Celadore ends with a beginning

So. Celadore is done. Chapter 1, anyway.

Here's a teaser for Chapter 2...

If you want to see how the new dynamic works as the monster hunting team take on a new adversary, write to Zuda.

Thanks for reading, folks! It's been a blast! I have two sequels planned with a whole STACK of side stories as well as working on another different submission entirely.

Now, go. Go give your feedback to Zuda for part 2! :oD

Cheers!

Caanan.

The 2 Cent Competition - and it's FREE!

Announcing the 2 Cent Competition! It's cheap! It's easy and it's not even 2 cents! It's free! And you can WIN stuff.

All's you gotta do is head on over to Zuda and leave, in 25 words or MORE your review of Celadore. Everyone who posts their 2 cents between now and December 9th (a week after it finishes up on Dec 2nd) will go in the draw to win. What do you win?

A theoretical 'Celadore Issue 1' cover, had this been an actual comic. It's a lovely little scene of Christian and his vampire cronies roasting up some Celadore. Mmm-mm.


Also in the prize pool there are copies of all my other work to date...
Middle Ages 1 - 4 (Collecting over 200 strips)
Junk (drawn by me, written by Dave Cunning)
and a double shot of my 24 hour comics from 06/07.



2 Runners up will also get all them good-readin' comics, and a small character sketch each.

Please make sure when you leave a review you start it with 'My 2 Cents...' so I can spot them easily. And if you have your own site/blog, want to go nuts and give it a full review, simply post in the Zuda feedback 'My 2 Cents is here... www.etc.etc'

Hope you've all been enjoying the story! Only two weeks left.

:oO

Caanan.

Read Celadore here

Celadore & the Night Owls!

In my own way celebrating October, which is Night Owls month at Zuda, remember? Here they are - Together at last!



It occurred to me a little while ago that Celadore and those other fine, funny, folk, who also seek out the strange and unusual, the Night Owls!! inhabit a fairly similar world. So, while my story is set in the present day, Wax has been alive for forever, and Cel started monster hunting in the 1640s, so what if a previous chase led them to New York way back in the day? Anything's possible, right?

Fun with the tablet

I'm still trying to get a hang of that 'set layer to multiply then colour on a layer underneath' thing I read about a lot.

So, here's two I tried. An Astro Boy pic I left at the pencil stage and coloured under, and a Hellcat pic I did mainly with a brush.

Ah, now that I've shaken out the kinks, it's back to Celadore...

Unused Celadore screens

The following two scans are unused pencils for screens 25 and 26, the ones that ended up being where the big vampire attacks and Evelyn saves the day by inadvertently possessing the big goof.

Originally, I wanted the vampires explained - how they are either strong, or fast, which will end up being touched on later anyway - and I also needed to get Wax believing that this young girl is actually Celadore, his ex wife. The pages I ended up with are SO much better, but I really liked my sideburns gag. Not as much as I loved that little 'Who is Evelyn?' comedy routine I ended up with instead. :o)





You can see by the end of screen 26 how I was rushing and getting increasingly aware that I was heading in the wrong direction. I'd already done the 'vampire is behind you!' thing at the end of page 16, so I couldn't do it again.

Hope you all are enjoying the story. Watch for screens 41 - 44, where it really kicks into gear. ;o)

Organic Scripting Fun

A little insight to my 'process'. :o)

I primarily do my rough draft of the script in my little pocket sketch book, with thumbnail pages about 3 inches wide, two to a page. Very small. Just to get an idea of how much text there is going to be, and how big I should make each box, etc.



