Working on page four...Psychoboy meets Obama!

So here's page four of issue five where Psychoboy meets Obama, I've been working on it for today's Winston-Salem Comic Con. I'll have my laptop and monitor with me so attendees can watch me finish it up!

Title page done! A letter from the office of Psychoboy!

Alright so here's the title page or inside cover for issue five...

So it's a combo of photos, a scan of my writing (for the signature) and a congressional letterhead I found online with some type superimposed on it. Since every issue is self contained up until now, I haven't needed to do recaps, but since this issue five is a follow up for issue four, well I had to do one. I don't think it's needed necessarily, there's enough to orient the reader in the story, but I couldn't resist Stickboy showing his exasperation over the voters'...eccentric tastes.

Title pages are fun and quick ways to feel like you've accomplished something (maybe I should just fill an entire issue with them at some point) but I am also currently working on the fourth page in which Psychoboy meets a certain President of United States. More on that soon...

Page Three Complete! Psychoboy meets Washington!

Okay, so first a correction. I actually left out Stickboy's final line from the final panel of page two....

And now without further ado, page three with commentary below...

So tons of cameos here: Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (who I picked because his turtle-like features would be fun to draw), a custodian who looks suspiciously like Stan the Janitor from Ultimate Spider-man (it's a Stan Lee cameo) and a generic dog and fire hydrant.

I actually completed this page last weekend but am just now posting it because of a bit of drama this week. Life is...difficult at the moment, so that's going to slow production down. But it won't stop it. I'm tied of being stopped. I'm going to keep working on this issue as much as I can as long as I can keep my lights on.  

Page three inked: Psychoboy and his amazing one panel acquaintances!

Drew page three during the week and inked it yesterday. I drew/inked Psychoboy one time and will be duplicating him in the other panels talking to the people (or dog or fire hydrant) in the panel. Drawing cameos is fun, hopefully even without the colors they'll look familiar to you. Excelsior!

Hail Hydra! Page two is done!

Alright, here's page two of issue five with commentary below...

So of course, if Psychoboy went to Washington, he'd go around seeing if anyone was a member of Hydra. Duh. It's, of course, a play on the viral Hail Hydra stuff from Captain America: Winter Soldier. I know there was a jogger who may or my not have been Steve Rogers on the first page, but I tend to lean on the "may not" end of that spectrum. On the other hand, maybe it was Steve, Hydra is real and Psychoboy is a genius. You never know.

For John Boehner's tan, that is actually a color I sampled from a photo of him. Fun fact, his skin really is on the orange spectrum. But if you push the color too far towards orange, he starts looking like an Oompa Lumpa, so I decided to stick with  his real-life skin tone.

I'm having to letter this issue in Photoshop. My best advice on lettering in Photoshop is to buy Illustrator and use that instead. Unfortunately, I no longer have that option. It got a little easier once I got past the first panel with it's wondrous exposition dump, but it's still a long process with Photoshop, even when using old word balloon shapes I created in illustrator. You don't have the precise control over the shape of the balloons in Photoshop like you do in Illustrator, but I made it work.

So next up is page three where we see some of the other folks Psycho been testing his Hydra theory on. It'll be fun. And until then, remember to hail Hydra early and often. 

A tanned man in a wooden room...colors for page two are done!

Finished the colors on page two, complete with John Beohner's eternal tan. I'll be lettering it and finishing it today.

Page two inked and ready to be sworn in...

Finished inking all the elements on page two for issue five and I'll be coloring, lettering and hopefully finishing it this weekend. I'll be trying to find just the right shade of orange for the Speaker of the House...

On your left! Page one is done!

At long last, here's page one of issue five with commentary below...

There is no more recognizable staple of a show or movie set in Washington, DC than jogging around the National Mall. If you're a fictional character and you're in the nation's capital, it's practically a requirement.

And of course, one of the greatest jogging sequences ever is in "Captain America: Winter Soldier." I couldn't resist a jogger who may or may or not be Steve Rogers blowing past our heroes.

I drew Stickboy and Psychoboy once for the opening four panel sequence and moved their arms and legs around and altered their expressions when needed.

