A Brigands Tale OGN 1 week in - still on track

Calm down everyone, we can do this.

My preparation is complete.

I have everything I need to commence, namely:

1. Paper, I'm currently working on 220gsm Canson but mostly because I need to use it all up rather than it being my preferred weapon of choice, which is Bristol board preferably 300gsm, but, you know economics and stuff.
2. Ink. Some Japanese sumi ink that flows real nice, is waterproof when dry and doesn't  destroy my nibs and brushes.
3. Inking tools - The battle tested number 2 rigger, and the not as reliable (but still useful) Hunt 102 dip pen nibs.
4. Several really big erasers.
5. My premixed jar of grey inkwash ready to apply values.
6. A recent addition, masking fluid. OMG how good is this stuff. Just wonderful stuff. It says what it does but has made my life easier.
7. A reasonable variety of coloured inks to add the, well, colour.
8. Mad drawing skills and lots of reference material.

So I got stuck in to this sucker!

What ever could be going on here????

I'm approaching drawing whole chapters i.e. 6-8 pages, and getting some feed back off some peeps before I go to the inking stage.

And just to clarify to any worried fans, this is not a reboot. What has gone before will not be ret-conned or made irrelevant.

This story is a continuation from the ones featured in A Brigand's Tale #1 and #2 and will just be in a full length, full colour format.



STOP PRESS!!!

This week the Shoalhaven is in the grip of some superheroic events.

Unfortunately, due to unfavourable circumstances (you know, economics and stuff) Bolt Comics wont have an official presence  at the entertainment centre.
I will be hanging out the front of The Collared Box on junction street between 10:30 am to 12:30 pm this saturday the 3rd of October.

I shant be hard to miss as I will be dressed as a somewhat overwieght version of the FLASH!!

I will be selling assorted Bolt Comics items as well as some other cool stuff my indie friends have given me to sell.

So if you want support an actual Shoalhaven based creator, you know where I'll be.


Next week: Let's see how week 2 went...


Brigand,Sneakthief and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademark and copyright Daniel Tribe.
All rights reserved.

Pushing the limits...

Hi All,

It's been a while between updates, but the good news is nothing much has been happening so y'all haven't missed out.

So I've been kinda off lately. Very unsure about a lot of things pertaining to my pal Brigand and his cohorts.

But having no deadlines has really meant no work or progress getting made.

 

To rectify this, I have set myself a ridiculous and almost destined to fail goal.

I hope you all join me on my journey to make a graphic novel in a year!

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean a 300 page epic. I mean something more like the European album graphic novels.

Somewhere between 52 and 70 pages.

I think I can do it.

In the last couple of months I think I have finally nailed down the best tools and methods that work for me.

They probably wont work for you, mostly because I eschew digital workflows in favour of tactile analogue processes, or maybe its because I just like to make a mess...

Here's what I am starting with:

1. The first 2 chapters (of maybe 5 or 6) of the script ready to go.
2. A cool web page called Workflowy where I can organise my thoughts and a timeline all in one place. I haven't quite put my whole life on it yet but I can  already see the value in it.

Check it out for yourself https://workflowy.com/invite/31589e2e.lnx

3. A set of "rules "for the book in regards to the process of making each page.
4. A realistic page completion rate of 1 per week. I will however be completing pages a chapter at a time. For example, the first chapter is 9 pages long, so I will give myself 3 week s to pencil, 3 weeks to ink, 2 weeks to colour etc and one week to letter it all.
5. A deliberately ambitious goal to push myself to my maximum potential.
6. A plant to start serialising it online at the halfway point to up my commitment levels.

I will kicking it off this week because that will give me the goal to finish it just before my 38th birthday.

Let's see how I go!


The cover to ABT #3. A mixture of traditional and digital.

Brigand, the Bullfrog are trademark and copyright Daniel Tribe 2015. All rights Reserved.


As ever feel free to comment below!

See you at Supanova - A027 in artists alley!!

Hi all.

Supanova sydney starts tomorrow!!!!!

Due to family committments I can only make it for the saturday, but I am super excited to be there. Rest assured the Bolt Comics team will be there all weekend with a ready supply of all things Bolt Comics including both issues of 'A Brigand's Tale'.

This year I will also be selling some original, hand crafted pen and ink artworks as well:

I will also be taking commissions if you would like something else done for you in my unique artistic style.

We will be in artists alley at table  A027. Come on up and say hi!

