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

I launched my Kickstarter to fund the printing of Wahoo Morris Book 2 yesterday.

So far so good! Kickstarter labelled it as a “Project We Love” and in 24 hours I was able to fund 37%.

Still a long way to go, though, so please check it out, and if you can share the link with friends you think might be interested or on Social Media I would be eternally grateful. 🙂

And, a preview of the two books for sale/pre-sale:

Okay, there are no swords in this one, but there is sorcery!

I was given the opportunity back in ’97 to contribute stories to the Fantasy anthology Mythography. This was my second story, and my longest.

When I created Sîan I was reading a lot of Red Sonja and watching Xena. I wanted to create a female Sword & Sorcery adventure character   that was realistic with no super powers or goddess bestowed strength and powers. Her costume design is meant to be practical and functional, at least for the cat burgling during the hot summer months of the Mediterranean-like city she is employed in during this story. She doesn’t go out in public dressed like that unless hid under her cloak! And her outfit will change depending on the situation and adventure. Her hair style is the true signature costume.

And, yes, there are some elements in the beginning of the story that might seem a little misogynistic, especially Sîan’s own attitude toward her gender. Her city is meant to be a Hyborian age pre-empire Roman-like city state, and women are not equal citizens so her own belief in the equality of the sexes might not be up to modern standards, at least at this early stage of her career. And… I was working backwards initially from a joke twist ending that required her to be willing and eager to take the Wizard’s offer of turning her into a man! When I decided to play the story a little more straight, and leave Sîan intact as a female character I could use in further stories, I still needed her to be frustrated enough with her being trapped in a world where women are not considered equal to be  believable that she would jump at that offer. I put her through the wringer to get her there, though!

Read through to the end. I promise the pay off is good.

And, while I never thought it would be a twenty year break, Sîan will return! I’ve got plenty more stories to tell.