Sunday, September 28, 2008

POW!

I spoke about in one of our many (many? yeah right!) posts about a decision I made to change the art style of the comic Timmy.
When Tommy approached me to work on the book, he initially had a vision of a more cartooned like art style. And, it was exactly what I was doing at the time. As a matter of fact, I kind of swore by it.

I was stoked to hear Tommy's desire for a more stylized approach to the art because every gig I was getting was geared towards realistic art. I was itching to do something that I could use my cartoon style in. And finally Mr. Flick gave me that opportunity.

Now, as you all well know (assuming you've been following this Blog-hint hint), it took a long time before we kicked this thing off and I got around to actually drawing some pages for the comic. A very long time.

But once I did, to be honest, I found myself unsatisfied with the five pages I drew for the sample. I let Tommy know how I felt and, well, he kind of wanted me to stay the course.

I don't blame him. Tommy is one of the most patient Person's I have had the honor of meeting, and befriending.
I should let you know, though, that he would highly disagree with me on the patience issue.

But he is.

Think about it.

The Guy dreams up this cool idea about a teenager who thinks everything is just normal everyday life. Then he gets banged up by a car that hits him on his way Home from School, only to find out that all this time, he was actually a Robot. And that's not all, when he confronts his "Dad", who is actually part of the team who created him, he finds out that he was originally made to become a merciless killing machine. Yikes!

So here we have Tommy with this amazing idea. He does not want to draw it himself. So he calls on a good and talented Friend of his who agrees to the project, but unfortunately, for personal reasons, has to bail out. Here comes plan B. So he contacts me. I agree. But it takes over a year or two before I actually commit to the project. When I finally decide to do something, he turns out I too have to bail out of the project. Then I come back to it about a year later (I think, my time table is all screwed up here).
Then I come up with these 5 pages in a style similar to what he wanted. But then I turn around and say, that's not working. I'm doing it all over again. In a style you originally did not want. I'm pulling out the guns. I'm going with a stylized realistic style on this sucker.

If I was Tommy, I would have lost it a loooooong time ago. But, on the contrary. He has, like Mr.Obama (sorry, I just had to throw that fact in there), kept his "cool" in the face of pressure.

And like Mr. Obama (again, I apologize), Tommy has, with his cool attitude, inspired me. So in my book, the man is cool. Really cool. And because of that, I have grown to love him as a Brother in Christ. It's hard for me to say that. There is only a handfull of People I feel this way about. But I respect him. And for me, it has been a blast to work with him to try to bring this thing together.

So what is this all about? I wanted to let some things out about my professional relationship with Tommy on this project. And I also wanted to introduce all our faithful readers to the art style I was talking about. I just hope all the changes I have decided to make will pay off in the end.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Timmy, like you've never seen him before.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The search is over!



Eric & I had decided to find a colorist besides him to work on the comic, due to the extra work that's involved. We went through 3 or 4 "auditions" before deciding on a young lady named Sarah. This is the sample she sent us, and we loved it! Thing is, we're changing the art around again, so this isn't what the final work will look like. So re-work has begun again, and Sarah was going on vacation right after we found her, so it'll be a few weeks before we get any more color goodness!

But welcome aboard, Sarah! She sounded so excited to get to work with us, and I hope we can live up to her expectations!

Friday, September 5, 2008