Issue #5 Cover

It's late, I'm ready for bed. Here are the pencil and inks for the cover art of issue #5. Enjoy!

When Bears attack

It's slow going but issue #5 is well underway. What you are seeing here is a four page preview from the issue which is currently on hiatus. We've turned out attention to an 8 page mini telling some of what happens to Bell directly after the events at the start of issue #4. The first page from that preview can be seen here. So without further ado...

Hope you enjoy!

We Have Liftoff.

Boy these plane analogies come easy when referring to a comic based around planes, don't they? I'm sure I'll run out of them sooner or later. For now, though, the puns stay. What you see below you is the finished pencils of page 1 for the upcoming issue of said comic. Flying Fortress production, after months of time in the hanger, is finally in the air again. This particular beauty clocked in around 10 hours. Those hours were split over three different evenings thanks to my day job of making sure my 2 year old son gets proper rearing.

I must say. I'm really, REALLY freaking happy with how this page turned out. I spent several weeks prior to this really doing the basics. Exercises and fundamentals. It was boring as all hell, but it sure helped. I'm miles away from my destination but this makes it feel a whole lot closer. Look out world, I just stepped my game up!

OK, True believers, it's time to hit the drawing board some more. Enjoy your stay, but be sure to lock-up when you leave.

Moving Things Forward

2 updated character designs for issue #5 of Flying Fortress. Outside of doing these (which I'm way behind on) I've been drawing the thumbnail layouts for the book. Those, I'm ahead on and should be finished up by the end of the weekend. I must say it feels great actually getting back in the groove of storytelling. I've spent the last several weeks writing. I've moved Flying Fortress to the front burner for now to try and get it done by the 30th of November, a mighty task. On top of that, issue #1 of Paragon is pretty much wrapped script-wise. I'll probably work on that book while doing the Fortress books.
That's not all I have on my plate either. I came upon some inspiration for a third title. I'm keeping the details close to my chest on this one, but rest assured it will be amazing. Otherwise I wouldn't make it!
We're just a couple weeks away from Wizard World Austin. If you're going, make sure to sign up for a free sketch card an the Flying Fortress website.

What was supposed to be a quick character sketch, turned into a full fledged drawing on both accounts. Oh well, you live and learn.

Some pages

As I stated in my previous post I'm seen pages in on issue #4 of Flying Fortress. I figured I could go ahead and update you with some of those pages. One of the biggest differences you'll notice in these pages is the addition of shading. Filling in blacks has always been a difficult part of drawing for me. Understanding how light wraps around and object just eluded me for years. I decided, that with his issue, I was going to use heavy blacks. I felt it was important for my own artistic growth. So, here we go!

Page #1

Page #2

Page #3

I'm very happy with how these turned out. I can already look back and see errors, but that's part of that artistic growth I mentioned earlier. If I don't make mistakes, I'll never learn how to correct them. I'd love some feedback on these pages, so hit me up!

Flying Fortress #3

Issue #3 is almost done cooking. This is the cover artwork for the book. This whole issue was fun to draw. Lots of good challenges inside. I hope you all enjoy it when it's released this March! You can order a copy, and copies for your friends at on our Kickstarter.

Processing a page

The evolution of a page always fascinates me. Seeing something from start to finish really gets at me in the best way. Even if I'm looking at my own work. I guess it's just a way to look at a piece of art from start to finish. Perhaps it's about seeing where the image starts and where it ends.

Here's a page from the upcoming trade paperback of Flying Fortress. I penciled this in just about 4 hours.

After the pencils were done, I emailed the file to Andy and he applied those magic inks. Look at that art shine, it really pops!

Andy then emails the inked work back to me and I add the final color work. Wow, what a shot!

 All silliness aside, I'm in love with this page!

Kickstarter last stretch!

Haven't seen the video? Check it out here!

Flying Fortress #2 preview

The cover is here! Over the past several weeks, I've been penciling and coloring away at our graphic novel Flying Fortress. It seems that we're going to be doing a convention circuit this year and it's kinda necessary to have books there to sell to people. This is the cover art to just one of those books.