Then I do them at a 9 x 12 inch size, roughly, for the purpose of laying out the action, and just kinda seeing the space I have to play with. I then blow that one up at my local copy shop, and do my final art at a size of 12 x 16 inches. When I do the final pages, things can still change. Added lines. Changed perspectives, etc. One thing I tend to do is draw all my characters at a 3rd angle, waist up level. The final art stage is when I look at and decide where I need the close ups and wide shots, as well as more jokes. (Yes, there's jokes ;o)



And then sometimes, I get to the 9 x 12 rough pencil stage and scrap everything. Here's an abandoned page (10), which I thought I'd show you 'cos it had one of my favourite gags I had to get rid of. Boo. :o(

The Kents

Some of you may remember at the Zuda panel I said I thought it'd be fun to do a comic strip called 'the Kents', following Ma & Pa Kent and their strange little boy from outer space. I did a character design shortly after and today just quickly inked it up & did a quick colour, and here it is. :o)

Zuda fan art wallpapers

Howdy folks!




These are my favourite two entries this month. Unfortunately it looks like Rocki Gibralter, barring a marketing miracle, won't win, but Boone has a good chance! I'd love to see Boone take the top spot. Of course, I'd read the current first place getter, Gulch, if it continues too, it is also good and intriguing. Heck, this month there's hardly any I wouldn't read on a regular basis. Go Zuda!

Both those are 1280 x 1024 Wallpaper sized!

San Diego Comic Con '08

Here's a sample of one of my sketches I was handing out on those handy dandy Zuda postcards. I was only there for an hour each day (less on Sunday after my first ever San Diego panel!) but I think I managed to whack out about 60-70 of these postcards for people passing by, as well as a few larger sketches in people's books, etc. People seemed to be impressed by my speed, which is always great. Each little postcard was 1-3 minute's worth of wrist-busting action.

Some how I ended up drawing a few pics of Supergirl ( which sadly, were all given away, so I can't really show much here) but I did however, get some photos of a little Batman pic I drew in a Gotham themed sketchbook being passed around.



Here it is all finished.



I'm proud to be part of a fantastic sketch book you've collected, Ron! Keep that for when I'm famous... ;o)

For anyone who missed the news. Celadore will be starting in September at an update of four screens per week, which I am super excited about. It's all scripted, with some still very minor tweaking going on, and about half of it is already plotted and pencilled. I'll be posting construction blogs to run alongside the main comic as it begins updating.

Spotlight on a RANDOM VAMPIRE! Yes!

Ok, so I did this one to try and let you in on how the vampire world works in my comic, as it has been suggested my vamps are not all that scary.

While I concede, yes, they need to be a little scarier - and I'm working on it - they're not really supposed to be. At least at first. In my world, it's been about ten years since they took to hiding. Ever since the world's population started growing like crazy, and 24-hour unregulated trading has become widespread, it has become pretty easy for vampires to hide among society. (Apart from, you know, the killing. But they're sneaky enough about it). The world has become disaffected enough they don't notice the stranger who lives in the basement and keeps irregular hours. Nightclubs, hospitals, warehouses - there are plenty of nightjobs out there now. Perfect for a vampire who wants to stay under the radar.

Christian has henchman though, who live a different life. And they travel in pairs. As, when a vampire is created, they become either a Fighter - super strong, or a Flighter - super speedy. Christian is their leader 'cos he's a genetic freak who has both.

Also, holy water is not exactly holy water.

Celadore is not the only monster hunter out there. The vampires are hiding from ALL of them.

Anyway, it's pretty obvious where this story takes place in the whole timeline, so.. enjoy!

And thanks for keeping me in number one, voters! Three days left, though. Anything could happen. Eek!

Spotlight on Sam, The Boy Next Door

So finally, we round out the good guys with another rough two-pager, this time focusing on Sam, Evelyn's next door neighbour.

He's 11. He loves dinosaurs and ninjas and sci fi and fantasy and trainspotting and comics and he's basically just a big ol' eager beaver.

This particular story takes place three years before the Zuda comic begins and is fairly important to the overall story. The glowing blue berries are Pogobees. What are they? What do they do? What happens if you eat too many of them? We'll find out later, but for now... here's more comics!

Enjoy. And vote! One week to go...

Spotlight on Jams, the Frankenstein

So, Jams is a Frankenstein with a difference. He's a Frankenstein born from two others. An absolute freak of science. He never knew his parents. Celadore raised him. He has a hole in his head (birth defect), is slightly deaf, and is colour blind.

His story is another I'd love to tell one day.

