Things are going great around here. I have the novelization of Suzi Quazar going, and nice timing for it to coincide with NaNoWriMo. Double dippin big in here!
Things are going so well, in fact, I was inspired to whip up a quick mood piece. I can’t think star-spanning action without thinking Kirby, so here we are!
Issue 1 of Suzi Quazar is now on sale! You can get digital copies directly from our Q Shop, either in PDF or CBR format for only 99 cents!
You can also get a print version from Indy Planet.
The print copy is absolutely gorgeous and includes exclusive art not available in the digital copies.
Yes, the fantastic Bill Nye is back, talking about how solar power is used in space! Check it out and subscribe to the channel if you love your science.
In this edition of Sunday Science, the great Bill Nye explains to just how dangerous the radiation of Jupiter is, and the steps that NASA had to take to protect the Juno spacecraft on it’s mission to study Jupiter.
Character design is something of an arcane art, and being entirely self-taught in the concept, I fell into a very subtle trap. I read this blog post from Rachael Rippon the other day, and it made me think back to my own experiences with this trope and how it affected the development of Suzi.
I’ve talked about my motivations for creating Suzi Quazar,and now that I have the first issue completed, I want to look back at Suzi and how she has grown from concept to current state.
When I first created her, she was really just a digital doodle, so to speak. I was playing around with the idea of a retro sci-fi theme for my personal blog, and I wanted a cutesy character to use as a kind of mascot. The character was never designed to have a name, I just wanted a sexy, stylized space girl. Easy enough. I more or less stumbled across the character by accident, but once I did, I knew I wanted to do more with her than just being a mascot. The name came to me quickly, and I put together this quick character card. Now, I am certainly not ashamed of this work at all. But I can see where my concept of a female hero was skewed. Growing up I read a lot of fantasy comics, so the chain mail bikini was deeply ingrained into me as acceptable attire for any heroine.
About midway thru Issue 1, I was looking at Suzi and wondering what tweaks I could make. (more…)
I know I had fallen off with the weekly Sunday Science, but we are back, baby! And this week, I want to start something a bit different than what I had been doing. Universe Today is a great site, and we will surely go back there, but I just found the amazing Bill Nye (yes, the science guy!) and he has some really cool videos that I want to share.
This week’s Sunday Science is topical, as the Juno Earth Flyby just happened a few days ago. Let’s listen in as Bill explains what it’s all about.
I would highly recommend subscribing to the THNKR channel. Lots of good stuff on there people. Remember, get your kids into science early. Our future depends on them!
I wanted to give you guys a quick look at some of the concept art for Issue 2 of Suzi. You can see that it’s the same old, same old for poor Suzi.
I have some more articles that I will get scheduled this weekend, and I will discuss more about the creative process of how I took Suzi from concept to creation.
You can see the original art on the left, it is a fairly plain angle. I was focused more on scale, lighting and the lightning bolt effects more than the drama of the scene. Once I was able to get the colors and tone, as well as all the visual fx elements in place, I think went back and looked for the more dramatic angle. The first issue of Suzi was a great learning experience, but I think I was so focused on the technical side of the work, that I missed opportunities for more dramatic angles. I don’t regret this, as I did my best with what I knew. The old saying “You only know what you know” applies in art as well we life. This is why I am really looking forward to Planet of Peril. I get to use everything I learned from Issue 1 as the base to build on. It’s going to be alot of fun.
Until then, enjoy some of the alien power that Suzi will encounter!
Well, the last page of Issue 1 goes up this Tuesday (Sept 24, 2013 for those of you in the future!)
I have learned a lot about my art, my storytelling and the creative process during this trip. I am going to take a couple of weeks off before I start posting Issue 2.
You can always find me over at my blog, talking about this and that. Stop on by and say hi.
Things are going to get pretty cool for Suzi in Issue 2. Maybe I will post a couple of panels to whet your appetite while we wait for the next book to kick off…
Working on a sci-rpg source book and website. Things are going good here. Suzi is still on track, and I don’t see any delays with her. I just haven’t been able to keep up the secondary posts here like I would like, but that will pick back up this fall. I will have a ton of projects going live in Sept-Oct, so things are getting hectic!
