Slipped By

Man, there's a few things that slipped by Tommy and I. First off, there's Tommy's other ongoing project Children of Light #2 which Tommy just released, and you can get here.

(Cover was done by yours truly!).

Well, I didn't have to put that in there. It's not like it's going to boost sales 10 fold right?

Tommy, I'll be looking for my check in the mail ;)

Then there's the matter of my 2008 Sketchbook, humbly called The Art of Eric Merced, which you can get a copy or two of here.

Why is the sketchbook important enough to mention here you ask?

Well, duh, it has a 5 page preview of Timmy The Killer Robot.

Well? What the heck are you waiting for? Go geet yours!

Real-life robot encounter!

One day I was driving and saw what appeared to be 2 teenage boys chasing a runaway robot down the street. No lie. It might not have been a real robot, might have been a 3rd boy in a home-made cardboard robot costume. But it all happened so fast, I couldn't be too sure.

Just you try to sleep tonight!

Submissions continue

We fired one off to Red 5 Comics, home of sweet comics like Atomic Robo & Neozoic.

Also thinking about Ape Entertainment. If anyone knows of a good company where Timmy would fit in, let us know!

Submitted!

O yeah, forgot to mention, Timmy the killer comic submission is at Image somewheres now.

Hopefully not in Larsen's trash can!

Cover Boy: part 2

Boy have we been neglecting this blog big time.

Well, truth be told, we have been busy getting Timmy ready to be shopped around to the big guns.
Everything is pretty much in place. As Tommy mentioned, we may have a treat for you all in the form of a small ashcan print to sell. So stay tuned for that.

I wanted to continue with my previous post about the Timmy mock up cover by posting the actual cover to the comic now that it's finally done. So, without any further delay, here's the cover we're going with.
Hope you like :)



....Wha? What did you say? Children of what?....

Oh, wait a minute, yeah, yeah. You're absolutely right. My bad. That's the cover to Tommy's other comic Children Of Light. Duh, stupid me. Ha ha ha.

Okay, okay. Let's try this again. So here's the cover to Timmy The Killer Robot.

Almost there!

Woo! Need to blow the dust off this place!

We are at this moment minutes from having the submission finished. Maybe a lot of minutes. I don't know. But it's just about done.

Really!

At the last minute, Eric decided to color the pages, and they look great! Maybe he'll let you see them, or maybe he'll keep being a tease. We also thought it would be neato to have a few samples printed in comic form to send as submissions, with the page samples, full story in text form, and sketches and stuff. We thought it would be neato-er to make such a tome available to you sometime soon, as a reward for your patience. Minus the stuff that gives away the whole story, because then you wouldn't buy the comic when it comes out! See, we're always thinking here!

In the meantime let me entertain you with the return of Killer Robot of the Month!

Caveman Robot

I have nothing to say but this could be the best comic ever.

Cover Boy

I'm excited to announce that pages 1 to 6 of Timmy The Killer Robot are finally, as they say, in the can.

Tommy and I decided it would be best to go with a black and white sample to the Publisher(s) we have in mind for the proposal submission. Basically, if the series gets picked up, I would find it a bit time consuming to pencil, ink, letter and color the comic all on my own. Especially with other freelance projects looming on the horizon.

Basically, if the comic gets picked up, and the Publisher insists on color, it will be much easier for Tommy and I to find a colorist to help with the coloring duties. And I already have some one in mind who would be a great addition to the already stellar team ;)

Well, the next step for the proposal package is a cover mock up which is a requirement of one specific Publisher we are submitting to. Actually, this is the first Publisher we are submitting to. And so we got to throwing ideas back and forth. After the second sketch we hit on an idea we both though cool. Bellow is the sketch. I'll post complete pencils or stage snap shots of the cover if I have the time.

'Till next post. Enjoy.

Sketchy Sketchy

Page breakdown and Character study of Timmy's best Friend Nate.

Page shots

And you thought we gave up on this didn't you?
Well, here you go. This is what you get for being such a doubter.

Reworking some of the pages I have already done since they felt rushed and did not meet my standard quality of work.
Enjoy.

