Free Comic Books and A Change in the Wind

May and June are going to be crazy! There is a change in the wind for us with the way we will be producing comic books as well as hitting a lot of conventions and signings in the next few weeks. And we've already started. This past week, Janet and myself where attending FCBD in Lexington KY, at Collectibles, Etc. Meanwhile, Kevin Williams found himself setting up shop at The Comics Cellar in Memphis, TN! This weeks post is all about Free Comic Book Day and how it went for us. Janet Wade gives you a rundown of the festivities in KY, while Kevin gives you the blow by blow action from TN! Afterwards, I'll be back to let you in on what changes we have coming down the road, why this new step is important to us, and what you guys should expect concerning the publication of our favorite ninja of the Toshigawa Clan!

From the desk of Janet Wade

So aside from May 5th being Cinco De Mayo, it was also what's known in the realm of comic books as FREE COMIC BOOK DAY.  Yes, that magical time of year where comic book fans bumrush their local comic book shops & score free books, maybe meet an artist or 2, & make geeky purchases.  :)  It's almost like Christmas, except there's no pesky wrapping paper to keep you from your stuff.

Mr. Wade & I were invited to Lexington's Collectibles Etc for their fcbd event.  We got to hang out w/ Action Lab Comics' very own Shawn Pryor (always fun) & met with some awesome fans.  Well, here, I'll let the pix do the talking...

the cool kids' table.

princeless!!!  i <3 this series.  :)

free cd w/ 200+ pgs of previews from Action Lab

they had cake!

we had a staring contest.  i won when i ate him.

dawww!

young & spry cap'n.

tressa bowling & her Jetta chibi sketch.

packed!

Aside from downing margaritas, I hope ya'll had a great fcbd!

~~Janet 'Saltygirl' Stone Wade

From behind the stage with Kevin Williams

Free Comic Book Day. Whether you're in Walla Walla, Washington, Cucamonga, California, Lexington, Kentucky, or Memphis, Tennessee, you're bound for a great day. After all, Free fits everyone's budget, and what better things to get for free than comic books?

MAW Productions' crew was found in two locations, and you'll know from Janet's that half the team was in Lexington, and the remainder was in Memphis at the fun and fabulous Comic Cellar! There, we had on hand several Jetta books and more, with a great opportunity to visit with fellow artists, writers, and fans. It is always more than great to meet new people and hear their take on how great it is to have a female lead in an action story, comment on the art and use of actual martial arts moves, and to have people buy full sets of the series.

Attendees were treated to an appearance by Muley the Mule and Turra Shibata who greeted folks at the door, and attendees were able to learn some pointers about the craft of cartoon art from the artists on hand, including Marvin Cheveallier and Charles Ettinger, both of whom have done art for MAW Productions Studios.

As always, it's great to step out from behind the drawing table and meet everyone in person. For those of you who purchased books, we're still hoping to hear from you soon with your 
thoughts! 

~~Kevin L. Williams

From the Art Table of Martheus Wade

There is a big Change in the air. Today, May 18th, our first omnibus titled Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa – Beginnings will hit the digital market by storm! Published by Action Lab Entertainment in conjunction with MAW Productions Studio, this book marks the first time Jetta and company has been released entirely in color and specifically for digital release. Jetta: Beginnings is the first book in a series of digital omnibi that will hit periodically over the next two years. At 123 pages of martial arts action, we can’t be happier with the results! For new readers, this is THE jumping on point. For older readers, this book has new information and extra scenes that put a big spin on what you think you know about the Toshigawa Universe. The books will be Available at these digital partners
ACTION LAB ENTERTAINMENT, GRAPHICLY, NOOK, GOOGLE BOOKS, The iBOOKSTORE, AMAZON KINDLE, COMICS +, DRIVETRU COMICS, KOBO

Why is this important to us?

One of the driving forces behind why I wanted to do a tutorial blog is because I love real talk. Not enough of that is found when talking about indy comics. It's a hard business and, through Janet, Kevin and myself, I felt that we could offer that realism to aspiring comic book hopefuls and fans alike. Part of the thoughts that we wanted to share with you is the business of indy comics. Here is where the move to digital is important to us. 

Comics are a medium with a distribution system that does not allow for new properties to enter the market easily. That has been the one thing that has and continues to hurt the growth of our printed books. Most new readers look for our books in the comic book shop. When they can't find them, they forget to check the website (www.toshigawa.com) to pick up the book they where looking for. We have been very fortunate to earn our own fan base through convention appearances, book signings, podcast interviews and by trying our best to produce quality work. Our readers have and always will come first. Through the digital market, we have the opportunity to make our books more readily available for our fan base. This will help us to more frequently attend to our readers with new stories as we intend them to look, read and entertain. 

