Category: Blog

Don’t know what it was in particular this week, but it’s been a rough one.

I think I took my “sketch, don’t snack” strategy a bit too far; I was skipping lunch completely, solving the issue of eating it too early and not spending extra money on a second lunch later. Unfortunately, that means I reached the “hangry” stage of the day a lot earlier, and it lasted until I got home; combined with a few frustratingly busy days at the day job, and it did not put me in a great state of mind for doing anything. Going to make sure I have at least something to eat during the day to stop that cycle before it goes too far.

In related news, tomorrow’s Fifth Ace Showcase page may only be up on Saturday; between the crashing energy, social obligations and taking every opportunity to earn a bit of extra cash, my evenings have been/will be rather unproductive on the art side. At least the pencils are all done, so I have less to puzzle out than I would otherwise; getting all the pages done in advance is still paying great dividends, regardless. Similarly, my #Swordtember uploads might end up being a bit sporadic in the next few days; my buffer has run out due to lack of time/energy at the day job, so I might even skip a few if I can’t build it back up in time. There’s only so much you can account for when it comes to life in general, I suppose.

All of the above hasn’t spelt out a particularly happy label for my mood lately, as you can imagine; the roadblocks in productivity and frustration at work brought on a severe case of the “poor me” mindset. It’s that feeling of helplessness in a situation that you cannot change, not for lack of trying to find a way out. The only thing I can do about it is wait, and I’ve done so much waiting already. If we’re lucky, I only have to stick it out until the end of the year; I don’t want to jinx anything, but some progress has been made in regards to our overall condition, and it may come through by 2024. It’s the first, bitter taste of that terrible illusion: hope (5 points to anyone who knows where that line comes from).

I stopped actively hoping for stuff to happen a while ago, this year in particular; too many potential opportunities for change that fell through will do that to a guy. I instead resigned myself to just letting whatever would happen, happen; I keep my head down and just try to do my best without getting attached to any possible outcome. I wanted this year to be the one where I made some concrete decisions and be less “go-with-the-flow,” and while there have been a few areas where I’ve done that, there is still so much more beyond my control where my decisions have no impact. There are some things I cannot change, so I have to control what I can instead, which is only so much and not nearly as much as I’d like. All this to say, hoping for change is scary, because if it falls through, I don’t handle it well. There never was much hope; just a fool’s hope (only 2 points for that line, that’s an easy one).

On that sombre note, I’m going to knuckle down and get back to doing what I can for now; ComicCon is two weeks away, and there’s a lot of stuff I want to get through before then.

Ciao for now.

Phew, what a week; it’s almost over, but if anything I’ll probably be even busier for the next few…

The Home Alone saga is coming to an end; I’ll be happy to have my fiance home to help wrangle the cats and just be a general presence in the home again. Whatever benefits I might glean from being by myself are outweighed by the disadvantages; my existence is overall better for being around people, even if it’s just one person in particular and not too many others at once. This will mean I won’t be able to keep watching Young Justice as part of my morning routine, but I’ve only got like 10 episodes left, so if I binge a few more tonight, that won’t be an issue anyway.

As far as being productive goes, my strategy for doing batches of inking on my comic pages has not worked out the way I planned. I fully intended to ink three pages at a time and then colour them as needed, but as I finish inking a page, I immediately want to colour it. I’m still keeping ahead of schedule, but if I want to finish the current Showcase story before we go up for ComicCon Africa, I should probably strive to be even more efficient. I am really enjoying the work so far; I’ve missed writing/drawing Kinetica, and I’m taking advantage of her powerset and inner monologue to experiment with more ambitious visuals and situations, at least compared to what I’ve done before. At the same time, I don’t want to overdo anything and end up burning out before I get the story done; it’s a balancing act for how far I want to push the visuals, while also keeping them simple enough to get everything done. It’s all a matter of how much time I can spare to devote to the pages, and the day job still gets in the way of that.

