wheretheresawil

Production on The Redeemers #5 has wrapped! Master storysmith Eric Rampson is finishing up his lettering, and should be sending the files off to our printer early this week, which will give us copies just in time for Indy Pop Con! 

The apocalypse is coming, I'm updating my DA Journal. A lot has happened since... holy cats, May of 2014!? Okay, rapid-firing this thing.

• Redeemers #4: Flame War came out, and people really like it! Including Silver Age comic writer, Tony Isabella! More on that in a later bullet point.
• We're currently working on Redeemers #5: The Great Guitarblade Caper. I'm coming up on halfway through the line art, and this is gonna be a fun one, kids. We're introducing a lot of new characters, and like Flame War before it, Guitarblade Caper has multiple plot threads going on simultaneously, and some great twists and turns along the way. We're hoping to have the issue printed in time for 2016's Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, but if we miss C2E2, we should definitely have it for Indy Pop Con in June!
• Speaking of Indy Pop Con, this year was the 2nd time out for that convention, and Lonely Robot Comics (and my) debut at the show. And it was terrific. The Indianapolis convention center was full to bursting, and I had the pleasure of meeting Black Lightning's daddy, Tony Isabella. Tony was gracious enough to take home a copy of Flame War, and had some great things to say about it! You can read Tony's thoughts on Pop Con on his blog, of which me and The Redeemers are mentioned in the second and fourth installments of his convention recap. The other big story out of Pop Con for me was my participation in the Drink N' Draw event hosted by Tony Moore on Saturday night ended in my co-winning the event with Dwayne Bruce! Dwayne is a spectacular artist, a super nice guy, and happened to be my Artist Alley neighbor during the con. For winning the Drink N' Draw, we both earned free booths for 2016's Pop Con!
• You've probably noticed my content stream being incredibly slow over the past year or so. Well, the simple explanation for that is that I got married in September! My wife is an artist and nerd culture aficionado, too, so we wound up doing a lot of custom art for our wedding, both for the ceremony and the invitations. My main project right now is working on Redeemers #5, which I won't post any of here until it's done, so there probably won't be much to see here until the new year. That said, I do frequently post sketches and WIP photos on my Instagram account, which is also under "wheretheresawil"
• I was lucky enough early on in this year to do some color flats for both and Jason Lewis. Nothing much more to elaborate on there, but exciting! And then I ran out of days off of work.
  
• And then I got a full time gig doing marketing graphic design. So that's neat.

I think that's all the significant art stuff I have to talk about. I've got a fun multi-page convention print in the pipeline once Redeemers #5 is in the can. And I'm saving up for a new art rig. Might try to do a commission drive to earn the funds for that quicker. Yup. That's about it! See you in another 18 months, DA Journal!

Well, my submission pace has slowed again, but that's because my writer Eric Rampson and I have kicked production of The Redeemers #4: Flame War into high gear! We're trying to get everything done in time to debut the book at C2E2 in late April. Should be plenty of time, too, as the penciling and inking stage is wrapping up. We've brought in our favorite pinch hitter, Lore to help with the interior colors, and the beautiful and talented Kaypee to lend some watercolor love to the cover.

We took a hiatus from the continuity in late 2012/2013 to work on a related side project that'll see the light of day soon (we hope!), but trust me when I tell you that Flame War is easily the strongest Redeemers story so far and will be worth the wait. Without giving too much away, the issue will have A, B, and C plots, one concerning each of the three heroes, but the main story is centered around fan (and artist, let’s be honest) favorite, Dex the drummer. Front man Gabe and bassist Neil’s stories both have some exciting developments inside, too, though, and it just wouldn’t be a Redeemers story without the patented super-adorable moxie and quick-cutting comments from band manager Maddie.

We'll have first-run copies of the book at C2E2. Shortly after, I plan on revamping the Lonely Robot Comics website's store, at which point all four issues will be available for online ordering! For more Redeemers information and updates, check out our Facebook page!