For now, here's a little two-pager focusing on his situation, and also taking place RIGHT before my Zuda comic kicks off.

A Celadore Comic - Evelyn

So, let's rewind the clock three months, to find out how Evelyn ends up where she does when we first see her in my Zuda comic, Celadore.

I did this one staggered over the last week, and finally had time to colour it today. I need the practice on my colouring. So, hopefully this is getting better? Worse? Either way, I'm still learning and getting faster, and hopefully, eventually the colouring will as come as naturally to me as the pencilling. (And the writing).

Enjoy!

Spotlight on Wax - a Celadore comic

This morning, I whacked out another Celadore supplemental story to fill in the traditional slump weeks in Zuda's competition. (Link in the sidebar -> go and vote! :o) This one focuses on Wax, Celadore's on-again-off-again boyfriend. The reason why Celadore is now a monster hunter.

Wax is very very old. He's an Animagus, which means he can turn into any animal he comes into contact with. He wears patchwork fur-lined underwear for convenience. Lined with hare, wolf and rat, with eagle and hummingbird feathers sewn in with strands of rare unicorn mane, for good measure.

Spotlight on the Tooth Fairy

So, a few people have wondered how my tooth fairy, Jeunesse - or Ness for short, fits into the world of Celadore. Well, I shall attempt to shed a little light on the subject with a little two-page yarn I drew up. I thought I'd leave it at the pencil stage so you can all see some of my processes (I get asked for that quite often and never show it) so here it is in all its graphite glory!

The deal with Ness is that she's Celadore's business partner. No-one pays Celadore to catch demons, it's a private enterprise. And in this world where magic is becoming harder to find, thus more expensive, it pays to have someone on your side who can generate a bit of cash flow. Ness's tooth fairies collect teeth, of course, one of the main ingredients in BeautifulNess Nite Cream. Forget botox, this is the natural way to make your skin look younger. Ten years younger. Seriously. ;o) She's also psychic, and, well... wait for the full story to see what she can do. In the meantime, here's a taste...

Middle Ages 4!

It's finally done! The files have been sent to the mega-wind-up-toy that keeps going and going, Dave Cunning, at Local Act Comics. It should be available in early June. In fact, come meet me at Supanova Sydney in June, and I'll even scribble on it! :oD

This issue is a little different for me, as I abandoned the gag-a-day style joke, in favour of a continual story that spans the entire 40 strips of the issue. Here's a sneak peek...

New ad for Celadore!

I also had little banners for people to take but I can't seem to upload them to blogger.

Remember to vote! I put the link in my sidebar --> (which Anthony kindly pointed out I completely forgot to post previously... Oops :o)

Vote 1 Celadore at zudacomics.com

Howdy folks! So Celadore has been live for a week now and it's been great to see it out there and about there.

A few things have been brought to my attention. One is page 2. HERE is page 2 in its thumbnail form... (click it for a closer view)

You can see how much of a mess it was! The hardest part about Zuda is the screens. 3:4 isn't the easiest thing to get used to after, a) working on mainly four/three panel gags and, b) doing Junk, a traditional sized 22 page comic, and 52 screens is not a lot of screens to tell a story. I wish I could do the whole two panels per page thing, but damn it, I want to entertain you, and I'll cram as much into my screens as I can!

Here's the first pic of Celadore and Eve (who was originally called Abi, I believe, until I stole that name for Shirtheads).

And just some random pics pulled from my sketchbooks. There's a pic of Jams, the Frankenstein, in there. (He has a hole in his head. And he's partially deaf. And colour blind). :o) As well as Wax, Celadore's on-again-off-again boyfriend. He's an animagus. They have a long complicated history, which is another story I'd love to tell one day.


Thanks to everyone for checking out my entry, and favouriting it, and starring it, voting, etc! :oD

More soon.

Squirrels & Pigeons are away!

So, I sent these off in the mail to the big syndicates about a month ago, or more, which by my calculations, means my rejection letters should show up at my Toronto home here 2 months after I get back into Australia. That's efficiency, kids! :oD