Here's a link to a special preview of 'A Brigand's Tale' number 2 :

http://issuu.com/home/statistics/publications/abt2_preview

If you make it to Supanova but would like to commission me, please send an email to info@boltcomics.net and we can get rolling!

Feel free to comment below.

A Brigands Tale #2 - PREVIEW

Sorry this is a few weeks late, but the birth of my second child 4 weeks ago took precedence over blogging. I hope you understand.

Anyway, please click on this link  below for a taste of 'A Brigand's Tale' #2!

If the link isnt working go here: http://issuu.com/dantribe/docs/abt2_preview

I'm pretty happy with it.

If you feel like buying a copy hit us up at Supanova Sydney on the weekend of 19th - 21st booth A027 aw yeah!!!!

As always feel free to comment below with any thoughts, or hit me up on the twitter: www.twitter.com/TheDanTribe

ABT 2 off to the printers!

It's done. Gone to the printers.

And I'll admit it, it's done a little later than I had scheduled *coughDecember2014cough* but hey, that's how the cookie crumbles.

And while the slowness is down to me, I can't take all the credit for the finished product.

In my humble opinion, A Brigand's Tale Number 2 is in every respect superior to number 1.

Some of that may be from me, but it is largely due to the assistance from 2 other collaborators.

First off is Mike Stoneburner, not only did he write the 4 page back up story in this issue loaded with the feels, but he really helped refine a lot of the dialogue in the scenes in the book, and helped 'fantasy it up a notch' with his prose exposition skills. He also added some great jokes!

Then, while I think I did an OK job on the art chores, John, the man behind Midnight Runners publishing stepped in at the last minute and executed screentones on the art that just takes the whole thing to another level!

Not gonna lie, those 2 make me look good, but most importantly you, the reader will enjoy it moreover because of the effort and talent these guys put into the book.

So to celebrate, and because due to various family commitments, I will be unable to launch the book a ComicGong, but still go to that one, there will be a brand new issue of The Adventurers launched there that wraps up the first story arc for those cuddly critters! 

or even attend, this bad boy will now be officially launched at Supanova Sydney - yeee harrrrr!

To make up for this, from next week I will begin posting a page a week from ABT #2 replete with annotations.

Until then, stay tuned!

Brigand is trademak and Copyright Daniel Tribe. All rights reserved.

Keep up with all the Bolt Comics news by liking our Facebook page here:

www.facebook.com/BoltComics

Tips and tricks part 2

If you work digitally, this may not be of interest to you. 

This post is pretty much about if you wanna make a mess and literally get your fingers dirty.

I don't begrudge people who work digitally. I get it. It's faster. Your lines are straight, you can copy and paste backgrounds, instant resizing, blah,blah,blah. 

Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are exclusively digital. 

And that is all good. 

But for me personally, nothing is actually more FUN than splashing ink on paper. 

and ultimately I make comics because it is fun. 

The more fun the better.

I am a relative beginner so see below for some great resources I swiped from pros who are actually awesome and make this stuff look easy:

Artist extraordinaire Tom Richard on inking:

http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/2006/08/21/inking-tutorial-part-i/

http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/2006/08/22/inking-tutorial-part-ii/

Inking demo vides with one of my art heroes Sean G Murphy, I love the bit where he just pushes the ink with his fingers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jelTniKtlZY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpOelUJqLA4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oO2J2ponho

Enjoy!

Think I'm wrong? Let me know in the comments below:

Tips & tricks part 1

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a 'pro-tip', but hey I found a neat little trick that works for me.

Here it is. You ready for this?

Sometimes all the art work for a page isn't done on the same page...whoa man, that's crazy talk. 

Is it?

I first discovered this looking at Justin Randall's development blog for his award winning 'Changing Ways' series. I also noticed that dry brushing master Greg Ruth used a similar technique in his phenomenal art work on CONAN volume 0: Born on the Battlefield. (Buy it, read it. Easily one of the best Conan stories ever, and I have read A LOT of Conan stories.)

Get this - Justin only uses one whole page PER PANEL for his work.

The advantages are obvious when you think about it. Working large gives you the advantages of simultaneously having more detail and being less fussy about every little stroke.

It's a classic win-win.

Here's an example from a Spoiler free page from the upcoming 'A Brigand's Tale' #2.

As you can see from above, panels 2 and 5 are incomplete.
From memory, I wasn't happy with those panels for one reason or another.
But not having those panels on the page meant that I could make panel 3 & 4 slightly bigger and less cramped for the inking of it. 

