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Blueprint Magazine is out! Click on the link to read the online version is a cool flash flip-book viewer!

The first installment of what I hope will be a monthly series guided by the magazine’s theme is printed at the end of the magazine. World of Hellmouth: Beholder Series will be a window into the world of the Hellmouth and it’s people, places, monsters and events. I’m really excited about this opportunity to be able to explore small one-shots with Emmanuel Xerx Javier, the series artist.

Great thanks goes out to editor Erin Epp for this amazing opportunity!

It’s official! Blueprint Magazine will be running half-page strips in their periodical. This month’s issue focuses on the theme of death. This in turn led to Raven Nevermore coming up in conversation one night at a dinner event between my partner, Nikki McCallum, and Editor-in-Chief Erin Epp; both of whom work together in an organization called LSPIRG (Laurier Students’ Public Interest Research Group). Upon hearing Raven Nevermore’s premise, Erin asked Nikki to get in contact with me about the possibility of running a short strip in this month’s magazine.

One little catch: I had 4 days to do it!

I immediately contacted artist Emmanuel Xerx Javier, the art machine behind Raven Nevermore, and since he’s nearly as crazy as I am (nearly I said!) he was immediately on board as well. It was midnight for me and morning for him on the opposite side of the world. Emmanuel was preparing to take a weekend trip in a few hours. I eventually needed to sleep. Between a collaborative back and forth on the spot, the entire thing was done by the time I woke up and then re-written and lettered the next day.

Blueprint Magazine is a local publication centered in the Waterloo Region. It is the official student magazine of Wilfred Laurier University and part of the Wilfred Laurier University Student Publications group. The publication aims to provide an independent outlet for student discourse, creative thought and expression between the university masses and the Waterloo community as a whole. Each issue is composed entirely of content submitted by students and members of the greater community.

Once it gets published and released around Sept 25th, I will put the strip up here as well! Each strip will be a window into the World of Hellmouth and will be directed by Blueprint’s monthly theme. Here’s to looking forward to other great opportunities!

I hit some road blocks along the way and had to change cover artists last minute as a business choice. So two covers where done, but this one wins out in the end. It was done by Emmanuel Xerx Javier and myself as a collaboration. Emmanuel created the concept, layout, design framework and finally the art itself. I took that and did the digital work around the art. I’ve always loved collaborative processes but have lost some of my own confidence over the years. I hope to be able to do these collabs for the rest of this series.

Below is are the components that took me in this final direction. The first is Emmanuels art, with the background concepts stripped out. The second is a free texture I found online of paint splattered on a wall.

I immediately saw a raven shape–and I took that as a sign from a great power to roll with it and drop my previous concepts asap. I regret loosing the dog, but sometimes the art controls you. I spent 5 hours last night doing concepts with the dog in it that I ended up trashing… all but one. Maybe it’ll be for the trade some day .