UPDATE: 6.15.2010!

Well I don’t know if anyone remembers the inch-thick stack of paperwork I had to wade through, but I waded, and as of tonight, I have successfully completed that part of my application for an architectural license.  Four years of work, broken down into fifteen-minute intervals.  That’s a lot.  I feel like I just took an enormous… well, nevermind.

However, in celebration of this minor milestone, I’ve updated the vote incentive yet again, to include a sneak-preview from the concept sketches I’ve been working up for the impending 6-Commando Chapter 2: The Longest Shadow.  So vote, and see a little bit of what’s to come, artistically and (possibly) storywise!

Thanks again for all the support, folks!  See you Monday!

[Original Post: 6.14.2010] Well, another week goes by, and the other shoe finally drops.  Or, rather, the bomb.  Okay, that was awful.  I am afraid that, as has happened in the past, I am drawing a total blank on witty rejoinders and sassy reparté at the moment, so I’ll distill my thoughts down to a few declarative statements.

First, this page.  I like it a lot.  It was one of the first I sketched out when I began planning the chapter, and though I dumped it on a number of occasions, it kept coming back up.  It’s one of my more carefully-arranged pages, laden with visual metaphors and symbolism that have a great deal of importance later in the story.  The panel with Major Bronniford, by the way, is an homage to the first piece of guest art Joost Haakman did way back in October – Sarah is a total badass when she’s glaring at you down the barrel of a gun.  She’s my kind of gal.

Second, the chapter’s almost done and I’m considering a change of style.  To that end (for fellow-artists reading this who my be interested) I tried something different on this page – I actually inked it on tracing paper laid over the original pencils, which I composed on bristol board.  The trace was smooth enough to get a pretty satisfactory result out of the pens, and also cut down of the bleeding I’ve been struggling with, which has made different lineweights tough to differentiate.  And for the next chapter, I’m leaning towards a major shift to a looser, raw-pencil style.  But that’s still up in the air.

Third, let me add a note of preferred congratulations to comrade-in-arms Jason Brubaker, whose online graphic novel reMIND has just been awarded a Xeric Grant, to help defray his self-publishing costs.  It doesn’t give him a free ride, but it goes a long way.  If you haven’t, check his stuff out.  Jason’s been a great supporter of 6-Commando pretty much from the start, and his own work is tremendous, so on both counts, it’s awesome to see him on the upswing!

And lastly, thanks for all the votes this week!  We went from #250 on Monday to #197 at the time this was posted – we cracked the top 200!  So thanks to everyone who’s been reading, voting, and spreading the word about 6-Commando!

And now I rest.  Got a very long week ahead of me, so I gotta get to it!