And so the last panel had to pan out to show the Capitol building, Psychoboy's new stomping grounds, for an epic establishing shots. At first, I wanted our tiny heroes against a photo of the Capitol. Heck, I originally wanted to do the whole issue with photo backgrounds, the idea that this is the one story where they're actually in a real place (as opposed to the unnamed fictional settings of past issues). But as I did research, I found that it would require a trip up to D.C. and taking the photos myself, and even then there would be some backgrounds I just physically wouldn't be able to get shots of (like the House floor).

So the photo background issue idea was dropped, but I still thought for this one panel it would've been awesome. I had a great public domain shot picked out. And then after inking and coloring the figures in the panel, I put them against the photo...and it didn't work. They were giants compared to the far shot of the building or, if shrunk down to near proper size, they appeared as no more than dots on the page.

With no other choice, I decided to create my own Capitol building. The only way I could pull it off  (having never drawn real buildings before) was to simply trace over it in Photoshop, using the computer's ability to create straight lines and other shapes to my advantage. Almost every curve is an ellipse I cut in half.

It's a simplified version with a bit artist license, but there was only so much detail that would show up when the building was printed. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome. I now have a deeper appreciation of the architecture of our nation's capital, and I pray I don't have to draw any of it again anytime soon.

So next up, a nice indoor scene in page two. Now if you'll excuse me, I think Claire Underwood and Sgt. Nicholas Brody are coming up on Psychoboy's left. Pick up the pace, Psycho!

Page One Update: Our heroes jog..in color!

So page one for issue five is done! I'll post the finished page when I have time to write a bit of commentary about it. But for right now, feat your eyes on the colored page, including the shot of the Capitol building, which I had to draw/ink on the spot on the computer when a photo background I was going to use didn't work out. Needless to say, that panel took a little longer than expected, but I'm happy with the results.

Inking page two with the Ear of Beohner!

I've inked all the elements for page one of issue five. I'll be coloring and lettering it Saturday at the Winston-Salem ComicCon. I'll have my set up where my laptop will be hooked to a screen so fans can see me work. 

I also got to ink a little bit of page two. Probably get a bit more done before the con, but for right now here's Psychoboy whispering into John Beohner's ear.

Eye of the Tiger! Eye of the Tiger! Inking Issue Five, Page One!

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen! I'm currently inking the elements for the first couple pages of issue five and it feels great! I've got most of the elements on page one done. Here's a look at those. It's for the opening jogging scene in the National Mall. I went through a lot of different music while inking before landing on a glorious two hour loop of Eye Of Tiger! The inspiring song was perfect. I can't help but laugh every time I hear it because it reminds me of  Apollo Creed chanting "Eye of the Tiger" to a battered Rocky in Rocky III, which is a bit of ongoing gag for me (I often repeat it when I'm in a difficult part of video game). 

I'm hoping to have the first two pages inked so I can color them at the Winston-Salem Comic-Con next Saturday since I'll have my set up with laptop there. Come see why won't you?

And remember children, when things get rough: Eye of the Tiger! Eye of the Tiger! 

How Not to Greet a President! Issue Five's Cover is Done!

The regular cover for issue five is done! I actually started the House of Cards parody variant cover back in November at NC Comicon and finished it in January after taking a holiday break. Unfortunately, my day job has been so bad since then, it's kept me from working on the comic, so this is the first thing I've created in months. The long hiatus didn't make it any easier, but the results are still solid.

No story where Psychoboy becomes a congressman would be complete without him meeting Obama. So obviously that had to be on the cover, joining the long line of Obama covers in comics. I created the whole cover in one weekend.

I went around and around on how to make Obama look right in the art style of the series and eventually landed on a version that influenced by how artists at Archie drew him in several issues of their comics. Actually their style fits College Follies pretty well (Hm, Jughead meets Psychoboy would be epic!). 

I wanted this to be a throwback cover to old 60s comics with tons of narration on the cover, back when Stan Lee would have entire sales pitches on the cover begging you to buy the damn thing. I decided to go with a patriotic theme behind the narration, similar to Psychoboy's campaign materials on electpsychoboy.com and on social media. 

Oh, and by the way, the cover is actually really tame compared to the "Psycho meets Obama" gag in the story. 

Anyway, next weekend I'll be penciling the first page while I'm at Jay and Eddies Comic Convention! 

