As I said before, I love Dave’s work and it was great to get to see someone else draw my characters. I haven’t really had the pleasure before so it was cool to see the attention that was paid to all the little details. Each little thing was like, “Hey, he noticed that! Awesome.”

Pinup by David Petersen

Nate’s piece also floored me for some of the same reasons but with different elements. Each piece of the composition is familiar to me but new when presented as a pulp-style poster, with scenes from issue one arranged throughout.

Pinup by Nate Pride

I’d also like to extend warm greetings to anyone checking out the site this week that did me the kindness of stopping by my table over the weekend. If you’re new to the site, or unfamiliar with my work, I highly recommend checking out the gallery and the first three issues of DRAFTED. These are the areas where I have cleverly hidden the content of the site.

Seriously though, Chicago Comic Con was great and I am currently working on a sort of show-summary-highlights-post, but I’d like to collect a few links first and that is taking some time.

More to come on this later.

After great effort, and many late nights, these puppies are finally in my possession and just in time for the Wizard World Chicago Comic Convention. Did I mention I will be going? I did? Well, I am. Issue Three will be coming with me.

This issue has been a really long haul. In the space of time it took me to complete the issue:

1. I got married
2. I became a Father
3. I bought a house

When I put it that way it surprises me that it only took a year of my life. It’s been quite a year and I don’t think I can take another one like it. Not in a row anyway.

Just in case you don’t happen to be in or around Chicago this weekend, I will also be making Issue Three available online shortly after the show. For those of you who are collectors or want to show of your “Fan” status or just feel like supporting my compulsion, Issue Three is also available in the store.

He did not disappoint.

I can hardly restrain myself from posting the whole thing, but for now the teaser will have to do. It’s a good thing Issue Three will be available as early as next week, because I don’t think I can sit on this stuff for any longer than that.

My hope is that I can keep posting material of this quality for long enough that visiting the site will become a pavlovian exercise. When you see the link to the latest post, you will begin to salivate reflexively.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Web Comics. I have worked on a web comic project before and most of the comics that I read on a regular basis fall under that heading. Digital distribution allows the most unique and creative work out there to find an audience when no one else would have given it a chance. To be fair, it also means that there are no editors and standards are low (and by low I mean that they do not exist), but I sincerely believe that the web comic model makes sense for any unknown trying to get their work out there. If your work is good, it will take hold, and ultimately your fans will take care of you.

With the completion of the third issue of DRAFTED, I will have sunk more hours than I can keep track of into the creation of this comic and I am effectively keeping it a secret by not making it available on this site. Sure you can buy it from the store, but I can’t expect anyone to buy a comic sight-unseen. I know I wouldn’t do it.

That is why I have decided to make the entirety of DRAFTED available on this site. Simply put: I want people to read it.

I still don’t think of DRAFTED as a web comic. I won’t be posting a new page every week, but does that mean that it isn’t a web comic? You can read it on the web. I think I’ll leave it up to others to answer that question.

I’ll continue to post regular updates to the blog. I want to give you as many reasons as I can to return here on a regular basis. There will be teasers and sketches and random thoughts and robots and other goodies as I try to broaden my skill set, but you should expect that updates to the comic will be few and far between. When I do post an update, however, you can expect to have a whole issue to read.

I think you’ll find the story reads best that way.

I have been a friend of Dave’s and a fan of his work for a number of years now and it was a thrill to have the chance to see some of my own creations rendered in his style. The skill with which he executed the piece and his fidelity to the source are both something to which I aspire in my own work.

I’ve had the piece ready to go now for a little while now. It’s been tough to sit on the announcement because I’ve been so excited to share it with everyone, but with Issue Three going to the printer next week, I’m finally able to let the cat out of the bag (at least a little bit).

Since Drafted Issue Three hasn’t been released yet, I am going to hang on to some of the suspense and temporarily refrain from posting the whole piece now. Once I get the issues from the printer and they are available for distribution, I’ll post the whole piece in the gallery (I want to share it, not hold it hostage). Until then, I’ve got a teaser below to heighten the anticipation.

I can’t wait to see it in print!

That’s right! With the end of the production process in sight, I am ready to make issue three available for pre-order.

The book is on track to be completed and printed within the month. If you need to prove your super-fan status, pre-order a copy now and I will e-mail you as soon as the book is done and put a copy in the post, from me to you.

Not quite ready to make that commitment? Still want to be first in line? Then sign up for my newsletter and stay up to date on all the latest new developments and goings-on here at ewlynch.com. What does that mean? It means you may receive a newsletter from yours-truly as often as quarterly with a heads up on any new books, prints, or swag that I’ve added to the site. I’m not interested in spamming you each time I make a blog post and you won’t be inundated with ads. No need to be shy.

