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...

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!

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.

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 #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!!!

College Follies #3 on Comixology tomorrow!!!

I've been so busy with the con and other things I just now have time to post this...College Follies #3, the Power Ranger parody issue, will be out on ComiXology tomorrow! It's only $1.99! Start searching your couch cushions for change now!

College Follies at NC Comicon this weekend!

I'll be at NC Comicon in Durham this Saturday and Sunday. I'll be in booth A69. I'll have a large six foot standing vertical banner and a banner draped across the front of my table, so hopefully I'll be easy to spot. I'll have a set up with a screen so you see me work on the comic or other digital art as I'm doing it. I'll have a printer with me and be doing full color digital prints on request. And, of course print copies of issue four, both regular and variant editions, will be there to purchase along with the rest of the series. So come out and see me!

College Follies Press Release

This is a press release on the series I sent out to local papers last week. The short and long versions of it are below. If you're a comic news site (or any other type of news publication) feel free to take and run either one with any pics you need off my site. If anyone has advice on entertainment or comic sites that cover indi comics that I could send this to, let me know.

Press Release (full version)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 24, 2014

Funny Books Get Digital

College Follies is among a growing number of comic books going digital 

College Follies has gone from an unknown comic book series with a single issue printed in 2000 to a digital comic distributed worldwide, thanks to changing technology.

College Follies, touted as an “An epic parody of life itself,” was created by Todd Luck back in the late 1990s while he was a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A lover of the comic book medium, he dreamed of one day breaking into the comic industry. The comedy series was one of many concepts he wrote plots for in his spare time. For a senior art project, he wrote and drew one issue of it. He had 50 copies printed at a local copy shop in 2000. 

“I printed up some copies to send to comic publishers to see if they’d pick it up,” said Luck, “I also tried to sell them at local comic shops and the Heroes Convention in Charlotte. Unfortunately, no one picked it up and few bought it.”

Luck stopped work on the comic while drawing the series’ second story in 2000. He said he had few options. Printing was out of his price range, as was the high tech tools to scan in, letter and prepare the pages for print. Without a comic publisher to pick it up, he had no way to distribute it.

Luck stopped drawing comics for years, but in 2013 he decided to look into the possibility of producing a comic again. He found a lot had changed. 

“There’s been a democratization of publishing with new technology,” he said. “Anyone can create and distribute content online for little or no cost. You can send comics to printers anywhere in the world to get the best price for print comics.”

Luck, who now resides in Winston-Salem, NC, said new technology allowed him to fix everything that was wrong with the first issue in 2000. He said his inking was crude, made more so by the distortions from scanning and compressing the art with the software of the time. The printing was equally crude and expensive. Even printed in black and white on copy paper, it cost $3 per copy to print, not a good thing when $3 was the standard price comics sold for.

Last year, he used the graphics program Photoshop to clean up his inks, color the comic and create the highest quality version of it possible. Using internet sites Amusedom.com and DriveThruComics.com, he was able to transform his work into digital comics anyone in the world could buy. The digital distribution costs nothing up front and  the sites only take a percentage of the sales he makes. Even getting copies printed to sale at conventions cost him a fraction of what it used to, with 25 color copies of the first issue on high quality paper costing him a little over $2 a pop. 

But the biggest boon was the shot at ComiXology, the net’s biggest digital comic distributor, with comics that can read be online and on mobile apps. Through ComiXology Submit, Luck submitted the new, color College Follies #1, and after eight months, it was accepted and available through ComiXology.

“That was a great moment when I got that acceptance email,” he said. “I’d been waiting for something like that my whole life.”

While he said the first issue was greatly improved, one thing he didn't touch was the story. College Follies #1 stars a college student named Stickboy who goes home to visit his family and his best friend Psychoboy after a school shooting has gripped the country in fear and paranoia. Based on the reaction to the Columbine shootings of the late 90s, the issue takes readers back to a time before “active shooter” became part of the national vocabulary, when Chris Matthews and Geraldo Rivera were both on CNBC airing a string of guests using the tragedy to tout their own agendas. It was a time when there was calls to pull the new hit movie "The Matrix" as a result of the shooting. 

“It’s a comic book time capsule,” Luck said. “It represents where the country, the culture and myself were at the time.”

The second issue, which was finally completed this year, came out October 8 on Comixology. The slice-of-life short story revolves around rumors caused by Stickboy walking his ex-girlfriend to her car. Luck said it felt good to finally have that second story done and to move on to new material.