That being said, there is something I have been able to fill time with, when I cannot work on comic pages. With the month rolling over tomorrow, it comes with the #Swordtember art challenge; 30 days, 30 prompts, all relating to bladed weaponry throughout the month of September. I attempted the challenge last year, but only got about halfway through before abandoning it. This year, the prompts are more character based, very much in my wheelhouse, and I have my larger graphics tablet to work with compared to last year; a recipe for productivity, methinks. I’ve already been getting a headstart on some of the prompts in order to have a buffer to upload during the week I’ll be away at ComicCon, and I’ve been using a lot of free photo references from the fine couple that run The Pose Archives on Twitter and Instagram. Suffice to say, I’m having a lot of fun with the challenge, and even if I still don’t finish the whole prompt list like last year, I’m proud of the stuff I’ve done so far. Doing the challenge is also a great way to have stuff to post on social media every day for a month, which I need to get into the habit of doing anyway.

So, long story short, I’m keeping busy, and as long as I’m busy with stuff that I consider engaging, it keeps me happy too. Though it’s punctuated by stressful projects at the day job, chasing down stubborn cats at sunset, and financial woes (which will hopefully be resolved at ComicCon; how many times can I mention ComicCon in one blog post?), it’s been a decent week. My “sketch, don’t snack” strategy has been very effective in keeping me focused on artwork, and my superhero cartoon binges have kept me in the mindset of the kind of stories I want to tell; a winning combo, I’d say.

Let’s hope I can keep it going, and maintain this productivity for as long as possible.

Ciao for now.

I’m feeling productive today; the day job hasn’t managed to quash that yet, but the day is only half done at the time of this posting…

I can attribute my good mood to the fact that I’ve finally gotten the latest Fifth Ace Showcase story done; the last page of Martial’s first solo tale will be uploaded tomorrow, but I got it done last night. I also have all the pages for the next story, the one that should have been August’s but is now September’s, all thumbnailed out and a basic script complete. I intend to start uploading that story next week, no break; I already took a break halfway through this past one, so I need to make up for lost time. Plus if I manage to keep to the proper schedule, I should have the whole story uploaded by the time ComicCon Africa starts; I’ll have to get some pages done well in advance, but I think I can manage. I’m dangerously close to having a buffer ready; though I will say this next story has some much more ambitious artwork plotted out than some of my previous ones. I’m going to be playing with perspective shots, crowds, backgrounds… It’s going to be quite the challenge.

I won’t say being home alone has improved my productivity; if anything, it’s just a different set of distractions when it comes to work. It hasn’t been easy on the cats; Silver doesn’t mind being inside so much, but she gets super irritated by Sparrow, who doesn’t handle the lack of space so well. Their time outside is very limited, and sometimes they don’t get it at all if it’s raining, and an under-stimulated ginger kitten can be extremely distracting when one is trying to get stuff done. I think he’s slowly adapting to the routine, but we’ll all be glad when Sparrow is able to spend the day out and about again; if it was summer, he wouldn’t have to come inside so early either.

Productivity aside, I don’t know how much of a break there will be between this next story and the start of Fifth Ace Showcase #5; I still need to pick out which stories I’ll be doing for that one, and there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff that I want to get done too. I still want to do character profiles for my current cast, as well as the many other characters that will be turning up in future stories; my intent is to have a short time-lapse video of each character’s profile picture uploaded alongside the finished artwork, something I can have on video sites like TikTok and YouTube Shorts for better cross promotion. Unfortunately, this is something I can only do with Clip Studio Paint, which is exclusive to my laptop, which I cannot risk using at the day job without being disciplined; it’s Photoshop doodling or nothing during my spare moments. As such, the character profiles are something I can only do after hours, and that time is taken up by the comic work; I had intended to do all these profiles during my break earlier this year, but life got in the way, so maybe that’ll be my project for the rest of this year after ComicCon? We’ll see; I have literally one hundred (100) character profiles I want to draw; that would be my biggest ongoing art challenge ever.