So what about the other panels I hear you ask?

Well, there is a whole other blank side of the paper, so I just use that side to do the other panels...

As you can see, I have A LOT more real estate for only 2 panels. Trust me when I tell you that traditional inking is much more forgiving the bigger the size your working at. Quite simply because all the big (and little) mistakes are less obvious!

Using this method I actually feel that these 2 panel pages above are actually some of the best inking I've done in terms of realising what I was going for right from the beginning.

So what now?

With the magic of Photoshop, I scan the 2 pages, resize/scale the panels as required, chuck on some panel borders and lettering and boom, the final piece...

A possible downside is selling the original art may be a bit harder, but I'm not currently being swamped by offers at the moment, and the trade off is worth it for a better quality finished product.

Am I wrong?

Let me know in the comments below!

Follow me on twitter for more sneak peeks, or get all the info on facebook here.

A Brigand's Tale, Brigand, and all distinctive likenesses thereof are trademark and copyright Daniel Tribe 2015. All rights reserved.

Wrapping up ABT #2

Another week down, and another week closer to COMIC GONG.

Last year COMIC GONG was massive, this year it's looking to be even Bigger!

So the race is on for issue 2 of 'A Brigand's Tale' to get wrapped up for launch in my old home town of Wollongong!

At present I can confirm that we are about 85% complete. 

Issue 2 has been a bit of a mad science experiment. A nice way of saying a dogs breakfast.

Some pages have been completely digital. Some pages have been a bit of both. As usual many panels have been redrawn multiple times.

I have tried some different approaches to production, not all of them successful... production on this book has been shelved or stalled over the last year for a variety of reasons but I am finally on track to wrap this bad boy up.

The Good news is that from issue 2 you will start to see some of the pieces of the puzzle come together regarding the past, and is it possible that those we thought were friends are really enemies?

And who is this guy?

Or this guy for that matter?

So much adventure (and feels) crammed into this thing I can't wait for you all to get your hands on it!

Feel free to post your comments below!

Follow my tweets: twitter.com/TheDanTribe






A Brigand's Tale, Brigand, Shadowthief, Zippy and all distinctive likenesses thereof are trademark and copyright Daniel Tribe 2015. All rights reserved.

NOWCON wrap up

Hi again peeps.

I can confirm that at NOWCON-reborn a great day was had by all.

I got to meet some new friends and catch up with some old ones.

I also seen quite possibly the best homemade  Deathstroke cosplay ever built.

Always a fan of original art I got around to asking some of the other artists there to contribute to an 'A Brigand's Tale'  jam piece.

The brief was simple. Just draw your take on any character from  'A Brigand's Tale'.

The result is below:

On the left we have a Robotic version of Malice - by the talented and mysterious man known only as 'Judd'.

Then we have a high booted version of Cheeks by Tinman Johnson, creator of the madcap Harvey the 29th series.

Next up is a buffer version of Sneakthief by Nowra's very own Heroic Master of Pens.

And lastly, a balletic Brigand (in some kind of homage to Jo Jo's bizarre adventure) by the one and only John Hanna from Midnight Runners.

There is some space on the right hand side for me to add my own touch to the piece.

What are your thoughts?

Should I make it a 5 character piece or leave it as a very classy piece of fan-art?

Let me know in the comments below...!

Brigand, Sneakthief,Malice, Cheeks, and distinctive likenesses thereof are  TM and copyright 2015 Daniel Tribe. All rights reserved.

See you at NOWCON!

If you are after a bargain head on down to NOWCON this saturday, not only will there be a full range of Bolt Comics items, but I will also be liquidating some left over manga and comic book trades (old stock from when I owned the Not Just Comics store) at CRAZY PRICES!!

First in best dressed! 


Like this time from a previous Nowcon where I am dressed as Arthas from the World of Warcraft... where's my Frostmourne gotten to...

Fast comics?

As longsuffering fans of A Brigand's Tale can attest, Dan is one heck of a slow artist.

Probably because he is slacking off learning how to colour using his favourite new toy - Adobe Photoshop.

taking panels from this:

To this:

There is some argument to the quality of the colouring, but hey, we all need to start somewhere, right?

BUT - Dan has been researching ways to get things done faster.

He stumbled upon this gem and it's well worth a share:

https://medium.com/artist-advice/speed-comicking-c4ef2eb4c29b

Who knows, Dan may even follow some of this advice and get faster himself...

Is he right?

Is he wrong? 

Is Dan a rubbish colourist?