Issue three, a Power Ranger parody, and issue four, in which Psychoboy runs for Congress, are both out on Amusedom and DriveThruComics, and should be out on ComiXology in the next several months.

For more information on College Follies, visit www.collegefollies.com.  

###

Press Release (short version)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 24, 2014

New Comic Series Lampoons Life Itself

Fourteen years in the making, College Follies, is a digital comic series exploring everything from media hyped shootings to the consequence of hanging around an ex.

College Follies, touted as an “An epic parody of life itself,” was created by Todd Luck, a Winston-Salem, NC resident, back in the late 1990s when he was a college student. When the series wasn't picked up by comic publishers in 2000, he shelved it. With the advent of digital comics, Luck decided to give it another go beginning last year, completing the first two stories for digital distribution. Both are now on sale on ComiXology, the net’s biggest digital comic distributor, with comics that can be read online and on mobile apps. 

College Follies #1 stars a college student named Stickboy who goes home to visit his family and his best friend Psychoboy after a school shooting has gripped the country in fear and paranoia. Based on the reaction to the Columbine shootings of the late 90s, the issue takes readers back to a time before “active shooter” became part of the national vocabulary, when Chris Matthews and Geraldo Rivera were both on CNBC airing a string of guests using the tragedy to tout their own agendas. It was a time when there was calls to pull the new hit movie "The Matrix" as a result of the shooting. 

“It’s a comic book time capsule,” Luck said. “It represents where the country, the culture and myself were at the time.”

The second issue is a slice-of-life  story that revolves around rumors caused by Stickboy walking his ex-girlfriend to her car. 

Issue three, a Power Ranger parody, and issue four, in which Psychoboy runs for Congress, are both out on digital comic sites Amusedom.com and DriveThruComics.com, and should be out on ComiXology in the next several months.

For more information on College Follies, visit www.collegefollies.com.  

###

College Follies #4, the Elect Pscyhoboy Issue, Is Out!!!

Ladies and Gentleman, College Follies #4 is out now! It's an 8 page yarn about Psychoboy's epic campaign for Congress! Plus, there's an exclusive editorial in the back by Psychoboy himself! All this for only 99 cent!

Click here to get it as a downloadable PDF on DriveThruComics. Click here to get the regular cover as a digital comic on Amusedom and click here to get the nifty digital variant cover (available only on Amusedom).

Psychoboy's online campaign will continue for a couple more weeks. Check out his site, electpsychoboy.com and also look for all the terrific nonsense he's been posting on social media. The best is yet to come as I'll be working on short video ads for Psycho's campaign! Not to spoil too much, but they involve kittens and post-apocalyptic hellscapes!

For the last year it's been my goal to get this issue out before election day. My day job has not made that an easy goal, but it's one I've accomplished with a lot of work and perseverance.   

This issue has been submitted to Comixology, which probably won't get it up before next year. It'll be printed up for NC Comicon next month. I plan to make print copies available shortly after that online. They'll be a dollar more than the digital comics, plus shipping fees. 

I'll got into what's next for me and the series later, but right now enjoy Psychoboy's election madness. The campaign trail is long, but the destination is totally worth it. 

College Follies #4 uploaded for its Wednesday release!

College Follies #4 is done and has been uploaded to both DriveThruComics and Amusedom. It'll be available on both sites on Wednesday! It's not as early in the month as I'd hoped, but you'll still be able to read all about Psychoboy's campaign before Election Day.

It's been submitted to ComiXology too, but their review process takes months, so don't expect to get it on there too soon. I'll be sending it to the printer in the next week or two, so it'll be printed for NC Comicon in November. 

Psychoboy will continue posting for the next couple weeks as the election season heats up, so be sure to check out electpsychoboy.com and follow him on social media!

Issue Four Is Done! It'll Be Released This Wednesday!

I finished the final page of issue four's story yesterday. I can't show you much in the way of dialog without spoiling things, so here's a panel without the lettering...

Well, I can at least show you this cropped panel of Stickboy with dialog...

Yup that pretty much sums it up.

I also finished up the letter column, which will features an editorial by Psychoboy himself. It also features a teaser for issue five. I can't show you either of those right now. But I can at least show how cool the header looks with a purple background...

So, what can I tell you? 

Well, now that I've completed work on the issue, all I have left to do is proof it and upload it, which I'll do this weekend. So I'm officially announcing that issue four will be available this Wednesday, October 22, for 99 cent on both Amusedom and DriveThruComics! 

It's been a long journey to get here. I just got to go a little bit more and I'm done!