NIGHT OF THE 80'S UNDEAD: Cover time 3 - limited edition #1 pre-order info!!

Just like the book - my brand new zombie comic, NIGHT OF THE 80'S UNDEAD - this blog update showing the creation of the cover art for the first issue, is told in 3 parts... so today, we get a look at the final installment, the finished art!

Take a peek below to see the cover from initial sketch, to finished pencil line art.

But now, here are the pencils by artist Bill McKay, all colored up by yours truly.

If I had my druthers, I'd have done this in painted style, similar to the Rambo: First Blood poster it's styled after, but alas I don't have the tools or practice at that, so I opted for a bit of a mixed approach. Generally I work in a cell shaded style, to varying degrees, and I incorporated that approach (hard shading against flat color) here initially on the main character, but then mixed in some airbrushing and other stylistic touches for affect. I also used some washes of color, another animation style approach, to give the whole thing varying degrees of unified color or tone (in this case red, to play off the background and ominous horror vibe). The background zombies were done more in painterly style, to an extent though, and then there's lots of computerized gradients etc at work also.

The colors here are at contrast to the approach I'm taking on the interiors, which is basically a modified grayscale with graphic accent colors of a limited 80's inspired palette. And while I also wanted to convey the horror aspect of the book, I kept things fairly bright and utilized those 80's colors throughout on the cover, to communicate that theme as well.

This was allot of fun, but also A LOT of work. Images like this, with multiple characters, and full backgrounds, when not done in a uniform color, are very time consuming. And then also, I generally spend much more time on covers, all around, then just about anything else.

Now, here we have a look at the final art, with the cover graphics added in.

Again, this is the final cover for the first issue, but also, it's being used for a modified version to sell at shows starting next week (while production on the first issue is finalized), a "pencil edition", that includes the entire first issue, but without any colors or inks to modify the artist's original pencil line art (so, it does have full, not finalized, lettering - and will read the same as the final version). I still hope to create some more hand crafted logos for the book, so the title graphics and similarly themed additional graphics may change completely for the official book.

 As far as this limited edition pencil version, you can pick it up as I said, starting next week at Wondercon Anaheim, where I'll be exhibiting in artist alley as usual. And then at subsequent shows, starting with Emerald City Comicon in Seattle at the end of the month. The book will be limited though, so once we have the print run set (at this point roughly 50 copies - so very limited), each will be hand numbered. Additionally, we'll be offering some further limited variations of the pencil edition, with both a pencil art cover variant, and a blank con sketch cover variant (each of which will be about 20% of the overall run - so even more scarcely limited). We may do another run of this addition, if we sell through copies before we have a final version of the book, but if we do, they will vary in some way, with an entirely new hand numbered run. So, this "pencil edition" will be truly unique and limited.

If you can't make it to the shows, we are now offering pre-orders for the book, in all 3 versions, so get your PayPal ready and pick your poison. Pre-sales will be closed next Friday, with the overall print number locked in. At that point, we will offer the book again online after Wondercon, if any copies remain.

PRE-ORDER HERE

For general information on the book itself, it's black and white since it includes only the pencil art, and is 24 interior pages, with 22 of those being the first issue story. Written and lettered by me, with art and cover by Bill McKay.

So, grab a copy and check out the Regan era madness inside... or hold out a bit longer for the standard full color version...

Please stay tuned for more info on the book, and the official release coming soon!

NIGHT OF THE 80'S UNDEAD: Cover time 2!

Monday I posted the first stage in the creation of cover art (see previous post) for my new book (with artist Bill McKay), NIGHT OF THE 80'S UNDEAD... and then yesterday I got busy and didn't update with the next stage, so here I am today to rectify that. You've got to see where we went from the rough pencils right??

So here you have it, the next step in the creation, Bill's full pencils for the cover!

In talking with him about the idea (a Rambo/First Blood poster homage), I brainstormed on how the background could use the original elements to translate to something related to our book and specifically, would include zombies (without just adding lame grabbing hands and arms in the foreground)... and then I thought that swapping out the fir trees in the original, for a lineup or horde of zombies behind our protaganist could work well. Then Bill went one better and shot me the rough which included our ground zero Hollywood mansion (and landscaping) between the zombies and the billowing smoke. Nice call Bill!