Feel free to comment below to discuss.

A Brigands Tale, Brigand, Broadside and all distinctive likenesses thereof are trademark & copyright Daniel Tribe 2015. All rights reserved.

Competition Winner Announcement!

Hi Again,

It was a tough job, but after much deliberation I have arrived at a winner for the Brigand Pin Up competition!!!

Here's the winning piece:

This inspired depiction of everyone's favourite Hunter striking a pose (typical Brigand!) was penned by the uber talented Evan Newby!

Evan is a Wollongong based master of all things graphical. He runs drawing workshops if you are around his neck of the woods that would be well worth checking out. More info here: www.facebook.com/pages/e-for-animation-Drawing-Class/138116549614469

Congratulations Evan! Your pin up will feature in 'A Brigand's Tale #2' due to be launched at

Comic Gong in May this year.

Thanks to all the other entrants, the quality of the entries made for a tough contest!

If you would like to send us your Brigand fan art, feel free and we will post it up on the blog and facebook! 

Email a copy of your Bolt Comics fan art to info@boltcomics.net!

A Brigands Tale, Brigand and all distinctive likenesses thereof are copyright and Trademark Dan Tribe 2015. All rights Reserved.

New stuff coming soon featuring Brigand!

Convention season starts early this year with local (for me) Geek Culture Event NOWCON making it's return after a 2 year hiatus in sunny downtown Nowra, New South Wales.

As one of the initial instigators/organisers of NOWCON way back in the day it nice to see it continuing on without any real direct input from myself.

This will be the first time I get to table the full suite of Bolt Comics stuff in my local area so I'm super excited to introduce the Bolt Comics goodness to some more locals.

I've even started dabbling into prints.

Anyone familiar with Bolt Comics or A Brigand's Tale would be well aware pin up style images and powerful cover images are the speciality of Bolt Comics CEO (and The Adventurers creator) Andrew Tribe.

I mean,just look at those Adventurers covers, gorgeous stuff! Although the back up story in issue 2 I drew is pretty rad I must admit.

As the artist for A Brigand's Tale I'm not too proud to say I struggle with the epic imagery that such things need to convey,

But you don't improve by not doing a thing so I thought I would make a print and stretch my artistic muscles.

I came up with an image I think is pretty cool and have decided to do a Limited edition print run of 25 copies to celebrate getting back to my roots at Nowcon.

Here's a sneak peek:

These will be available for sale from Nowcon onwards for $10 a piece. Any left overs will be available to purchase at Comic Gong in May this year where (the long overdue) A Brigand's Tale #2 will also be launched.

For more info on Nowcon go here: www.facebook.com/Nowconinfo

Follow all the latest Bolt Comics news here: www.boltcomics.net

And you can always keep in touch with all things Brigand right here or follow me on the twitters: twitter.com/TheDanTribe


All artwork on this page is copyright their respective creators. All rights reserved.
Brigand and A Brigand's Tale and distinctive likenesses thereof are TM and copyright 2015 Daniel Tribe. All rights reserved.
The Adventurers and distinctive likenesses thereof are TM and copyright 2015 AndrewTribe. All rights reserved.

Brigand makes a splash at Kinokuniya!

Last November I had to good fortune to feature one of my art works in the 22 panels exhibit.
It was held at  Kinokuniya in Sydney for around 3 weeks. Here's a quote from the curator of the exhibit, Tim McEwen:
 "Books Kinokuniya informed me that as far as they're concerned this was one of their more successful exhibitions"

High praise indeed for the comic book art form.

If you don't know about the 22 panels that always work. See the pics below.
The first is the original. The second an homage to the greatness of Wally Wood.

I'm pretty sure Wally Wood was also the guy who coined the phrase "if in doubt, black it out" so the great man is clearly a font of wisdom.

Here's my entry. Good ol' fashioned ink on Bristol!

I'll leave it to the reader to guess which of the 22 mine was.

Another plus was that just this week I found out this piece was sold (obviously to a patron of some good taste) during the course of the event!

I'm very glad that Brigand's backside is gracing someone's wall somewhere.

If you also appreciate fine art and would like to commission me to draw something for you drop us a line on the email: info@boltcomics.net 

DON'T FORGET, there is still time to enter our PIN UP CONTEST

You can also stay in touch on the twitters:
twitter.com/TheDanTribe  and twitter.com/BoltComics 
or Like us on facebook: www.facebook.com/BoltComics

All artwork on this page is copyright their respective creators. All rights reserved.
Brigand and distinctive likenesses thereof are  TM and copyright 2015 Daniel Tribe. All rights reserved.

