Quick, go bid on this Gene Colan drawing I inked for charity!

Here's a scan of a Gene Colan Dracula drawing I inked for charity. Please support this great cause. Details and auction here.

Catching up

Been swamped with deadlines and conventions, so here's a quick update with some handy bullet points.

Click to enlarge

• Wizard Austin Comic-Con was fantastic—easily my best show ever. Sold tons of SWEETS and a dozen or so original art pages including all 6 covers (5 issues, and 1 variant). I highly recommend attending next year, it was an amazing show in a great city. Just for good measure, here's a commission of Curt Delatte I did this past weekend on the right.
• Wizard New Orleans is right around the corner, so mark your calendar for January 29th and 30th. I'll be there, and I'm also helping to organize a live art show after the convention on Saturday the 29th. Should be a blast.
• This coming week end, November  20 (at 10:30am) I'm doing a panel at the Miami Book Fair International with Josh Fialkov (Tumor) and Mat Johnson (Dark Rain). If you're in and around south Florida, please drop by and say hi! 
• I sent out an email newsletter recently, if you missed it, you can find that here.
• Amazing reviews for SWEETS continue to stack up.
• SWEETS issues 1 and 2 are available for digital reading in your web browser, iPad, and iPhone.
• As always, you can find regular updates on Twitter and Facebook.

Art

Here's a peek at a few uncolored panels from issue #3. Click to enlarge.

Original artwork for sale!

Kody Chamberlain SWEETS original art is available for purchase, 11"x17" —Email kodychamberlainart@gmail.com for info.

Here's a peek:

I had a few follow up questions on this recently, so here's some more info:

First, original art means 'hand drawn' pages from the comic. I draw with ink at a larger size than the book, then I shrink it digitally. That's why they're bigger than the comic book.

Second question was if I still had covers, yes, I do still have all the covers, but I'll likely keep the first one for myself.

Thanks!

Panel from issue #2

Here's a peek at an uncolored panel from issue #2 of SWEETS. Click image to enlarge.

Free original artwork from SWEETS

Do you have a Twitter account? You might want to sign up and follow @TFAW, @ImageComics, and @KodyChamberlain because online retailer TFAW (Things From Another World) are giving away a page of my original artwork!

But you must have a Twitter account, and you must follow @TFAW to participate.

http://bit.ly/9xUSIj

Cover!

Here's a look at the cover for issue #3 of SWEETS. Note, I did already show this on Facebook and Twitter last week, so everyone on those pages got a sneak peek last week.

Enjoy! (Click image to enlarge)

Been stupid busy!

Sorry I haven't done a good update in a while, been super busy getting everything lined up for the SWEETS release. Couple of quick points:

• I will be at Comic-Con, setting up at the Image Comics booth. I'm also going to be part of a Kickstarter panel sometime that weekend. I'll update when I know more.

• I'll have original art with me for SWEETS, but probably won't bring much of the older work unless someone has a specific request. If you plan to be at Comic-Con, please let me know if there's a page from a previous project you want, and I'll throw it in the pile. Doing my best to pack light, so everything else stays at the studio.

• I'm cranking along on issue #2 and issue #1 is on its way to the printer. I've worked damn hard on this book, I hope you dig it! 

• My 5 page preview did run in issue #11 of CHEW and it looked great! I'm told some shops have already sold out, so grab a copy before it's too late. The SWEETS preview included the cover, and 4 story pages that haven't been seen anywhere else. Image mentioned that they may be running the preview in a few other books, I'll let you know which ones when I get the final word.

• Kickstarter packages haven't gone out just yet, waiting to try and bundle as much shipping as possible, since most of the packages do include a signed copy of issue #1, I may wait till July to send those out, although the downloadable PDF is ready, so I may do that one this weekend if I can steal some time away from the drawing table.

• I'm fully aware that some of you only come here to see artwork, so I hooked you up. Click the uncolored inks to the left to enlarge.

First two covers, side by side.

Click images to enlarge.

Sweets panel!

Here's a new panel from SWEETS. Reminder, please pre-order this comic with your local comic shop retailer. It has a huge impact on the success (or failure) of a comic book. Go here to find a comic shop near you, then print out this code and have them reserve you a copy: MAY10 0427

Click image to enlarge:

Sweets preview!

(click images to enlarge)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SWEET ON DARK AND GRITTY CRIME

Newcomer Kody Chamberlain writes and draws SWEETS for Image Comics

Berkeley, CA - 22 April 2010 - Newcomer and Louisiana native Kody Chamberlain makes his Image Comics debut with SWEETS, a five-issue crime drama set in New Orleans shortly before Hurricane Katrina strikes.

