All issues as they are made for $1+ US

I've changed the way you can get my comic from me.

For now you can buy the Whole Series of Who Needs the Moon (getting updates with new releases) as I finish each issue.

Go here to get issues 1 and 2 for $1US https://gum.co/KoYM

The Reviews So Far

I thought that it might be good to post all the reviews that have been published to date of Who Needs the Moon #1 up to now.

Beginning with the first going down to the most recent.

 Bob Bretall - https://comicspectrum.com/

Rating: 4/5 – A werewolf story with a lot of humanity

"Todd McCullough uses a 1^st person narrative style mixed into this issue very effectively to get the reader inside the head of the main character, a werewolf, who is struggling with both his curse and the fact that vampires have taken an interest in the small town of Kingford.  We get a lot of setup in this 1^st issue, but it’s very well told so I didn’t mind as much that we didn’t get to any of the main action, that’s coming and I’m going to want to be there to see it unfold.

McCullough’s art style is a good match for the story being told.  Reminiscent of, but not directly similar to, indie writer/artists like Craig Thompson (Blankets, Habibi) and Nate Powell (Any Empire, March) McCullough is an up-and-coming indie creator I’m going to be keeping my eye on.  For $1 you get a PDF download of the 29 page story, which is a great deal.  I urge you to give it a try if you think you’ll dig a character-driver supernatural story like this."

 Shawn Denney - http://www.ign.com/blogs/fantaffx

Rating: B-


"Who Needs the Moon has a lot going for it but takes some missteps along the way.  On a few occasions, especially towards the beginning, some of the characters aren’t quite distinctive enough to be completely recognizable.  At a few other moments, the facial expressions don’t match the tone of the conversation.  But these are minor instances that don’t happen very often.  The one other complaint is that at one point it shows a person peeing -- as in fully shows it.  A little less blatant depiction of the action could have conveyed the same info without crossing that “for adults” rating line.  These are minor complaints, though.  The story is very interesting and is an interesting spin on the supernatural as well as leaving a lot of room for expansion and explanation for story threads.  Don’t let my nitpicks dissuade you, this is still a good comic."

Jonathan Pilley - http://www.omnicomic.com/ http://www.thenerdmachine.com

Rating: Not rating based

"It's a darker loneliness now though."

Being a werewolf is hard enough without having to be a writer as well. Oh, and vampires. Needless to say, that's just what one unlucky soul finds himself trapped in the middle of in Who Needs the Moon #1.

The first issue is written and illustrated by Todd McCullough.

Ethan Ronald is putting together a good picture of Kingsford. Posing as a writer he's getting closer to the full moon and on that night he'll attack the vampires. Of course, vampires themselves are a wily bunch and tend to have an inkling of suspicion when something is afoot. What unfolds is a game of cat and mouse (wolf and bat?) pitting the two supernatural heavyweights against one another.

McCullough is writing about two subjects one could argue are played out in werewolves and vampires, but his approach is more about the setting they exist in. The way the first issue is written is very suspenseful in a way. McCullough pits the two against one another only once in the course of the issue, primarily to set them up as adversaries. The rest of the issue is told form Ethan's perspective; one of loneliness and sorrow. It reads with heavy brooding and a darker undertone, slightly belied by the illustration style.

McCullough's style is a little juvenile in appearance. It's definitely not bad, but it's a little cartoony for the subject matter. The thing is though that it works. Ethan's emotions are shown as exaggerations in a form of caricature; his sadness is gloomy and his happiness is chipper. The art style depicts a sliding scale of feelings and gives reader a bit more insight into the happenings in the town. What's more is that the vampires aren't shown as monsters and you never even see a werewolf, adding into the issue's intrigue.

Who Needs the Moon #1 is a very interesting mix of werewolves and vampires. It's almost as if someone wrote an Archie story about the two beings. McCullough paces it very well though and relies on the unknown to carry the suspense, offering readers something to be worried about off the pages. It's an intriguing first issue and--if the second issue reveals more about the impending battle between the two factions--could be a fun series.