We jumped into the industry publishing original graphic novels right at the beginning of the trade paperback boom and it helped us to grow even faster. Now, we feel it's time to do so again. The digital book market is growing fast. New readers jump on with every e-reader or tablet that hits the market. As an indy publisher, it is most important that we be at the front of this new wave of entertainment. By being able to gather new readers, we ensure our longevity in thins tough industry. As well, we make sure that the future of MAW Productions Studios is not left to the wind.

Does this mean we are leaving the printed medium behind?

No. We look at this new way of publishing as an extension of what we are already doing. Our final book in the series, Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa - Omega, is in high production and will be published in both print and digital form in early 2013. After that book hits the shelves and net, we have a few surprises for everyone that I'm sure you will enjoy whether you are a print of digital fan.

So, as you can see, this is a huge deal for us. However, we can't do this without the readers. We invite you to come on this new journey with us. Download a copy of Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa - Beginnings and give it a try. I'm sure you will not be disappointed! 


~~Martheus Wade

Tutorial 6: Coloring for Comics Demonstration

It's Tutorial time again and the subject is a huge one. This week we tackle digital coloring and scratch the surface of photoshop! I, for one, was wracking my brain trying to come up with a way to present the subject of coloring comics. And, you know if we are going to tackle something this huge, we are going to get the best to explain process to you. This weeks tutorial is hosted by Brian Miller, creator, owner and artist of HiFi Colour and Design! Brian's work and technique has been a huge inspiration to me in my coloring and his technique is unsurpassed. I was honored to be a part of his second instructional book HiFi Color for Comics 2 and continue to gain tips to brush up on my own technique. This video is only a small hit of things to come as Brian demonstrates some of the skill he uses in coloring a comic book page. Enjoy the tutorial and look for more on digital coloring and design coming up soon!

Here is a little about HiFi and their work.


Hi-Fi colour design being founded in 1998 by Brian Miller with a mission to provide digital color, illustration, and other creative services to the comic book and entertainment industries.  Since then Hi-Fi has collaborated with every major publisher, syndicate, toy company, and entertainment company worldwide.

With a ‘license to thrill’ Hi-Fi often works in deep cover behind the scenes on major licensed properties.  They could tell you all about it but then they would have to kill you... damned confidentiality agreements make many projects ‘eyes only’ for the Hi-Fi ‘covert-ops’ team.
Publicly Hi-Fi are best known for their work in comic books with a major focus on digital coloring.  The double-’o’ agents over at ComicBookDataBase couldn’t get anyone from Hi-Fi to give-up any info, even under the interrogation lights.  These spies are compiling background checks on thousands of comic books every day and have uncovered the majority of Hi-Fi’s comic book assignments.
For a peak inside the Hi-Fi secret files take a gander at:
www.comicbookdb.com:Hi-Fi

MAW Productions Drink and Draw!!

We wanted to take a break from the tutorials this go around and let everyone know about the places we will be turning up and conventions we will be going to! Hopefully we will see some of you out there!

It’s that time again to Drink-N-Draw!! And we have a big reason to celebrate the art of putting pencil to paper!
MAW Productions Studio invites you to join us at The Spaghetti Warehouse on May 18th for a night of pencil pushing, copic slinging, and beer drinking!! This is in celebration of the digital release of our first omnibus titled Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa – Beginnings published by Action Lab Entertainment!! To kick this release off right, every 5th person to come to the Drink -N- Draw will get an offer for a free download of the new book! So, sign up at the link below and come hang out and draw (or write) with our art community. See you there!!
Sign Up for the FUN here!!

Free Comic Book Day and Conventions!

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2012

Free Comic Book Day is May 5th 2012 and we will be celebrating it in two different locations at the same time. (Crazy I know.)

First off Janet Stone Wade and myself along with Shawn Pryor of Action Lab Entertainment will be signing books, sketching, and meeting readers at Collectibles Etc in Lexington Ky! Janet and I will have copies of our new book, Jetta vs Turra that we will be giving away to everyone that stops by our table. If you will be in the area, make sure you stop by, grab a book and sketch and enjoy the festivities.
Back in Memphis, TN Kevin L. Williams, Muley and Turra will be signing copies of Muley the Mule and Friends, Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa and Turra: Gun Angel at The Comics Cellar along side members of the Mid South Cartoonists Association! If you are in the Memphis area, take a trip to The Cellar and find out more information on the MSCA, grab a book from the editor of MAW Productions and have Turra sign your books!!

