College Follies #3 Creator's Commentary Video is up!

Creator's Commentary for College Follies #3, the Power Ranger parody issue, is now up on YouTube. If you already own the comic, let me know and I'll shoot you a link to the behind-the-scenes commentary video, made exclusively for readers who bought the issue. If you don't already own it, what are you waiting for? It's available both as a digital comic and in print, here.

College Follies #3 is out now on Comixology!

College Follies #3, the Power Ranger parody issue, came out yesterday on ComiXology and you can get it here!

The issue was inspired by the 20th anniversary of  Power Rangers and the big anniversary season wraps up this Saturday with a finale featuring almost a dozen returning actors (including Jason David Frank as Tommy) and all 120+ rangers appearing in one big battle. There is no more perfect week that this issue could be released!!!

ComiXology responds to College Follies #3 and #4!

I just got two emails from ComiXology this morning on College Folllies #3 and #4....they've both been approved!

So others who submitted to ComiXology had experienced a significant acceleration in turnaround time on subsequent issues of their series and apparently that's finally happening for me! It took 6 months to get issue one approved and more than three months to get issue two approved. Issue three was submitted three months, so that's only a slight improvement. But issue four was submitted less than three weeks ago, so it was approved in under a  month!!!

This is great news since issue three, a Power Ranger parody, should come out in November, which is when the final episodes of the current 20th anniversary season of Power Rangers are being shown. And issue four, in which Psychoboy runs for Congress, should be out before year's end on ComiXology!

Creating Issue Three's Variant Cover...Psychoboy Goes Plastic!

So Lavender Ranger's figure started its life as one of the current Green Ranger figures that's out now. It's a standard 5 inch Power Ranger figure, with the typical bulked-up build they give them in the toys. While they may be inaccurate as hell for the show, it's pretty damn perfect for Psychoboy's build and since Psycho is essentially wearing a recolored Green Ranger outfit, it meant the body just needed a new head and morpher and the rest would be repainting.

So I bought the figure at Walmart and shot it over to Brain Funk of Mad Lab Customs. I saw his stuff at the last Winston-Salem Comic Con and was impressed. His prices were potentially very affordable so I contacted him a couple months ago on Facebook. He said it would be no problem and he thought he could get it to me in the time frame I was hoping for. So I him sent some designs and notes on Lavender Ranger with the unenviable challenge of translating my 2D character into a 3D figure.

I got the figure Friday afternoon. I had already done all the text and logo work on the cover and found an appropriate background that looked like an alien environment (extraterrestrial environments were usually the settings for the old Power Rangers toy commercials). I just needed to put the figure in.

So I opened it and tested the figure's abilities and limitations quickly. Then I did a variety of shots trying to find the right one. He came with a custom painted Chainsaw of Justice (which he's shown  using in one panel of the comic's "show opening"). It looked really damn cool when he held it. But I figured that the chainsaw on the cover might confuse readers (since it's not a very Power Ranger sort of weapon) and give them the impression he uses it in the story itself.


So I narrowed it down to more traditional action figure poses and picked the one I liked best. I cut out the background, put it in and made a bee line to the office to send it off to the printer in time for this Saturday's convention. From receiving the package to completing the cover, it was about an hour and a half.

I'm happy with the results. The cover is like a Power Ranger figure meets Robot Chicken. It's available as a digital comic on Amusedom and in print at conventions. The figure will be in my display at conventions, starting with this Saturday's Winston-Salem Comic Con. Come by and say "hi" to little Lavender Ranger!

Issue Three Variant Cover...Lavender Ranger, The Figure!

So at long last the variant for issue three's Power Ranger parody story is done!

It features a figure of Lavender Ranger aka Psychoboy. No, Bandai isn't adding him to their line up of Legendary Power Ranger figures, this is a one-of-a-kind custom figure I had created by Mad Lab Customs.  I'll show more shots of the figure and go into the creation of the cover tomorrow.

Issue three is currently available on DriveThruComics and will be out at some point on Comixology, but the only place to get the variant edition as a digital comic is Amusedom.com. The variant edition will also be available in print at conventions and should be at my next one on Sept. 13 at the Winston-Salem Comic Con. Little Lavender Ranger will be keeping me company at conventions so you can check him out in person. And, yes, kids,  that is a custom Chainsaw of Justice in his right hand. Life is good.

College Follies #3 Is Out!!!