 Logan - http://www.filmdispenser.com

Rating: Not rating based

"Created entirely by Todd McCullough, this first issue does exactly what first issues should do; it sets up a world we know nothing about, gives a lot of vague, interesting details that will leave you wanting answers, and introduces you to a few really interesting characters. From the nearly dialogue-free opening chase, to the morose inner monologue of the nameless main character juxtaposed with his happy-go-lucky nature with those surrounding him, and the seedy looking baddies that try to run him out of town, this book hits every mark it strives for. Add to that our nameless lead is in fact a werewolf (who may have done a lot of stuff he regrets) and our bad guys are vampires with plans to annihilate the town of Kingford, and I’m down for whatever’s coming next. McCullough’s art works pretty great with the story as well, creating even more contrast between story and visual. This is one that’s available digitally, either through Comixology, or directly from McCullough himself over at his blog. I’d recommend you buy it there, DRM-free for a whopping $1. It will be the best buck you’ve spent all week."

Robert T Trate - http://www.mania.com

"Who Needs the Moon #1 (by Todd A. McCullough): With October fast approaching I am always on the lookout for good comic book horror to compliment all the classic monster movies and morbid fiction I devour (Truth: I'm always on the lookout for new comic horror, seasons be damned.) So imagine how jazzed I was to find a book like Who Needs the Moon that doesn't try to blow it's wad with splatter and cliché in the first ten pages, but spends the necessary time to build atmosphere and has me immeasurably hooked for issue #2.

Who Needs the Moon can feel a bit dark and morose, but it has an undercurrent of excitement. The book opens with two people being chased through the woods at night by a wolf we never see, we just feel and hear it. The book then cuts to a diner, and a man who clearly wears the fur when the moon is full, lamenting his existence. The specters of those he's killed  are literally all around him, but he puts on a happy face for the regular world. He is accosted in the parking lot by two men who know "what he is", and he is not so subtly given the hint to get out of town. In the book's most slyly clever moment, our protagonist follows these men to their home, then backtracks, urinating at regular intervals along the way so he can find his way back when the wolf comes out. Brilliant. Also, this is a far better use of the idea than Jack Nicholson peeing on James Spader in the men's room. The book doesn't stop at werewolves, there are vampires hidden in the shadows and other undead things bubbling to the surface.

It's not just the pacing and foreboding mood that conjures up the book's fantastic atmosphere, it's Todd McCullough's refreshing art as well. There's a "cartoon" quality to his style that isn't an obvious choice for this kind of material, but it works very, very well. The little details and the character's shape and movement give me a bit of an R. Crumb or Peter Bagge vibe, and the choice to have certain things or characters in color and the rest in black and white put this book visually over the edge into gorgeous territory."

 Decapitated Dan - www.decapitateddan.com

Rating: Dying Breath 5.0 out of 5.0

"Who needs the moon? I sure do! Wow what a find this book is going to be when you all stop reading this review and go read this book! First of all, McCullough will grab you right from the start as two people are running from something, and then... fade to black. That is the only spoiler you get people. This issue has a great mystery to it, I mean we know it’s a werewolf, but there is still so much more to learn about. The story is only half of this book though, so now allow me to tell you about the how GORE-Geous the artwork is. I can’t barley even sum up into words how great it is. I love the use of color in certain scenes, but then keeping things in black and white in others. I think that the Todd’s style is refreshing, and so needed to make this book all that much more special. Look I really don’t want to give anything away, but I really do want you to go out and get this book. You just have to trust your old pal Decap, this is a must read!"

Laptop Zombie Reviews Number 2!

http://www.laptopzombie.co.uk/comics/who-needs-the-moon-issue-2.aspx

It wasn't expected, coming right out of left field.

The comic may not be generating any kind of income, but it's nice to see that the people who have read it are enjoying it!

More Issue #2 Reviews

Omnicomic - Jonathan Pilley

http://www.omnicomic.com/2013/10/review-who-needs-moon-2.html

"Who Needs the Moon #2 is a solid follow-up to a strong first issue." - Jonathan Pilley

Loose Staples - Logan Polk

http://www.filmdispenser.com/loose-staples-103113

"I heaped a good deal of praise on Todd McCullough’s first issue of Who Needs the Moon?, and deservedly so, I think." - Logan Polk


Get it on

DriveThruComics
From Me

Coming soon to +comiXology 
But you can get Issue #1 there

Previews For You

 

Decapitated Dan Reviews - Who Needs the Moon #2

"You are really doing yourself a disservice by not reading Who Needs the Moon." - Decapitated Dan

The Score? Dying Breaths 5.0 out of 5.0

Go have a look.