All this is for the future; right now, I have the next story to finish up, and I am really excited to see if I can pull off everything I want to include. You’ll get to see if I manage next week.

Ciao for now.

Well, this has been quite the week; you can tell because I completely forgot to upload this last night.

First and foremost: Dragonfire was a huge success! We literally did twice as well as we did last year, and ComicCon Africa is a go! We’re going to have a lot to do in the month between now and then; there’s flights to book, a car to hire, stock to order, kitties to set up in care, the list goes on. It’ll be worth it, though; we’ve always done well at ComicCon, so this year should be no different, especially because we have a lot of stuff on hand that we’d already sold out of before the show opened last time.

On the other hand, the first of three weeks at home alone have been a mixed bag. I’m not feeling as lonely as I thought I would, mostly because I’ve been too busy to focus on being alone for a change. Most of this boils down to wrangling Sparrow; having to be locked up for most of the day makes him super hyper in the evenings, and he only gets about an hour and half of outside time between me getting home and the sun going down. It’s not an ideal situation for him, but we can’t trust him not to wreck the rest of the flat if we let him out of the bathroom, so it’s the lesser of two evils. He at least has plenty of food, all of his toys and a warm bed in there; he just really appreciates being able to roam when I get home to let him out. Silver is no issue at all; she’ll sleep all day without complaint, though she’ll be straight out the door the moment I open up in the afternoon. At least with the weekend coming up, they’ll both get plenty of time outside; fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain.

In terms of productivity, I was hoping to do more while I had the house to myself, though it’s not like I magically have more free time or energy; I had planned on doing daily uploads for the Fifth Ace Showcase, but I think we’re just going to stick to the regular Mon-Wed-Fri updates until I get the rest of the current story done. The August/September story may be more sporadic; I’m still trying to work out what I want from the script, to reach a predetermined ending through various potential plots. Not being able to go beyond thumbnails while being at the day job does mean the time I can devote to the comic during the week is limited, but that’s not anything new; it does suck when I have a burst of creativity while at my work desk and not being able to fully actualize it in the moment. Plus ComicCon coming up means I’ll likely have even less time to draw full pages.

That being said, I have been able to doodle a lot more to fill time however I can; I’ve been using it as a coping mechanism instead of eating at unnecessary moments during the day. By keeping myself distracted with sketching, I don’t feel the need to snack as much, which I’m prone to do quite a bit when I’m lost in my thoughts, and that can happen a lot when I’m home alone and/or stressed out. So my new eating routine is to have an extra large breakfast, with a reduced size lunch; I get a boost of energy in the morning, and then maintain the rest of my day with minimal snacking, while being much more artistically productive, with the occasional swig of coffee to keep my eyes open until I get home for supper. So far so good.

Oh, and one more side effect of being home alone is not having to be quiet in the mornings or keeping the lights off for fear of waking up my fiance; I can put on some music or videos, and not rely on my phone’s light to get to the kitchen without stepping on anything. I’ve been taking the opportunity to rewatch Young Justice, probably the best animated adaptation of the DC Comics universe since Justice League Unlimited ended. I only ever saw the first two seasons, which was the extent of the show when it was first cancelled, but there have been two more seasons since then, and I need to refresh myself on everything before diving into all the stuff I’ve missed. I can get through three episodes every morning before work, so I should be caught up to where I left off before these three weeks are out.

So that’s where I’m at for this week; keep an eye on all the socials for updates, and I’ll let you know if everything is still standing by next time.

Ciao for now.

It’s still Thursday somewhere in the world, right?

Yesterday was a great day of historical remembrance in my country: National Women’s Day, in recognition of the 1956 march of 20 000 women, taking a stand against the passing of a segregationist law. The issues that such a march brings to light continue to be relevant, and the occasion is recognised with a public holiday to this day. For me, such a day falling on a Wednesday is ideal; I’ve always maintained that a midweek break is better than a three-day weekend, and if only the four-day workweek was a thing, more people would know this.

