Pictures of the Physical Copies

Thanks so much Print Ninja for sending these photos of physical copies of both the Homeless G-Men and Crypto Zombic along with some interior shots of Crypto. The books look great and I can't wait to get my hands on them so I can get them into your hands. The proof for Battle Rally has been approved so in 2015 you will be able to purchase three different comics from me. This has been one heck of an adventure and I'd like to thank the people at Print Ninja for their help with getting the books together.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

The Battle Rally is off to the Printers!

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

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Book Three Is Not Set In Krakow

Hey there, deep into Book Three which is the one that surprised me most of all when I chose

to do it way back in May, this needs some explanation.

Homeless G-Men was the comic that I started, it was the first, there were some character concepts in place and two of the stories were kind of thought out in my head, as I worked on the book I was deciding if I wanted to commit all of my time to just doing issues of the HG's or maybe I should do two comics instead and I could bounce back and forth on them

So I wrote a list of six kinds of comic that I was interested in doing (I'll talk about this in another post)   of the six, Battle Rally was the most surprising to me, considering all the drawing that would be involved I could have skipped it - but I had an idea.

If you know me, you know I don't get bored I'm always doing something one of those things is build models out of wooden kits, we have a whole basement full of stuff like this crazy car here.

I decided it was time to put the vehicles into play and needed a concept that 1) I wanted to do more than one issue of and 2) would allow me to use a wide variety of vehicles

and that's how the initial idea for Battle Rally came.

The second part was the most important for me to commit the time to the book, what was it about beyond vehicle racing? I surprised myself at how quickly I got to the answer, the issues in Battle Rally are about corporations interfering in sport (Rollerball) vehicular combat (like Death Race) but it's a character piece first and it's the story of two women who are in competition for the same job.

This interested me, if I hadn't gotten to the two lead characters and what they were about I would have never committed to the commit.

I hate drawing vehicles, every artist does but this book is going to help me get over that and I can't believe just how much I enjoyed working on this one.

This may be the last comic before the end of 2014, I have a few jobs coming up that I'll need to commit my time to, two of them are comic jobs so I'll still be posting here at least twice weekly.

Hang On People of Buffalo!

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

Half Bad Ass/ Half Ridiculous

All villains must look half like a total  bad ass and half kinda stupid, that seems to be the rule- I mean look at Doc Oc or the Vulture or most of the villains in the DCU. I kept that in mind when concocting this bird of prey inspired armour.

This guy is from the THIRD book that I am finishing this month and sending to the printers so right now I will have three books available at TCAF (if I get accepted to TCAF of course) I figured it would be good to have more than one book available if I got a table and I think it will be very interesting to see which of the three titles is the most popular.

The Homeless G-Men proof is now going to print!

These are exciting times we live in, also be sure to head to the Cameron House (Toronto) to check out my show of paintings it will be up until the end of November. Check the Mad Craft Shoppe blog to have a look at some fine abstracts.

cheers, it is cold outside just ask my dog

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 



Cover Sketch Process, Homeless G-Men #1

Here's a quick breakdown of the cover sketch. It's a very simple picture but still needed to be perfect, I've been struggling with the covers of two of the four books but I had to move on. I figured an images of the main G-Man and hero of the book would suffice for the first issue.

Top page is the first sketch, was pretty happy with it so moved onto cover weight paper and traced it on the light box and then (final photo) laid in the inks.

After this the drawing was scanned and then coloured and some of the blacks were touched up in Manga Studio 5 and then the lettering was added.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Homeless G-Men ready for proofing

After many, many sketches that used the whole cast of the comic ( none of which I was happy with) I reworked an older drawing of Swinnerton for the cover of the Homeless G-Men No.1.

I like it, I actually like using the while/red for the front and back covers. I'd thought of using black but it didn't fit. I think the blue buts up well with the red and white.

The pages are now in the capable hands of the folks at Print Ninja and I'll be seeing the final proof soon. Comics will be available in the New Year from me in person or you can head to my shop at storenvy (not open yet since I have no comics available to ship).

In the next two weeks I'll be finishing the third book and sending it off as well, I'll also be reorganizing the studio to make space for the stock that will be showing  up.

enjoy the Santa Claus parade

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Crypto-Zombic is off to the printers!

Very happy to announce that my first completed 32 page comic has been sent to the fine people at Print Ninja, I should be getting the preview copy on Monday (of course I spotted a typo after I sent it off) and I can't wait to sign off and sent it to press.

I'm allowing myself twelve hours off from work before getting to the next comic The Homeless G-Men, which has been drawn and coloured, I just need to add the text, that should take another week and then I'll be onto the THIRD comic which still needs a few pages drawn and coloured.

At this rate (and of course if I'm accepted) I will have three (and possibly a fourth) comic available for sale at TCAF in May 2015.

If you're interested in seeing some of my other work check out the mad craft shoppe in the links and you can see my show of paintings that is currently hanging at the Cameron House in Toronto for the month of November.

cheers!

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com