Ash Storm 6-7

After a month and a half, a new page. It still needs to be shaded, but I’m ok putting it up beforehand.

I’ll be moving back to Boston in a few weeks, and I’m looking to have all the pages of this episode finished before then…. I expect that the two that are almost completely done will at least make it. My time in Chicago has been very useful to understanding myself better than I ever have in my life, though otherwise it was a pretty terrible idea.

Given I have a buffer at the moment, there will be another page up next Monday.

http://bazzelwaki.com/archives/4212

Comic Delays and Tabling at SPX

So, I was going to put up the next unfinished 4 pages of Ash Storm this evening, so that at least the whole episode would be online finally, if unfinished. And the pages are just finished enough for that. As in, you know, readable both in words and pictures.

But I’ve decided to hold out and finish them. Because I just received confirmation I got a half table at SPX.

If you know how SPX’s registration went down this year, you know this was pure luck on my part, but it doesn’t matter. SPX was the first convention I went to, and at some point during one of my visits, I thought ”I can do this”, and ever since tabling at SPX has become a legitimacy gate in my mind.

Right now I’m filled with…. passion, and well, I want to actually be kinda legitimate when September rolls around. And to me, that means, you know, making things. I’m going to go make things. I’ll see you in a bit.

An early look at the first page of Imprint to be drawn in almost 2 years. Yes, It’s a hiatus page basically to connect the meta plotline of Tiny giving even my META a canon, but such is life inside my head.

This is one of three comic pages I am drawing at once currently. I am sure you will see the others within the next few days as well (I hope to finish this one by tomorrow or Saturday, and another is the next page of Ash Storm for Monday).

Finished penciling page 3 and part of page 4 of Ash Storm Ep6, and they are looking good for a Monday update!

May be publishing this episode 1 page at a time for a bit. But regardless I’m determined to be making it.

Will have the first page Sunday, and will aim for the second page Monday.

Ash Storm: Episode 6 will not be done the 11th (Sunday). It’s because all ten ten pages have roughs that look like THAT.

That said, I’ve decided to release the episode in two parts, and the first is still scheduled for November 11th.

Just getting that out there. I hope to release the second part a week later, but let’s just go with “November” for now to be safe.

The sheer amount of work that goes into these episodes is kinda staggering. Each one is exponentially more complex to make that the last. To make just this page, I converted a section of a 70 page story I have written into a comic script, found about 15 refresnce photos, planned out the suburbs layout, designed Baldwin’s mom and how she carries herself, worked out how the panel layout will slowly change from the rigid form of episode 2 to the flowing form on the future episodes, and tried to make a believable conversation in French, which I do not speak.

Oh, and French speakers, this is your chance to tell me if Google Translate did an OK job (if you can get past my rough letters). There will never be a conversation not written in English in Ash Storm you need to understand, but I still want the French to hold up.

And that’s not everything… GAH. I firmly believe all the effort that goes into Ash Storm is what makes it a good comic and it’s own thing, and it is totally rewarding to see people pick up on many of the tiny details I add, and watching the comic really come to life, and…. yeah.

Thanks for sticking with me, see you with some finished pages Sunday.

-Ben

So, I’ve decided I will be getting my art on, and doing commissions from now until it’s impractical.

More on that soon.

So, last night during Halloween, I looked at when Ash Storm: Episode 5 went up. Turns out, it was July 11th… July 11th!!!!!

Well, since moving to Chicago on the 27th, I’ve turned the prose episode into a comic script, done more concept art than I have for any other bit of comic ever, and waited and waited for my Yiynova drawing tablet-screen to show up. Today, it arrived.

Ash Storm: Episode 6 is coming out November 11th. I NEVER want to have a 4 month delay again in my main comic.

Stay tuned, I hope to be very active in showing ya’ll the play-by-play of updating.

So, will Ash Storm Episode 5 be uploaded tomorrow, the 4th?

I seem to always forget each page is more or less a a bunch of paintings, and the color can take a loong time.

Still, the episode is pretty well progressed, and despite all of the real life happening after today,

expect Episode 5 sometime Friday, July 6th.

-Ben

Sneak Peak of the next episode!

Speaking of which, due to the physical impossibility of it, Ash Storm Ep4 will not come out Wednesday, but Friday. Gonna try to stick to my guns on that. And trust me; I have some pretty sweet modded Nerf guns.

I have some ideas for real blog posts, which I will work on in the lul after episode 4 is released. Mostly these are ideas of mine people urge me to write down, so why not.

-Ben