Issue Five Cover Inked...Epic Fist Bump Attempt!

Did pencils and inks for the regular cover on College Follies #5 ,which has Psychoboy meeting President Obama. I'm going to wrap it up today, so I'll have it done for the convention next week. 

Issue Five Script is Done!

So the script for issue five is done. It was a lot of fun to finally type up the conclusion of Psychoboy's congressional odyssey. I've had the story in my head since I did issue four last year. It feels good to finally have all that dialog on paper. 

One thing I can never judge until I write is how long the story is. This one ended up being 16 pages. The good news is it keeps printing costs in the range where I can still charge $3 for the print edition, The bad news is a story of this length works against me getting it out this year. It'll be pretty tight but we'll see how long it takes, even with work eating up most of my time and energy. 

I'll be easing back into, figuring out how to get back into it and work comic production into my life now. So be patient and I'll keep you posted on how things go.  I'll probably try to get the cover and inside cover done in the next week or so before Jay and Eddie's Comic Convention on March 28.

Working on the script for Issue Five

Currently working on the script to issue five. It's going slowly, a few pages at a time. 

I planned to start back on the comic in January after a holiday break, but things have gotten crazy at my day job in ways I never thought possible. I simply haven't had the time to work on it during the weekdays, and I just haven't had much left in me to give on the weekends. I really wanted several evenings a week to work on it, but that's not happening anymore. I'm just going to have to adjust, and start working on it slowly, painfully, a little at a time in those few stolen hours I get. 

It's going to take awhile, but it's going to get done at some point in the year. Writing the first six pages of the script was the first time I've truly smiled this year.  

The College Follies #5 House of Psycho Variant Cover!

So after taking a month off from working on the series in any way, I'm back with the variant cover for issue five! And, yes, I will go ahead and announce that issue five, entitled "Psychoboy Went to Washington" is the conclusion of Psychoboy's epic Congressional saga. As you can probably guess, he was elected in issue four and we now get to see him take to the hallowed halls of the House of Representatives to put all his empty campaign promises of inaction into reality!

The variant cover below was penciled and inked at the NC Comicon in November as passersby looked on. I've been too busy to touch it since then, so I colored and lettered it last night. Obviously, the variant is a homage to the amazing Netflix series House of Cards with Psychoboy in place of its main villain (or is that hero?) Rep. Frank Underwood. Though not a parody of any one movie, show or real life event, issue five will have it's share of jokes lampooning political melodramas including House of Cards, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Captain America: Winter Solder and most outlandish of all: Senator Ted Cruz!

Work on the regular cover and script will begin soon!

College Follies is now on the shelf at comic shops in Winston-Salem!

On the shelf at Ssalefish (the older issues are behind issue four)

College Follies is on the shelf at both local comic shops in Winston-Salem! All four issues and their variant covers are on the shelf at Ssalefish Comics, 3242 Silas Creek Pkwy in the Toys R Us plaza, and Burke Street Comics, 825 Burke St just off of Fourth Street. Ssalefish carries a wide array of new comics, figures and collectibles along with vintage toys. Burke Street specializes in vintage comics, toys and collectible with a great selection of Bronze and Silver Age Comics. The city is lucky to have both and I'm honored to have my comic of their shelves. So if you're within driving distance of Winston, come get you some College Follies! Those too far away can still get the digital versions or order print copies here.

On the shelf at Burke Street

College Follies #4 Creator's Commentary is now live!

The Creator's Commentary Video for College Follies #4 is now up. When you get issue four, let me know and I'll shoot you a link to the exclusive video. The issue is available in both print and digital. You can get it by clicking here.

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 #4 now on ComiXology!

Just a quick post to make sure everyone knows College Follies #4 is out! It went live on ComiXology on Wednesday and you can get it by clicking here.  The issue tells the story of Psychoboy's campaign for Congress. The 8 page short story includes an editorial by Psychoboy himself and is available for only 99 cents. Be sure to also check out Psychoboy's online campaign at electpsychoboy.com, which features a bio, campaign videos and links to Psycho's social media campaign.

And with that, all four issues of College Follies are now available on ComiXology as well as on Amusedom and DriveThruComics. I'll be talking about plans for issue five soon. Until then, consume mass quantities of the series, and let me know what you think!