So there you have it, our would be hero, Sarah, in her tattered 80's style (geometric neon jewelry and accessories, Swatch watch, black leggings, etc), toting the massive M-60 heavy machine gun, with 80's styled coke zombies thirsting for more precious blow all around her.

Tomorrow, I'll post my colors for the art! (and details about our limited "pencil edition" of the first issue!!)

NIGHT OF THE 80'S UNDEAD: Cover time!

Did you know of my many comic book projects in development, I've been working on a new limited series to graphic novel format concept called NIGHT OF THE 80'S UNDEAD? My little story about how at the climax of the cold war, in the mid 1980's, Russia devised a last ditch subversive effort to strike at our capitalist way of life by contaminating the supply of high end Colombian cocaine with a deadly zombie-like virus?? And the story is centered around a group of young teens at a big Hollywood party that happens to be ground zero?!? If you've been following this blog, or any of my other activities, or seen me at shows over the last year, I'm sure you do do do, you da da da, as I've been teasing looks at the production since last year's San Diego Comic-Con (where we had a five page preview/teaser as part of a special flip book - pictured on the side here).

Then last October we had a special full preview of the first issue at ZomBcon (naturally), showcasing the first 14 pages of the book, along with a section showing my scripts and the artists thumbnails for the final 7 pages (along with some other extras). Which we still have a few copies remaining of the limited pressing.

If all of this is news to you, I suggest you click the first link above, or the Night of the 80's Undead tag below to catch up on everything I've posted, but aside from the concept I've outlined here, the other key component to the project is the artist I've teamed up with to bring it to life, Bill McKay. I'm not drawing this book myself, but I have found someone very talented, and well suited to the story to help me with the art chores on the book. And I think you'll agree, he's doing a (to keep things appropriately 80's here) like totally radical job man!!!!

On that note, with con season fast approaching, I wanted to do something special to continue to promote the book, so I'm just finishing the setup of a new limited edition version of the first issue, a special "pencil edition" of the first full book. As I said, Not80'sU is to be a story told in 3 parts, or a limited series if you will, in standard comic book form, and while that first issue is complete on Bill's part, there remains a bit more that I need to do with the coloring and lettering (as I'm managing every other aspect of the book but the pencils), and more again before we'll be ready to officially start releasing it (in this day and age, I'm not sure whether the 3 issues will be offered for full distribution, or just sold on a more direct basis, with full release of the collected book, I'm leaning towards full distribution for both though, we'll see). Which all leads me back to our special pencil edition that's being created to offer at shows, starting next week with Wondercon Anaheim.

The pencil edition, unlike the previous previews, is actually the first full/complete first issue of the book, with the only difference being in comparison to the finished version, is that it is 100% comprised of the amazing original pencil art created by Bill! Since I'm doing colors straight from his pencils, as I often like to skip inks, because I much prefer pencil art, but also because Bill just really does nice detailed pencils (and when you see the book, I think you'll agree).

So, with the show right around the corner, I thought I should drop by here and start showing off some of the book, starting with... the cover!

Over the next couple days, I'll be posting each step in the process of the cover creation, kicking off today, with Bill's roughs from my idea for a new cover (we'd previously toyed with a couple images I'd created focusing on more thematic elements of the concept, the two covers at the start of the post). This new idea, as you can see above, is more story centric, depicting our main character, Sarah, in a detailed action pose. If it looks a bit familiar, it should, as it's an homage to the original Rambo poster (it also somewhat resembles another 80's classic, the image of Ripley from the movie Aliens, bonus!)!

So there you have it, a kick ass girl, 80's style, coke zombies, carnage, and a giant M-60 machine gun. Just a taste of what lurks beneath the cover, all in one 80's action send up! ...well, at least that's what you'll see once we get further along in the cover process...

Tune in tomorrow for a look at Bill's finished pencils for the cover!

And stay tuned for details on the book, and how you can pick it up!!