Yesterday in particular was highly productive for me, yet another significant indication that I am totally not lazy no really I’m just clearly neurodivergent because when I’m doing something I enjoy then I can churn out massive quantities of work you don’t even know – whoa, that sentence got away from me. But seriously, I was able to pencil five comic pages yesterday, and add all the dialogue captions to them, plus a sixth page; the remainder of the current Fifth Ace Showcase story is well on its way to being ready. Now all that remains is ink and colour, which may only happen next week on a day-by-day basis; no other public holidays in the pipeline that I can use for such things, and the weekend is going to be busy too, though the next few weeks may leave some room for it…

As I mentioned last time, this weekend is Dragonfire, a small convention for a university roleplaying society that otherwise welcomes all comers for some games and game accessories. My fiance’s business, The Dragon Wagon, will be there to sell all kinds of TTRPG dice and various other things, and if we make enough cash, we can even make it to ComicCon Africa this year, so it’s a big deal. But after the weekend, my fiance will be away for three weeks while she does practical training for her teaching degree. I may still get to see her on the weekends, but I’m going to be by myself for the majority of the time, with only the cats for company.

I won’t lie, it’s not going to be easy; I never do well when I don’t have her to come home to. My sleep schedule gets completely thrown out of whack, I tend to stress-snack relentlessly, and I just feel lonely in general. It will be the first time that I’ll be juggling two cats on my own for an extended period, so maybe three won’t be a crowd; I know Sparrow is going to be a handful after being locked up all day while I’m at work, so that’ll be interesting.

However, given how much comic work I have to catch up on, I might be able to distract myself by powering through some of it. Not only do I have to finish July’s Showcase story, there’s still August’s story (which might as well be called September’s story at this rate), as well as the backup story I’ve been working on for Issue #1’s downloadable release later in the year. I clearly have no shortage of artwork to distract myself with, so I may as well use that time constructively; I’ve shown that I can pump out large volumes of stuff when I have the free time, so time to put my money (what money?) where my mouth is.

Anywho, hold thumbs and cross fingers for our success at Dragonfire, and if all goes well, the Fifth Ace Showcase will return next week.

Ciao for now.

The art is still slow, but I can confirm it hasn’t stopped completely…

Yes, the lack of uploads this past week has been noticeable, I’m sure; I may still be booting up in recovery mode, as it were. We’ve gotten through the big project at the day job, now it’s just a matter of getting back into the swing of things for comic work again. It can be difficult to build momentum after coming to such an abrupt stop, but hopefully the Showcase updates will return next week, if all goes well.

I have been doing some other stuff behind the scenes in the meantime, though. Even if I haven’t had time/energy to knuckle down on comic pages, I’ve been fiddling with the long-overdue cover for Fifth Ace Showcase #1, and I think I’ve finally reached a point where I’m happy with it. When I eventually get to releasing it as a downloadable pdf (and maybe even a print run?), with the exclusive backup story included, this is what you’re going to be looking at:

Obviously, there will also be titles included and the watermark will be removed, but this is all you’re getting for now; there were at least five different iterations of this cover, I felt the need to show off something at least. Of course, if you’ve been following me on social media, you may have already seen this; I’ve been spending a lot more time on Mastodon.art lately, and so far it’s been far more engaging than TwitterX. I can probably put a lot of it down to the relatively new scene, with a lot of people looking to build their follower base and thereby interacting with as many people as possible, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s certainly more engagement than I usually get, and with fewer people currently on my timeline, I’ve been able to curate my experience a lot better. I haven’t uploaded a lot on there yet, but I’m probably going to make it my primary social spot for the foreseeable future; it’s familiar enough to use easily, without a lot of the baggage that the dead bird is currently carrying. Still waiting on that BlueSky code…

Neck update: my time with the brace did not yield any significant results, positive or negative; it seems these finger tinglies are just something I’m going to have to live with for now. I’ll be going back in for more X-rays in about six months; things are still a mess in there, but for now I’m functional and not in any pain. I still have the brace, so if ever I feel any major discomfort, I can still slap it on, and I’ll let the professionals know if I feel that something should be done sooner.