June is going to be just as busy for us!

 

SUPERMAN CELEBRATION 2012

On June 7th-10th Kevin, Janet, Muley, Turra and myself will be at Superman Celebration with other special guest artists! Muley will be hosting SuperMule and the Cookie Caper, a show that will star all of the cast of Muley the Mule and Friends. I will also be teaching comic book illustration classes on Saturday and Sunday. If you want to know more and see who all will be there, check out the site at http://www.supermancelebration.net/specialguests/comicsguests

 

ANIME BLUES CON 2012

The very next week, we will be at Anime Blues Con June 15th-17th!

The entire MAW Productions Crew will be there in full force as we will be hosting a slew of panel discussion about the creation of comic books and manga, as well as a Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa panel filled with music and fun!! Also, look for our exclusive comic book for the convention called, “The Blues” that will only be available at ABC 2012! To see all of the panels we will be hosting as well as guests to this awesome con take a look at animeblues.com!

See you somewhere out there on the road!!

Tutorial 5: Process of the Comic Strip

(You can click the comic strip to see it larger.)

What is a tutorial?  It’s an educational tool that helps with the performance of your work.  Tutorials are EVERYWHERE, and I like to tease and say, “Tutorials tell you how to do things, I’m going to show you how NOT to do them!”  But, it’s a joke.  The information I have to impart can be helpful; but, what I want you to do is take the ideas and use them in your style, and create your own way of doing things.  That is how you’ll excel in what you want to do!

So, this tutorial will be the process of a comic strip.  What’ll we be doing? We’re going step-by-step through the process of me creating a comic strip.  Will it be helpful?  You bet your bippy!

Well, a while back, we covered the first step to creating a comic strip; or, any creative work, really.  That first step is creating the idea.

In short, ideas that I have come from a play on words, conversations with others, conversations I overhear, doodles of the characters, playing with my action figure collectibles, improving with the puppets, inspiration from reading books or other works that lead my ideas in a new direction.  Or, sometimes it happens to be a play on an idea.  So, let’s look at the idea of “one foot in the grave.”  In this case, I wanted to do something similar to the old adage; but, realized it didn’t work using the character of me or one of the critters like Muley or Buford.  Instead, I decided to doodle an old man character in my sketchbook. 

It’s pretty funny to me.  Yet, I didn’t want to just go with any ol’ old man, so I decided to use the character of Papa Roy, which I think he would approve.  Now, we’re getting somewhere.  But where?  I have a single panel page in front of me, but no layout yet.  The sketchbook drawing lends itself to a layout; but, it isn’t complete.  I need to do some planning.

The plan of any comic strip is that you want to leave the reader with something to think about or a joke to laugh at.  I have to consider the illustration in the sketchbook and figure where do I put the headstone, the grave, the subject speaking and the word bubble to gain the best effect for the reader to gain a laugh?  So, out come the thumbnails:

From these thumbnail drawings, I get a better sense of what I think will be the funnier layout and give the bigger bang for the reader’s non-dollar.  The toughest part of the thumbnails process is you have to decide what will be the best layout for the enjoyment of your audience and what you think will work best for your joke.  And next is the pencil work.  Now, I think I’ll leave out the process of using pencils because I think that would make a great future tutorial.  In the meantime, I have taken my preferred thumbnail and transferred that to a single panel strip. 

Your next part of the project will be inking.  We’ve covered that in a prior tutorial.  If you haven’t read it yet, you should.  Lots of great suggestions for lots of different ways to ink.

Well, what do you do now?  The next part of the process is scanning.  Because I’m cheap and have an 8.5x11” scanner, I have to scan the strip at one end, then at the other end and then piece the two together.  You have to be careful to be sure that you overlap properly and get rid of any blurry lines in the connection (when you do this, you’ll understand what I mean).  I scan my images in at 300 DPI (dots per inch) and save the art as a high resolution .jpg file, then I “Save Image As” and there I have it.

I also won’t get into the next process part of coloring in CMYK, and saving as an RGB file at 72 dpi for publishing on the ‘net because, again, those will need to be future tutorials.  In the meantime, you’ve got a pretty good grasp on the process of creating a comic strip and the work that goes into it, and I’ve now also saved you a few minutes of reading about the next few hours’ worth of work colorizing the thing.