Comic Horror Roundup by Decapitated Dan

Decapitated Dan: "No... seriously no, stop reading this right now, and just go read this book. Then you can come back and understand why I am about to turn into waterfall of high praise for this book. I have to start with the GORE-Geous artwork. This book reminds me of some of the best European books I have ever seen: Koma, Whispers in the Walls, Daffodil, and Sky Doll. I think that Todd’s style stands toe to toe with the artists on those books. It’s just not a style you see in American Comics. The highlight in the artwork, and I know it’s silly to point out unless you  have seen it, are the smells. It plays with the werewolf concept on a different level, and it shines. With how great the artwork is the story has a lot to keep up with here, and it does a damn fine job of doing so. The concept is great, and everything is just building up to something amazing. Praise is all I have for this book, and it will probably continue on and on for each issue. You are really doing yourself a disservice by not reading Who Need the Moon. - Dying Breath 5.0 out of 5.0"

Get it on

DriveThruComics
From Me

Coming soon to +comiXology 
But you can get Issue #1 there

Laptop Zombie Review

Somehow I didn't post about this ealier review.

Not quite sure how it happened.

But here is the review written up by Laptop Zombie back in August.

http://www.laptopzombie.co.uk/comics/who-needs-the-moon.aspx#.UmrYXHgjulN

I think I may have gotten so excited by it that I just tweeted until I passed out.

My Experience with Comixology Submit

To date, my feelings on ComiXology Submit pretty much echo the thoughts expressed by Heather L Sheppard here on this blog post.

I also would have asked many of the questions raised at the ComiXology panel at the NYCC which you can read here.

So far I am mostly very happy with what ComiXology is doing to help me get my work out to a good market.

However, I support what has been linked to and posted above, and I have some suggestions of my own for the company.

The way I see it, digital media is going to change the playing field for comics in North America, and probably for many other markets as well. It looks to be ushering in a whole new readership who, while they may like super heroes, are looking for and are open to different genres and styles not produced by the Big Two.

It is probably safe to say that historically and to date, comics have only reached a niche audience in North America. And while other comic cultures in Europe and Asia are of comparable size, I think they are healthier with more types of stories and a greater, broader appeal. This makes me think that, relatively, the comic audience in North America is only scratching the tip of a much bigger iceberg.

"Indie" comics are the rest of that iceberg and ComiXology is doing a fairly good job, so far, bringing the indies to market. Besides a very good app and the cloud service, the ComiXology Podcast is a great listen and a smart way to get the word out to customers on new arrivals. But Submit titles could use a little more push from ComiXology.
So.
My first problem with ComiXology Submit is Guided View.
It is a nice added bonus to the ComiXology experience, but I suspect it is also a crutch to the Submit system. Therefore my suggestion would be to give creators the ability to do it themselves and have the staff review it. This could open the floodgates somewhat for accepted creators and move their next issues onto the service more quickly.
However, we need to consider as well, what would happen if the floodgates did just open up. If accepted creators did their own guided view and could submit comics more quickly, there could be an over abundance of titles to choose from. Quality could go out the window, and ComiXology could end up like the App Store.
My second problem with ComiXology Submit is a lack of statistical tools.
Since submitting my work earlier back in the year, I have yearned for ComiXology to give me the tools to see the stats of my published comics. Although, the things is, I am not too sure what the benefit would be to having that information.
Sure, small creators could potentially benefit from stats related to the comics they have published on ComiXology. But to be honest, if I had something like a download counter, for example, I am not really sure what use it would be to me. Certainly, I could see how many times my comic had been downloaded and therefore bought on a daily basis, but how would that help me market the comics I am creating? App creators tout how many times their app has been downloaded on whichever store, so I guess comic publishers could do similar chest pounding and possibly use it as a marketing tool, but I doubt in the long run it would help anyone all that much.