The countdown to ComicCon Africa continues to tick down; with Dragonfire happening next weekend, we’re down to the wire to see if we’ll have enough money to make it. Won’t lie, it’s very stressful; there’s a lot of strings that need pulling to make sure it all works out, but the potential end result would be worth it. We did very well last year, and we have a lot more to offer this year, so we really really want to go. It all boils down to my hard-working fiancé; she’s put so much effort into building her business and is so determined to make the ComicCon table happen. I love her very much and am incredibly proud of all she’s accomplished; if the only thing I can do is be supportive and be a shoulder for her to lean on, then I’ll be doing that for as long as she needs me to, and beyond.

On that note, I should probably return to shaking off my funk and get my own stuff done; further bulletins as events warrant.

Ciao for now.

Seems like I’ve hit another creative dry spell; let’s hope it doesn’t last too long…

So yeah, not a lot of art happening around here; thanks to a massive project at the day job sapping all my energy and motivation, the comics have slowed to a stop for the moment. I might be able to pick up the pace this weekend, depending on any social obligations that might arise; there’s a good chance that Saturday will be dedicated to a binge-watch party for the new season of Good Omens.

This does mean that it is very unlikely that I’ll have the current Showcase storyline finished before next month, and that also means that August’s story will spill over into September. This isn’t as big of a deal as it could be; I was planning a break in September anyway, in order to potentially accommodate for ComicCon Africa. The jury is still out on whether or not we’ll be attending; the table pricing is utterly insane for small businesses, so we’re hoping that they’ll drop during the last stretch. It also depends on how well The Dragon Wagon does at Dragonfire in mid-August; if we make enough sales to fund our ComicCon table and cover our travel costs, we may still stand a chance of being there. That said, I’m assuming nothing at this point.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since leaving home and becoming (mostly) independent, it’s the art of cynical optimism: hope for the best, expect the worst. It’s a mindset that has become increasingly relevant to me over the past few years; a lot of things I hoped for didn’t happen, but they often turned out better than I expected. I hoped that I wouldn’t lose my job in 2021, but as expected, I did; though I did get my job back a month later. I hoped I would be able to maintain a consistent update schedule when I resumed this website, but as expected, I didn’t; I have still managed to keep telling my stories, even if it’s not at the rate I wanted to. I hope that we’ll be able to attend ComicCon Africa this year, but given the current situation, I expect we won’t be able to; even if we don’t, we know that whatever events we do attend often go well for us anyway. I hope that we’ll be moving to a new house before the end of the year, but all evidence to the contrary makes me expect that we won’t; at least we still have a roof over our heads, one way or the other.

Another thing I’ve been hoping for is to become more active on social media, though I expect it’s going to take a lot longer than I’d like, especially since my art has been slow lately. If you’re reading this, there’s a fair chance you found the link through some form of social media, and are well aware of the whole TwitterX drama going on, and the increasing feasibility of moving to new websites. I myself have signed up for a few of them, and I want to start showcasing (hah!) my characters and other artwork on as many different platforms as possible; one of these places is bound to take, right? I’ll still be on Twitter until the ship sinks completely, but if/when it eventually does, you can find me on Mastodon and Cohost, as well as my Instagram; I may even try revitalising my Tumblr. 

You can find me on these alternative spaces through my brand-spanking-new Linktree right here: https://linktr.ee/fifthacecomics. It’s a little bare bones, but I’ll be adding any other accounts I’ve missed as I remember them.

I’ve also signed up for BlueSky, though that waiting list is a mile long, so when that eventually comes through, I’ll add it to the Tree. I’ve also considered signing up for Threads, but I’ve heard it’s a bit of a mixed bag, so we’ll see how that progresses before leaping in. I’ve mostly just thrown up some intro posts with some art samples on the new spots so far, but if this weekend is as productive as I want it to be, there should be more stuff appearing there soon.