Would you rather just have a peek at the clean, new, cover art to cherish in your heart of hearts? Far be it from me to tease. Here it is!

The show will be at the Donal E. Stevens Convention Center from August 19th, to the 22nd. I’ll be debuting my sexy new convention banner and (fingers crossed) I hope to be offering brand, spanking, new copies of the long anticipated third issue of Drafted: A Story from the Space Marine Corps!

There’s a lot that still has to happen before Issue Three is a reality, but it’s crunch time, and I’m in the zone, and feeling pretty good about my chances, so I’m gonna start shooting my mouth off in the hope that shame will motivate me at 2am.

Also on tap will be The First Two Issues, limited edition Prints, original page art, and of course, me (for those of you who just can’t get enough). So if you don’t have anything to do on a long weekend in the middle of August, and you happen to live in the greater Chicago area, I’d love to have you pay me a visit at my booth.

See you there.

I started working on the piece at this last year’s Motor City Convention and get through the sketching and started on the inks (below).

I was really happy with how the inks turned out and was a little worried to move on to colors. I don’t do a ton of color work, particularly on the computer (usually about once a year when I have to get a cover together), so it seems like my skills are always a little rusty.

The process was certainly time-consuming, and while I’m sure I would get faster at it over time, I can’t fathom how some people (or even most people) find the time to color entire books. This time though, it was definitely worth it.

The finished product should stand 79″ high and 49″ wide. I’m really looking forward to posting some pictures of it in-action at my next convention. In the meantime, I need to get back down to work on Issue 3. I finished up another page on Sunday so it was a really productive weekend. Next I may try to get a jump on the cover while I still have my coloring process fresh in my mind. With a little luck, I’ll be posting that shortly as well.

If I can get that done, I’ll just have eight more pages to ink and the details of book assembly to wrap up.

The list of properties I would want to work on shouldn’t have surprised me because, predictably, it mirrored my own interests. As soon as I stopped thinking about a long list of Marvel and DC characters that I like but don’t care to draw and started thinking about the things I actually do geek out about (Old-school comics, radio and pulp literature, with some videogames, novels, and movies thrown in for good measure) I was bursting with ideas. So, without further ado, I present my TOP TEN FRANCHISES (PLUS FOUR) on which I would love to work (in no particular order).

1. The Shadow
   I enjoy listening to old radio serials, and The Shadow is by far my favorite. Since it’s origination it has also gathered a robust visual history including costume design that is to die for. Also, a title like The Shadow invites a rich graphic style employing shape and solid blacks. What’s not to love?
   
   
2. From the Earth to the Moon/Around the Moon
   If you have not read these books, you should. They are ludicrous. Men build a giant gun, and then climb into the bullet, and then shoot the moon. That is all you need to know. Also, it would be a great opportunity to have fun with lots of perspective and texture. I am getting giddy just thinking about it.
   
   
3. War of the Worlds
   Why? Because I want to draw Martian Tripods. There is no other reason.

4. The First Men in the Moon
   Many of these made the list because I like drawing mechanical things and industrial architecture. This has the opportunity for all of that but I put it on my list for the Moon Caverns. Dynamic Lighting + Mechanical Architecture + The Moon = Awesome.

5. John Carter of Mars
   I debated whether or not to add this one to the list. I think the subject matter would require a classical style of rendering figures that would be a huge challenge for me. After all, I am not Alex Raymond. Regardless, I love it too much and I could still work in some air-ships and an atmosphere plant. There. I’m feeling more confident about it already!

6. Metroid
   The main character is in a Robot Suit. I could draw a robot, and claim to have drawn a hot chick at the same time.

7. StarCraft
   If I had to pick a number one thing that I would be excited to draw, this might be it. It has space marines, bug-monster aliens, robots, star-ships, space, everything. Feel like getting lost in the isolation and void of space? Covered. In the mood for sweeping industrial sci-fi landscapes? Covered. In the mood for something more organic? Zerg.

8. Final Fantasy VI
   I list FFVI specifically because I don’t think I would (if I had my pick) have taken the same visual route that the series took following this game and before this, the in-game art was so limited that it didn’t have the same effect on me. FFVI struck that perfect balance of suggestive visuals and stunning concept art that make a tribute mandatory at some point in my life; like a pilgrimage to Mecca or something. Also Yoshitaka Amano is one of my professional idols.

9. Flash Gordon
   Similar feelings to #5 but more challenging. Instead of crazy industrial atmosphere plants I would get to have fun with classical, phallic,  Mongo architecture. I may also go a different route and pick out a scene so obscure that only a connoisseur would recognize it. Also tempting: Make a tribute piece for the 80’s film adaption.

