Welcome to what I am calling an intermission between graphic novels. It’s a short story I drew recently that serves as an introduction into We Shadows Book III. It is called The Secret Origin of Goat and goes far back into the main characters past to explain their origins.
You might notice the style looks a bit different in this than in past We Shadows stories. The main reason is that I drew the other stories over 5 years ago for Tokyopop. So there’s naturally a progression of growth. Another reason is I am not trying to draw in a style that will suit Tokyopop’s line..in other words; as close to Japanese manga as I can manage. This book was drawn exactly the way I wanted it. Totally in my style. Which if I had to describe it would be Wendy Pini meets manga meets Bugs Bunny. But of course I’d love to hear your own assessment of this style.
It will take about 2 months to show the whole book online. Or you can see it all at once while simultaneously becoming a patron of self-published comics for only $5…simply by ordering a hard copy in the right column. That will certainly help ensure that I can afford to take the time to keep producing this obsession of mine.
I like the style; one can definitely see Wendy Pini’s influence far more so in this style than in your more “typical” (?) style of the preceding two We Shadows novels. Frankly, I prefer it that way. Manga and anime strongly influence modern artists for fairly good reason, but I’d like to see the pendulum swing back a bit more towards individual artistic styles and away from pop culture influences.
One criticism, though: at first, it is difficult to parse the final two panels where you use the tower to double as a panel border. I thought it was Robin asking “Oh really?” instead of Oberon. The division would probably be clearer in colored format, but it becomes almost too subtle in black-and-white.
I agree. One of the America strengths is innovation (although usually it’s other countries that perfect what we come up with…probably because we’re too distracted to stay with anything long enough to perfect it). So why should we deny ourselves our greatest strength?
Boob to the face, good reason to smile
If not, the best
My assessment: Sexy.
ooh la la
The art style reminds me a lot of Phil and Kaja Foglio. If i knew who Wendy Pini was i might agree, but alas i don’t. I should learn. Anyway, awesome job so far!
Wendy Pini is one of the artists behind Elfquest, an awesome and epic graphic novel series.
I bet Phil and I probably have a lot of the same influences.
I actually thought it WAS done by Pini when I first looked at it. Nicely done!
Wow
Not to nit-pick or anything, but am I the only one that sees something off with the queens’ hands in the lower left?
I have enjoyed your work and actually found you through Wendy’s facebook page, ie: one link leads to another, to another, etc. etc.