webcomics – Page 38 – Kelci D Crawford

February 10, 2015February 9, 2015

Review Day Tuesday: The Hues

The Hues is a webcomic made by Alex Heberling featuring post-apocalyptic magical girls, a diverse cast, and a mysterious alien race.

…You had me at “post-apocalyptic magical girls.”

the hues chapter 1 cover art — The cover for Chapter 1.

This webcomic centers around Sami, a 17-year-old girl based in Columbus, OH, who witnesses a mysterious signal from an alien race. Turns out the signal is a literal doomsday clock, and when it goes off, the aliens descend into the city and annihilate it completely. The ones left behind are Sami and other girls who have mysterious magical powers like her, and it’s up to them to fight off the aliens.

I love everything about this webcomic.

To start, the main cast is ethnically and physically diverse. Look at this line up!

You don’t see that often in magical girl stories.

Plus, the way the story opens is a nice change from the usual magical girl fare.

Because the USUAL magical girl fair opens with the protagonist waking up late for school and rushing out the door. But then she encounters something MAGICAL on the way to school and gets her powers.

Not with The Hues (thank goodness).

It opens with Sami making a YouTube video about the signal in the sky over her home city.

Horray! Originality!

Plus, the characters have a variety of personal histories. They’re not detailed in the first 2 chapters, but the hints leave you intrigued.

The art is actually a standout from other webcomics, in that it’s all digital painting. It almost looks like vector art. There are few comics that are drawn like this, but the artistic style suits the story it conveys. It’s animated and colorful, but also dark.

the hues chapter 1 page 17 — Chapter 1, page 17.

This series is definitely worth checking out. And the best way to do it?

Alex is actually running a KickStarter campaign to release the first 3 chapters in a book, featuring bonus materials and remastered art! I know I backed the campaign, and you should, too. It only has a few days left!

If you’re absolutely broke, though, you can read the comic online.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you support The Hues on KickStarter!

I’ll see you tomorrow.

February 9, 2015February 8, 2015

I’ve Got News For You…

Oh man, I want to share ALL OF THE THINGS with you, but we gotta’ do this one step at a time.

First, The Superhero Ladies Sketchbook is finally online!

I listed it for $1.99 on Gumroad, and you can download a copy by clicking the cover image below:

Why Gumroad?

Because they’re nicer, cleaner, and more direct than Amazon. And you don’t have to have a super-long checkout experience. I’ve used Gumroad before and it’s smooth and fast. I wanted your shopping to be as nice as possible, and Gumroad fit the bill!

Ok, second, I’m working on a new email newsletter!

It’ll be free, and hopefully (if I can configure everything correctly) people who first sign up will get a free downloadable image for a desktop/phone background. Pretty sweet!

The newsletter will highlight comic updates, blog posts, new product news, and even bonus sketches and cartoons you can’t get anywhere else. Because INCENTIVE.

Third, I finished a new illustration, shown below:

claire and tracy encounter the lion illustration — “Claire and Tracy Encounter the Lion.”

Click it to get a better view, because I am SO proud of how this turned out.

I really pushed myself with the colors, shadows, and gestures. There’s still a few spots I could fix, but I could work on it forever. I won’t. It’s too good right now for me to fiddle with it any further.

(If you don’t know who the two ladies are, they’re Claire and Tracy, from a story I’m scripting about road-tripping through post-apocalyptic zombie America. You can read more about it here.)

And fourth, the blog will no longer update on Mondays…at least for now.

I’ve been working hard this past month to update every weekday, but it’s starting to take away time from making comics and art. Plus, with an upcoming newsletter to make, I need some time to make that awesome.

So, yeah, I’m going to make some changes to the blog, starting with no Monday updates. It’ll give me the time I need to keep making great art and comics for you to enjoy.

The other change I want to make to the blog is that the posts are going to get more personal – except for Review Day Tuesday and Featured Artist Friday. Those are features I want to keep.

I’ve discovered that, while people occasionally like my tutorials, you seem to like when I just blether on about something personal to me. Which is cool! I’m happy to make more stuff like that.

That, and there’s just some personal stuff I want to talk about that I can’t fit in a sufficient amount of space on Twitter.

But I want to keep Review Day Tuesday and Featured Artist Friday. Those are features that I hope will show you new work and new artists to geek out for and support. Like Ark Revner, or Jeff Laclede, or Shadowbinders, or Bartez.

