Who's Who... Part III

Time again for another character reveal…  Or in this case, not so much as a character, but an entire race.

What we have here... is an Avianna.

While only briefly seen in the first issue, the race of Aviannas plays a big part in issues five and six… and beyond. 

Hunted and sold as “entertainment”, an Avianna, with its bright plumage and docile nature, is as frequent a sight within a slave labor camp as a vendor hocking his latest illicit wares.

Out in the wild, they’re a little harder to locate.  Found primarily within the Turonian jungle, the Aviannas can often enjoy a long life of play and communal living… that is, until the poachers arrive.

Equal parts dove, parrot and geisha, the design of the Avianna race was handed over to Andy with only one caveat... "Please don't give them any weird, backwards harpy bird legs."

Oh, and as a fun little tease, the chapter in which the Aviannas play a big part?  It’s called… “Black Market Death in the Jungles of Turonia”…

Until next time…

Have a good one,

Josh "Bird Legs" Henaman

The Science of Bigfoot

This week we thought we’d give you a little insight into Andy’s artistic process, his tools of choice and more specifically, his breakdown of Page 2.

So why Page 2?  Take it away, Andy...

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“Page two was the very first page I did for this issue. It seemed like the best opportunity for me to get comfortable with the character. On my second or third time reading the script, I write little notes to myself for each page and panel describing what I feel are the key aspects. So this page read something like: Splash. Bigfoot-sitting-armor-old/tired (I do this because if a script is super detailed, I could get intimidated and possibly confused. In the end, I'm not leaving any of the writer's direction out, I'm just creating a shorthand for it). 

At this stage, I'm also looking for any sequence that jumps out at me for any reason at all. And the first three pages seemed like a fun way to get started. 

LAYOUT:

Bigfoot: SOTE was the last assignment where I did all the work without digital assistance. Now I do everything but the inks digitally. The layout phase was usually done in a sketchbook or on a scrap of paper and with whatever pen or pencil I had on hand. 

At this stage I'm having fun and trying to work as quickly as possible. Just so I don't find myself picking away at something that doesn't matter yet.  

Since this page is of Bigfoot sitting on a rock, stargazing, I was able to knock it out pretty fast.

PENCILS: 

Once the layout is approved, I use the fancy printer I stole from my mother and print the image out on 11x17 inch, 3-ply, smooth bristol board. I like the smooth board simply because of the way the pencil feels on it and the style I use to ink my own pencil work.  I use non-repro blue pencil solely due to the fact that I won't have to erase anything when I'm done. 

My main focus is to have fun or at least give the illusion that I had fun. That's what I've noticed about the artists I admire most. There is no way for me to know whether or not they had fun, but their work always feels like they had fun. With this page, I had a lot of fun and finished it pretty quickly.

INKS:

Undoubtedly my favorite part of the process is inking. I have no reasoning why, it's just the most fun for me. Everything is laying there on the page and all I have to do is figure out how I want to finish it. 

I loved using a No. 3 Raphael brush and various nibs, but unfortunately I'm so clumsy that I always found a way knock over my ink bottle and ruin pages, clothes and carpets. So now I almost exclusively use a Kuretake No. 55 Double Sided Brush Pen (Hard and Soft). I like it because the brush end is rubber-like and never loses its point. It's also super flexible, so you can get a significant line variation from it. And the hard side can fit all of your crow quill needs. One hundred per cent of this page was inked with that pen.

COLORS: 

Tom [our colorist] is good at everything. We went to The Kubert School together and I became a big fan of his immediately. So when I got this job, his was one of the names I mentioned right away. He's someone that I knew would make me look better than I am and I'd probably learn a lot from. I never had many notes for him and was impressed with everything he did for this book."

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Excellent!  Thanks for the insight, Andy!  Down the road, we'll talk to Tom and get a feel for what it takes to make a page snap!

Until next time... 

Have a good one,

Josh "Stuck with his Stick Figures" Henaman

Who's Who... Bring on the Bad Guys

Not to be dismissive...  but if your hero is a certain sword-wielding Sasquatch, then you better be damn sure his rogues gallery is up for the challenge. 

Enter the fiery-skinned, horned daemon of the desert…  Korovan Muspin. 

Standing a good foot taller than Bigfoot’s already massive 7-foot frame, Korovan is a former warlord of the scattered tribes and now serves the great Lord Jeoffa, enemy of the Children of the Blue.

Intelligent, ruthless and ferociously unforgiving, Korovan is more than the muscle.  He is Lord Jeoffa’s will incarnate. 

No wonder his weapon of choice is a warhammer… all the better to bludgeon our heroes into submission. 

And we haven’t even gotten around to introducing Lord Jeoffa…

Until next time...

Josh S. Henaman

Format?! We don't need no stinkin' format!

Well, we do actually. 

Since we’ve already seen the first three pages of finished artwork over on the Facebook page, we thought it would be cool to share how it looked on the written page. 

Before we get started, we just want to point out that what you are about to see is what Andy works with when the script is handed to him.  Sometimes he'll get a photo reference and sometimes a lengthy follow-up email with some additional thoughts.  Mostly, he'll get the following and blaze a trail from there.  

Page 1:  

You'll notice that there really is no dialogue.  Only sound effects.  However, even without anyone speaking it rambled on for a page and a half.  

So let's take a look at it with artwork!

Page 2:  

Before you scroll down to the image after the following text, take a moment and read the words on the page.    

A pretty straightforward page, no?  

This is what Andy came up with...

The tag team of Andy with the colors of Tom make this piece one for the wall!  One of these days we'll have to get an in-depth analysis on their process. 

Page 3:  

This one rounds out the preview.  

And voila!

There you have it.  Battle-scarred, weary and with a little bit of desolate loneliness thrown in for good measure.  It was all written out, but it needed some great craftsmanship to bring it to life.  

Until next time...

Have a good one!

Josh S. Henaman

Who's Who in the Bigfoot Universe

Batman and Robin.  Green Hornet and Kato.  Heck, even the Lone Ranger and Tonto has a nice ring to it. 

Bigfoot and…  Well, we’ll have to let “Bigfoot and Bagworm” marinate a little. 

And so, the first of our character introductions is the narrator of the book.  He goes by the name, Castor, but we all call him "Bagworm."

Given the chance, Bagworm would describe himself somewhat romantically as a “poet-thief.”  He would even go as far to say that he has a bit of roguish charm thrown in just for the sake of the ladies.  But in reality?  As a member of the Scribe Caste, “Bagworm” is anything but.  “Poet-weasel” would be more like it.   

So what is he?  And what exactly is a “Bagworm?” 

Well, let’s see it in his own words. 

“Bagworm.  A name reserved for the lowliest of the Scribe Caste.  The fekra-diggers and borderline illiterate.  Gossip mongers who spread lies and propaganda like it was sugary sweetness…Political dissent, strife amongst the workers or even tales to scare the offspring?  You name it, we’ll do it for a price.”

So, in a sense, Bagworm is the lowliest muckraker at a tabloid magazine.  The paparazzi of an alien world.  It’s also the reason we find him in the prison camps at the opening of the tale.  Caught spreading pricing rumors amongst the agri-farmers, Castor has been sentenced to hard labor and stripped of his name.  Stuck in a slave camp, it’s also where he runs across a certain hominid. 

Until next time…

Stay alert,

Josh