January 04, 2009

A New Year

Well well well. We're back and making FDTN on a weekly basis. Hopefully for the time being. I've been able to to spend a bit of time working on new pages and working on new projects as well. I think back on the last year and so many awesome things happened. It truly was a year I will always remember as the year my life changed forever. I became a father this past year which really slowed things down here, but it also gave me new focus on whats important in life. I've been working on some big things with both this story and The Unknowns. I am finishing up things on The Unknowns preview and then things will start rolling with that. I just wanted to say thank you all for your patience with the wait for new pages. I hope you all will enjoy where things are going to be going. Some cool things are around the corner. Happy New Year all.

Returning Next Week 12/29/08

Hey everyone! Here's a quick update and preview of a short story I did for an upcoming anthology. More details as they come out. Also, FROM DEATH TIL NOW RETURNS!! Next week we will be returning with as slated weekly updates. It feels good to finally be back in the swing of things. Until then... Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Unknowns Preview 12/08/08

Well, as you can all see, no new FDTN page. Here's the skinny on the rest of the year. First of all, a confession. FDTN has really, and I mean REALLY fallen behing on the production end of things. I'm writing and drawing pages as they are coming out and that's never been my goa. This book is extremely complex and it needs my attention. I haven't given it to the project and since quality is my first and formost desire, I've had to make a decision. FDTN is going to suspend updates until January so I can get back up to pace here. I appreciate so much that you all come, but to only be putting out pages once every two weeks and not be keeping up with it... I'm not giving you all the product you deserve. So I am going to be taking some time between now and the beginning of the new year to really write out the upcoming scenes and try and get ahead of myself on the drawing of pages. Hopefully that means when we come back in January, updates will go back to weekly,

One of the biggest reasons for the slow down of updates has been the production on two other stories. The first was a short story for an anthology that is still in building stage. And the second has been The Unknowns. This is another graphic novel project that has been on my mind for about the same ammount of time as FDTN and I've felt a huge burden to get cracking on it. Right now I am assembling a preview of the book that I will share more details on in the future. I wanted to, between now and the new year, just show you all a page here and there of the two projects. So first things first is a page from The Unknowns... I hope you all like it. Let me know your thoughts, and send me your feedback.

But please, everyone, hang with me. FDTN is just getting started and we'll be back to it. Thank you all for your patience and understanding.

Back, But Really Really Tired 11/23/08

Well, after a busy week, getting back to work has been tough. I spent a lot of the time off visiting with family and working on The Unknowns sample. I'm really close to finishing that and then we'll be spreading that to some people to see what happens. I think FDTN will have to take second place until the sample is done. What I mean by that is that I am not going to trying to get back to a weekly schedule until that is done. So far I have seven pages completed and there are five to six pages left, plus a cover image. I will show you all more of that once I complete things.

Hope you all like the new page. I gotta say this scene has been rough. It's a pretty hard thing to think to about spousal abuse and draw it out. So needless to say I am happy we're getting back to the present story with the next update! :-) There's a lot of important things in this flash back though that will shape out as we move forward.

Fatherhood!

On November 3rd 2008 I became a father. It is easily the best day of my life, because not only did I become a father, my wife and I deepened our relationship and became parents. The past week has been extremely exhausting and exciting, but because of all thats gone on, I have not completed this week's page. This sketch of my daughter, Story Charis Regina, is the only drawing I did all week other than finishing up on a commission.

There's tons more I would want to write, but I think I am gonna keep it short. My wife and I have been trying to relax as much as possible since coming home and I think I should go give her hand with the little one. See you all next update and thanks for your understanding. I know that updates have been really spaced out and I'm not happy with it, but there are just a lot of things keeping my attention. You're all great though!

Here's a pic of her, for real:

One More Week

One more week left of not being a father. The clock is counting down. I'm pretty excited! It's gonna be great. We actually got to see a sonogram of her this week where we could really see her face. It was crazy.

In the land of art, I am finishing up work on my commissions this week, Lord willing, and I will be getting back to putting together the packagae for The Unknowns. I also just finished work on my Amulet pages, which a lot of fun. I can't thank Kazu enough for the oppurtunity. Getting to see this graphic novel come together has been prett amazing.

This week in FDTN, George says something that most ladies would say, "Oh no you didn't" to. That George is a testy guy. Enjoy and see you all soon.

