The third comic is off to the printers for proofing, I thought I'd do a break down the work that I've done since April for a quick timeline.
I began drawing some rough comic pages in January of 2014, I have been reading comics since the age of six, I am a life long fan of the medium. Growing up with the drawings of great artists like John Byrne, Michael Golden and George Perez really formed and helped my drawing skills as a kid, my vocabulary and spelling were leaps ahead of many kids in my class. Although I took many breaks from buying comics over the years either because of lack of money or my interests were elsewhere if I visited a friend's apartment who was still collecting I'd always borrow theirs to see what the X-Men or whoever were up to.
If I hadn't set my mind on going to art school when I was sixteen I would have worked on my portfolio and tried to break into comics.
Now that printing is easier to access and programs like Manga Studio 5 have made the process easier to get through I decided that it was time to make my own, in April I began drawing the first issue of the Homeless G-Men, I knew there were two episodic stories I wanted to tell so I grabbed a bunch of 11x17 boards, bought a ton of graphic novels to get current with the new bunch of creators and illustrators and went to work.
As I was working on the book I decided to do another - and then another. I get bored very easily and working on three books at the same time was a great way to keep things moving. I wrote barely any script notes, I made up the comics as I went along letting my thoughts guide the story and writing dialogue notes at the same time so I could plug it in when it was time.
There were many checklists made, many story notes written on legal pads and a deadline coming - I had to get everything ready to digitally colour and letter by August 1rst. I finished drawing three 32 page comics by my deadline, I also started drawing 13 pages of a mini-series that is going to feature all three teams in the comics coming together and the two of the stories for the second issue of the Homeless G-Men.
I have spent the past three months keeping crazy hours (8am- 3:30 am) and teaching myself to learn Manga 5, at the same time I finished 14 paintings for my annual Cameron House show and committed to a show of my drawings for Seven Crowns Tattoo in February, we also got the great news in June that my wife is pregnant and due in February, it has been a very busy seven months.
Now that the third comic has been sent to the printers for proofing (thanks print ninja) I can take two minutes to pause and pat myself on the back and also get to work on my first professional comics job that I was offered about a month ago. I will be drawing a Christmas 7 pager for Eric Freitas and Ulises Farinas comic "Amazing Forest" on Monkeybrain comics.
So there you have it, amateur fan to professional comic artist in nine months.
A.Shay Hahn
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