The spooky season is upon us, apparently; wouldn’t know, it’s not such a big thing around these parts. Though once we get closer to the end of the month, it’ll surely become more prominent.
Having more or less recovered from ComicCon Africa, I’ve been slowly getting back into the groove of making art again. Last Sunday in particular was a lot of fun; for an art study, I did a recreation of a comic page by John Buscema, my first unofficial teacher from How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. I specifically did a page of his from Savage Sword of Conan, since I’m still toying with a sword-and-sorcery comic idea, and Buscema is still regarded as one of the signature artists of the genre. Here, you can see my effort compared to the original; I wasn’t trying for a one-to-one recreation, especially since my page proportions are slightly different, but I think I still did a good job on it.
Savage Sword of Conan #1, Page 15 – Original art by John Buscema.
My recreation.
I’ll likely be doing a few more of these in the weeks to come while I continue to fiddle with my own story concept; I’ll stick to Buscema’s art for the most part, but there are a lot of other great artists on Savage Sword of Conan that I should reference too; Barry Windsor Smith comes to mind…
I’ve also been slipping in a bit of fanart here and there on social media; I did a new Fodderverse piece the other day, as well as a Draw This in Your Style challenge from someone I follow on Bluesky. I have to say, as compared to Twitter, Bluesky is shaping up as the place to be; I’ve barely glanced back in the three weeks since I made it to the new platform, and I’m seriously considering shutting down my Twitter feed for good. I’ve got about 10% of the followers on Bluesky that I had on Twitter, and I’ve already had far more interaction than I had before, and none of it negative. I find myself making more of an effort to interact with people than before, because I know the more highly curated experience is less likely to attract the kind of people I’d rather not see. The platform itself is a little barebones compared to its predecessor (still waiting on a private messaging option), but as it’s still technically in beta, that’s to be expected. I’m anticipating good things from Bluesky; considering how Twitter seems to be literally getting worse by the day, Bluesky doesn’t have too many hurdles to jump at this point.
As far as comics go, I’ve got a slightly different idea for the next part of the Showcase; given that I won’t likely get a full issue of three stories out before the end of the year, I’m considering a zeroth issue, a #0 that will literally be a character showcase. It’ll give me a chance to introduce a large number of characters and explain their abilities and motivations outside the continuity of stories; I’ve hinted at several pre-existing characters in my universe, but if I wait for them to show up in the main story, it may be years before they appear on the page. With an Issue #0, I can devote a full page or two to each character, expand the scope of my world, and maybe drop a few hints about what is to come in the future. We’ll see how and when this will manifest properly; I’d better start putting a shortlist together of who I want to introduce this way…
Anywho, that’s all for now; I’ve got my paid D&D gig tomorrow, and then a family lunch on Sunday, so I’m looking forward to drowning out the work week in positive interactions.
Ciao for now.