Honestly, all you who have kids of your own, hold down a full-time job and are still able to maintain creative careers, my hats are off to you. I really don't know how you do it. And yes, I'm looking in your direction as I write this, Mr. Jenkins.
Don't get me wrong, I've got one of the best jobs in the world and I love these kids. But it definitely requires an adjustment after working with high schoolers for so long. There are a few teachers who are in their forties or fifties and I don't know how they last. When I'm that age, I want to be lecturing at universities, not running around with kids.
That being said, my free time hasn't exactly been spent sleeping. While I haven't done any additional work on Elias Starr and the Prometheus Engine, I have been doing some more comic related work.
The first item on the agenda is Izujko Nation. This is one that requires a bit of backstory. Several years back, even before HaVeN, I came into contact with Andrew West, a very gifted artist who had some very big ideas. Much like myself, Andrew had this dream of creating his own studio and most of the titles were ideas he himself came out with and sought out collaborators for. Him and I began work on a concept he had called Izujko Nation. It was to be a three-volume space epic, with each volume consisiting of twelve issues and centering around a mercenary named Kincade (Andrew's sketch of him is on the left), an intergalactic company called the Dante Corporation, and a race of energy-abundant aliens called Cybruns. I plotted out the first volume and wrote the first script and Andrew produced a few pages for it. After that, however, things fell through. Andrew eventually realized he couldn't commit to the art and found another artist. Still more things piled up and while I'm not aware of the details, Andrew eventually chose to close up his studio, called Midnight Studios. Rather than let the concept die and given all the work I put into it, Andrew signed over the rights to me.The artist Andrew found as a replacement and I communicated through e-mails but each time, all I received was a promise that art was coming soon. Eventually, he stopped sending e-mails.
Recently, I started communicating with a new artist, Seng Lee. Seng has a style that fits in perfectly with the concept although the problem was it had been so long and those notes and plots became lost and all I have to go on are a few sketches Andrew did early on as well as my script for the first issue. All I could remember were some very sparse details and I couldn't even recall what the "Izujko" in the title actually meant (it was a title Andrew came up with).
Rather than struggle with the original concept, Seng and I decided to take what we had and create a new tale out of it. So I've been busy compiling notes and collaborating with him, while Seng has been working on character designs. To the right is one of the designs he did for Kincade, based on what Andrew originally came up with. Based on our notes, this design will change soon.I've also been in contact with Martin Pierro, one of my lettering clients. I lettered the first issue of his series, Arthur: The Legend Continues and now that the cover art is finished, this series is just about ready for release. I'm just awaiting a high-rez version of the cover so I can swap out the black and white logo for a color version.
I've also gotten good news on another project, Steampunk Western. This was a concept I came up with quite some time ago and now I'm revisiting. It's a bit of a tribute to the spaghetti westerns with a heavy dose of science fiction tossed in for good measure, as the title suggests. Alain Chan is the artist on it and he produced this great sketch of the main character, Caleb, and is now getting to work on the pages.Of course, good news comes with bad, as always. Marcus Jackson, an artist I met in Chicago who had been working with me on Myth Hunter has had to back out due to personal reasons. So I'm beginning the search for a new artist on that.
Also along with this bad news is that Justin Williams, my collaborator on The Darkworld Chronicles, feels his sequentials aren't up to par. As he created the basic concept, he still wants to do it, but with him providing covers and designs but with a different artist handling sequentials. I'm hoping he finds someone soon so I can get back to work on the second issue, as this is a title I have a lot of fun with.And the final piece of bad news relates to my freelance work for AC Comics. Originally, I just did lettering for them but when I mentioned to my editors, the wonderful Mark and Steph Heike, that I was also a writer, they offered me a chance to write several short stories featuring the character Threeta for Femforce. The first artist wasn't what Mark and Steph wanted and I suggested Carl Yonder, a great artist I worked with before.
He produced this first page but Mark and Steph felt it wasn't what they were looking for as well. So sadly, we've begun a search for a new artist on that as well. Hopefully Carl and I will find something else to work on, as I love his art and not only is he extremely talented and professional, but also one hell of a great guy.So that's it for this update. Hopefully some news will be forthcoming and hopefully it will be mostly good.
