'Stormtrooper Elvis' has left the building

Holy Crap.....so that's Comic Con!!
it was pretty intense, a packed explosion of noise and colour!
Now I really need to sleep and re-hydrate!

A quickie post..and yeah, every post needs some kind of image.
as I won't have a chance to upload Con Photos right now, I'm off for
a quick holiday, I'm sure the E-Ville chaps will stick a few up.

Thanks very much to all you folks who came over to see us at
our table, even more so if you bought books :-)

And cheers for all your support and encouragement, its means so
much to know that there are folks out there that enjoy our personal
work....in addition to Pixar's :-)

one more thing...

Some folks have been asking me about how/where to get the stuff

Right now items will be available at San Diego Comic Con
http://www.comic-con.org/index.php

for me that includes:
'Afterworks' The E-Ville anthology containing "Champion: Chapter 1"
Champion T Shirts (varying sizes, Black White, Grey)
A few 8" by 10" Champion prints
Champion Flyers

frankly, merchandise is at least as much fun as making the comic :-)
so I may do more in the future..I've been testing out 20" by 30" photo
posters with exciting results

Anyhow, when the dust settles from San Diego. I'm sure we (E-Ville)
will be putting something in place for online sales
Do hang on in the meantime, I really appreciate the interest.

cheers
Simon

Blimey! Comic-Con is nearly upon us

Being a 'Con Virgin', I'm especially excited to actually be an
exhibitor for my first visit!. Those few who've seen 'Afterworks'
so far seem to like it a bunch, which is great.
Pixar folks will get a full preview on Monday. Thats quite a
daunting 'jury of peers' !!! :-)
Then its time to chuck everything in the van and make our way
down South. We set up on Wednesday, enjoy preview night, then
have a drink or three.

I expect this will be my last post prior to the Con as I'll be
scrambling around Mon/Tues getting my act together .
Including picking up the T Shirts (now in Black, White and Grey!!)

Its kinda fun the web stuff, so I will pick it back up in a few
weeks, after Con and a short break in Europe.

So, thanks very much for checking out the site, it really is much
appreciated. Hope to see you in person in sunny San Diego.

I'll be the one in black with the specs and British accent :-)

cheers
Simon

How much more black could it be?

A couple of other pages from the story. Not in order.


Just in case you were wondering, I didn't actually make a mess of
the black levels on the top page:-)
(though I easily could have, whilst working 'non-calibrated')

Since the story covers two time periods. The 'Flashback' stuff
(above) was designed to go to a 'not quite black', to resemble
a projected image. Whereas the 'present' drops to a full black,
thus also making the widescreen panels less defined on those
particular pages.

Ok..here on the site it seems a little odd,
but it works ..I think..in the context of the book:-)

Is that a 1930's Ipod ?

Controls for one of the Champion's devices. (render of a 3D model)

I was inspired by the amusing simplicity of the device used
in the 'King of the Rocket Men'. Jeff King's flight controls being
limited to dials indicating up or down, fast or slow.

Maria

Though not referred to by name in the story, I had
intended the girl to be called 'Maria'.

It was her that I grew to dislike the most during the Artwork :-)

You see, having commited to this particular style, especially with
those blacks in the eye area, it was always a big fight to not have
her look like Robert Smith (...that guy from 'the Cure').

I hated this particular panel for weeks, it took me about
8 versions until I was happy... patience and good reference
was the eventual solution.

now it's one of my favourites...funny that.

To be continued...

Actually started writing the next 'Champion' storyline today.
I can promise Robots...

Is it a bird?

Again, derived from early tests, I wanted to mimic a kind of old
publicity still. The 'Photograph' itself actually a combination of
3D Render out of Maya and 2D painting in Photoshop.

Pin-ups Teaser

I was lucky enough to have the following Artist buddy's
do me their own take on 'The Champion':

Left to Right:
Steve Purcell
Ryan Church
Bill Presing
Ronnie Del Carmen



They are all amazing at full size !!
I shrunk them down pretty heavily here so as not to
spoil the effect of seeing them reproduced in the book.

Thanks Gents :-)

El Chrono

Having been literally blown away by El Nino in L.A. 1998.

When I wanted to come up with a name for a phenomena
that might conjur up a T.Rex, a Time Storm perhaps...
The name 'El Chrono' was the obvious choice.





This is also the segment where we briefly meet 'Betty'.
She is designed to evoke a 'Dale Arden' as drawn by Alex Raymond.

Comments

So.. the obligatory Blog Comments section is an odd thing
Who am I to presume anybody is interested enough in what
I do, to actually desire to make comments?

Now I'm new to this, but If I am going to do a 'Blog' and with
presumably relatively little incidental traffic then I may be
essentially talking to myself, ranting like that mad chap on
a San Francisco bus.

And if there is absolutely nobody listening, there's just a tiny part
of me that would rather not know it... :-)
So I shall remove that rather presumtious 'Comments box' on posts
from now on, unless...

unless hundreds of you object of course....ha ha ha
no I mean it......anybody?.... Bueller?....