what Miguel Barriga (the artist) and Steve Oaks (the cover colorist) say about that.  

In the meantime, here are pages 1 & 2 of "Bay Side Blues" in their fully-drawn, fully-lettered form.  

Again, all the credit goes to Miguel for the amazing job on the art.  I did the lettering in Manga Studio 4.0 EX, which has something of a learning curve to it.  Six hours into it, I was a lettering fool, getting my freak on with the keyboard and lettering any kind of comic page I could find.  I'm still learning, but lettering is something I really enjoy and look forward to doing on future comics.








 And here's page 2, the introduction of Miaka Sakamoto and the infamous "look" that Moses gives Griff that I never described in the script.  The description for that panel said, "Moses gives Griff a look," and the rest was up to Miguel.  That panel will always make me laugh.

Miguel's redesign of Miaka came out extremely well, as she seems more free to move and strike, instead of her old cat-suited version.  I had her weighed down with straps for weapons and knives, but Miguel saw that less is more, and gave us this current incarnation.  I like it quite a bit now, but at first I was like "WTH is he doing to Miaka?" ;-)


Miguel finished Page 3 of "Bay Side Blues" before I put the project on hold, so I should have that lettered soon.  Since we're going to miss the original September 25th release date, I'm hoping to have "Bay Side Blues" #1 completed in time for Halloween Comicfest, which is coming up in October.

"Take It To The Grave" #1 is still in a holding pattern at the moment.  I haven't been in touch with Jadool since I put "Bay Side Blues" on hold, so he probably thinks I'm no longer interested in working with him.  *sigh*  Time to mend some fences and get this comic back on track for a December 2013 release.

Thank you all for your support of Riot Comics, Bay Side Blues, and our work.  It's been rough going these past two months, but the worst is behind us, and now it's time to focus on the future.

So long for now, but don't forget to click on the "Subscribe via E-Mail" button if you want the latest news about our projects.  And remember, it ain't over till the fat lady sings.