Web Comic Wednesdays

First off, some of you may have noticed that Tutorial Tuesday did not happen.  That is because yesterday’s workflow got a bit ahead of me.  I’m in the middle of preparing the whole post and should have it up by end of day today, so today becomes a two-fer. 

Onto the real business of today.  It’s Wednesday, which means new web comics!  I went back and forth about what I should talk about today.  I like a lot of different web comics and have spoken about some of them before.  To that end to keep it frosty I’ll be talking about web comics that I haven’t mentioned before. 

First up is Kate Beaton and Hark! A Vagrant.  Kate is a Historian who took her love of history and a whip smart sense of humor and started doing web strips.  The strips have gotten so popular that Drawn and Quarterly put out a collection of them.  Check out the funny here:

                                     Hark! A Vagrant 

 

Next up we’ve got Cleopatra In Spaaaace! by Mike Maihack.  This fun ongoing series is about a teenaged Cleopatra VII who is transported to the future from her home time of 52 BC, and is the center figure of a centuries long war. 

                                 Cleopatra In Spaaaace!

Series creator Mike Maihack has worked on such books as Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, Cow Boy and Comic Book Tattoo.

 

Finally for today we have My Sister The Freak by Dani Jones.  Dani has made a niche for herself working in all ages and children’s publishing and now is turning her fun style to web comics.  My sister the freak is about two sisters who are learning to deal with life and the ups and downs of family.  Did I mention the alien monsters?  Volume 1 is available to read and Dani is currently working on volume 2.

                                 My Sister The Freak

 

And that wraps up this week’s Web Comic Wednesday!  Tune in later today for the postponed Tutorial Tuesday, which is all about inking!  remember if you know a web comic I should be reading, or have a web comic of your own, tell me about it by leaving a comment in the comments section!  Until next time, keep it weird!

Sketch Monday

                                                 

                                I love drawing fish men.  This handsome devil is for a project I'm working on with my buddy Dave.  The tendency when drawing fish men now is to begin to move towards what Guillermo Del Toro did with Abe Sapien.  I mean it is hard not to.  Abe is a great design.  I immediately wanted to do something that moved the design away from that a bit and into something different.  Ray Harryhausen the greatest of all monster makers said if you can draw the creature in repose and make it look believable then you've got a good monster.  With that in mind, I moved the fish man into a seated pose, and saw that what I'm really going for is a more amphibian look.  This totally had an effect on the overall design.  Can't wait to do more on this.  

Check back here next Monday for more sketch goodness, and tune in tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday!

Web Comics Wednesday

Wednesday is traditionally New Comics Day.  That day where you would run to the comic shop after school, work or during your lunch break and pick up your stuff.  The issues that you had been waiting whole months for.  That used to give me shivers.  Now, I can't make it to the store every Wednesday.  I live in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, and while there is a shop within a reasonable distance of my apartment, work has a tendency to keep me strapped to the drawing board.  When I do get to the shop I notice that my once very large stack of comics has dropped to maybe 2 single issues and more often than not a trade or Original Graphic Novel, kind of like this one:

                                               The Battle Of Blood And Ink
It's a shameless plug, I know :)  But nonetheless, the trend I'm noticing is that I'm picking up less and less single issues in stores.  I find myself looking at more and more webcomics. To that end I wanted to share with you some of the webcomics that I've been reading lately.  Every week on Wednesday I will post up 3 brand new webcomics links that I have been reading.  Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to have them!  So let's begin shall we?

The first web comic is Red's Planet, which I found out about through newsarama.  Red's Planet is about a young orphan whom everyone calls Red much to her chagrin, who after running away from her foster home is kidnapped by aliens and stranded on a strange planet in a crashed starship with a motley crew of interstellar flea-market goers finds herself in a worse situation than her foster home. 
                                                                   
                                                         Red's Planet

Red's Planet was created by Eddie Pittman whose previous work was in animation on films like Mulan and Tarzan. 

The second web comic for today is Escape From Planet Nowhere, which I found through the link's page on Red's Planet.  Personally I've found tons of web comics just by clicking through suggested links.  Escape From Planet Nowhere is about a soldier trapped on an Alien Planet just trying to get off world so he can catch the perfect wave.
                                                     
                                            Escape From Planet Nowhere

Escape From Planet Nowhere was created by Otis Farmpton, best known for the graphic novel Oddly Normal.

