Neozoic FCBD preview, Issue #3, other things

There you have it, the first two pages of our FCBD one-shot freebie!

Pencils/Script: J.Korim
Colours: me!
Concept/Editing: Paul Ens
Letters: Troy Peteri

Diamond pre-order code: FEB080036

As I mentioned in a previous entry, Korim took up writing duties for the one-shot. The other day I had the chance to peek through the finished PDF file with the letters and everything and found some minor changes to the script. Shouldn't be too much of a big deal as the main point still gets across fine, overall the finalized version kept the flavour from previous issues. I don't think many people would notice the difference.

I'd love to show the original rough layouts and all but nah, don't want to spoil the fun just yet. It's gonna be a while before May hits.

And speakin' of which, just heard some bad news from Atomic Robo's Scott Wegener about FCBD since we're basically gonna be in the same book. I didn't know this before, but apparently since Red 5's one of them "Silver Sponsors" we don't get the same privileges as the Big Two.

Will someone please explain this discrepancy to me? That almost negates the purpose of having FCBD to begin with!

And then I read this little footnote on the official FCBD site:
* Each retailer will decide the guidelines for receiving comics.

Bottom line: Bug your comic retailer to grab some FCBD freebies!

By the way, if anyone hits CTRL+F for "RED 5" on the FCBD Silver Sponsor page, you'll find that we're right under the compilation comic Imaginary Friends are putting out.

Spread the word, share the love. And remember, it's FREEEEEEEEEEE!

[Issue 3 and other things ▼]

At a seemingly-but-not-quite-so-ungodly hour of 8:45am this morning, I woke to the sound of fists pounding at my door. Peeking outside the window to see a FedEX truck by the driveway, I raced downstairs and finally got my hands on a white package from Red 5 comics containing my copies of Neozoic issue #3. Usually I'd expect a key from the postal office in my mailbox so I could unlock the parcel locker, but this works fine too. [Thanks Mr. Chitwood!]

Looking through the issue I can say it's fairly close to what I had in the computer. If the pages look too dark in places it might possibly may be my fault. Other than that, YEY IT LOOKS GREAT! But what are those fuzzy white dots on the pages? *rubrubrub.. Oh it's gone, never mind. Oooh, the paper feels nice and texture-y~! Ahem.

At the back, behind some of Korim's Talpid concept sketches, you'll find bios from some of the people at Red 5 along with all the order codes for our back issues. My ugly mug's in there; if someone's saluting at you, that's me.

In other news, I got interviewed by Comics and Other Imaginary Tales! Suffice to say, even though it was over IM I was a little nervous with Gwen so I broke out in boring semi-technical speak here and there. I used the word "varied" quite often, because these days there are like a bajillion ways to colour comics as opposed to flat colours or black and white way back when. There's cell-shading, there's gradients, there's vectors, there's dodge and burn, there's traditional and mixed mediums... Regardless of how different or similar some methods are, everyone's got their take on how something should be done.

I was lucky to be raised in an age where comic colouring took on more importance in the business. At first there were people like Liquid!, then there were the colourists at Dreamwave Productions who threw anime-styled cell-shading in the mix along with Udon Comics who also introduced the world [and impressionable young artists] to Hyung Tae Kim and other digital painters on the internet. Oh and how could I forget Ashley Wood, he was the perfect example of a do-it-all guy who could make comics the kinda artwork you could put in an art museum.

So yeah, I come from the school of thought where comic colours aren't just something to slap on pages. Considering the workload many colourists tend to have, throwing colours down does sound ridiculously tempting. Some of us don't, because purposely doing a bad job on a book regardless if anyone notices or not, reflects badly on us as professionals. Call it pride if you will, in the end many colourists just want to do a good enough job they won't kick themselves for.

I tend to kick myself quite a bit still. Ow.

On a semi-final note, that 10 000 BC movie looks pretty cool from the short trailers I've seen. I should check it out soon.

Issue 3's out tommorrow by the way.
Anyone gonna grab a copy?