Thank you so much for reading! I’ll see you tomorrow with a new review – and it’s for a webcomic!

January 26, 2015January 27, 2015

Johnson & Sir’s First Book: An Update

Johnson & Sir are getting their first book soon!

How soon?

Well, I originally said they would be printed and ready by January 31st. I’ve been talking to the folks who will print the book (who are the same folks that printed the book edition of Validation), and I have pretty much everything together.

However, I’m fixing some formatting errors before I send the book off to print. I want this book to look its best, darnit!

But that means the book won’t be available on January 31st.

The latest the book will hit the market is February 13th (and yes, that IS a Friday the 13th. No, I’m not superstitious about it).

You can still pre-order a copy, so I can reserve a book JUST FOR YOU from the printer (because I like you, reader, and you are awesome). It’s $10, and that price includes shipping.

I’ll be taking pre-orders up until February 13th. After that, the print run is going to be small, like less than 25 books, for conventions and online orders.Completely tangential, I remember working with an old editor and he threw out the suggestion of having me print 1000 copies of a book, because depending on the printers, printing large quantities like that actually makes the per-issue cost cheaper.

But I said to him, “What the frick am I going to do with 1000 copies of a book?!”

Because you don’t realize how large of a number 1000 is until you actually see it. I saw what 1000 books looked like (thanks to my time as a former librarian), and…I am still not ready for that kind of commitment.

Hence, why I’m keeping the print run small. Small quantities are much more manageable, and then I’m not overwhelmed by books.

Plus, it makes owning the books for you much more special, knowing that you have one book out of 25, rather than one book out of 1000. It’s a lot more personal.

And I like personal.

Ok, tangent over. Thank you for reading, and I hope you’ll support Johnson & Sir! I’ll see you tomorrow.

January 16, 2015January 15, 2015

Featured Artist Friday: Jeff Laclede

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQUXFFm1YWA

This is the revival of a segment that used to be called “Favorite Artist Friday,” but it’s now called Featured Artist Friday.

Once a week, on a (surprise!) Friday, I’ll be writing about another artist. It doesn’t matter what medium or subject matter they choose. Any artist may be featured.

This week, I would like to talk about one of the coolest artists I know, Jeff Laclede.

Jeff is a digital painter, comic artist, and character designer. He is also, I dare say, masterful with his use of colors.

Every time I see one of his pieces, I am impressed with how well he lights his work, and how that light affects his subjects. Lighting is NOT easy, but Jeff makes it look easy, which is the mark of an excellent artist.

Not only does he illustrate very well, he is also an excellent writer.

His current comics project is a webcomic called El-Indon. And it grabs you by the first page.

el indon webcomic page 1 by jeff laclede — El Indon, page 1.

And it gets better from there! His characters, aside from being well-designed and memorable, are hilarious.

el indon webcomic page 9 by jeff laclede — More El-Indon

He also a great world-builder. As you read his comics you can get sucked into the world he’s creating and the intrigue within it. And a lot of that is thanks to his attention to character, great page layout design, and thematic lighting and tones.

He even succeeds in all of this in his illustrative work!

If you haven’t read El-Indon yet, you should. While you’re at, go follow Jeff on Tumblr and Twitter. He’s loads of fun to follow.

Thank you for reading, and I will see you on Monday.

January 1, 2015

Big News for Johnson & Sir

Strap into your seats, because there’s all kinds of awesome things on the horizon for Johnson & Sir.

First, there’s a new print coming! Here’s a look at what to expect…

t-rex versus shark print johnson and sir — IT’S T-REX VS. SHARK!!

I know I want THAT on my wall!

Second, I’m closer to getting an awesome T-shirt ready. Can you guess what design will be on it?

Oh, I’ll spoil it for you:

I’m shopping around for T-shirt printers at the moment. Until then, I’ll be getting prints ready soon. Keep an eye on Storenvy.

Third, and this is the most exciting thing for me. I have been working on this goal for over six months now.

Johnson & Sir‘s first book will be going to print!

johnson and sir book cover — Here’s what the book cover will look like.

Pre-orders are going right now for $10.

If you’re interested in pre-ordering a copy, just click the PayPal button below. The price covers the book plus shipping. Be sure to give your shipping address, too!

Books will be available by January 31st, 2015.

Thank you to everybody who reads Johnson & Sir every Tuesday!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you tomorrow with a new post.