10. Star Wars
    Included because it is Star Wars. I have a smorgasbord of droids, stormtroopers, Star-Destroyers, alien civilizations, ATATs and more to choose from. I don’t even know where I would begin.

11. Sherlock Holmes
    It took a while, but we at last have another listing that does not involve robots OR space. Instead we have another chance to showcase technique: light, shadow and texture against the backdrop of Victorian England’s urban underbelly.

12. The Prisoner
    This one makes the list because I love it, and it has been, to my knowledge, woefully under-represented in the world of pop-culture tribute. Also, I am  confident that, if pressed to it, I could make a fair likeness of Patrick McGoohan. This would be a non-negotiable.

13. Rawhide
    Competing with The Prisoner for farthest outlier on the list, Rawhide is another one of my obsessions that doesn’t get a lot of buzz anymore. Also, while any tribute should at least include Clint Eastwood’s visage, the piece would be far and away devoted to the likeness of Eric Flemming as Gil Favor, Trail Boss. Also excited about the prospect of: Beeves, dust, and big-sky country. This would almost certainly be a dry-drive piece. Don’t know what I mean? Watch a few seasons of this show.

14. Automata
    Included because I would love the chance to do a tribute piece for something that is contemporary, ongoing, and almost completely undeveloped. Also it meets my criteria for: robots, pulp sentiment, gritty texture, graphic light/shadow opportunities, urban/industrial city-scape. I think it is also a huge bonus that my style is nothing like Mike Krahulic’s (of Penny Arcade fame), allowing a tribute to exist as a compliment to his creation and not an imitation.

The exercise of rigorously examining this topic has made me extremely eager to play within these worlds in the near future. If a can find the time, I’d love to do a pin-up of each to post on the site and to fill out the site’s gallery. At the end of the whole thing, who knows, it might make a great sketchbook or at least a well-rounded portfolio. I will have to dwell on this at some length…

Are there any franchises out there that you love and/or feel are under-represented? Are you familiar with my art style and have something that you’d love to see of which I am oblivious? Tell me about it! I always like a full queue of ideas.

*Let me amend that. The list contains very few properties which originated as comics. Some of these properties have become comic series since (Star Wars for instance) or have had comic adaptions made of them before now. In case you’re wondering, Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen felt like a personal gift from him to me .

**This in itself is a whole separate post which I won’t get side-tracked on right now. Maybe next time.

I don’t get the chance to set up at a lot of conventions over the course of a year, so when I do, it’s always exciting for me. This last weekend marked the third year I’ve had the pleasure of attending the Motor City Comic Convention as a guest.

I was further lucky to get to set up in a row with some of the friends and artists that I admire most, a line up including David Petersen, Jay Fosgitt, Katie Cook, and Jeremy Bastian. I’ve been out of touch with almost everything since Emma was born and it was great to share a row and catch up for a weekend.

It also afforded me the opportunity to contribute to a couple of group pages for a fan collecting sketches. I got a picture of a page of Deadpool that we all worked on but then neglected to get a picture of a nice sketch of Walace and Grommit of which I was rather fond (it was a fun page all around).

I unfortunately didn’t have a new book to offer this year (issue three fell behind schedule with Emma’s early arrival) and the challenge now will be to have everything ready for when I attend Wizard’s Chicago Convention in August. Nevertheless, it was still exciting to see a few of the fans that I have gotten to know over the last few years and it is always an honor to find that people come back because they’re excited about the story and want to know more. That always blows me away, and motivates me to keep going more than I can say. <blasphemy>It’s like God and Abraham in Genesis. If there were but ten faithful fans remaining, I would finish the story for the sake of the ten. </blasphemy>

I did want to have something new to offer this year at Motor City however, and in that spirit I printed up a limited edition set of prints of some watercolors that had reviewed well with fans when I brought them last year.

On my list of things to do right now is updating the gallery and store on the site, and when I do I hope to make these available there as well. The prints are a set of fifty each, hand numbered and signed, and I’m really excited about how they turned out, the quality of the printing really impressed me.

The final highlight of the show that I wanted to share was the one major commission that I did of Darth Vader himself. I don’t often draw properties that aren’t my own, so when I do I get pretty excited about it and this one was right up my alley.

It also made me think about the properties that I get really passionate about and which ones I’d like to work on. At any convention you see a lot of super-hero pinups and when I really examined what I was interested in drawing I realized that superheros were not nearly as high on the list as a number of other things which surprised me in the way that they fell into neat little categories. This topic is large enough though that I think I’ll devote my next post to it.

Franchises extend to a lot more than movies and comic books, and I look forward to sharing my top interests and maybe hearing from you about the under-represented franchises that you’d be excited to see someone draw.

In the meantime, I think I hear Emma snuffling, so I’m going to go warm a bottle up. Good night, good morning. It’s all the same to me right now.