AWWwww YEAH!

Mr. Tommy Flick so mentioned in our previous Timmy post that we, unfortunately, lost a colorist for the comic. But hey, that happens in this industry. We, however, with the uttermost sincerity, wish the colorist all the best wishes. We know that the Artist became to busy to be able to commit to the book. That happens. It's happened to me before with Timmy.

Well, as much as I was trying to avoid it, because of the heavy work load it creates, I jumped back into coloring the comic myself.

Part of it had to do with the fact that I am very picky about how my work gets colored. So I figured instead of colorist hunting, let me just do this thing and get it over with :)

I successfully managed to squeeze a little bit of Photoshop embellishing Today to start the first page of the comic.

And because I am such a huge tease, I decided to post a before and after screen shot of the page.

Which way?

Things are changing again here at Timmy central. We had a colorist, now we don't have a colorist. Again. No hard feelings to that person, I wish them the best!

I had been thinking lately about so many roadblocks and closing doors while trying to get this comic rolling. Most of it probably has to do with me not being able to pay anyone yet. Money is a better motivator than the hope of getting money! I was thinking if so many doors are being shut, maybe that's a sign. I kept feeling that wasn't right. Sometimes faith and perseverance is being tested. Eric helped me see that better. We're both Christians, and we believe the Lord rewards perseverance.

maybe we'll succeed, maybe we won't. But it'll be fun to try!

o yeah, and we do have a new colorist, it's the guy who was the best choice from the start!

What If? Part 2

More miller style madness with Moses.

What If?

I was into Frank Millers art with the arrival of Sin City. Before that, I could not care less about his art. But with Sin City, he broke out of the normal, and into something none of us (well, at least me), had seen before.

I had a period where everything I drew had to be drawn in the "miller-Sin-city" style. It was awesome. And i was a great learning experience.

One of our Characters in the Timmy The Killer Robot comic book project lends himself to the whole Miller look and feel quite well.

Yes, you guessed it. Moses.

In fact, Moses seems to be ripped out of the pages of one of many Sin City stories. Only, those pages would be a Kid friendly Sin-City, of course. Because you do know how we roll :)

So, for some strange reason, I was moved to draw Moses in that legendary Miller style, thus answering the question, What If Frank Miller Drew Moses?

The possibilities, my Friends, are just mind shattering.

Machine Teen

Machine Teen was a mini-series published by Marvel a few years ago. I recently picked up the paperback copy to check it out, not to attempt to rip it off, but to see if my ideas were too close to this story. My gosh, I think Mark Sumerak ripped ME off! I'm mostly kidding, but some of the plot elements are almost exactly what I wrote! Hey, I wrote the plot for Timmy a few years before this comic came out, so I came up with it 1st!

Funny part is, I sat next to Mark at a local comic convention, after his book had come out, and mentioned my ideas to him, not in detail, as I remember, but in vaguely hoping he might still have some editorial connections to Marvel. Nice guy!

I hate to rip on anyone else's stuff, but I feel the Machine teen story was a watered down version of what we're doing with Timmy. The characters seemed uninteresting, and the art uninspired. The comic was supposed to be part of Marvel's "Tsunami" wave of Manga-inspired books, but the art looked pretty dull, and not manga at all. Sorry, guys.

There's always accusations that any new idea was ripped off from someone else. Like I said, I came up with it 1st. Maybe the idea isn't totally original, but the way we want to tell the story is. Hope you're liking it as we bring you bits and pieces!

You would be mad too!

Timmy's had a really bad skin day.

Spider mode

One of the very cool abilities that Moses posses, and that we have not really dwelt on much, is his ability to transform his body into an complete arsenal. He's basically a walking one man (excuse me, robot), machine. Designed with the sole purpose of killing. Destroying anything and everything in his path.

Thank God for something called conscience. And that's exactly what both Timmy and Moses have. The ability to tell from right and wrong. The human gift (and curse) of choice.

It's what drives Moses to flee from his Creators. It's what drives him to do no evil. Well, at least not to innocent People.

One of the scenes in the comics calls for something like this. And if you are asking how something like this is possible. The my answer to that is simple.

