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September 23, 2014September 23, 2014

Review Day Tuesday: Shadowbinders, Book 1

Shadowbinders, Book 1 is one of the few books I picked up at Intervention Con over a month ago. Before I go into my review, let me talk about what the story is.

The book I got is actually a collection of the first four chapters of the webcomic Shadowbinders. The story follows Mia, a 17-year-old high school girl with average teen girl problems… until she receives a gift from her grandmother. The gift is an old book full of drawings and a ring, both of which belonged to her late grandfather. However, when she tries on the magic ring, she’s whisked away to a fantasy world – the same world shown in the drawings of the book!

Now, before I read this, I did not know what to expect, really. I didn’t even know who the target audience was. I mean, the art looked relatively friendly to everybody, but I didn’t want to make assumptions – I’ve seen relatively child-friendly art illustrate blood and gore (thanks Hunter x Hunter).

With that said, Shadowbinders is actually pretty safe for everyone to read. This is what I would call an all-ages series, even with one or two innuendos and one scene with someone getting stabbed. It’s not even all that graphic.

Anyway, the set-up is sort of cliched, but the world is at least imaginative. It has a steampunk aesthetic with crazy types of animals and fun magic that is easy to understand. Even the action scenes are fun, and thankfully they’re easy to follow. So many artists can make an action scene unreadable in comics, but thankfully that is not the case in Shadowbinders.

The story and characters are…slow to develop. I didn’t really get invested in the characters until the end of Chapter 2. I do, however, want to stick around with this series to see how it goes.

I did have the chance to talk to the artist of the series at Intervention Con (the writer was out at a panel). I remember when I picked up this book, he expressed what I like to call, “The Artist’s First Book Lament.” I suffer from this, as well: it’s when an artist looks at the first book and goes, “AUGH, the art looks so awful! I’m glad I improved, but geez!”

Since he said that, I’m actually pretty excited to read the rest of the series. I want to see where it goes and see the progression of the art style. As fun as it is, I can see it only getting better.

So have you read Shadowbinders? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!

And if you have any suggestions for comics or books to read, please leave them in comments as well.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you on Friday.

September 3, 2014September 1, 2014

My Recent Works-In-Progress

Man, between all the blog posts, Validation comics, Johnson & Sir comics, freelance work, and the day job (yep, I got a day job) keeping me busy, do I have time for personal projects?

Yes. Yes I do!

Project 1 is very different from what I usually do. Project 1 is a large acrylic painting.

acrylic painting work in progress by kelci d — Step 1.

By “large,” I mean it’s larger than my usual scale. I’m used to working on, at most, 9 inch by 12 inch pieces of paper. This is 16 inches by 20 inches on canvas.

This is a painting that my mind demanded I make, because there are lighting techniques I want to try with this.

Project 2 is connected to Validation. It’s a portrait of one of my favorite characters ever…

Roxie.

This is a piece I’m doing in colored pencil, which I haven’t used in years. It’s a good refresher to brush up on my old skills. I’m also doing my best to use colors in ways I haven’t before. I’ll post more pictures as I work on it.

Project 3 is a comic I’m hoping to get out by October. I’ve mentioned it a few times previously here on the blog.

It’s Charlie & Clow.

The cover is done and I’m so happy with how it turned out! I need to make the next few pages and take care of a few other things. With any luck it should be online by Halloween.

The story is about a young punk lady named Charlie. When she’s walking home from classes one day, she discovers a monstrous golem, and it decides Charlie will be its next meal! Charlie runs for help only to find a tall goth man who calls himself Clow. Who is Clow? And will he help her fight off the golem menace?

Of course, there are other projects I have in the works, but they’re all either very personal or top secret surprises. So I won’t say any more.

Which project are you most excited to see? Do you have any personal projects in the works? Let me know in the comments!

Also, I’m skipping the Favorite Artist Friday feature this week because I’m still scouring the internet for new artists to add as my favorites. If you have any suggestions for artists I should look at, let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you on Tuesday.

September 2, 2014September 1, 2014

Review Day Tuesday: Bartez

Bartez is a comic I found at Intervention Con, mostly because the author, Ryan, was right across the aisle from me. I never heard of the project before that weekend, so I bought a copy of the book. Once the convention madness died down, I finally sat down to read it.

