Inking Page Eight...A fish in the hand

I'm working on page eight's inks tonight. I'll hopefully get the page colored by weekend's end.

 

Tales From The Fontside...Issue Two Font Replaced!

I just finished replacing the font on issue two for ComiXology. Just like issue one, it was lettered with Comic Sans, which ComiXology doesn't accept. Just like issue one, I've replaced all instances of Comic Sans with another font in order to submit it. Since issue two is a much shorter short story (five pages) it was quicker work that shouldn't interfere with my production of issue three, which I'll be resuming work on tonight. I'll be sending off issue two to ComiXology this weekend for what will hopefully be a prompt release after issue one!

Page Seven....Ready! Robot Fish Go!

Page seven with commentary below...

So this page continues the action from the hair missiles and Lavender Ranger's theme song from last page.

And then...it's the Aqua Blue Fishbot to the rescue! The idea is that Stickboy here gets the most useless zords imaginable. A fish was the most useless one I could think of. I later found out the show actually topped me one season, giving Blue Ranger a Dolphin Zord...a freaking dolphin! I can't compete with that.

It was fun designing the Fishbot. With Psychobot, figuring out where to put his joints so he could bend was easy. With a fish I had to be a little more creative, using a segmented body and ball joined fins to allow movement. I sort of had in mind how it would look and function as a toy and I'd totally love to see one made.

I'm more than half way through issue three! Next up, page eight!

Page Seven Colors Ready! Red vs. Aqua Blue!

Page seven is colored. You can now see Fishbot in all it's aqua blue glory! I should be lettering the page on Wednesday.

 

Page Seven Inks Ready! Fishbot In Black And White!

 

Page is inked. Fishbot looks pretty cool inked. I'll be doing the colors this weekend. 

 

Inking Page Seven! Let the Sparks Fly!

Inks on page seven have begun. I'm over halfway done with issue three! And I can now mark off "Monster hits hero in chest and sparks fly" off my Power Ranger cliché checklist.

 

Page Six...Ready!!! Trash Talk, Theme Songs and Hair Missiles!

So page six is done...

Pretty traditional Power Rangers monster battle stuff here. The Rangers and monster exchange smack talk in the form of even more bad puns. The monster charges at the Rangers while yelling. And then the Rangers attack, here with hair missiles, which are awesome.

One gag that was added in the dialog was the bit about the Lavender Ranger theme song. The original sixth ranger, Tommy (played by Jason David Frank) had theme songs as both the Green and White Ranger. Arguments on online groups about who would win between two rangers usually have Tommy beating his opponent. In one such debate, between the original Green Ranger and a later White Ranger named Trent, someone posted something to the effect of "Talk to me when Trent has his own theme song."

Best thing ever. This gag just popped in my head, where Psycho's comeback against in the monster would that argument and I could add his theme song (sung to the tune of the original Green Ranger theme) over the action. I think it was the perfect touch. Life is more awesome when you have your own theme song.

So next up...Stickboy's zord!

College Follies' Release: What's Next?

As I've posted previously, College Follies #1 was accepted by ComiXology on April 28. Their site says it takes several months to get it up and that they'll email me a week before it goes live.  The first issue being released for computers and mobile devices by the world's largest digital comic distributor is a huge step.

But until then I've still got plenty of work to do on the release of the series, along with working on issue three (the Power Ranger parody issue, which should be completed by July). The work includes:

Issue Two- I need to change the font for issue two from Comic Sans, which is a font ComiXology doesn't allow. I want to submit issue two to them as soon as I can in case it takes awhile for them to review and process it. 

Advance PDF release- I also need to submit to Drivethru Comics, which sales downloadable PDFs of comics. Drivethru examines the first issue and then lets you control when the rest go live. They prefer for comics to premier on their site, so I'll be doing an advance releases on their site first. Now I won't have control over when the first issue goes live, so whenever it does go live, I'll let you guys know. Submission should be a cinch, it's just organizing and resaving my PDFs for the comic in a certain way.

Advance Digital Comic Release- The web-only digital comic version for Amuesdom.com is ready to go, it just needs a few adjustments. When Drivethru goes live, I'll have Amusedom go live, giving you two options to get  the comic in advance ahead of the Comixology release. Amusedom doesn't have guided view like ComiXology but it's a solid digital comic format that lets me put whatever I want online instantly. I'll even have the variant cover available on there if you'd rather get that one.

Promotional stuff- I'll need to make some changes to the blog and get promotional images together to post. I think I'll even put a sketch book for issue one on Amusedom, which will be cool. I've also have to write a press release and figure out who to send it to. 

None of this takes a lot of time, but on top of producing issue three, it can be a lot. I'm going try to pace myself so I can put out new pages and still get all this done on top of my day job and having some semblance of a life. 

I wish I had release dates to share, but I'll be shouting from the rooftops when I get the word. So follow me on Facebook, Google+, Twitter or this blog for updates.

Page Six Colored! Launch Hair Missiles!

Man, those are some pretty colors. Page six is colored. I'll probably have to wait til later in the week before I get a chance to letter it. Till then, enjoy a brightly colored man-eating giant fish monster and hair missile explosions. Godzilla eat your heart out.