So that’s where I’m at this week: lots of hopes held in check by expectations. Let’s see if they go anywhere by next week.

Ciao for now.

It’s been a stop-and-start kind of week; every time I start on something, I have to stop because something else happens. I need a holiday…

You may have noticed the inconsistent nature of Fifth Ace Showcase updates this week; with everything else going on, I haven’t been able to get stuff done on that front. The day job has been wildly oscillating between nothing happening and frantic crunching, and I never know what it’s going to be, so I can’t slip any free time doodling in between like I usually do. Not to mention, the crunching is not triggering the manic side of my creativity at all; it all processes as incredibly tedious and unstimulating, which means I lack any motivation to actually do it. It gets done, because that’s my job, but I take no pleasure or satisfaction in it at all. Pretty sure this is an ADHD thing; I was never officially diagnosed, but I’ve picked up enough clues over the years.

My neck issues haven’t been as much of a hindrance in this regard as you might think. Naturally, I’d be more efficient if I didn’t have to wear the brace; all it really does is slow me down as opposed to preventing me from doing anything. I have to pop a pain pill every now and then, since my neck being held in one spot does get a bit strenuous, though it’s ultimately just something I’m living with at this point. I will say, with the weather as cold as it is, the brace makes for an effective neck-warmer; it’s the one part of my body that doesn’t immediately feel the chill when I step out of the office. Plus, while I can’t sleep comfortably in bed with the brace on, if I need a quick nap in my chair, it’s a surprisingly comfortable pillow substitute.

Even the weekend is going to chew up a bunch of my creation time; I’m running two games of D&D between Friday and Sunday, though I am getting paid for one of them. That’ll leave me with Saturday to work on comic stuff unimpeded, but I’ll likely use most of it just to recover from everything else that’s been happening. So if the current Showcase story doesn’t quite wrap up before the end of the month, don’t be too surprised. Admittedly, it’s not only the Showcase pages that have been on my mind.

I’ve been agonising over getting a cover page done for Fifth Ace Showcase #1 ever since I finished drawing it a couple of years(!) ago, but nothing I’ve come up with ever seemed to fit. I’ve gone through several iterations recently, and I think I’ve nearly cracked it; even if I do, you likely won’t see it on the main site for some time, if at all. Because, once the cover is done, and I’ve found the time to draw the backup Nadir story, it’ll all be displayed in its entirety in downloadable PDF form, most likely on a funding site or somewhere like itch.io. It might even reach printed format someday, though I’ll probably have to launch a Kickstarter to get the kind of money I’d need for the cost.

Once again, it’s all a lot of planning, only so much action; I just don’t have enough hours in the day or energy in my body. I’m prioritising the important stuff first, and that means my health and my family. Everything else, no matter how much I want to get done, is secondary to staying alive and keeping my connection to my loved ones strong. We’ll see what I can fit in between all that by next week.

Ciao for now.

Whoops, a day late again; the day job sprung a buttload of work on me yesterday that I didn’t expect.

Neck update: my neck is a mess. The MRI didn’t reveal any major kind of blockage, so we still don’t know exactly how my nerves are being pinched; as such, I’m stuck with a soft collar brace for the next three weeks to see if I can straighten the situation out with anti-inflammatories. On the other hand, it seems my surgery from 2014 is coming back to bite me in the long term; since the muscle in my neck could not be properly reattached after the surgery, the vertebrae have been compensating for the lack of suspension by twisting in all sorts of fun ways. Long story short, within the next decade or so, I’m likely going to need a spinal fusion when the disks finally wear down to the point of nothing. Ordinarily, it would be something that happens much later in life, but my unique circumstances mean that I’m getting hit with it early. Joy.

