Chattin' with the king...

Here's a double-pager I finished earlier today. I'm finishing up one more page whilst blogging this message, which'll bring my pencilling to a wrap (save for the few panels I'm going to go back and re-tweak). After that, its back to colors! Whoo-hoo, the home stretch!

Color Goodness....

Here are a few color samples from my Hard 8 story. Right now, as you can guess, Im in the midst of coloring. All my pages are hand inked, scanned into the computer, then colored in Photoshop. A very long process, but definitely and enjoyable one!

What a great morning!

Sooo...If things keep going this way, the pin-up section of Hard 8 is going to be better than the book itself. I had talked to Stephen Silver briefly about Hard 8 last week, and yesterday evening I gave him some reference material for a possible Hard 8 pin-up. Stephen's quite the busy guy, so I didn't expect anything (but secretly, I was really hoping he'd find the time to do a lil' something). "You've got a few weeks before the deadline," I told him, "but no pressure." So this morning I'm sitting in my cube, finally awake after my second cup of coffee, and he pops in, cheerful as ever... "Hey, man. Here ya go!" He hands me a gorgeous original color drawing of Hard 8, and needless to say, I was ecstatic. Here's a sneak peek (you can see the whole thing in the Hard 8 comic, after I clean my drool off of it).

A HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to Stephen for being a part of the Hard 8 project!

Weeelllllllllllllllll???!!!!!!

One more: wwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllllll??????????!!!!!!!

DAVID BARKMANN PINUP!

Here's a beutiful Hard 8 pinup that David Barkmann was nice enough to make for us. David is a very talented comic book artist and writer and has already published several comics in France (under the name David Cerqueira). Some of his French titles include "L'Ombre de l'Echafaud" (Shadow of the Scaffold) published by Delcourt - "Wyrd" and "Les Morsures de l'Enfer" (Hell's Knights ) published by Panini Europe. David has also worked in the game industry and anime too ... (Belphégore, Providence, Iron Grip, etc ...). Currently David is working on several American titles including "SchlashtHaus" with writer Dwight MacPherson, on "Bridgetown" with Iain Gibson, "Hope" with John Bamber and with Ricardo Porven on "3DDD", so look for these on your comic shop shelves soon! You can also find some of his work featured in Heavy Metal magazine. David's interest in American comics started with MamTor comics and he recommends that everybody go to their local comic book store and put in a request for the latest issue of Event Horizon.
You can also find more of David's amazing artwork here and at his brand new art blog!
And make sure to look for the full color version of this pinup when the Hard 8 book premieres at the San Diego Comic Con in July!

Thank you David!!

A Rankinstein panel

Taken from page 2 of the comic, this is Hard 8 with a post-apocalyptic twist.

More Hard 8 from Big Toon...

I'm fighting against deadlines something fierce right now (in addition to getting my Hard 8 pages, I've got to have the cover for the new Kurupt/DPG album done by monday). I want to get nervous, but there's no time for that, so I'm just gonna keep it movin'! Here's a few more Hard 8 sketches from my story.

Another sample

A Page in Progress

ugh.

Doing It Right The Second Time (or, How Not To Work).

I posted some art earlier today, and immediately afterwards I started to second-guess myself. I knew that I didn't feel good about parts of it. The main thing bugging me was the Elvis character; I've always been a fan of supporting characters because usually they don't get as much screen time as the star, so they've got to shine that much more. But looking at that elvis, he was just... boring. The character's supposed to be a fat, lazy lop, but he was looking like a regular joe wearing an elvis costume. I was tempted to just forget it and leave well enough alone, but it was driving me crazy (I'm OCD and when something bugs me I can't get past it without doing something about it). Sometimes I regret second-guessing myself; this time not so much.

Another page!

I love doing action stuff. Here's a more refined page including the inital pencil roughs.

More from Alex and Eman's "A Dog's Life"

A few panels from our story...I've been jumping between pencilling and coloring, mostly so I can keep myself going and not lose interest. The printing deadline is approaching fast, and I'm getting close to burnout but its still too early in the game. Working full-time in Burbank and then commuting home to Anaheim takes a lot out of me, and I still try to put in 4 or 5 hours before bed, only to be up at 6 the next morning to do it again. By Thursday and Friday it's realllly a struggle to come home and draw. But them's the rules of this game, so that's how it's got to be. Man, it used to be that I could pull all-nighters with ease... I'm getting old.

A more finished panel

Page 1 (still wip)

Here's the first pae of my story "The Hit".

I'll be adding more effects and dialogue later.

Drawings from Hard 8 "A Dog's Life"

Here's a couple of sketches and character designs from my pages. I'm trying to get a little more simple with my designs for this story than I normally do; hopefully the final product will show that I'm still putting in a lot of work. My brother's witten a cool story and I want to do it justice!

Sample teaser

No, that is not the real dialogue.

So what is this all about...?

Hi everyone!
Hard 8 is an exciting new graphic novel anthology which
revolves around the adventures of a central
character named... Hard 8. Here on the blog, we will
be chronicling the production of our graphic novel
over the next few months.

This collection will be comprised of 8 different
stories each told in 8 pages, showcasing the artistic
tallents of:

Eren Blanquet
William Buckley
Alex Deligiannias
Emmanuel Deligiannias
Eric Gonzalez
Brian Growe
Erich Haeger
Greg Rankin
Matt Roberts
Garrett Shikuma
Mike Williams

Although each tale revolves around the same central
character, each artist has their own creative
interpretation and adventure for Hard 8.

One Character
Eight Artisitc Visions

We hope you enjoy the artwork here and please check
back often. As we get closer and closer to the San Diego
comicon, we'll be sure and keep you updated!