But!
A download counter could however be helpful to potential buyers debating the purchase of a more unknown title to see if others have bought it as well. Seeing a download number next to a title, could give them the push they need to buy the comic. Or if not a download counter, perhaps reader reviews like something similar to what Netflix offers its subscribers, could help people make smart purchases and invest in titles that would appeal to them.

Speaking of Netflix, ComiXology Submit comics are almost like a Netflix Original Series. And like Netflix, ComiXology needs this original content to take off in a big way.
The problem for ComiXology Submit comics is the Big Two. DC and Marvel Comics take up a massive amount of space on the store and this makes it somewhat difficult to find different content from smaller publishers. Since they are such a big part of the business, most of the promotions involve their work. This pushes small creator owned comics off the shelves to the back of the store, or as mentioned in the Bleeding Cool article, down into the “basement”.
Clearly though, a different group of readers are buying comics from the ComiXology store than the readers that go to comic shops. Many ComiXology buyers appear to be interested in more than just gods in tights, and clearly want different, unique stories to choose from.
So my third problem with ComiXology Submit might be ComiXology itself.
At least in its current incarnation. DC and Marvel have created an image of comics in North America that has kept potential new readers of comics at bay, and ensures that there is limited growth for people that create “alternative” comics. I can see that ComiXology Submit will change that, but baby steps are slowing it down.
Take for example large television networks in the USA. The major networks churn out an amazing amount of dull programming under the false impression they know what viewers want. But the successes of TV series such as AMC’s Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead show that a large number of viewers are actually greatly interested in unique programming never before offered by the major networks. Programming that the networks are unwilling to take a chance on. “Build it and they will come” looks like it works.
My point is that there are new readers out there who have never read a comic. They’ve never read a comic because they aren’t interested in super heroes, not because they don’t like comics. And ComiXology has an opportunity to change that.
In order to do that it needs to attract that larger group of new readers to ComiXology Submit, and make the titles available there a much bigger part of the app experience without pushing away the Big-Two and the fans that they have brought with them.

Do Something Different

Some times it gets stifling sitting inside in a basement. 
So I got out with the kids in order to get some seasonal inspiration.


From a few months back. But its nice.

Decapitated Dan Reviews Who Needs the Moon #1

Woke up this morning with an email letting me know that Who Needs the Moon #1 was part of a comic round up done over at decapitateddan.com

Head on over and have a read.

"Who needs the moon? I sure do!"

He gave it a 5 out of 5!

Qui a Besoin de la Lune?

The French translated version of Who Needs the Moon #1 went live today on ComiXology. I am incredibly happy with the job that Alex Castanheira did translating the english version into french.

Excited to hear if French speaking Bandes Dessinées readers like it.

Drawn Icon is still WIP

I am obviously very new to making fonts. But like anything in art, I think that if I work at it, I can make something that I should be proud of.

Admittedly though, font creation is not something that is to be taken lightly. I can spot the work of pros from the work of amateurs. My hope is that the fonts I create aren't so easily distinguishable from the good stuff.

Fortunately, a comic font should look like it's written by hand somewhat, so I think I can be forgiven if it doesn't work well outside of speech bubbles in comics.

Currently the font I've been creating - Drawn Icon - and that I use in Who Needs the Moon is working out pretty well. Every once in a while a new character pops up that needs to be added, or I alter the kerning here and there, so its still a work in progress.

But eventually I'll put it out there for anyone to use if interested with a free open source license. Before then, I'll probably get a couple other comic fonts started.

 

Canine Scratch is another font I am working on. It is meant only to be used in graphics and titles and just with latin based letters. And for that it works fine. WIP too, but eventually I'll just throw it out there. Same licensing intentions for this font too.

Comicscape Review

There's nothing like having a fine coffee in the morning and reading a good review for something you've worked hard at.

Comicscape over at mania.com have written an excellent review for Who Needs the Moon.

Check it out http://bit.ly/1bxVmRq

I've nearly completed issue #2, and I hope to submit it early next week and have the french translation completed in time for both to be released simultaneously.

Cross your fingers crossed the french version, Qui a Besoin de la Lune #1 should be out on ComiXology next Wednesday!