And you know what? I like it.

Is it life-altering? No. Is it fun? Yes, and delightfully silly to boot.

The story follows Jimmy Barton, an average guy who works in IT, who still hangs out with a lot of his old high school buddies, and lives in the town he’s always grown up in. He’s also a bit of a quitter – he tries new things, but he never sticks to them for very long. Tae Kwon Do? Wrestling? Parkour? Nope, nope, and nope.

That is, until he discovers one of his old friends was murdered by a rogue member of a secret society. And now, Jimmy might be next on the murderer’s hit list! Will he be able to actually stick to something and learn how to save himself?

The book I read is the first volume in a series, but I don’t know how long the series will be. It’s a series I want to read, though! Now let me tell you why.

The art, which seems (very) influenced by the likes of Bryan Lee O’Malley and Vera Brosgol, is sharp, clean, and easy to read. In an art style like this it can be easy to make the characters look alike. Thankfully, the artist (Gale Williams) does a wonderful job creating unique character visuals. I could tell Jimmy apart from his friends, and even the ladies look varied and stylized.

The action scenes are sporadic, but are drawn very well. I look forward to seeing what future action scenes in later volumes will look like!

The writing is, at the start, slow. The writer definitely takes his time developing the characters and scenarios, which isn’t a bad thing. I appreciate the slowness a bit because in too many comics nowadays people are rushing to get to the action. In Bartez you’re supposed to see what life is like before things get crazy. And Ryan Peraro does a great job showing everyday situations.

Once things start getting crazy, Ryan has built up the characters and the scenario enough that you believe what happens in the story. It’s actually pretty brilliant.

And you know what? The art and the writing work fantastically together in this comic. There are two creators on the project but it feels like one unified voice. That, to me, is wonderful.

If you want to read Bartez, they have the comic online and in print. My vote? It’s worth the $10 to get the first volume.

Have you found any comics worth reading? Did you read Bartez? Let me know in the comments!

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

August 27, 2014August 26, 2014

Intervention Con in Ten Points or Less

From August 22 to the 24, I was at Rockville, MD for Intervention Con!

It was my first time at this particular convention (and my first time in Maryland, really). It was a get-together to celebrate webcomics, gaming, and an awful lot of Doctor Who.

I could overload you with details about the convention, but I’m going to condense everything into ten points or less so I won’t overwhelm you.

1) If you ever find yourself going from Ohio to Maryland, do yourself a favor and take Interstate 79 to Interstate 68, then onto Interstate 270. That way you can avoid Pennsylvania’s ridiculous tolls.

2) Take a hoodie. The air conditioning in the artist alley this year was freezing. I’m grateful I brought mine.

3) When there are no con-goers coming in to spend money (as happened a lot at this particular convention), talk to the other artists and make some new friends. That’s how I met the folks behind Shadowbinders, Bartez, Capes N Babes, and Lost Gamers as well as lovely artists like Magical Tea Time, K.S. Brenowitz, Tico Illustrations, and Kelsey Wailes (OK, gratuitous name dropping is done for now).

4) The Hilton that the convention took place in had the strangest elevators. Here’s a few pictures of the lobby to give you some context.

So you see how there are elevators in the corners? Some of them run only from the third floor to the seventh. Some run from the first floor to the sixth. There are more elevators that will run from other strange floor combinations. You may have noticed there are eight floors in the hotel. Whoever decided these elevators were a good idea must have been H.P. Lovecraft himself.

5) I almost forgot! This was the table I set up with.

I wasn’t listed as a guest because the billing was mostly given to Christian (the writer of Validation) and Tony DiGerolamo (from The Webcomic Factory). But I was the one with the prints and stickers for Validation, so along I went!

And now I have the books, which leads me to…

6) There are some extra copies of the Validation Comic Con Special! You can get them now on my online store. There’s only five copies left, and if you order them, they’ll be signed by Christian and me. Plus, you’ll get a bonus print for your wall from me!

Speaking of prints…

7) I got some new books and art from some awesome folks this past weekend.

I’ll be reading the books and reviewing them in a new blog segment called “Review Day Tuesday.” It’ll appear on (surprise!) Tuesday.

And the prints? Will be on the wall soon.