College Follies #3, the Power Ranger parody issue, is out! Flip on your TV and adjust your rabbit ears, as Stickboy and Psychoboy transform and kick butt! Chatty monsters, oddly shaped giant robots, colorful costumes, inexplicable scenery changes...this one has it all! It's out as a digital comic on Amusedom and a downloadable PDF on DriveThruComics. It's 13 pages of comedic action, plus an exclusive essay featuring my thought on the Power Ranger franchise, which just turned 21 a few days ago. All that for only $1.99!  

It's been submitted to Comixology but I'm still waiting for them to approve issue two, so it may be a little bit before they get issue three up. It will be available in print at conventions for $3, the next one being Winston-Salem Comic Con on Sept. 13. I'll variant cover done by the weekend and up on Amusedom and hopefully printed in time for the convention.

So anyway, stop reading and click on the links below to get the issue already!

     

                   

Issue Three: The Lessons Learned

With issue three, it's the first comic I've done from scratch in 14 years and a very different sort of story for the series, so I learned a few things...

Writing- Planning is key. Designing the characters before the story helped me visualize the scenes. Penciling in rough layouts for pages as I scripted was vital for a story with this complex of a panel layout. That way I knew the page layout, panel composition and word balloon placement would work for what I'm writing.

Pencils- Again, tight pencils are key. Sloppy pencils might be quick, but you'll end up losing more time than you gain when you get to the inks.

Inks- Replicating  repeated parts of a panel, whether it's a face, part of a character's body, etc. really helped cut down the time on this one, especially with all the little inset panels inside the Bots.

Colors- Being my first color action comic, I got to learn a lot about how to color explosions and crackling energy effects. Brushes with feathered edges and multi-layered gradients can look really cool and it turns out I have a totally irrational love for coloring lightening effects.

Letters- Having been a huge fan of Jim Shooter's comics in the 1990s, which used practically no sound effects, I almost never used them in mine. But since sound effects were part of the DNA of Power Rangers, I used a lot of them here and I think they really do add to the story and humor. 

I also got to experiment with show text over the panels and singing overlapping the action in certain scenes. This was a ton of fun and pretty effective. A rule of thumb I discovered for all non-dialog lettering overlapping the action is to remember the reader will probably read it where it falls in the panel so you don't want to break up dialog in a bad way. You can never read over your panels enough for stuff like that.

So that's it until September for issue three when it'll be early released. There is the matter of doing a variant cover for it, which if all goes well, I'll be doing just before the release. Once you see it, you'll know why I waited to do it.

Anyway, next up, issue four in which Psychoboy runs for office! Start feeling dread...now! 

Issue Three Uploaded!!!

 

Darn straight, Psychoboy!

 

Shoot off some fire works and crank up the Bon Jovi, issue three has been sent to Comixology! It'll go through their review process before going up, but since they accepted College Follies #1 (now on sale) that shouldn't be a problem. The question is when. It's been almost two months since I submitted issue two, so it appears to still be a slow process.

 

I've also uploaded issue three to Amusedom and DriveThuComics, where I do have control over the release date. It'll be out on Sept 3 on those sites. I'm also prepping it for print so it can be ready for a convention in September, which I'll give you guys the full details of once I've confirmed them.

 

Work on issue four is going on now, with a mad dash to get it out by the end of October. More details on that soon as Psychoboy prepares to run for office!

Letter page ready! Issue 3 is done! And next up is....

So I created the letter column last night with an editorial with my thoughts on Power Rangers and why it was chosen as the subject of issue three. It was a bit long, but with some cutting I was able squeeze it in. You'll have to get the issue to read my morphin manifesto.

 

But what I will show you is the customary "next issue teaser" at the bottom. With this, I finally draw to an end work on issue three. All I've got to do is read over the issue a couple more times and then I'll send it off to Comixology on Wednesday. I thank Ron Wasserman and all the other musicians who did music for Power Rangers for getting me through the issue, chances are I'll be still be enlisting there services when I need some I energy beats to create to.

 

But for issue four we'll be going into some very different but equally awesome territory. I'll go into detail a little later but for right now, this teaser says it all... 

 

 

Page 12 Ready! The Third Story is Done!!!

The third story is done! The last page is a post-episode "commercial" with the Rangers that combines Public Service Announcements with charitable commercials that were common back in the 1990s. Most of it is Stickboy and Psychoboy looking at the and reader talking like this...

Since their bodies repeat in every panel, I inked and colored the first panel and duplicated it to the rest of the panels, changing the expressions and adding some hand  gestures in various panels. It worked well and sped up things. I can't show you the rest of the panels of them talking without giving away the gag, but I can show the panel that turned it from a quick sprint into a long run to get this sucker finished...