I won’t lie, it’s a scary prospect; I’ll have minimal movement in my neck, if any at all, well before I reach retirement age (if such a thing will exist by then). I’ll likely never be able to do regular exercise regimes, so my prospects of getting into shape are becoming more limited. I probably won’t be able to legally drive myself anywhere; I’m sure I’d need special permission to be on the road. If I ever have kids, will I be able to physically keep up with them and do all the things you’re meant to do as a parent? Not to mention it’s likely going to cost a fortune, which is something my starving millennial artist brain cannot wrap itself around right now. 

All this and more was on my mind on Monday, when I received the diagnosis, such as it was. It was a depressing few days while I sorted through my feelings, which weren’t helped by the collar brace making me feel incredibly self-conscious. But now that I’ve had time to process the whole thing, I’ve reached the end of the week feeling better about it; I won’t say “positive” but certainly less afraid.

Despite the brace, I’m still able to live my life in much the same way. I can still take care of myself, I can still type, I can still draw; it’s really not that big of an adjustment. Whether or not it will sort out my pinched nerve, I can’t say yet, but it’s still early days so I can’t leap to any bad conclusions either. And if/when I do have to get my vertebrae fused, if having a permanently stiff neck is anything like wearing the brace, I could do a hell of a lot worse. Ultimately, the alternative to suffering through these situations later in life is a small price to pay for averting a death sentence; if I hadn’t had that surgery in 2014, I would not have lived to be where I am today. I would never have left home; I would never have bought my first self-owned car; I would never have met the love of my life and been part of the most mutually loving relationship I could ever dream of for six years and counting. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity for a future.

I am exceptionally lucky to be alive today, and any hardship I have to endure in light of that is worth it for the experience of living.

Though it also would have been nice to have won that cover art competition… ah well.

Ciao for now.

Busy busy busy, that’s all this week is; I’m grateful for it, it keeps my hands moving and my mind focused.

Shoulder update: it’s not the shoulder. I’m meeting with a neurosurgeon on Monday, as this is apparently more neck/spine related, so hopefully I’ll be able to get a definitive answer to my discomfort; I’ve almost stopped noticing it at this point, but there are still certain positions that I can’t lean into without feeling the pain.

I’ve been deep into my art this week, and not just with the new Showcase story that started yesterday. One of the local comic shops is running a competition until Sunday, with a R1000 voucher up for grabs, and since it’s art related I had to jump on it. The challenge is to draw a cover inspired by Green Arrow #1, which was released a few months ago (I was lucky enough to get a foil edition, signed by artist Sean Izaakse, at ComicCon Cape Town this year!). While I initially took this to mean that we had to redraw the cover in our own style, it turns out that it’s actually a freeform contest, and we have to produce an original work; that was two days worth of drawing down the drain…

Nevertheless, I’ve been plugging away at this thing in every spare moment I could find since Monday, and am proud to show off the end result here:

I’ll be getting this bad boy printed and submitted tomorrow, wish me luck!

Other than that, I’ve been working on staying ahead of schedule with the Showcase this month; while I’m still proud of what I put out during June, a couple of the pages were a little rushed due to my injury, and I want to try and have some pages prepped in advance if anything else sets me back again, God forbid. I might even start plotting out next month’s story early as well; it took me a while to settle on which one I would be including in this issue, and there’s still a lot to write; I literally have a one-line summary at this point. 

The tricky thing with the Showcase is that I have a lot of characters I want to introduce, but many of them hinge on the bigger picture story that I want to dedicate full issues to in the future, and I’m starting to run out of characters that are slated to take the lead in that story. Basically, I’m just about done with introducing the necessary cast members; I may feature a few extra stories with them, but they’re ready to start taking centre stage and get the main plot rolling. In light of this, the Showcase may start to feature a few non sequitur stories by the time we pass the six issue mark; we’ll see what happens.

Anywho, back to the grindstone; I have to get tomorrow’s page done and dusted, and I’m running two separate games of D&D this weekend, which are going to require some prep time. See you all next week for something new.

Ciao for now.