Happy New Year to one and all!

I’ve been back at work for a week and have been ticking tasks off the to-do list for getting the Wahoo Morris Kickstarter fulfilled.

The bookmarks arrived yesterday to go alongside the Bookplates that arrived before Christmas.

I think the actual book itself is done, as of yesterday.

Though I will probably triple check all the files a couple more times before sending everything to the printer. It’s been a while since I’ve done this so I want to make sure the colour separations and trapping is all done properly. I don’t want any spelling mistakes or printing boo-boos to suddenly appear when i get the book back from the printer.

After I send the book to the printer, the mini-poster will be the only physical thing left to get done before shipping out rewards to the Kickstarter backers.

It’s getting close!

The Wahoo Morris Kickstarter was a success.

The final tally came in at $3763 with the support of 89 backers.

I couldn’t be happier with the result, and wish I could thank everyone who pledged, shared and tweeted in person. I couldn’t have done it without you!

So, WAHOO MORRIS Book 2 will be going to print the first week of January.

I expect to have the books in my hand in mid to late February, and I will add them to the store as soon as all the pledge rewards have been sent out to all the backers.

The Kickstarter campaign to fund and pre-sell Wahoo Morris Book 2 is into the final stretch and hopefully heading towards the goal post.

As of this writing it is at 86% funded with $460 dollars to go to reach the finish line. The campaign is all-or-nothing or else I would already be out celebrating as I’ve raised enough money to print the book and the extras, and hopefully most of the shipping. I’m basically short the amount I need to pay the Kickstarter fees! Oh, and actually get any money, obviously. 🙂

I’m still optimistic that I will get there. There is usually a flurry of pledges in the last 48 hours when the saved notifications go out and folks decide to get off the fence or not.

There are no guarantees though, so if you are on the fence, I have a few bonus rewards to sweeten the pot, and a few stretch goals to encourage upgrades:

WAHOO MORRIS COMPANION – ALL backers at the $8 and above level will get a bonus PDF digital download of this Sketch Book/ Art Book/ Script Book. It is still being designed, but will contain every piece of art, sketch or doodle I can find that is not already printed in Wahoo Morris Book 1 & 2.

DIGITAL COMICS BUNDLE – ALL backers at the $12 and above level will get a bonus collection of PDF digital comics that collect every creator owned short story I have ever completed as well as the Bonus Wahoo Morris Companion. It will be 6 or 7 PDF comics including some of my best work to some of my earliest work. Watch my art progress over a couple hundred pages of art and a span of over 20 years!

BOOKMARKS – ALL Physical Backers will get a double sided bookmark as well as the bonus digital content above.

$3750 – All physical backers of Wahoo Morris Book 2 or Book Bundles and up will get a 6×9 mini print included. Offered as a bonus Digital Wallpaper for backers of digital Wahoo Morris Book 2  or the digital Book Bundle.

$4000 – All physical backers of Wahoo Morris Book 2 or Book Bundles and up will get a second 6×9 mini print included. Offered as a bonus Digital Wallpaper for backers of digital Wahoo Morris Book 2  or the digital Book Bundle.
This is a preview of the print in progress. Final will be inked and in Full Colour!

$4750 – If we hit this goal I will write and draw a NEW 7 (maybe 8) page Wahoo Morris short story delivered as a PDF to all physical backers who pledge  for Book 2 or Book Bundles and up, and all digital backers of Wahoo Morris Book 2 or digital Book Bundle.

Hopefully there is something in there that appeals.

And if you can’t pledge, shares on social media are always helpful in the spreading the word.

 SHARE the WAHOO MORRIS KICKSTARTER on TWITTER

Share the WAHOO MORRIS KICKSTARTER on FACEBOOK

Let’s get this book funded! 🙂

I have had a very sporadic experience with color.

I have primarily worked in black and white comics. The real exception has been for covers and I haven’t had the opportunity to do that many of them. So when I have had the opportunity/need, it seems like I am re-learning a new method each time.