Yeah, I couldn't resist. I just kept putting monsters in there. It's homages to some of the more prominant or memorable monsters-of-the-day in the first couple seasons of Power Rangers. None are meant to be exact duplicates of the show, just monsters that have the same feel as Pudgy Pig, Eye Guy, etc.

The page honestly could've been left out, but the gag was simply too good not to do. You'll know what I'm talking about when you get the comic.

So that's it for the story. So now all that's left is doing an editorial and a teaser for issue four on the letter column and proofing the story before I send it off to Comixology and upload it on other sites.

I'm about to pull out Ultra Mode and finish this bad boy off!

Page Eleven Ready!!! It's Talking Time!

Page eleven is done. It's the post-battle talking scene at the end of the episode!

 

 

Our heroes discuss the traumatic psychological and emotional effects of killing a monster every day to protect humanity. It's Power Ranger PTSD!

 

Just kidding. But the page is a really good gag and that's about all I can show you without giving it away.

 

It's a page of Stickboy and Psychoboy talking in their usual civilian outfits, which is familiar territory for the series and an especially appropriate way to end the story as that's where we're going next issue.

 

So all that's left for the issue is a one page gag to wrap up the story and the letter column. I expect to have both done next week. Get the fireworks ready and que up the Van Halen music, I'm almost done!

 

Page 10 Ready! That's a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Win!

Page ten is done! And this is literally all I can show without spoiling the ending of issue three...

 

 

Hey, it's not a spoiler that the good guys win, it's getting there that's the fun. Only two more pages left in the issue!

Page Nine...Ready! Killamari cannot be harmed by the weapons of man!

Page nine is done! Only three pages to go in issue three!

 

I can't show you much without spoiling the ending but here's one panel that I think won't give away too much...

 

Hm. Yeah, it always turns out well for the monster after they say something like that...

Tonight, I'll be submitting issue one for early release  on DriveThruComics and Amusedom within  the week and then... on to page ten!

Page Eight...Ready! Robot Fish Beatdown!

So page eight is done. So as not to spoil the ending of the comic before it's released, I'll only be posting exerts from the last five pages. Here's a couple of cool panels that shouldn't give the whole thing away...

 

Next up, page nine, as the action continues!

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 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!

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 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 Three Ready! Never Stand Behind A Power Ranger Doing Something Dramatic!

Here's page three for issue three with commentary below...

So this is a pretty straight forward page introducing Psychoboy as Lavender Ranger. 

We start with a series of quick close ups building up to his introduction shot. This is a pretty common technique used in Power Rangers and in anime too to build up tension for the reveal of a character. It seemed like appropriate melodrama here.

The explosion when he says his name is something that sometimes happens on the show. Sometimes it happens on introductions, morphs or when a bunch rangers get together in a team-up episode. In some episodes, background explosions seem to happen just randomly during fight scenes. It's an odd technique to emphasis dramatic moments on the show. It's so much fun to make light of there's even been jokes about in the series itself. 

So Psychoboy is the team's special, super powerful sixth ranger who always joins the team later in the season. His outfit is, of course, modeled after Tommy the Green Ranger, Power Ranger's original sixth ranger and I got to say that shield he wears can make pretty much anyone look bad ass.

So this page is done and will be on display in my little art book at my table at Winston-Salem Comic-Con on Saturday.  I'll be wrapping up my con prep this week and actually get back to my regular schedule on churning out issue three after the convention.

Until I wish everyone happy background explosions!

Issue Three Cover Ready! Don't Touch That Dial!

So because of time restraints, I wasn't going to do an actual cover for issue three. I was just going to grab an image from the interior and blow it up and maybe use the Super Rangers logo for a little "Featuring Super Rangers" blurb.

 

But while I was writing the script with my taping of the original showing of "Green with Evil" playing from the first season of Power Rangers, I kept seeing the couple second-long "up next" filler commercials between shows.

 

And thus the cover below popped into my head... 

 

 

It's still reused art taken from Aqua Blue Ranger's intro panel on page two and Lavender Ranger's intro on page three, but obviously using photos to put them on TV required quite a bit of work.

 

Fox Kids Network (on Fox) originally aired the first season, hence the joke there. The photo is my own old TV combined with a pic of some old rabbit ears, which just seemed like the perfect touch.

 

The cover is meant to work with the rest of the comic, kind of acting as it's first panel (like in the covers of the original Watchmen miniseries). You see the "up next" message on the cover then go into the "Today on Super Rangers" narration on the inside cover, followed by the show opening, and then the episode begins on page one. Hopefully, this captures the feel of watching the show back in the day. It certainly was a lot of fun to do, at the very least.

 

Next, I'm going try to do a quick variant cover and get more work on done page three.