"New Orleans is a great town for crime comics. It's rich with culture, architecture and all the little details that rarely show through in comic books," says Chamberlain. "I've lived in South Louisiana all my life: I don't have to jump on Google to find tourist photos. The music is my music, and the slang is my slang. Hopefully, that shows through and makes the city come alive for the readers."

"Kody has one of the freshest perspectives I've seen in a while," says Image Publisher Eric Stephenson. "His artwork is fantastic, but he's a great writer as well, and SWEETS is going to be the book to read."

SWEETS: A spree killer terrorizes New Orleans days before Hurricane Katrina makes landfall. Detective Curt Delatte just buried his only daughter, and he's in no condition to work. But when the bodies pile up, Delatte masks his grief and joins the hunt through the bowels of the Big Easy. It won't be long until his city---and his evidence---gets washed away.

SWEETS #1, a full-color 32-page comic written and drawn by Kody Chamberlain, will be available for $2.99 and in stores on July 14, 2010. A special preview of SWEETS can be found in CHEW #11, in stores on June 9, 2010.

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of four major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

Issue #1 Cover

Here's a larger look at the cover for SWEETS #1, coming up in the next Previews catalog. Click to enlarge.

Issue #2 Cover Sketches

Cover sketches for issue 2 of SWEETS. Just wrapped up the inks, and I'm nearly done coloring. I'll upload a peek soon. Enjoy!

Help KICKSTART this project!

Inks

Here's the inked version of the panel I posted yesterday. The bulk of my inks are done with brush and india ink. I have a very large selection of brushes and I jump back and forth between several different sizes. I finish off with a a dipping nib, usually tips made by a Japanese company called Nikko. Click image to enlarge.

Full page!

Here's a finished page from the pitch. (Click the graphic to enlarge) Someone asked recently about the spatter effects I'm getting on the pages. Those are all done on the original page. After penciling, I dip an old toothbrush in masking fluid and scrape my thumb across the toothbrush to spray the fluid in certain areas. The masking fluid protects the paper from the ink. I also dip my quills and brushes in the masking fluid to create what will eventually become white lines on the page. It's almost impossible to find a quality white ink that's easy to work with, so this is just an easier and faster solution for me. Once I'm done inking the entire page, I can just rub off the masking fluid to reveal the white paper underneath.

Once I'm done rubbing away the masking fluid, I dip the toothbrush into my india ink and spray a bit of black around the page. It's subtle, but I enjoy having a bit of spatter and texture in my work. Since this is a gritty crime story, I want that edge to the work. Clean slick lineart just doesn't work for me on this type of story. Whenever possible I do try and keep it all on the original art page, but I have created a set of spatter brushes in the past for this type of thing. I used them a bit on the Luke McBain comic I just finished for 12 Gauge Comics. If you're interested, you can grab those brushes here. Sorry, but I offer no assistance on using or installing these brushes except that you should only click once to create the spatter. Dragging the brush will not work properly. Hit Google and look for some Photoshop Brush tutorials, they'll have a ton of helpful info.

The pitch!

The pitch pages are done! Finished up the lettering today, and now I've got to comb over the script a few times to make sure it's solid. Should have it in the mail to the publisher on Monday. More info on that soon.

Coloring a page

Here's a peek at a SWEETS page, in progress. Mostly brushing in the solid colors and creating some depth. I'm sticking with a limited color palette to maintain some unity in the pages, something black and white comics have by default. I'm still experimenting with this, I may end up doing something completely different for the finished book. 

What's all this about, anyway?

Welcome to my BLOG.

Here's a bit of info on why I started a blog, and why you may, or may not, find it interesting.

I'm in the early stages of a new creator owned comic currently titled "Sweets." On this particular comic I'll be doing ALMOST everything including writing, drawing, coloring, marketing, logo design, etc. I'd probably run the printing press if they'd let me. I just really enjoy the process of making comics so I get involved with as much of it as I can. Why let someone else have all the fun?

So I've decided to disclose as much of the process as I can without causing trouble. That means I'll avoid story spoilers, and I may shy away from certain things (like specific financial details) because it could hurt my ability to negotiate certain things down the road. But I will try and be as upfront and honest about as much as I can, and when I'm not able to disclose specific information I'll make an effort to explain why. I'll also be mirroring all this info on my forum over at Digital Webbing since some enjoy reading the forum format more than the Blog format.

What's going to be discussed? I'll talk about all sorts of things from art tools, software, inking techniques, tips and tricks, thumbnails, business decisions, marketing strategy, design tricks, dealing with publishers, storytelling decisions, Hollywood chaos, etc. However, I won't make any promises about posting daily or with any guaranteed frequency. Deadlines can be hell, and that means I'll be going 'off the grid' for a while when I need to.

Along the way I'll answer as many questions as possible.

How's that sound?