This Week in Comics!

Last Tuesday, I got to talk to Grant Stoye of Into the Comics Cave about my life, making comics, and forbidden spicy dragon wings! It was a fantastic chat and I want to share that with you here! Use this link to head over to the ItCC site and take a listen!

This week will be all about new stuff. And "new to you" stuff. First the new stuff:

Introducing the cover sketch to One Act #3: The Black Opera. This will be the maybe sometime this year follow-up to The Golden Apple.

At the height of her career, opera singer Jaye is startled to find her voice can summon her ancestors. But where did this power come from? And why is it manifesting now?

During stream, I mused about this story extending past the normal 15-page territory that the last two issues have covered into a double-sized book. Further, The Nightmare Tree and The Golden Apple could see extended pages of their own, available digitally on Patreon. But the more I think about it, the less I feel that's keeping with the feeling of the One Act theme (think of a one-act play) in which a single scene is covered start to end. 30 pages lets me tell more story, but it's no longer in the same story-space as I want it to be.

And now the new to you!

Do you remember my story Heraclea? It was my first magazine published story, featured in Columbus Alive's Sketch In The City series back in 2014. As is my normal, I'm retooling this with expanded story, color, and it will be a digital release for Patrons.

This story is going to be a slow burn over the next few months. I'm talking a week per page. When the whole story is done there'll be a physical book release, so pay no mind to the "Oct" date there.

Heraclea is a descendent of ancient demigods and witches blessed with unsurpassed strength and magical powers who has to go through the 12 labors of Hercules. In this first issue, she and her date are going up against a hydra.

The full cover sketches look great and I'll be working on both concurrently and pretty casually for the rest of July. Especially Black Opera, since I do want that out and done for an October release.

I'm taking a very casual approach to my comics this year because I'll start graduate school in August. I won't really get to live in comics production mode when I have to write papers every day. So in Septembber, when The Black Opera goes to print, I'll focus some work on Moons #1, the prelude story to Blackbirds, as well as Blackbirds character and story design and layouts. Casually. Really casually. Heraclea should be in a good place by then, too, and I can lay down some cover and page designs for One Act #4.

I'm not going to say this is going to be a productive week. I don't know what's going to happen this week. I know what I'm aiming for and that's what my vision is. We'll see when I get there, and I will see y'all later!