Throwback Behind the Scenes

I just found these in a folder from last year, these were original sketches that I did, some ended up getting used, some didn't...

This is the one for Titan, when I was prepping issue # 1, I thought it would be cool to have an image of the founding characters flash across the screen.  It actually wasn't and it looked better in my mind than it did in reality.  What follows are some other sketches, 

All of the above pretty much stayed the way I drew them, with just a few modifications.  Below are the ones for Phantom and Savage, which changed completely from the final versions.

Sneak Peek

Since setting up the photo hosting site on Fotki.com, I've been working on filling in some of the albums, and to be honest - it will be a few months before I have it all set up the way that I want it to be.

One of the things that I've decided to do on there is to, randomly, give a sneak peek of a new character(s) that will be debuting soon in the comic.  In fact, I've uploaded a few on there today. 

One is the villain called Koldun'ya, here is her debut (her actual debut will be in the June issue of the comic).

This is a lot different from when I originally created and designed the character around 2015, here's how she originally looked:

While this was the original sketch, basically the only thing I kept the same was her hair color.

Check out more exciting sneak peeks on the photo site!

One Year

Today is the one year anniversary of when I launched my comic!  

I remember the day very well and the time leading up to it.  I was actually ready to launch back in January of 2018, but I had to wait for the copyright protection to be finalized.  I had no idea how long that would take, so as soon as I got the certificate back from the Library of Congress I launched the book.  

Some of my ideas didn't go the way I thought, for one when I launched the color was distorted, something I hadn't planned on.  There is something that happens with a drawn book when you convert it to video and put it on YouTube, the artwork darkens and it gets a little less clear.  Of course I wasn't prepared for that, so I had to go in and edit it, but to edit the color took about 5 hours and then there was the problem with the speed.  The first issued was playing too fast and no one could read it.  I was able to edit that too, but that took 12 hours.  What a headache (but only for issue 1)!  I live and learn though! 

I originally thought I'd have animation in every issue, but I gave that up after issue 2, it was fun to see, but to animate one panel took about a week for about a 6 second playback and with working a full-time job in addition to doing the comic, well that just wasn't going to work out.

I also struggled with digital artwork, something I'm still not comfortable with and it shows in the early issues as not everything was uniform, but I've since given up on digital artwork and draw and ink on paper then just scan it in and color it digitally.

The biggest problem could come though from something I couldn't control.  After a few months in, YouTube took away the ability to adjust the color and every issue has been darker and less clear since then, no one is seeing the bright vibrant colors I am using and it's reflected in the readership - while not a lot of people were reading it, the first 4 issues after the color changed dropped down to one reader per issue, but it is slowly coming back up.

A nice surprise along the way was my cousin, John Allerton, allowing me to sample some of the music he creates for the comic!  The first few issues didn't have any music, but it got added in later on.  I don't think he sees this blog, but thanks again John!

Celebration!

To celebrate the one year mark, I've started a photo hosting site on Fotki.com for the comic.  The link is on the blog and I'll include it here as well.  Photo Hosting Site   What's on there?  All of the issues, in order, in the original bright colors I created them in.  A picture of every character (which I'm still working on getting in there), original character designs, a cover gallery and a few other things.  If I ever get any fan art, I'll create a folder for that too.  In fact, when I do publish a new issue it actually goes on Fotki about 20 minutes before it goes on YouTube.

What does the Future hold? 

A couple of things - first is the start of a new random series-within-a-series I'm calling Ultra-Elite Interludes, they are stand alone issues that will introduce new concepts and/or characters that will play a role in the main series eventually.  They will be random and the next issue out will be the first one.

A more robust representation on Fotki as I'm creating mostly new art to represent each character place card there, as time permits - I'm also including first appearance information with them as well.

Origins - we will get the origins of the characters in a few months!  Finally!

Lastly, and most important is by the end of June I'm going to be putting the comic up on web-based comic platforms and hopefully reach a much larger audience.  In time I may stop putting it on YouTube all together, depending on how it all works out with the other platforms.

Looking back...

The last year has been an incredible learning experience for me - I've learned how to make a monthly comic and my art has been evolving to match the format.  I had hoped it would have have gotten a much bigger audience by now, but I'm grateful for the 18 subscribers I have on YouTube and we'll see what the next year brings!  Onward and upward! 

Thank you everyone!