Loose Staples Reviews WNTM #1

I got a surprise yesterday and learned that the column Loose Staples would be posting a review of my first issue today. As a bonus, @dedpool1979, bought it directly from me on the gumroad.

It's a good one which is empowering for me to read and it gave me a morale boost.

I'm struggling to finish up #2 at the moment. Mainly, I am just torn trying to tie up a visual problem that I am facing with the book right now.


Anyways go have a look at the review.

http://bit.ly/158AHfo

Oh. Since we're here.

Who Needs the Moon #1 made the Staff Picks list over at ComiXology.

http://bit.ly/17KLWxT

Huzzah!

Who Needs the Moon #1 has been pirated!

So I was alerted today by Google Alerts that a torrent had been put up on the interwebs of the first issue of Who Needs the Moon.

Ha!

Although it is lost sales, it is nice to see that there are people on there sharing and interested in grabbing my comic.

Maybe some day they'll be interested in buying.

$1 isn't much, but its all a matter of perspective. For some places in this world, one American Dollar is a lot.

 You can still support me though if you can afford it by clicking the links.

http://bit.ly/14cmzB6 to ComiXology
http://bit.ly/1eyn7Gu to DriveThruComics

Through me on the gumroad https://gumroad.com/l/KoYM

4th Who Needs the Moon Review!

Woke up this mornin'
(insert blues guitar riff)
Turned my tablet on
(more guitar)

And that song is going no where...

Anyways, I woke up this morning, and surprise! laptopzombie.co.uk posted a great review of the first issue.

http://bit.ly/160ARob

The last 12 days since the release of the comic has been a strange experience.

On the 7th, when it was released on ComiXology, I was strangely muted and spent a few days afterward like that.

My book was released along side some other titles in the Submit section that have been garnering attention. Or were starting out with a lot of buzz based on who the creative team were.

It made me feel that mine was being overshadowed. But at the same time, I felt that it was a good group to be a part of, because it probably gave my title better initial exposure.

As it currently stands, I have absolutely no way of knowing how it is selling. ComiXology doesn't provide any tools for the indie guys to see what a typical sales day looks like. Which makes sense considering, the majority of publishers on there, print is still their big money maker and digital sales are just something they dabble in.

But for the little guys like myself, while daily or even weekly sales reports would do little to help us out, they would provide either a morale boost or a shot in the arm to start figuring out new ways to market the title.

Drivethrucomics offers sales reports, but these just serve as a sovering reminder that I need to get the word out better.

"... it’s the sophistication of the narrative, its emphasis on characterisation, that makes it so grown-up."

So, it's always nice to read a review. It is especially nice to read a glowing one. Today laptopzombie.co.uk posted such a review and its got me smiling from ear to ear. Maybe Who Needs the Moon isn't selling like hot cakes. But at the very least, there are people out there, who really like it.

Thanks to the guys over at laptopzombie.co.uk!

Omnicomic.com Reviews Who Needs the Moon

My wife has been avidly looking online for any kind of review that pops up concerning me or wntm.

It's a great feeling to see a new one, and read positives about the comic. Even the negative just inspires me to work harder.

That being said, omnicomic.com wrote a nice piece about wntm.

http://bit.ly/17Lxmn0

"It's an intriguing first issue and--if the second issue reveals more about the impending battle between the two factions--could be a fun series."

Thanks for the review Jonathan Piller
and omnicomic.com!
I certainly hope to deliver!

Who Needs the Moon #1
at ComiXology for $0.99
at DriveThruComics for $0.99

Go to the Drive Thru

Short Post.

Who Needs the Moon is now on drivethrucomics.com for a buck.

http://bit.ly/13763az

I think in the near future, I'll need to add some perks to get people to buy direct from me.

B- Ain't That Bad

Another review of Who Needs the Moon is in. 

Available at ComiXology here http://cmxl.gy/16kd3jp

Or a DRM free pdf from me through the link above. Which is below the blog's header.

