NY Countdown Day 8 - Bonus Material!

New Jersey residents (and I know you're out there...) might be interested to see that we're being covered by the Bergen Record. Woo-hoo!

Check it here: http://www.northjersey.com/entertainment/Our_state_our_hero.html


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(edited to fix a broken link)

King of New York (NY Countdown Day 8)

It's all Barock day on DMDB!


NOTHING CAN STOP BAROCK! This was a sketch I did early in the character's inception. I wanted to show him a) getting blasted to bits and b) loving it. He is a God of War after all!


Barock and Zoe. This was an insert I worked up to replace the original figures on a cover which will now never be used. Wha...? I drew this with my brush pen. I *love* my brush pen.


This is the cover rough for issue 2. I'd had an idea to replace the aborted Battle At Cherry Hill Mall cover, and I wanted to sell it to Glen so I worked this up. A good thing about being able to draw is that you can convey what's on your mind with a quick sketch.


An' finally - another cover rough for issue 2. This was the other idea I pitched to Glen and though we both liked it we figured the other one was stronger. There's a pretty good chance we will use this idea, somewhere down the line...

D

In a New York Minute (NY Countdown Day 7)

Hello, and an extra-big HELLO to God-like genius Andy Suriano, who contributes today’s excellent guest illustration of my man Barock:


For those who don’t know, Mr Suriano is half of the mind behind Image’s brilliantly barmy CHARLATAN BALL. And he is, as mentioned, a genius. This pic arrived, entirely unsolicited, last night - and it made me grin like a loon. Ain’t it spankin’? I’m nagging him to do more - you should too!

D

All the Way to New York City (NY Countdown Day Six)

Day six of my NYCC countdown and damn it’s bearing down fast, isn’t it? The missus and I are starting to panic slightly, even though we’re pretty sure we’ve done all the necessary stuff. This weekend, we will be getting our dollars. Real dollars! Like they have in films!

Anyway, what do we have today? Well - it’s an all Rushmore special!

Who’s Rushmore? He’s this guy:


As you can tell from this concept sketch, I initially thought of him as a sort of traditional speedster - a grinning Wally West type. But brilliantly, Glen swerved him into different territory. He’s now more like our Mr Spock - always a couple of moves ahead of the other guy. Rushmore rocks!



Three of our heroes. That’s Barock, Helius and the R man. They are not comparing penis sizes.


An' finally, a Rushmore colour guide. He's red and blue - like a gas flame. And next to him is Centro who... well, you’ll see.

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First We Take Manhattan (NY Countdown Day 5)

Day, uh, five of my countdown to NYCC - and it's an all-colour special, folks!

First up, a few colour guides for the main characters who show up in issue one. I really dig how these look - kind of like toys. I would chew off my left arm (the most rubbish of my two arms) to see these characters turned into toys. Hasbro - call me.





Secondly, another early design for Barock. I was really closing in on what I wanted here - note the slightly simian features and Goon-like shadowed eyes. Barock had to be someone who could concievably be handsome in one panel and monstrous in another.




In the end, I simplified his tunic way down, lengthened the sleeves so they had more of a sporting cut and gave him nifty little pouches on his belt to balance the design out. Knee-high boots are one of my favourite things - blame Captain Britain.

Aaaaand, finally - a panel detail from issue one. I think I mentioned this on the blog before, but in the early days of development this was going to be a black and white comic with blue tone. I coloured all of issue one and some of issue two that way. I think it looks really nice - but our kind of superhero action probably needs to be in full colour. And our wicked colourist Rachelle is doing a bang-up job, so I'm not complaining!

You and Me and New York City (NY Countdown Day Four)

Hello again! Today's edition is... an all black and white special! Woo!

Honestly, if I could publish the book in mono, I would. It's crisp, it's cool, and it's essentially how comics looked when I was a kid (with the occasional colour spread for impact) so to me it feels "right". But the prevailing wisdom is that B&W gives the book an "indie" feel, when we're going for mainstream superhero awesome, so it had to go. Bah.

Anyway - here's a mega double page splash from issue two. I was a little nervous when I first read the script for this - it's been said before, but it's all very well for a writer to ask for vast armies and planetary destruction, but drawing it is another matter. That said, this was a lot of fun and really helped to define our world.