Three Weeks And Counting 10/12/08

Well, three weeks from now I shall be a father. Good night it is creeping up me in a hurry. It's almost surreal. I can't wait though. I will be getting the luxory of taking two weeks off from work after she is born to spend time with my wife and little Story. You know it changes everything. People tell you that all of the time before you have kids, but its so true.Everything that ultimately led me to do what I do has shifted and so many instances when I would be selfish I now find myself going in the other direction. So far everything has gone very smoothly, all things considered. Our prayers are that it will stay that way! God has been so good to us.

On the comic front, I have finally had some time this week to start crackin in on my long mentioned, yet not actively worked on graphic novel: The Unknowns. I have to tell you guys the art has really been coming out better than I would have hoped. I've really spent a lot of time learning how to achieve a look and feel for this book and it's starting to emerge. I've never been a big computer coloring guy, but its starting to make a bit more sense for me.

I've been working on a portrait commission through a local art gallery and thats due this upcoming week and I need to start in on another piece for Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL. All the while working on doing what I can for the second Amulet book. Things are busy but fun. One thing I may start up soon will be a production log for my work on The Unknowns. Just to share with everyone the creation of the prologue sequence.

Well at any rate bed time is some what approaching and I have a few things to so still. I hope everyone likes the new page. See you all soon.

Comics Are Fun 09/28/08

And I'm back. Thanks everyone for your kind words and understanding about my decision to cut back a little bit on updates for awhile. I'm not happy about it at all, but it's what has to happen. I don't know when things will get back to the old update schedule. So much is going to be happening over the next few months that we'll just have to see.

Other than that, I am about an hour or so from finishing a short story for an athology type project coming up. It's been a great learning experience. I would finish tonight if I didn't leave my script pages at work! Yeah good job Mike. I am also working as an assistant on Amulet alongside Kazu Kibuishi and his crew of amazing talents. This is a really special project for me to be helping on. Amulet and Kazu's other projects are just top notch. So I'll be keeping busy there and I have two commissions to finish over the span of the month to finish just in time for my daughter to make her way into the world. Oughta been fun and fulfilling.

On a different note, my wife and I celebrated three years of marriage this past week. Guys I have no idea how I got this lucky. My wife is so great during all of my crazy antics. I'm trying to focus more and more on us. I know she needs me to be there for her more as we're awaiting Story's birth. It's been a great three years and I look forward to all that's ahead.

Well, I hope you all like the new page. Also, check out the new VOTE INCENTIVE!!! FDTN PAINTING TIME. See you all next time.

Trying To Figure It All Out 09/14/08

This week has taken a huge toll on me mentally. The weight of everything I have taken on has started to finally catch up with me. If you listened to the latest podcast you'd hear some more about the projects that have taken up my attention as well just the fact that I have a daughter that will be born in just over a month and a half. All of this has caused me to have to make some decisions. Not sure where everything will fall because right now I am just seeing if it was just a rough week or if I REALLY need to reprioritize a couple of things. We'll see though. Mainly my goal is to stay as involved on all of the things that I need to be as much as I can. I want to keep this comic coming out on a regular basis, but it may go to a bi-weekly schedule just for a couple of months as we adjust to the addition to the family and I wrap up work on a number of portraits and other art related projects i am doing and really want to be involved in. But until otherwise stated this comic will stay on its normal update schedule. I hope you will all understand if I make the difficult decision to cut back updates a bit. It's not what I want to do, but there's some AWESOME stuff going on I just need to have my attention on. I really appreciate all of your support here and we will keep on keeping on, no matter what.

Heat Exhaustion 09//07/08

What a weekend. I spent the majority of my day today out in the heat with an art festival here in Jacksonville. Let me tell you, September heat in Florida is something else. All in all though the day went really well. I was able to get quite a bit of publicity for my painting work and help raise some money as well for a local charity. Tomorrow is another day of it. I'm wondering what to expect though because of church being on Sundays and tomorrow being the start of the NFL season. I can't wait for that one. Jaguars all the way this year. As my friend David would say... It's not even a question.

In the art world, things have been beyond busy. My art has been been picking up all over the place. The only down side is FDTN is suffering because it with just getting pages out faster. But the plus is that I have been bringing in a bit more money to support my family with again. Which is nice to get to provide for your family with something you enjoy. But I hope you all like the cover for the new chapter and never fear, next week sequential pages start! So I hope all is well and see you back next week for the new chapter.

End of Chapter 2 08/31/08

Chapter 2 is over son! Yes that's right, after a little over forty pages we've finished chapter2 and now we move into what I suspect will be the most complicated chapter of the story thus far. Chapter 3 is a very deep character chapter dealing with the character's interactions and inner issues. I hope you enjoyed chapter 2 and please drop me an email to tell me your thoughts. Or better yet join the forum and talk about it there.