ABT #2 overdue but getting there!

Hi again y'all.

Issue #2 of ABT is really starting to come together. About 80% of the thing is ready to go.

There is one single panel in the whole book that is just killing me after about 7 digital attempts to rework I'm still stuck but it will most certainly be overcome before we are through.

This is the cover to #2, this should give you some idea of the problems our hero must overcome to survive to the end of the book.

ABT#2 also has a sweet back up story loaded with feels courtesy of writer extraordinaire Mike Stoneburner. An interesting fact is that in the back up story one of the fonts used is a font I made myself! All I can say is font creation is harder than it looks!


Lastly, don't forget our pin up contest is still running, so spread the word!

Deets are here: http://boltcomicslatestnews.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/our-first-competition.html 

A Brigands Tale is copyright and Trademark Dan Tribe 2015. All rights Reserved.

A Brigand's Tale Pin up contest!

Hi Again,

I am in the process of finishing up the artwork for issue #2 of A Brigand's Tale and realised I have a spare page in my page count.

So I thought I would give my readers and Brigand fans alike the opportunity to have a pin-up printed in the book! 

Announcing the Brigand's Tale Pin up contest!!

Here's all the deets.

1. Artwork must only contain Bolt Comics characters. Please bear in mind this is an all ages book so keep it awesome and G rated.
2. Artwork submitted needs to be Black & White or greyscale.
3. Artwork size to be no larger than A4 in size, at a minimum of 300dpi if digital. Tiff files  preferred.
4. Any physical artwork supplied will not be returned. 
5. You grant Bolt Comics the right to reproduce the image in the book, and in the case of non wining submissions, the artwork may be posted on Bolt Comics (and its affiliates) website or social media platforms for promotional purposes.
6. The winning artist will receive  a copy of 'A Brigand's Tale' #2 signed by the artist and co-writer.As well as art credits in the credits section of the book.
7. Please email all entries to info@boltcomics.net with the subject line: 'ABT pinup contest'. If using mail, please post to:

BOLT COMICS, 

c/o 107 East St, NOWRA NSW, 2541. The closing date for entries is Sunday 22 February. Prize is not transferable for cash.

What, you haven't read it yet?

Remedy that grievous oversight immediately by getting a copy here:

http://boltcomics.bigcartel.com/product/a-brigand-s-tale

Or digitally here:

https://sellfy.com/p/KIe0/

Hopefully y'all know what the characters look like, but here's a sample if you don't.

Totally looking forward to see what you guys come up with!

Dan

Don't forget you can follow me on these as well:

twitter.com/TheDanTribe

www.facebook.com/BoltComics

Brigand, Sneakthief, Warper, Malice, Cheeks, Broadside and distinctive likenesses thereof are  TM and copyright 2015 Daniel Tribe. All rights reserved.

Hello 2015!

Hi all!

Well, it's been a while and though progress has been slow on many fronts, there has as least been progress.

I'm well and truly pumped for a big 2015.

BUT here's a quick recap of 2014.

May

A Brigand's Tale #1 launched at ComicGong. Missed out? No worries go here to catch up:

June
Bolt Comics tabled at Supanova Sydney. We got a chance to catch up with and meet some cool creators.
With the help of writer Michael Stoneburner we finalised the script for A Brigand's Tale #2 and it's a step up in terms of character development from the all out action of #1.

August
I was accepted as a member of the Australian Cartoonists Association.

September
Bolt Comics tabled at Oz Comic Con Sydney, got to meet even more cool local creators.
My work was included in the ACA yearbook along with the cream of Australian cartooning talent.



November
Brigand was featured in a piece for the 22 panels exhibition held a Kinokuniya Sydney.

December
Almost completed all the artwork for A Brigand's Tale #2

2015 is off to a bang with Brigand fan art being posted by none other than Aus comics royalty, Mr Tim McEwen of Greener Pastures fame...

 

Brigand fan art by Tim McEwen

2015 convention season kicks off for us in March with NOWCON in my adopted hometown of Nowra.
I'm hoping to get A Brigands Tale #2 out by then if I can pull my finger out.
As far as I know there are still places available at artist alley, and it is free to table there!

Hit up nowconinfo@gmail.com for details if interested.

I'm committing to blogging weekly for the rest of the year as I will have some cool stuff to share so stay tuned!


Dan