Hopefully now you’ll be inspired to get out there and create your own comic strip!  So, what are you waiting for? Get t’creatin’!

You can see MORE Muley the Mule and Friends' Comix and Stories at his website by clicking here.

Tutorial 4: Saltygirl's Vector Pinup

Hey there!  saltygirl here with an exciting tutorial on my way of doing vector art.

I love animation of all forms. 2D, stop motion, rotoscope, cgi.  I've always been fascinated by how an inanimate picture or object becomes animated.  Traditional 2D cel animation is my favorite.  My vector style art is heavily influenced by the look of a cel, with the defined outlines and wide washes of solid colors.

I spent my early childhood growing up on an air force base in Okinawa, Japan.  There was one English speaking channel run by the base which ran from 7am - midnight.  After that, you got to stare at a boring test pattern.  The rest of the stations were straight Japanese gold.  It was here that I became aquainted with what is now known as anime.  After dinner, my little sister and I would take our baths and wind down for the evening.  One of the shows we watched before bed was "Urusei Yatsura," but we didn't speak a lick of Japanese, so we just called it the cartoon with the green-haired girl.  It wasn't until I was in my 20s that I found out the actual name of the show and the green-haired girl.  Her name was Lum.

What was it about Lum that I loved?  She was pretty, and what girl doesn't idolize a pretty character?  I mean, Disney makes a killing on little girls looking up to pretty princesses, right?  Lum had so much confidence, she'd walk around in a friggin tiger-stripped bikini and go-go boots.  Oh yeah, and she could fly and shoot lightning from her fingers.  Hell yeah.

So you can see why I chose lum as the subject of this tutorial. anime = animation = cel art = vectors. And Lum = tiger-stripped bikini = pinups.  See the connections?  Great!  Well ok, here we go!

Step 1...I do a quick sketch of what it is I want to render.  I even add swipes of tones and shading.  Scan it  and take the sketch into Adobe Illustrator and keep it locked on the bottom most layer.

Lum sketchy sketch.

Step 2...I start breaking up the image into shapes and use the pen tool to create the shapes' outlines.  Everything is a shape.  The hair, the body, even the little horns and the pupils of her eyes.  I arrange the shapes in separate layers, stacked one on top of the next, according to what shape appears at the forefront. fFr instance, Lum's body is one whole shape, and her boots are shapes themselves that go on top of her body.  You gotta think of it kind of like a paper doll with different outfits or hairstyles you can place on top of a template body.  It's kind of tricky to do, but once you start thinking of things as shapes and layers, you begin to get the hang of it. **I was lazy so I used brush strokes for the tiger stripes.

Now you don't want too many layers because that can the file too big to work on, so it might be easier to tackle one thing at a time. Like rendering her eyes on separate layers (the blue eyeshadow, the whites of the eye, the green iris, the black pupil, the black eyeliner and eyelashes). Once you've got that done you can group these objects together and keep them on a single layer

Outlines, outlines, and oh yeah, outlines.

sSep 3...Add in the shading. remember, even the shading can be seen as shapes.  You can either fill the shade with black and lower the opacity or pick a darker shade of the base tone.

Shading outlines done.

Step 4...Pick your palette to fill your shapes and color your outlines.

Yay, colorz!

I know this was a VERY simplified tutorial.  And I know you probably still have TONS of questions on how to do a vector piece.  I wanted to give an overview of how I render.  I'll be going into more detail with the different Adobe Illustrator tools I use, how to use them, complete with screenshots and all.  Stay tuned...

~~Janet 'saltygirl' Stone Wade

TUTORIAL 3: PIN-UP ILLUSTRATION

By Martheus Wade
There are a lot of different ways to compose a pin-up. I'm going to take you step by step through my process to give you a little insight on how I do it. As always, these steps are for you to take what works and use it on your quest for artistic greatness.

The first thing I want to tell you right off the bat is that, I think way too much about creating a pin-up that is a little smarter than you would expect. Most of the time, I'm asked to illustrate one of the many beautiful women of comics as commissioned work. To make the illustration smart strengthens the composition and appeal of the piece. It also helps to contain some of the risque innuendo that a more sexual piece may have. In the case of the illustration that I am about to show you, there is a tongue-n-cheek subject that was fun to play around with. So, here we go.

We all know the Copper Tone Girl.

