The Grim Collection update

As I post a new horror comic on The Grim Collection today I realize I did not mention on this blog the posting of a short fiction in October. So let me correct that even as I announce the arrival of Orphan.

Orphan is written by me and drawn by Manoel Magalhaes, who you will likely remember as that artist of The Three Princes, Colonel and Synchronicity. Orphan is a ghost story in which we tap into a little bit of history and slide away from the “horror” of horror storytelling. We hope you enjoy it. http://grimcollection.wordpress.com/2012/01/02/orphan/.

The Draw of Memories is a short fiction I posted on The Grim Collection in October 2011. I shook the dust off a short fiction I wrote years ago that had never found a home. I hope you agree that it is a good fit for The Grim Collection. You can read it online.

The Grim Collection publishing schedule

The publishing schedule I intend for The Grim Collection is an aggressive one.  I plan to have a new short fiction or short comic every three months. That said, a new short fiction or short comic will be added every month for the first three months after its August 2 launch in order to generate interest in the Web site. In between comics and short fiction, pin-ups and Grim Reality content will be added. Pin-ups will be added as those are obtained from artists. There will be no set schedule for Grim Reality content but I would like to have at least two Grim Reality updates a month. This should be possible because Grim Reality content is derived from my writing process and research and I intend to be very active in that go forward.

Dark Art: Lettering Finished

A little taste for you: This is detail from the last panel of page 1 of Dark Art. Artwork is by Adam Sward.

The Acts of Violence promotional campaign kicks into high gear tomorrow so all posts for the remainder of April will be related to that project even though I have other comics in development. Updates on those projects will return in May; but, I do want to sneak in an update about Dark Art.

The lettering is finished and the comic has been submitted to Mike Colbert, publisher of Tales of the Supernatural, a horror comics anthology. Mike saw the pre-lettered pages and liked them a lot, so I am confident he will enjoy the lettered pages as well. That means there is a very good chance Dark Art will appear in a 2010 issue of the anthology.

Stay tuned for more information.

Dark Art update

My previous post about Dark Art generated some enthusiastic response so I thought I would provide an update. Artist Adam Sward has been working on it and I am very pleased with the results. He started with a series of thumbnail sketches to show how he would approach the story. After some back and forth discussion, he got started on pencils, and then moved onto finished pages. As of earlier this week, I’ve seen seven of the eight pages. I thought you might like a look into the creative process…

All art by Adam Sward

What you see above is the evolution of page 2 panel 2.

(top left) Adam began with a series of thumbnails, small sketches to show how he would approach the artwork. These thumbnails were small and accompanied by notes describing why he did what he did. For page 2 and page 1, he sent more than one thumbnail.

(right) Pencils were next. Comparing the thumbnail with the pencils you can see Adam changed the perspective. I didn’t want the doorway to be so prominent in the panel so he came up with the concept you see in the pencils. I really like the positioning of the characters. This panel is the establishing shot that introduces the reader to the characters and the setting so it was important that he include all the key things I wanted shown. He nailed it.

(bottom left) A low resolution look at the final panel (without lettering and with some minor cropping). You can see that not much has changed from the pencils.

If all goes according to plan, you’ll be able to enjoy the completed Dark Art some time later this year when published. Stay tuned to this blog for more info.