Page Six Inks Ready! Let the Violence Begin!

Page six inks are done. There's nothing like inking hair missiles. I'll be coloring it this weekend.

Inking Page Six...Smack Talk Go!

I began inking page six last night, I got the top third of the page done where the monster and Psycho exchange smack talk. I'll get around to inking the action panels today hopefully. 

 

Page Five Ready!!! We All Love Gaint Robots!

Here's page five with commentary below...

Panel One- Here we introduce the Psychobot. Power Rangers has had zords that are giant robots of automobiles, construction equipment, planes, trains, animals, monsters, dinosaurs, mystical creatures, samurai warriors...but there's never been one of just a dude, just a giant robotic version of an ordinary human. So that's Psycho's zord, a giant robot of himself.

It was easy to design, just add some joins and turn his skin to the metal color the Megazord's face is and...I kept trying to figure out someplace to put his ranger color (lavender) which ended up being his purple pants.

Another thing to note is that the setting is now completely different and the colors are slightly darker. This is a homage to the difference between the American and Japanese footage in the show, which you could tell from the change in contrast and settings during the scenes. The idea is that, like it's real life counterpart, Super Rangers switches to Japanese footage when they get in their bots. The idea of some Japanese guy with Psychoboy's hair makes me smile.

Panel Two- Finishing up the gag from last page on the flailing your arms around to summon a zord.  "Epileptic Cheerleader" Heh.

Page Three- Bad puns are part of the requirement for being a Ranger, look it up, it's in their contract.

Panel Four- Like the transformation panel I added in the morph on page two, I felt I needed a panel to establish him jumping up the zord to get in it for the scene to read correctly in comic form.

Page Five- The cockpit has gone through some changes since I planned the story. At first, I was going to do some Kibry-esque complex wires and gadgetry in the background. but as I drew it I decided to go with a more Spartan approach like in the show. But as I was looking up color references, I realized I'd made it a little too plain and threw in the iconic glowing zord emblem in the background like have on the show, which I really like.

Red was one of the dominate colors in Psychoboy's room in issue one so I went with it for the cockpit. The duel joysticks to drive his bot are inspired by the arcade game Robotron because...well, why not?

And I love Psychoboy's line here. If that doesn't set the mood for the rest of the issue nothing will.

So next up...page six as we begin the unspeakable violence!

Page Five Colors Ready! Gaint Robots Wear Purple Pants!

Page Five colors are done! Coloring a giant robot is like a life long dream I never knew I had. Should wrap up the page later in the week!

 

Page Five Inks Ready! All Aboard the Psychobot!

Just finished inking page five. We all need a giant mecha in our lives every now and then. I'll be coloring it tomorrow.

 

Inking Page Five! Look! A Giant Robot!

It's been hard to work around my day job the last couples days, so this all I've got done on page five so far, I should finish up the inks tomorrow.

Page Four Ready! Bad Puns and Zord Summoning!

Lots of Ranger-on-Ranger dialog on page four here...

 

 

The first panel wraps up the gag from last page on how Stickboy knew who the "mysterious" Lavender Ranger was.

 

The second panel has another God awful pun in the same vein that the Rangers and monsters tended to toss around on the show.

 

And then the bottom half of  the page is the zord summoning gag.

 

Now most of the time the Rangers don't do a lot to summon their zords, just throwing your arm up and calling them is usually enough. But the second season, at the height of the franchise's popularity, was different. The Rangers would do these very strange martial arts/aerobic routines while summoning their zords. It looked ridiculous (even in the context of the show) and was something I always joked about back in the day.

 

Curiously enough I never figured out why it was like that until I was watching some episodes as reference for this comic. I watched the ending of Green With Evil, which ended with all the Rangers (including the newly joined Green Ranger) doing melodramatic martial arts routines while giving speeches about how awesome they are. It's not uncommon to do stuff like that to add melodrama in anime.

 

And next I watched them summoning zords in season two...and it's the exact same sequence! They just took them flailing their arms around while making a speech and dubbed the zord  summoning dialog over it! The motions they use had absolutely no significance to summoning anything, it was just footage reused out of context. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is early Power Rangers in a nutshell.

 

So anyway, next up is page five when we finally get to see a giant freaking robot!

Page Four Colors Ready! Flailing Your Arms Around In Living Color!

Page four is colored! I'll be lettering it later in the week.

Page Four Inks Ready! Zord Summoning 101

 

Just finished page four's inks. I forget how long it takes to ink these things. I take no responsibility for any damages caused if swinging your arms around like this does ever result in a giant robot coming to you. I hope to have the colors completed tomorrow.  

Still Inking Page Four...An Ode To Lavender Ranger?

I promise you Psychoboy is not going Hamlet on us in this panel. "Oh Lavender Ranger, I knew him well."

Anyway, still inking page four. Hopefully I'll get to wrap up the inks up tonight so I can color it this weekend.

Now We Return To Our Regularly Scheduled Comic...Inking Page Four!

So with the Con out of the way and first issue approved for publication on Comixiology I can finally get back to working on issue three uninterrupted. I'll be doing some other stuff to help prep for the release, but it's nothing that should slow me down from finishing the third issue in the next two months.

So first up is inking page four, which I got started on today!