Next up, some pages from issue 3. We spend a lot of time on the Gods' homeworld of Neboron in this ish - and that gave me the chance to bust out the highfalutin' alien tech and Kirby-style furniture.


Back down to Earth, and another page from issue 3. Zoe is about to get some bad news. To my surprise, I really, really enjoy doing the down-to-Earth stuff, though it takes more time by way of research and so on. The guy at the window is the head of the paper where Zoe works - he's half Jack Kirby and half my Dad.



Zoe runs it off.


And finally, a guest appearance from one of my flat-out favourite artists, Joe Infurnari. He did this pin-up for us and is also drawing Mark Waid's back-up which I think begins in ish two. He's a genius. I've looked at this pic a dozen times and I *just* noticed the stocking flying off and the shoe in Zoe's hand. Ain't it somethin'?

Dropping Some NYC (NY Countdown Day Three)

Ey up! After yesterday's unnecessary excursion into the world of awesome courtesy of my man Warwick, it's back to the usual rubbish today. And hello, what's this?



A colour guide for Sirius. If you want to compare Jersey Gods to DC's New Gods, then this guy is our All-Father - wise and compassionate, though not altogether saintly.



This is an early design of enormous bastard Minog from issues one and two of JG. Other than the horns and the grisly demeanour, he looks totally different now.



An early design rough of our hero Barock (or Barrac, as he was back then. We changed the name cuz of you know who, though it weirdly looks even more like POTUS' name now. Ah well). Here, he's sporting the space helm which Glen designed for him and which I forgot to include every time we saw our hero in space. Note my putative title for the book: IDOLS. Hmmm...



An early go at the logo, by yours truly. It's OK, but not brilliant. We eventually went with something which I like a lot more.



I really wanted one of the heroes to have a dog - and so he does. Check out Dogstar - ain't he adorable? I'd like to do a backup with him, one day.



And, something for the dads, a sequence from issue one of our heroine Zoe in her knickers. I'm really pleased with Zoe - she's cute as a button! And give it up for our outstanding colourist, Miss Rachelle Rosenberg!

Go New York Go New York Go (NY Countdown Day Two)

You know what I love? Fan art. You know who I love? Excellent internet friend Warwick Johnson Cadwell. So look what made my day today:



Isn't that something? Thanks a lot, Warwick - it's a thing of beauty!

Now I know that, quite apart from being dizzyingly charismatic, effortlessly good-looking, and generally top-notch, my readers are also terribly talented. So if anyone out there in Blogland feels the urge to send me more JG fan art (or indeed anything of note), then my address is at the top of the sidebar, on the right. Get scribblin'!

Every Street's a Boulevard (NY Countdown Day One)

Hello chaps. As you may or may not know, I will be in New York on the weekend of the 6-8th February to promote JERSEY GODS at NEW YORK COMIC CON. So to celebrate, every day between now and then will be... New Post Day!

Most of these posts will be Jersey Gods themed of course, but I'll probably find the time to slip in some Doctor Who stuff and a few other tidbits as well. If you like what you see, please say hello in the comments section. And if you're going to New York Comic Con, feel free to stop by the Image booth and shoot the breeze with me. I'm generally very friendly (unless my blood sugar is low. Bring sugary drinks, just in case). I will be doing sketches and things!

Speaking of which, let's go:

First off, here's a cover rough for issue one. What used to happen with the covers is that Glen would have a cool idea (or sometimes a frankly oddball idea which I just can't resist - as is the case with the cover to issue 4...) and I'd work up a few roughs to show him. These days, I tend to skip the approval stage and go right to the final cover.

This was a prospective cover for issue 2. I got all the way to the finishing line with this one before Glen, Image and I decided it wasn't right - and I came up with a better idea.

And this was the Christmas card I drew before the holidays, planned to colour, scanned in and lost when my hard drive died. Here it is in its raw, unexpurgated glory. That's quite a package Barock is stowing there. Merry Christmas.

JERSEY GODS - now on CBR!

Verrrry quick update: Gregarious Glen Brunswick and myself have a JERSEY GODS themed interview on Comic Book Resources. It's HERE. Warning, this was a phone interview conducted late in the evening following a starchy tea, so there's a possibility I might seem cranky/random/stupid.

JERSEY GODS is out on February 4th - ask for it by name. And if you're going to NYCC, come and say hi!