The commissioner wanted to depict this scene but with Power Girl and Krypto in place of the Copper Tone Girl and her puppy. I really liked the idea and it helped me get an instant visual in my head of what I wanted to draw. This is a really good thing. Most of the time, I have to start an illustration with a series of thumb nails that depict the subject in a variety of poses. From there, I select one pose that I like and begin to sketch a little tighter on the full 11x17 Bristol Board. Since the initial idea was so strong, it allowed me to skip the thumbnails all together and go straight to the Bristol.

Most of the time, I like to sketch in blue line pencil first. Then sketch on top of that.  Working with Blue like pencil allows me to sketch very messy with minimal clean up. This also allows my pencils in the end to be crisper. Sketching is used to work your illustration and composition without worrying about detail. I will go on record of saying that sketching is the most important part of pin-up illustration. It keeps you from making mistakes on the front end and helps you to consolidate your ideas into one strong idea. If you could see into my head, you would find out how cluttered with unorganized ideas my mind is. Sketching helps me to organize.

After the composition is correct and the pencils are laid in, I begin the inking process. Great pencils can be destroyed by horrible inks. Be very careful to consider line weights and character placement in your inking. Please refer to Tutorial 2: Inking for different tips and tricks. After the inking is completed, I erase all stray pencil lines and lay in the deep shade. This comes in handy when I am about to copic or color an illustration as it shows where my light source is. This is also where the drawing comes to life and begins to be solidified. This Power Girl and Krypto illustration is a very cute and playful. But because of the idea of Power Girl being an attractive and voluptuous woman, it is easy to stray into a sexual nature. That is a fine line that is hard to walk. What I like to keep in mind is to make sure the illustration depicts a strong confidence in the female character whatever the subject is. Here, even though Power Girl is taken by surprise, she's still not helpless. Just a little embarrassed. Those are the ideas that will move the illustration from being a pin-up to an illustration that speaks.

After I have made sure of my composition and fleshed it out, it's time for some copic markers. I love copics. If you have not tried them in your work, I highly recommend them. However, they are pricey. I got into marker illustration in college where we had marker comping classes. The class forced me to work quickly in order to get fine blends of color. Copic markers are a little more forgiving. But the idea is the same. My choice of Copic are the warm, cool, and neutral grey sets. I use these greys as if I'm laying in color. A warmer "color" constitutes the use of a warm grey. A cooler "color" constitutes the use of a cool grey. The result is a piece with the tonality of color. Sometimes, you can even fool the eye into thinking you just laid in a color. Here I used warm greys 0 - 3 for Power Girls face, lips and hair. I used warm grey 5 for her cape and cool grey 3 - 5 for her eyes. I'll be doing a copic tutorial soon. So, be on the lookout for that for much more detail in this technique.

I continued the juggling of the greys throughout the piece. Power Girls white jump suit and Krypto's fur where fun to work on. I used cool greys in multitude on those areas in order to really render the twisting and turning of the bodies in the space given. At this point, I thought I was finished. But, I soon remembered a critical piece of information that I left out of the illustration.

The commissioner wanted Power Girls clothes to be coming off much like the original Copper Tone Girl illustration. So, I had to figure out how to do it. I showed this first version to the commissioner and, while he liked it, he really wanted to go more in his original direction. So, for me, it was kind of back to square one. I pitched to him that Power Girls clothes had to be torn off because of the way her suit is made. He agreed and I went back and drew in the rips into the costume. This also allowed me to fix some of the things that bugged me in the original illustration. Now Power Girls arm didn't get cut off. As well, I went with lighter greys on her boots and  gloves which brought out her eyes more. Because of the rips revealing more skin, I changed her expression slightly. Now she is a bit angry as well as embarrassed. No matter what, Power Girl is still in control of this illustration. This version was excepted with flying colors. So now... On To Colors!

Here is the final colorized piece. Most of the time, I skip the copic illustration part and go from inks straight to colors. This time, I included the copic tones into my colors. This allowed me to keep the same tonality that I had before as well as give a painterly quality to the finished piece. I used photoshop to color this and place my soft beach background in. I made selections of like tones and changed the color in photoshop with Hue and Saturation in order to keep the marker strokes of the copic illustration. Then, I painted over the new color selections. We will be doing an entire section on using photoshop and illustrator to color so look for those tutorials in the near future. Again, I stepped back and found I wanted to continue to push the fact that Power Girl was still in control. So, I added the text "Bad Dog!" to the finished piece.

And there you have it! A finished piece from beginning to end. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and the illustration. What are your ways to illustrate a Pin-up? What do you like to include and take out? We want to hear from you. You can reach us here or on our MAW Productions Facebook Page! So, let's talk!