Way back in the stone age at Aircel Publishing, the method everyone in the studio was using for colouring was to colour directly on the inked original art using Markers and coloured pencils. There was an air brush attachment nozzle for using the markers with a can of compressed air even.

I used that technique on a back cover for Samurai #11, two covers for Dinosaurs For Hire (Graphic Novel Vol. 2 shown), as well as two unpublished short stories, and most of an issue of a comic I ended up scrapping when Aircel stopped publishing colour comics.

And that was it for colour for a loooong time. I just didn’t have the need.

When I started self-publishing Wahoo Morris I did a lot of research trying to find out what the best method for colouring was. Digital was still not the norm, especially for self-published books. Influenced by artists like Michael W. Kaluta and Charles Vess, I decided to go with a combination of painting with Dr. Martin and Kohinoor water colour dyes.

For the first issue I photo copied the line art at print size onto a small sheet of bristol paper and coloured in the hopes of getting sharper black lines. I wasn’t crazy about the results, but it sufficed. I continued the next 3 covers (the last one shown unpublished) by painting directly on the original art.
           

I went digital shortly after this using Photoshop. I didn’t have trouble with the flatting process (picking the basic colours), and adding a few gradients and highlights here and there,  but I would always then freeze, unsure of what to do next.
    

For the cover for Wahoo Morris Vol. 2 # 1 (issue 4) a did a few colour holds, turning black lines into colour lines which made the colour job look a little fancier, but the technique still remained pretty flat.

For my story (with Jim Bricker) in the Image Anthology Comic Book Tattoo,  again, I coloured it using a pretty flat technique. In that story’s case I was going for a bit of a Tintin lingue claire style, so flat colours were appropriate.
    

After that, I didn’t need to colour again until I decided to start publishing Wahoo Morris digitally on Comixology as singles and I ran out of left over covers to use.

I have had a number of finished B&W covers waiting in line to get coloured for several months.

The biggest change came a couple of months ago when  I switched my drawing software from Manga Studio 4 EX to Clip Studio (Manga Studio 5). It has all the functionality of Manga Studio for Black & White line art, but it adds the functionality of really good painting software. And the Ray Frenden Brushes are the most natural feeling digital brushes I have tried yet. I’ve been itching to try them out for colour for awhile now.

And, about two weeks ago, wanting to add new comics to my email newsletter opt-in sequence, I quickly coloured the front cover to Sîan #1. While I’m not unhappy with how it turned out, it probably won’t make it to print as the cover was drawn as a wrap-around and I haven’t finished inking the back portion and that might change the colour choices.

A few days later, needing a piece of art for a new convention banner and cover art for the Kickstarter page, I forced myself to sit down and colour the wrap around cover art to Wahoo Morris #10 (Comixology Edition).

I’m actually semi-pleased with how this turned out, though I will probably go in and fix a few details before it gets used in print. I feel I’m starting to get the soft modeling and more painterly approach that I was able to get with Dr. Martins and water colours fairly easily.

I have continued to get a bit more colouring practice in over the next few weeks, finishing the covers for Wahoo Morris #8 and #9, the front cover of my Unknown Vistas One Shot, and I have begun colouring the interior pages of Sîan. Though for that I am using a simper technique, as the water colour painting technique I have been using for covers would be too time consuming for an entire book!

I’m going to continue picking away at colouring Sîan over the next few weeks, and I have a few other Wahoo Morris goodies that need colouring, so I should be posting more soon!

The Kickstarter campaign has been slowly but steadily ticking up.

Thursday is the beginning of the second half, and this is traditionally the dead-zone one pledges come in slowly if at all.

I’m still pretty optimistic that the campaign will be a success, but it’s a nerve wracking process!

If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do and see if there is a level you can pledge at.

http://www.wahoomorris.com/kickstarter