It's a comic book for crying out loud. You can do ANYTHING you want and get away with it ;)

I feel...Unworthy

I am always stoked to see how other Artist interpret Characters I am working, or have worked, on.

This stems from my early years as a comic book fanatic, buying them by the bulk loads every week. I loved the fact that Todd would draw the Hulk totally different then Dale, and that Eric Larsen drew Spiderman different then Todd and so on.

So I am always honored to get emails with contributions of Artists interpretations of my work.

I was stoked this morning as I checked my RSS news reader to find this:
Josh Draws A Cool Fella

Josh is awesome Artist whom I have great respect for. So I would highly recommend you grab his RSS feed, or just keep your eyes on his work. He has a very cool Character of his own, Araknid Kid, which I dream of one day teaming up with Dog Saint, AND Timmy. Now that would be off the hook People. Hmmmm....



.....


.......

Okay. I'm back. Had a moment of inspiration there.

Anyways, it seems I am not the only one who really just loves this Moses Character.

Hey Tommy, maybe rework the title?

Moses The Homeless Killer Robot?

Snickers...

It's all about style

Allot of sketching going on. Basically trying to get the style the comic will be drawn locked and ready. I want it to be consistent in the way it looks. One of the problems I have been having is making the change from my usual semi-realistic art to the toned down simple cartoon look. So when I sketch, I find myself thinking "Saturday Morning Cartoon" over and over again.

I like the Character of Timmy. But without a doubt, my favorite in the series has to be Moses the homeless robot. I don't think any other Character I have drawn has so much character, and potential, then this Guy.

I mean, even the name says it all. So I was talking to Tommy one day and we kind of bounced the idea os a Moses mini-serise or one shot, depending in what direction Timmy took us.

Still, I have so much fun when I draw him. It would seem the comic was based on him alone.

This was done traditionally. Meaning, I sketched it with a pencil in my sketch book.



This one was done digitally. Meaning, I sketched it with a Wacom tablet in my computer using Sketchbook Pro.

Something called process. part 2

Continuing where I left off in my previous post, this is the final version of the pencils for TTKR pages 2 and 3, which will make up a splash page in the final comic book.



As mentioned in my previous post, I sketched the entire page out in Sketchbook Pro.

Usually, after laying out a page in Sketchbook Pro, I will the import that page into Manga Studio and do all the ink lines there, adding tones as needed. But I'll save that process for another post. Right now I want to share another Timmy sketch with you Guys.



That's it for now.

More later.

Something called Process

All of a sudden this blog has come alive. I wonder what may be happening behind the scenes.

I'l tell you what's happening.

I'm getting my butt moving on some sketches and pages here and there (Cue song: I like to move it move it. He likes to move it move it- MOVE IT!).

Ok. That was corny. But I could not help myself.

Anyhoo. Interestingly enough, I happened to be in the mood of snapping some shots of my screen to show that the project Timmy The Killer Robot is NOT dead, despite all the rumors you may have (or not) heard.

I know there have been allot of mind changing going on with this project and this blog has not pulled it's punches in exposing those changes of heart (thank you very much blogger), but we are still moving forward, if at times, we move a little bit backwards.
All thanks to me, of course.

But, ok, here is a little bit to move us forward.

I have been drawing everything in the computer lately. That means my whole work flow starts and ends with the computer. I have found myself to be a bit faster this way and it allows for very fast, none messy, last minute changes to my work.

So typically,
I will start out in Sketchbook Pro, laying out my page and sketching out the scene as I normally would in the traditional form. What's great about working this way is
1. Layers.

I can separate my entire sketch into layers. The face in one layer. the right arm in another, the T-shirt in another and so on. This makes it much easier to erase and change/correct any element within the composition.

and 2.
No mess of papers in my studio. (my Wife hates that).

Seen bellow is a template I created specifically for SBP using the standard comic book page guides.
It's blank now, but that's going to quickly change in a few :)




Now I start working in the sketch little by little. Making sure each element is in it's own layer.






A little closer now folks.


And.....

I think that will be all for Today.
Have to save some for 2morrow ;)