The third  web comic for today is also by Otis Frampton (a two-fer!) and is called Song Of Xanthia.  It's a fantasy story about a girl named Min who finds a symbol of great power.  Right now the story clocks in at 13 pages with more on the way.

                                                       Song Of Xanthia

And that wraps it up for Webcomic Wednesday!  Be sure to check back next week for more great webcomics, and remember if you have a webcomic or know of one that I should be reading, send it along.  Also , Sketch Monday will be returning next week, as well as a new feature titled What I'm reading Thursdays.  Until then, keep it weird!

We Have Events!

This month has been just an absolute blessing.  The Battle Of Blood and Ink has been doing really well, and people have just been saying absolutely wonderful things about our city in the air.  Thanks so much to everyone who has picked up the book already, I'm really looking forward to talking to you all about it.  In keeping with the Blood and Ink steam engine as it chugs along, we have a bunch of events coming up.  The first is the book launch party that is happening at this year's BALTICON happening memorial day weekend (that's May 25th-27th), then on June 1st The Chris White Gallery in Wilmington DE is featuring artwork from The Battle Of Blood And Ink in a show titled Jamm-O which is running the entire Month of June!  Here is the very nifty flyer featuring work from yours truly:

More info regarding the opening as it gets closer, but how cool is that?  Finally, Jared and I will be doing a signing at Forbidden Planet NYC on Friday June 8th at 6:30 pm.  I'm really excited about this one as well, because mostly I love that store.  I've been going to that store since I was 12 and it's kind of a hoot to have a book on their shelves.  Check out this fantastic flyer the store put together:

These next few weeks are going to be very busy and very exciting and I hope to see you all there!

A week to remember

I really should be getting ready.  I've got to get out of here and head up to NYC today because one of my oldest friends is getting married, but I wanted to take a minute and talk about this amazing week I've just had.  The biggest news and the high point of my week, was The Battle Of Blood And Ink is finally out in the world, having been released this past Tuesday.  Jared and I are both absolutely thrilled and have already been bombarded with people sending us picks of their copies.  The thing I notice is how excited they all look.  That is a wonderful feeling when something you had a hand in making gives people genuine joy.  For myself it was beyond amazing to hold the book in my hand and by able to see it completed.  what really knocked my socks off was seeing the book out and about in stores!  A friend of Jared's, Laura Burns, sent this picture:

Seeing Blood And Ink on a shelf in such great company is wonderful.  Now begins another part of this and one I'm frankly looking forward to, seeing what other people think of the work.  we've had some very nice sentiments thrown our way by Sarah Hunter of Booklist who said:

"Axelrod and Walker use rich visual details of luxury and the street life to underscore just how divided the city really is. With a spunky, headstrong female lead and an abundance of steampunk touches—airships, ray guns, and printing presses—this original graphic novel hits all the right buttons . . . or should we say levers?"

I'm glad to see people are digging it and I can't wait to have conversations with people about it. 

Finally, The Battle Of Blood and Ink is released today!  I can't tell you how happy I am with this book!
http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Blood-Ink-Fable-Flying/dp/0765331306

It's been an amazing experience from start to finish, and now that it is out there I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say.

Free Comic Book Day

Hey All,

Jared and I will be at Brooklyn Comics this Saturday May 5th for Free Comic Book Day.  Come on in and say hi!  We'll have previews of The Battle Of Blood and Ink plus some free mini comics, and I will be doing sketches.  Here's some more info for ya

Looking forward to seeing you there.  And please, Bring coffee!

With The Battle of Blood And Ink less than a week away (!) Jared and I along with our esteemed publisher Tor Books, have prepared some lovely pre-book process and idea content.  The first is a very nice video by the uber talented J.R. Blackwell which can be seen here:
How The Battle Of Blood And Ink came about

The second is a very nice article written by Jared featuring some of my sketches and some pages from the book, which can all be seen here:
Information versus Ignorance The thoughts behind The Battle Of Blood And Ink

I hope you all enjoy these insights into our precious thought meats.  If you still haven't ordered the book yet it is available through amazon. com here:

The Battle Of Blood And Ink on Amazon

Enjoy!

The Battle Of Blood And Ink Preview Is Up!

