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.