Take a look at the review here or you can follow the link to read it on the site.

bit.ly/14AIjwM

Who Needs the Moon has a lot going for it but takes some missteps along the way.  On a few occasions, especially towards the beginning, some of the characters aren’t quite distinctive enough to be completely recognizable.  At a few other moments, the facial expressions don’t match the tone of the conversation.  But these are minor instances that don’t happen very often.  The one other complaint is that at one point it shows a person peeing -- as in fully shows it.  A little less blatant depiction of the action could have conveyed the same info without crossing that “for adults” rating line.  These are minor complaints, though.  The story is very interesting and is an interesting spin on the supernatural as well as leaving a lot of room for expansion and explanation for story threads.  Don’t let my nitpicks dissuade you, this is still a good comic.


It was pretty trivial for me to have thrown the wolf's cock out there for all to see. I did debate it somewhat, but in the end, I felt you needed to know exactly what he was doing.

Besides, the next issues are going to get a lot more graphic than that. So I also figured I'd better make sure that the first one was rated 17+ too.

Though I'm sure the kids are ignoring that. Or they are deliberately looking for it. ;)

Welcome to Kingford

March 13th Submission received.

April 23rd Submission accepted for distribution through ComiXology.

August 7th Who Needs the Moon goes live. (Buy it from the ComiXology website. That way Apple and probably Google and Amazon too, don't take a cut.)

15 weeks after being accepted the first issue of Who Needs the Moon went live today.

For me that was a long wait. And now that it is finally released, to be honest, it's kind of anti-climactic. I had been waiting (really hardcore waiting) so long for it to come out that it kind of fell apart for me 4 weeks back.

Then I kind of gave up.

Clearly, ComiXology has a lot of submissions passing through their digital gates right now and I am very proud to have gotten through.

I'm just hoping that #2 gets to readers sooner. That means, I have work to do!

How are the sales?

I have absolutely know way of knowing.

Here's a poster.

http://fav.me/d6h2be4

If you read the issue I would love to hear what you think.

PLEASE! Feedback of any kind is welcome, even if it's to tell me you think it stinks!

Hotdog! A review is in!

I got an email yesterday evening from Bob Bretall letting me know that he had posted a review of the first issue of Who Needs the Moon? up on Comic Spectrum.

It was a great feeling to know that someone, who obviously has such a deep passion for comics, enjoyed the story so far and was interested in reading more.

https://comicspectrum.com/Digital_Comic_Reviews.html

specific post link,

http://comicspectrumdigital.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/who-needs-the-moon-1/

Head on over and read the review and take a look at the Comic Spectrum site.

Who Needs the Moon? #1 for sale through me

While I wait for ComiXology to publish the first issue of my mini series (I'm tired of twiddling my thumbs) I've decided to start serving up the issues myself as they come, by the way of the gumroad here on my blog.

Like Benny said in the film Total Recall, "I got five kids to feed."

He lied though. And so am I. I only have two kids to feed.

So that being said, it seemed like a good idea to try and get these out to the public myself.

So if you like supernatural stories or comics in general, why not take a look? The first issue is only a $1 and you'll be supporting an indie creator. The comic was entirely made with open source software. Inkscape, scribus, mypaint, gimp and krita.

Best viewed with the cloudreaders app on iOS or the Aldiko app on Android. Both free. 

As for eReaders, I don't own one, but I should think that they can read pdf's? But if you have a black and white eReader that only supports text, you are probably out of luck.

There's always the computer!

NSFW Illustration

What the hell.
Something I did for kicks recently.
I hope you like it.

Volume 2 Sets Sail

EDIT: I guess technically this should be called Issue 2.


I'm sure that I am no different from the majority of people when I sit and stare at the blank page. It intimidates me and all I want to do is something that doesn't force me to think. When I got the notification that Comixology had accepted my first book, I was both thrilled and terrified.

You see, regardless of whether my books generate any kind of income for me and my family, I owe it to myself, Comixology and any readers that do become interested in WNTM to finish it. 

That's scary. 

This is probably going to be one of the biggest challenges I've ever faced.

And so when I've looked at the blank pages for the past week, I have been filled with quite a bit of trepidation. Even though I knew that the sooner I got started on this, the sooner I could release on a schedule that I was happy with. But it turned me to stone when I looked at it.

Reddit, you have been a bad distraction!