Want to see a preview of The Battle Of Blood And Ink, the graphic novel that I've been talking about so much lately?  Well, Tor.com has a preview up right now!  Check it out here:

The Battle Of Blood And Ink Preview
I figure that some of you want to try before you buy, and this is a nice 18 page chunk of our story about this dread-locked seeker of truth and her life on a flying city.  The book is hitting on May 22nd, and is still available for pre-order through Amazon.com You can pick it up here:

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Blood-Ink-Fable-Flying/dp/0765331306 

Sketch Monday

Every once in a while I get the urge to draw a super-hero, and Spider-Man is a childhood favorite.  I knocked this quick little number out while on the train on Saturday, on the way to visit family for the holidays.

Who I Am And What I Do

I am Steve Walker.  I draw graphic novels, most notable are the first 2 volumes of The Sons Of Liberty for Random House Books.  I've also co-created along with Jared Axelrod, The Battle Of Blood And Ink being released this may from Tor Books and available for pr-order now at the link. 

Besides drawing comics of things that I love and would want to read, I was a founding member of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School and worked with the wonderful Molly Crabapple, and helped to run the best damned burlesque life-drawing session in the world. 

I also teach comics and sequential art at The Art Student's League of New York, and have done so for almost 5 years now.

My name's Steve Walker, and it is a pleasure to meet you.

Things have been insanely busy lately, which is wonderful.  The push has begun for the Battle Of Blood and Ink, my latest graphic novel which hits bookshelves May 8th.  Jared and I were talking the other day and it both hit us that it's been a 5 year journey to bring this book to you, and now all that sweat and hard work is finally going to pay off.  Want to pre-order the book?  It's available through Amazon.com here:

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Blood-Ink-Fable-Flying/dp/0765331306

We've got a ton of stuff upcoming to coincide with the release of the book, appearances and the like. We'll be at Brooklyn Comics on May 5th for Free Comic Book Day, giving out some free comics and I'll be doing sketches and generally being silly.  We'll be doing a meet and greet and talk at the U Penn Bookstore  in Philadelphia on May 8th, Release Day! Come out and say hi.  Also, we will be at Balticon May 25th-28th for a big launch party as well as to announce a few other goodies, give away prizes, and of course sign your copies of The Battle of Blood And Ink.

So, like I said it's been busy:)  There's a few more things happening, and as the details are ironed out I will be announcing them here as well as a few other places.  so with that I take my leave, but not before I ask you to once again pre-order your copy of The Battle Of Blood And Ink, buy early, buy often, and to give you a little taste as to what has been going on with me artistically, here's the cover to the third Fables Of The Flying City mini comics!


 

I've made it a mission in my career to work with people who share my ideas about storytelling and aesthetics in order to make really kick ass books.  When I met Jared I realized it was inevitable that we would be working together on something.  A simple conversation gave birth to the idea that nearly 6 years later would become The Battle Of Blood And Ink.  The ride has been absolutely incredible right from the start, and as I look back on the journey it has been a complete dream.  So much good has come out of being determined to create something that we would love.  We're now a month away from the books release.  We've got a ton of stuff planned to celebrate and usher our endeavor into the world.  Events in Baltimore, Wilmington, Brooklyn, and our home base of Pennsylvania.  More on these to come.  If you'd like to pre-order a copy of the book you can do so through Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Battle-Blood-Ink-Flying/dp/0765331306

or through Barnes and Noble here:


http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/battle-of-blood-and-ink-jared-axelrod/1103277235

In the end, I love telling stories.  I cannot wait to bring you another kick-ass book.

I've been working on a ton of stuff since the start of the new year, and sadly mourning the loss of my Grandfather, who passed just before Christmas.  I've taken some time away from posting due to that, but I never stopped working.  Besides finishing up the Battle Of Blood And Ink, which is now available for pre-order from Amazon, just go to http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Blood-Ink-Fable-Flying/dp/0765331306 to reserve your copy today, Jared and I have been working on web only mini-comics that help to enrich the world of Blood And Ink and add to the Fables Of The Flying City.  You can read these mini comics at www.fablesoftheflyingcity.com.  Now, enough shameless self-promotion, onto the art!  Here's preview pencils for the cover of the next Fables Of The Flying City mini comic.  I really like the art deco graphic design feel that the image has.