Category Archive: Beyond the Great Chimney

Aug
03
2007

A new way to sell comics?

If you ever meet Phil Foglio he will talk your ear off at how great his comic is doing. He is posting pages of his series Girl Genus on-line instead of releasing a separate comic book. Now I have talked with Phil a few times, but what inspired me to wrote this post was something I read on the Comics212 blog by Christopher Butcher (a comic book store owner none-the-less).

According to Mr. Foglio he is selling more of the collected Trade Paperback when they are coming out. And he is not the only indy comic person to try this model, I just saw that the author of Finder is also posting her work on-line.

I have been behind on my GN and I am wondering if this format would work good for me too. I love the idea of testing out the work, get feedback, and then being able to ‘fix’ any rough edges before it goes to print as a trade paper back. Considering that I have gotten behind on my GN due to other commitments maybe this is the way to go. Hmmmmmmm.

What do you guys think?

On the current on-line Finder pages: the artist is posting some pages first as the rough pencils and that might be interesting variation to this model.

5 comments

Jun
27
2007

BTGC ART: page in progress (again)

by Brian

Here is an update on the page-in-progress I was working on….

I have started to detail the water in both panels and started to do some brush work on the raven. I will post the final version when it’s ready.

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Jun
25
2007

BTGC update 6-07

by Brian

I was reminded by a reader of my log that I have not posted much about my Graphic Novel lately. This is in part that I have been busy with some other projects: Teaching cartooning at a youth center, freelance illustration and graphics, private teaching, etc. So I though it was time to post a work in progress photo.

The above image is a page from Beyond the Great Chimney on 11″ x 17″ velum bristol board and is a combination of mechanical pens, brush pens and gray washes. My goal is to balance the pen and ink work with elements that are strictly painted. This is partially inspired by the work of Charles Vess who’s work always captivates me. I also have been struggling to keep everything simple, something that can be hard to do when you want a detailed world.

I will try to post more work in progress pictures in the next few weeks leading up to Comic-Con 2007. I love feed back, so comment away. It only takes a second to do.

2 comments

Apr
07
2007

BTGC ART: more buildings

by Brian

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Mar
28
2007

art: BTGC concept sketches – the village of Twigmound

by Brian

These are concepts of possible building in my Graphic Novel. I am trying to find a way to avoid fairy tale buildings that look like there a rip-off of Disney’s Pinocchio. Click for a bigger image.

12 comments

Mar
26
2007

BTGC update

Beyond the Great Chimney

by Brian

I am happy to report that the rough pencils of the first chapter (28 pages) of the Graphic Novel is done.

I am trying something new for the novel where I do rough pencils for the entire chapter first, allowing for me to flesh out the page layouts and catch my artistic mistakes before extra time is spent to fix mistakes. The pages range from tight details to loose sketchy pencils to marks that represent something that has to be designed or redesigned. I also have designing 6 new characters and redesigned 1 that I will reveal as I get to rendering the final pages.

My goal is to be able to show you folks at least 1/3 of the chapter 1 by APE, but that is not taking into account an ever increasingly busy schedule that might throw a wrench into my plans.