U-Teens Special

After much delay, the next issue is out - a special featuring the U-Teens who were introduced in the last issue!

We're back up and running with some news to be announced soon!

U-Teens Special

PS.  No deleted scenes for this one - they all made it into the final version!

U-Teens

I'm hoping to have the next issue out by, or on, next weekend, so I thought I'd take a look at the U-Teens and how they came about.  The next issue coming out is the U-Teens Special # 1.

First up is Spark, the younger brother of Titan.  When I originally created Titan he didn't have any siblings, but when I found out that I was going to have a younger sibling in real life I decided to create one for Titan as well. For many years I was a only child and had actually created my characters, well started to anyway, during that time.  For a while when my mom was expecting we thought she might have a girl, but that wasn't the case, but that is why the original design of Spark had a more feminine look to the collar and shoulder area.  When my brother was born, I basically just changed the head of Spark, but continued to draw him the same way for years.  In 2012 I decided to make the neck and collar more masculine.  Below are some drawings of Spark that I did; from left to right they are the first time I drew him, a picture of him and Titan together from around 1992, and then when I drew him again in 2012 with the updated collar.

Next up is Magno II, and the picture below is from the first time I drew her.  While her costume had a few tweaks over the years, it is very similar to how she was originally created.  While she might not be playing such a large role right now, she will in the future.  Being the younger sister of Magno, I took a bit of a different approach with portraying their relationship - in contrast to Spark and Titan who truly get along, the two Magnos are not close and Magno II often finds herself being ignored by her brother.

Next up is Power Supreme, this is a bit of an interesting character for me.  He is one of the characters that I originally couldn't remember his backstory in 2012 when I was prepping the series and so I decided to create a whole new origin for him, which includes him being a protege for Master Mind.  Below is how I first drew him and his costume hasn't hardly changed at all.  His costume actually was inspired by a very baggy hand-me-down shirt I had at the time.  Originally I called him Power Plus, but opted to change the name for the series.  

Lastly is Phantom Queen, and the truth of her creation and character.  The truth is I have no idea what I'm doing with this character.  Near the end of my original stories that I was doing I thought it would be cool to have a female Phantom character, so I created Phantom Queen and basically stopped there - with just the knowledge that she was Phantom's brother.  I never wrote any stories with her, I just drew her on the posters I liked to do at the time.  In fact it wasn't until 2012 that I decided to make them twins and have their origins tie together.  Honestly though, I don't know what I'm going to do with the character, whereas I know the fate of the rest of my characters, but for her future it's a blank slate and I'm making it up as I go along. Below is the first time I drew her, and actually the only time I drew her by herself until recently.  

As for the idea of them forming the U-Teens, a sub-division of the Ultra-Elite Team, that was never in the original stories that I did, the idea came to me around 2015 when I wrote the issue that introduced them and even when I was writing that the idea of doing a special on them hadn't really crossed my mind at the time. When I was working on the book in late 2018 I knew the story would be coming up, so I decided to write the special (that will be out next week) and the only draft of the story was in my head, I never wrote it down.

Status Update

I hope that every one is having a good spring so far!

I know the comic has been silent for a while, but it will be coming back next month in full force.  Besides doing the comic I work full time and I took on a side-project that I had to get done by March 25th, so I'm sorry to say that the comic kind of got pushed back a little bit.

However - I was working on the next two issues as time permitted during the down time and there will be two issues next month (in April) to kick of the first year anniversary of the comic.  I can't believe that we've been going since April 24, 2018.  I remember that day so well!

When we return next month, I will also be revealing a new Banner Logo to brand the team on YouTube and Facebook.

The next issue will be a stand alone issue featuring the U-Teens and we'll meet some new villains too, as well as a mysterious character that might leave more questions that answers.

Then later in April I will be doing the Ultra-Interlude, they will be stand-alone stories done randomly that will introduce new concepts or characters that will play a role later in the series.

What's really interesting, well to me anyway, is that the book is almost one year old and we haven't even gotten to the main vision of the universe we are exploring - we've just scratched the surface of of what's to come!

More coming next month!  

Issue 9

I'm happy to say that issue number 9 is now live!

Issue 9

It took a couple of days longer than I thought it would  Just as I was ready to publish the issue late on Thursday night I realized that I forgot to do the cover for the issue, so after a little delay and a speedy cover, I finally published it today (Saturday).