Fantasy Theater

Computer is in the shop, so my internet presence will by spotty for the next few days. Yes, this is marvelous timing, and yes it's likely that Fantasy Theater #19 will not get done in time for Wizard Chicago. My own fault for cutting it so close, naturally. Bleh.

Thanks to my fellow Small Press Syndicate members for voting Fantasy Theater as "Best Digest Comic" for 2007. And congrats to F.T. contributors Dan Nauenburg and Matt Dembicki, who scored a few wins of their own:

The 2007 Syndie Awards

Best Writer:
Rene Blansette

Best Artist:
Jesse Thomas

Favorite Character (tie):
Afrophidian (Robert Upton, Afrophidian)
Superior Man (Jim Pike, Superior Man)
Watusi (Dale Martin, Watusi the Talking Dog)

Best Web Comic:
Spadefoot (Matt Dembicki)

Best Minicomic (tie):
Spadefoot v.1 (Matt Dembicki)
Superior Man #1-4 (Jim Pike)
Musicomics #23 (Matt Levin)

Best Digest:
Fantasy Theater #17-18 (J.K. Carrier)

Best Large Format Comic:
The Ranter #1 (Dan Naueburg)

Best Publisher (tie):
Rene Blansette/Rainbow Bridge Productions (Thief, Thief Gallery)
Jim Main/Main Enterprises (Comic Fan, Gallery, Satyr)
Dan Nauenburg (The Ranter)

Eric Hampton Hall of Fame Award:
Michael Roden

"Dungeonmaster Jim" over at the CBR forums did a nice rendition of The Reaper:

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showpost.php?p=6215951&postcount=29

Thanks, Jim!

The latest issue of Fantasy Theater is printed, folded, stapled, and packed up for the trip to the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo. Hope to see you there!

I haven't talked about it here, because I hate to make promises I may not be able to keep... but I'm really trying to get a new FANTASY THEATER done in time for the SPACE con. The front half of the book is done: "The Song of the Siren", a Lady Spectra story written by me and drawn by Dan Kellaway. (I showed a preview page here a while back). I'm very pleased with the script, which (he said modestly) has some pretty sharp dialogue and a clever mystery angle. And Dan really delivered on the art.

The back half of the book will be another Spectra tale: "Cutody Battle",  drawn by me with a script by Jason DeGroot. Although it wasn't planned this way, I think it makes a nice complement to the solidly traditional "Siren" story; "Custody Battle" is a bit more somber and introspective than is typical for the strip. Although you can't tell that by this kinda wacky splash page:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/52940319/

This partially-inked page gives you a pretty good idea of how crappy loose my pencils are. I'm actually farther along than it looks; I tend to jump around a lot when I'm inking, finishing a figure here, a building there, and then jumping to another page. At this point almost every page has at least some ink on it. I feel pretty confident I can get it finished in time, but of course there's a million factors out of my control that could crop up and mess up the schedule. We shall see.

via gdaybloke:

Choose twelve of your original characters, in any particular order. Then, answer the questions that follow, but DON'T LOOK AT THE QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU PICK THE CHARACTERS!

1. Capella
2. Glorianna
3. Sparky
4. Dr. Agony
5. Portai
6. Lady Spectra
7. Kiina
8. Jandar
9. Phantos
10. The Reaper
11. Butterfly
12. Nucleus

(It's funny how appropriate most of these are...)
( Read more... )

A sneaky peek at the artwork for an upcoming Lady Spectra & Sparky story, courtesy of Dan Kellaway:
( Read more... )
See more of Dan's work at http://www.dankellawayart.com/

Made some revisions to the cover design for Fantasy Theater #17, and uploaded a wallpaper-sized version:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/37161327/

The issue is finished, by the way -- I'm printing it up tomorrow, and it will debut at the Wizard Chicago show.

A sample of the "digital pencilling" I've been experimenting with lately:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/35960567/

I doodle the linework in Photoshop, then bring the image into Illustrator to add the borders, lettering, and inks.

(And yeah, this kind of gives away the surprise I was trying to hide in that last page I previewed. But what the heck.)

A page from an upcoming Lady Spectra & Sparky story, tentatively called "The Replacement Killer". 100% digital, done in Illustrator and Photoshop:
( Read more... )