Here's what you can expect the next week or so. Next week I will be putting up the cover for chapter 3 and the following week will be the first page. Why the cover image when none has been put up before? Well I have been wanting to create covers for a while now, becase I really think they can be an important thing for the book and the artist to be thinking about these types of designs. If time permits new government documents will start being added as well as a vote incentive coming up here. So keep an eye on that column below the skyscraper ad there. The vote incentive button will be updated to be working again with Buzzcomix's new site.

Well this is my birthday week so I plan to do quite a bit of relaxing, so I will see you all next week for the cover to CHAPTER 3: Islands

So A Tropical Storm And A Tree Walk Into A Bar

So Wednesday my wife and I began preparing for Tropical Storm Fay. For those who aren't from the south eastern region of the United States these things are just an every summer occurence. We were really blessed last year to have, I believe, not a single landfall all year. This year Fay was the first tropical storm to really bother us much at all. And being from Jacksonville we've been very very fortunate to have to not deal with hurricanes. It's been something like 60 years since the last one hit us. Pretty unheard of in Florida. So again we were blessed to only have Fay be a tropical storm. So for the most part we weren't fretting it too much. We bought some ice, and canned food and water just in case. Then the storm rolled in Thursday.

I spent most of the day drawing away, as you can see in the picture, and watching the rains roll in. It was pretty mild that day, slight gusts. What basically happened, and this is a very bad thing, is that the storm suddenly went stationary and just sat over the ocean. Gaining strength and flooding areas. Later that night the storm kicked up again and came into town. It was awful. The winds and rains just came down all night. I couldn't sleep, because everytime I would start to dose off a strong wind would kick in and I would hear a branch crack off and fall. I was terrified one of the pine trees behind the house would drop a branch on us.

The next morning work got canceled. The wind and all was just too much to safely have people go to work. So I'm hanging out with my wife on the couch watching the news when, SNAP, an oak tree breaks and falls on top of a car, blocking the road and taking the power lines with it. We spent all day Friday and Saturday without power and dealing with the storm.

Finally the storm passed late Friday night leaving a mess in our yard. I've been a Jacksonville native pretty much all of my life. I have never had to deal with a tropical storm that has done this much of a number on this city. It just moved so slowed and dropped so much rain. But thankfully we had friends nearby, so we spent time with them in the AC and came home last night and found the power back on. The internet was still down but we were able to get that back today, just in time for the update. So that was my weekend. I hope everyone who had to deal with this thing came out OK.

Ode To My Wife 08/17/08

This weekend was my wife's birthday. Her age shall remain undisclosed, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about her here. Viviane and I have been married for nearly three years and together for almost five. The years have been amazing and a reminder that marriage to the right person is an amazing thing. She's been my encouragement when I needed it. She's supported me and my dreams without waiver and always believed that they will become true. As we await our firt child, I know I have a wife that will be an amazing mother and I look forward to all of the time that the Lord has for us. So I wanted to just say that I love her very much and wish her the best of birthdays.

A New Month, Closing In On Things... 08/10/08

And I'm back. Sorry for no blog last week. Just didn't feel like there was mch to talk about and honestly I needed a quick update week. There's so many things going with work, home, art and otherwise. I'm honestly just happy I get things done, lol. I enjoy it all though.

In the land of comics I am getting ready to start thumbnailing the first pages of chapter 3 of FDTN. I can't believe 1)that chapter 3 is already here and 2)that we're just getting to it! The chapters have been coming out longer than initially expected. That's fine though. Ultimately this is a story I get to tell the way I want and so if something needed to be stretched out or whatever the case, well then so be it. The third chapter was posing some pretty big storytelling issues though and I think I have ironed them out. It should be a pretty important character chapter and I think insightful as to why George and Virgil are the way they are. Then chapter 4 and 5 will just be crazy times.

I am also working on a short story for an anthology which is pretty good times. It's been coming out well. Quite a change from my work here on this book. I'll share more details when I can. My other project The Unknowns is getting ready to become a pretty big project for me. I'm doing a lot of praying and thinking about it as a project and where it should be in my priorities and I think soon it will become pretty much the main dish on my plate. Though FDTN will continue on as well. No plans to cut back on this book. Just a lot of thinking about the process of publication and moving forward in my aspirations as an artist. Ultimately making comics is my main goal, not one particular project per se. I think I have two stories that exhibit a lot of strengths in different ways and would love to see both reach print. I think The Unkowns will be a very intriguing project and I can't wait to see what all you think.

At any rate. It's time to get back to some work around the house or nappy time. Enjoy the latest page and thanks for coming back every week to check this here comic out.