Picking up right were issue #1 left off. Captain Steven Reynolds, 1st LT. Alan Washburne and the rest of the crew of their B-17 "Bombing Betty" are in a pickle. There's a fire in engine number four and their extinguishers aren't working for it. In a desperate move to put the fire out. Reynolds sends 'Betty' into a drastic nose dive to choke it out.

Strap yourselves in for a roaring adventure in Issue #2, of Flying Fortress titled 'Wheels Down'. We're currently taking pre-orders for it through our IndieGoGo funding campaign. If you're interested we're trying to reach an overall goal of $1,943 which will go towards printing comics, and graphic novels. It's also going to help produce buttons, posters, stickers, shirts... all sorts of great 'Fortress' gear!

The Funding Campaign

As you may or may not know, I'm a stay-at-home dad. About a year ago my wife and I decided that, instead of enrolling our son into daycare we opted for me to quit my job so our son could be raised by his parents instead of someone else. This decision was also made on the idea that I would have more time to work on my comic book Flying Fortress.

Thankfully, all of these plans have worked out. I spend everyday with my son, getting to watch him grow up right in front of me. Not a lot of parents get to spend their whole day with their kids, so I count myself as one of the lucky ones. I'm also able to spend more time drawing my comic book. Flying Fortress is taking up all of the free time that I have when I'm not chasing Elliott around the living room.

There's one flaw in all of this planning. One flaw that is something you can help correct. You see, the creative team of Flying Fortress is trying desperately to get more comics finished and out the door for people to read and enjoy. The big obstacle in the way, is money. Now, I can draw the comic book for free... I already do that. I've not been paid to draw any page of this comic, nor will I. That's not what this is about. What it is about is that we need help getting these books printed.  Thanks to IndieGoGo, we've started a campaign to get that done. Our goal is to raise $1,943 in order to cover printing comics and trade paperback collections. It also helps us create merchandise like buttons, shirts, stickers, and bomber jackets to name a few.

It's pretty simple to contribute. All you need to do is go to our campaign page and select a reward you would like. It's basically a down payment on future products coming soon from our humble little studio. Say if you want to buy the trade paperback. Select the $25 dollar option and you're done. You've pre-ordered the book. You pay up front to make sure you help get yours and other books printed and you get a copy of the book in return. All the rewards work like this. So help support us today by either contributing or telling your friends and family. Every little bit helps. Thank you!

... You can see the progress of our funding on the right side of this website. As of this post we've raise $100.

Cover for Issue 2

Here's a little preview of what I've been working away on at Flying Fortress HQ. This is the cover to Issue 2 which will be out in February or March of 2012. Though, the online version will hit our website in January. This cover is a little preview of what's going on in the last parts of issue 1 and the first parts of issue 2. For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, you can read the comic online. If you're feeling generous, you can buy it digitally from Graphicly and Kindle, or better yet pre-order a print copy of the book to be released early December!

Page 5 ready to ink

Here's what I've been toiling away at the past couple days. Done enough for inks!

Sketch-a-day: Page 4 Panel 1

I know I promised you a Nazi Baboon, just hold your horses, it's coming soon. I was busy all day working on page 4 of Flying Fortress #1. This is the first panel from the fourth page of that wonderful book! Sorry, no simians this time, but fret not by followers, more 'Simian Soldiers' are incoming!

Almost finished, boss!

Just wanted to show you a clip of what we've been baking at Flying Fortress Studios. So here's a quick snippet of the first page from Flying Fortress. The issue will launch March 26th at Planet Comicon in Kansas City. It will be available to purchase for the masses after the show.

Only A Bad Artist Needs Two T-Squares

 This has been my home the past week, well, my art home at least. I set up my studio downstairs and I was even able to make a giant drafting table for myself. I've always wanted to have a large one, and this is why. I need to be surrounded by all sorts of stuff related to what I'm working on which includes two T-Squares. If you take a close look you can see page one of the Flying Fortress 'Pilot' issue to see a better picture of it head on over to Flying Fortress Studios dot com!