Where We're At , Comic wise that is

September was one heck of a month, I digitally coloured 95 pages for the three comic books, I still have a few pages to draw for one of the comics but that's fine I wanted to get the bulk of the work finished and will come back to them. They're already sketched they just need some ink lovin' and will be ready to be coloured soon.

The hardest part of the process are the covers, the cover above is for "Battle Rally" it's my favourite of the three, I imagine I'll be changing the covers right up until the end of November when I send the three (and possibly four) books off to the printers. The Battle Rally cover works, it's supposed to reference 80's action movies like Mega Force (with Barry Bostick!) just needs some more painterly colouring to make it pop, right now it looks like it was coloured in Digital Pencil Crayon

 

It has been a hell of a step learning curve, I didn't know how to use Manga Studio 5 on the first of September and now I feel very comfortable with a good portion of it's functions. There are quite a few that I still have to figure out but the books look good, I'll print off a few pages and post them next week. I wish I could get screen captures from Manga but that doesn't seem possible (let me know if you know).

more to come,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

Working on the G-Men all day long I don't stop

We're into the second comic now the first issue of the Homeless G-Men my strange and fun cop procedural. This book is told in three story increments each story providing a clue that leads the G-Men towards solving their last case together- the case that got them fired.

There's still lots of script work to do in Crypto-Zombic but I'm going to do all the text at once so it's got some flow. I hope to be through the flatting and colouring of the G-Men by the end of next week and into the THIRD comic Battle Rally.

I'm also designing stickers done in Old School American tattoo styles for each book.

There's lots to do and I'm still keeping crazy hours but I need to straighten that out since I'm running a 10km on the weekend.

back at it, hope all is well

A.Shay Hahn

Jungles, Titles, dialogue

Here's a terrible photo of my screen while I'm flatting out one of the many hundreds of panels

where our MC's are traversing the jungle. After nine days of this I see why so many comics take

place in big grey rooms, jungles are a challenge, you want to create a feeling of depth and also have

foreground light. I'm sure I'll get better with my approach when I start the second issue of the book but now this is slow and tedious work.

I have most of the flatting finished for Book One and I think as of 2 AM last night that I have seventeen finished pages, so only fifteen more to go and the cover/back cover and inside covers need to be done next then we're on to the first issue of The Homeless G-Men.

I have one more page to draw for that book and will be including some supplementary material

since that was the book that I drew and plotted first.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Deep In the Heart of Cryptozombic!

 

 

 

It has been a very long time since I've posted, I thought I'd be able to balance regular

blogging and updates as I began doing the flatting and colouring for Issue One of Cryptozombic but since this is my first time using a Wacom and manga studio 5 blogging (and clogging) had to take a back seat to getting the work done.

At this writing I have sixteen finished (words, colours, everything) finished pages and that leaves only sixteen more to go before I move on to the next comic "The Homeless G-Men" my goal is to have four comics ready for TCAF in May 2015. If all goes according to plan that shouldn't be a problem I just wish someone had told me to make sure all of my "loops" were closed in my original drawings, if you use Manga studio or any colouring program you'll know what I mean.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

A Very Good Place

(These are the folders where I keep my pages)

Sorry to have been away I've been trying to get two pages a day finished and really getting into the work. Very happy to announce that is has paid off, I have finished the first issue of Crypto Zombic (16pages!) I have added one page to the first issue of Homeless G-Men (18 pages!) and am making crazy progress on Battle Rally #1 (will be 16 pages) and the Annual THREE BEAST ARMY which will be a huge THIRTY PAGES!

The first two issues will be scanned, gray scaled and ready for the printer by the end of September.

This is a great feeling, I'll be posting finished panels/pages soon

cheers!

A.Shay Hahn

Progress, slow but steady

I have to apologize for not paying as much attention to this blog as I thought I would but the work getting these books ready has been keeping me very busy. I am working on four comics simultaneously, I hope to have at least two of them finished for TCAF 2015 if I get in. The stories are plotted lots of the page layouts have been done and I'm drawing/inking (reinking in some cases) and getting everything organized.

It's a huge undertaking doing this alone each "side" (as I'm calling them, a side is half a page) has many steps, I haven't even begun to scan or "greyscale" colour the pages (I'm doing all the interiors in black and white to save money on printing) yet. Then there's the work of adding the panel frames and dialogue bubbles then putting in the actual dialogue. It's a huge job, you can see why a team makes a comic and not just one person and I want my books to be as complete looking as a professional comic.

Above are some panels and notes from the four books.

Head over to "the mad craft shoppe" blog (see links, right side) where I'm having a Summer Sale to help pay for the printing costs.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Project Updates Homeless G's

This is the longest I've gone without blogging in years but I've found there just isn't the time to do it if you're drawing/writing/inking for 8+ hours a day. Creating a comic by yourself take a long time if you want everything to perfect I go back over pages I've inked and add more shadows/textures, I am constantly bumping up the dialogue and tweaking the script as I go and I have yet to even scan these pages and start adding panel borders, word bubbles, gray scale (I'm doing the books in black and white to save money on printing) shading etc.

I am currently working on FIVE books at once, this was a conscious choice so I didn't get bored with slogging away at the same issue for days at a time, the bottom pic shows four of the folders that I'm working with.

The Homeless G-Men Issue no. 1 is at 29 "sides" (a comic page is two sides) that leaves about three more to go, this book is getting to be in a good place, I have the script figured out and hopefully it will be ready to go to the printers in a month. I also have 14 sides for issue #2 and six sides for #3. I just want to make sure that I have the whole Five issue miniseries story worked out.

C.Z which is the second series I'm working on is at approx. 8 sides and another project that I'll take about soon has 24 roughed in sides.

I am learning more and more every day about planning pages, panel breakdowns and becoming better at getting to a finished page faster - this involves being able to plan ahead for where the book is going and also just making fewer mistakes.

In time I will post some of the panels from the series so you can see where it's going but for now I have to head to the studio and get started.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com