But I broke free from my catatonic state and got things rolling this week and thumbnailed all the pages yesterday and today. Then I photographed them with my iPad and brought the work into Procreate where I will be improving the layout and sketches.

Here we go!

Werewolf Bust Doodle

Inspired by Roberto Roch I decided to do some sculpt doodles to get me warmed up in the mornings. It's procrastination maybe, but it is still on related characters for my comic.

This should help me draw the werewolf better when I get to that point in the story.

Blender internal render and vertex painted dynamic topology sculpt in blender.

I did this fairly quickly, and actually as an after thought did threw some fur on it. I am surprised with the result from just throwing particle settings together.

Blender just gets better and better.

Now I am thinking I'd like to start from scratch and make a good base with a body that I could rig and animate later.

The Red God Rises

I've been toying with an epic fantasy story (among others) in the back of my mind for years now.

Every once in awhile, I'll get some inspiration to create something for it. Maybe add to the history of one character, redesign another or create an entirely new one.

This is one of the new ones.

He came about while I grabbed an old image I had done using DeviantART's Muro. It was a pretty lame sketch, and I think it was the only quick thing I did with the app.

But on a whim, I grabbed it because I was forcing myself to think outside the box and work on something that pushed me to do something different.

The resulting sketch was pretty cool.

Then I reformatted my machine and installed on the wrong hard drive and lost it along with some other pretty cool images.

:'(


Anyways, this guy and some other characters I had come up with, fortunately wouldn't die so easily.

And so once again I took a stab at him.

He is menacing and quite villainous looking. But he is actually a good guy.

A bit of MyPaint, Gimp and Krita too. I am really starting to like da Krita!

Work Begins Again

Well I hope it's not a cruel joke.

But, I received word earlier this week that I had been accepted into the comixology submit series.

Hooray!

Hopefully there won't be too long of a wait before the actual first issue goes live. Either way I am going to grab this opportunity by the horns and hope that it goes somewhere.

   

 So I am now working on the second issue. Lots of work to do!

Stay tuned.

Changes to Who Needs the Moon

Today I submitted the first issue of my comic mini series Who Needs the Moon to Comixology. *Fingers crossed*

Because of that and for a few other reasons I have pulled down the link to the older B&W version of the issue from Dropbox.

Until Comixology opened its doors to the indie creators, I wasn't all that sure what I'd do with the story to earn money. But since they have finally left beta of their submission process I felt that it was time to put everything into this one potential shot at scratching out a living at this thing.

Hopefully it gets approval and I can continue making more.

Thanks.

Tablet FTW

Recently I purchased a new tablet because I heard about a nice little app called Procreate.

Unfortunately I had to purchase an iPad 4 because it was only available in iOS.

You see, I would have much rather gotten an android tablet, such as the Nexus 10, if only because I've already invested in quite a few Android apps.  I also like that there is quite a bit more freedom in Android.

The iPad does have a really good contrast ratio though and that makes it good for this sort of thing. Though not nearly as good as a decently calibrated monitor.

At first I was worried that I wouldn't make much use of it, but fortunately, I now think it was one of the best purchases I've made in a long time.


Because now I can draw anywhere, and draw the way I want to!

Here are some quick sketches done to get a sense of the whole thing.


I did use some other apps as well.  I find that I prefer roughing things out in Brushes or Sketchbook Mobile. So I have been using those apps a lot too.

2013 - This Time I'm Going To Do It My Way

That was a bit of a lengthy holiday I just had. It's now a new year and I am very hungry to get back at this art thing, and especially Who Needs the Moon.

For quite some time now I have been working pretty exclusively with MyPaint. However, I have been looking at the work of others and wondering how to achieve some of the things that they have done.  There are limitations to what the MyPaint brushes can do at this point.

MyPaint is amazing, but it does lack a lot of the functionality of Photoshop.  But then I did recall that I was using the Gimp for image based brushes before I moved on to MyPaint.  So I started fooling again with the Gimp's painting features, which by the way, would be a hell of a lot better if the application recognized my Monoprice tablet.

I was thinking of book cover concepts and came up with this.

And here are the results, after brainstorming the forested world of Duskland. Where some day my character Lampy will adventure in.

I hope you like it.  Happy New Year.