8) If you’re ever in Rockville, MD, please for the love of all raw fish go and eat at Rolls N Rice sushi bar. The gang I went with and I had lunch there throughout the weekend, and every time we went it was all delicious!

There were other places we went out to eat, as well, but I didn’t catch their names. There was a Mexican restaurant that had the most delicious roasted duck (with olives) I’ve ever had the pleasure to stuff my face with.

The convention itself also provided food for the special guests, which was pretty good if you could get it. The food went really fast though.

9) If you’re ever at this con, find alternative parking places besides the hotel. Hotel parking is $18 a night (yeesh!). There are alternatives out there.

And I almost didn’t add this, but what the hey.

10) Sunday was my birthday! So Intervention Con was the best birthday present ever!

I should add a bonus thing: because I met so many great artists this weekend, I’m bringing back a feature I started a while ago, but neglected.

I’m talking about Favorite Artist Friday!

So come back on Friday, when I talk about one of my new favorite artists. I’m not going to tell you who it is yet, though, because it’s a surprise.

July 26, 2014

The Toledo Art Walk and How It Went

So on Thursday (July 24), I went to the Toledo Art Walk thanks to an invite from Packo’s at the Park and my friend Chloe. Packo’s wanted some caricature artists to help promote their restaurant and be a part of the Art Walk this month, and I was happy to do so because…

I like to draw,
My friend Chloe is awesome, and
I drew caricatures at Cedar Point for 3 summers and knew what I was doing.

The day of the set up, we got there early and stopped at The Art Supply Depo.

Another shot of inside the Art Depo. They had artwork from local artists on display as well.

The Art Supply Depo is an awesome store situated on South St. Clair street right behind Packo’s in downtown Toledo. They let Chloe borrow an easel for the night to draw caricatures on, and they had just the right markers and board that I needed to draw with.

The nice thing was Packo’s advertised for us in the Art Walk map, so that helped a lot in getting our name out there.

The front of the map. These were available at The Art Supply Depo and other sponsoring shop fronts.

Once Chloe and I got everything we needed, we set up our tables by Packo’s.

Chloe's table sat next to me. — Chloe’s table sat next to me.

I didn’t bring any Validation or Johnson & Sir books with me. But I did bring Prologues, IF-X, and a bunch of smaller things like bookmarks and stickers. I also had a book of prints.

Close up on my comics, bookmarks, and stickers. I also had some copies of Mr. Dino and Friends and Ghost to give away for freebies. — I also had some copies of Mr. Dino and Friends and Ghost to give away for freebies.

I had to keep the stickers in the sorter because it got breezy.

These bookmarks will be listed for sale online soon!

The Book of Prints. There were also a selection of $1 prints in the back.

Here’s Chloe’s table:

This was before I remembered that my book of prints had a few of her works in it.

Close up on her prints, for RWBY, Wreck-It Ralph, and Sailor Moon.

Our friend Alex also set up just down the sidewalk from us, selling some of her work. I meant to get pictures but by the time we got done setting up people were approaching us for caricatures left and right.

I managed to catch a few pictures before the customers left!

Their friends were teasing them the whole time. It was kind of adorable.

While I didn’t sell a whole lot of bookmarks or prints, I did get a lot of tips for working on caricatures, which is awesome!

Once 9 o’clock hit, we finished up drawing our last customers, and then we packed up.

This cart was the best gift I have ever received. Also, I'm a pro at condensing all the things into small packages. — This cart was the best gift I have ever received. Also, I’m a pro at condensing all the things into small packages.

And then Chloe, Alex and I went to The Durty Bird right around the corner for burgers and drinks to celebrate!

Inside The Durty Bird. Their burgers are delicious.

Of course I had to send the appropriate thank-you notes to folks, because I had a great time and the event went really well! I’m planning on going again when the next one happens August 28th. Hopefully then I’ll have more books (if people are interested!).

I intend on getting more involved in caricatures and doing them at art festivals and parties. But since comics and caricatures are both separate kinds of art forms, I’m making a separate blog specifically for caricatures.

It’s called “Caricature’d!” and you can find it here.

I’ll be adding more to it over the next couple of days, so keep checking back to it.

Here on this site I want to keep the conversation about comics, appearances I’ll be making, and the process of making comics (among other comic-related things).

Speaking of which, I’ll be making more of them soon…

Thanks for reading! I’ll see you on Wednesday.